Religion And Spirituality (audio)

Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Historian Juan Cole for a discussion of U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. He also explores the importance of religion in understanding events in Iran and Iraq and he addresses the impact of the communications revolution on his own work as a scholar involved in the policy debate. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 11296]

Yossi Klein Halevi, contributing editor and Israeli correspondent of the New Republic gives a talk on the dismantling of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank and the question of whether the Palestinian people and leadership are willing to accept a Jewish state at all in the Middle East. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 11387]

Mario Garcia talks about his new book called “Padre: The Spiritual Journey of Father Virgil Cordano” that deals with the story of a priest's tumultuous and challenging journey toward his place in the Catholic Church. An oral history life-story of Father Virgil Cordano, now the spiritual head of Santa Barbara's Old Mission, Garcia's book also discusses the emerging freedom of the Catholic lay community, the shifting winds of change within the Church and the agonizing effects of the sexual abuse crisis. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11280]

Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, discusses his new critically-acclaimed book, "American Judaism: A History." While American Jews have always worried about intermarriage, assimilation and continuity, Sarna argues that they have found answers in regeneration, revitalization and renewal. Sarna's talk entitled The Future of American Judaism was given as part of the 350th Commemoration of Jewish Life in America and was sponsored by the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11070]

This program evaluates the roles and themes of both government-inspired and populist antisemitism. Featuring Peter Kenez, Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz, and historian and Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer, Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This program is presented as part of the Santa Cruz Jewish Studies Lectures. [Humanities] [Show ID: 9422]

UC Berkeley hosts this four-part series examining the relationship between democracy and global Islam. In Part One, several noted academics look at the Muslims in Europe to explain how globalism has affected Islamic practices in democratic nations. [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 9867]

In this inaugural event in the Martin E. Marty Lectureship on Religion in American Life at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Marty provides a map for those who wish to increase their understanding of the various spiritualities available in America today. He probes what people mean when they identify themselves as spiritual, and explores some of the wildly disparate options and competitive offerings on the 'spirituality' front. Martin E. Marty is widely regarded as the most prominent interpreter of American religion and culture today. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9528]

Professor Wendy Doniger has published over twenty books about Hindu and cross-cultural religion and mythology, particularly about issues of illusion, animals, gender, and sex. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9344]

Conversations Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Steve Coll, Pulitzer prize winning author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden for a discussion of how the superpower conflict in the last stages of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy before and after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the political dynamics of South Asia created the setting in which Islamic terrorism took root and flourished. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 9513]

Wendy Doniger is a Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago and one of the most important interpreters of myth. In this Fourth Annual Ninian Smart Memorial Lecture at UC Santa Barbara she explores the narrative convention in myth. Series: "Humanitas" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9410]

Professor Eck is interviewed by Professor Wade Clark Roof, Director of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life at UC Santa Barbara. Their conversation centers on the growing diversity of religious thought in America and the impact that this is having on American culture and society. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9411]

Jim Wallis, author of the best-selling "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.," and his wife Joy Carroll Wallis join Dean Nelson for a spirited talk on religion, writing and politics in this program from the 2005 Writer's Symposium by the Sea sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 9276]

Author and Harvard professor Diana Eck documents the growing presence of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and other religious communities in the United States and offers insight into how people of all faiths should celebrate this rich diversity in this event sponsored by the Helen Edison Lecture Series and the San Diego Public Library. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9339]

Political Scientist Vali Nasr joins host Harry Kreisler for a discussion of the role of Islam in politics. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 9171]

A pre-eminent voice for liberal Christianity, John Shelby Spong was the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2000. His admirers acclaim his making contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary lay person—he's considered a champion of an inclusive faith by many both inside and outside the Christian church. His challenges to the church have also made him a target of hostility, fear, and death threats. Calling himself "a joyful, passionate, convinced believer in the reality of God," he seeks not to create a new religion, but to reform the church he loves. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9117]

Rabbi James Rudin, senior inter-religious adviser at the American Jewish Committee, and Professor Akbar S. Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. discuss Judaism and Islam. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 9088]

Noted Holocaust scholar, author and lecturer, Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Director of the Institute of Jewish Culture and the Arts, and Professor of English at Indiana University, explores the changing images of the Holocaust's most famous victim over time, and attempts to explain why one particular version of Anne Frank has been favored over others. Sponsored by the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 8872]

Victor Davis Hanson, Professor of Classics at California State University at Fresno, leads a discussion on the nature of war throughout civilization and how it might enlighten us about the contemporary troubles in the Middle East. Presented as part of UC Santa Cruz's Jewish Studies Lectures. [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 8856]

Craig Blomberg, a specialist in the parables and the writings of Luke and Acts, discusses the historical Jesus. Series: "Let There Be Light" [Humanities] [Show ID: 8894]

Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Yale University, discusses the multi-voiced archives which have been gathered to document the destruction of European Jewry. As faculty advisor and project director to the Fortunoff Video Archives of Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, Professor Hartman has been actively involved in its growth and has written extensively about the Archive and its work. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 8829]