PODCAST · society
Renovatio: The Podcast
by Zaytuna College
A multimedia, multi-faith publication about the ideas that shape the modern world from the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, Zaytuna College.
Episodes
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Why Salvation Means Submission by Sarah Barnette (Audio Essay)
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is celebrated as a landmark of feminist literature—but what if its deepest argument is actually theological? Scholar Sarah Barnette reveals the novel's hidden spiritual architecture and what it teaches about submission, conscience, and salvation. Far from a story of...
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How to Climb the Seven-Story Mountain by John Walbridge (Audio Essay)
How to Climb the Seven-Story Mountain Two Works, a Thousand Years Apart, Illustrate the Spiritual Journey By John Walbridge Classics by Marcus Aurelius and Farīd al-Dīn Attār, a thousand years apart, illustrate the spiritual journey.
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To See the World for the First Time by Sophia Vasalou (Audio Essay)
What if you could take a pill that let you see the world with the wonder of Adam on the morning of creation? Aldous Huxley tried it—and his experiment reveals profound truths about wonder, meaning, and what makes us human. In 1953, Aldous Huxley ingested mescaline under supervision and sat back…
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Rumi and Shakespeare by Juan Cole (Audio Essay)
Two of humanity's greatest literary masters—separated by continents and centuries—share a profound interest in how seemingly intractable conflicts can be resolved through reconciliation. What can we learn by comparing their approaches to forgiveness? Scholar Juan Cole examines Rumi's tale of a...
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Can English Capture the Language of Revelation? (Audio Essay)
Can English Capture the Language of Revelation? Robert Alter's Torah and Lessons for the Translation of the Qur'an by Caner K. Dagli Can English truly capture the language of divine revelation? Robert Alter's literary approach to translating the Hebrew Bible offers profound lessons for how…
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Music and the Decline of Civilization by Esme Partridge (Audio Essay)
What if the chaos in our societies today began not in politics or economics, but in our music? This episode explores a fascinating theory from ancient Greece and China: that civilization's decline starts when musical traditions break down. Drawing from Plato's Laws and Chinese historical…
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Cultural Devolution by Hamza Yusuf (Audio Essay)
Cultural Devolution: How the new victimhood culture rejects human dignity and divinity By Hamza Yusuf Read by Michael Sugich "Cultures vary in their approaches to instilling a sense of right and wrong in children, and in determining how to encourage rights and redress wrongs. One key difference…
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Muslims Are Not a Race (Audio Essay)
Many intellectuals believe Islamophobia is a form of racism, but the ultimate presuppositions embedded in this view are antithetical not only to Islam but to religion as such. https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/muslims-are-not-a-race
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The Incoherence of Secular Messiahs (Audio Essay)
The modern world knows it faces a void of meaning—and in a strange recurrence of history, some secular intellectuals are now calling for various forms of paganism. An essay by Faraz Khan
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The Silent Theology of Islamic Art (Audio Essay)
To many, Islamic art can speak more profoundly and clearly than even the written word. Is it wiser then for Muslims to show, not to tell? Article by Oludamini Ogunnaike Read here: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/the-silent-theology-of-islamic-art
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Dignity Is for the Heart, Not the Ego (Audio Essay)
Contrary to its usage in today’s public discourse, dignity is not something all humans universally have, but something that everyone must do. Article by Caner K. Dagli https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/dignity-is-for-the-heart-not-the-ego
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Can Materialism Explain the Mind? (Audio Essay)
Some philosophers believe materialism has now reached an insurmountable quandary in the question of consciousness.
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The Human Arts of Graceful Giving and Grateful Receiving (Audio Essay)
There is something paradoxical about that deepest and most original source of social organization—namely, the giving and receiving of gifts. Read the Article: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/the-human-arts-of-graceful-giving-and-grateful-receiving
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Wisdom in Pieces (Audio Essay)
Science, philosophy, and art have been blown apart, and our conversations have devolved into chaos. How do we begin to learn the art of disagreement? Read the article: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/wisdom-in-pieces
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Pluralism in a Monoculture of Conformity by Hamza Yusuf (Audio Essay)
Despite the diversity of our countless creeds, colors, and cultures, our society has been subsumed into a monoculture of ersatz arts, entertainment, and consumerism. How can we recapture humanity’s once extraordinary individuality?
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The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal Education
The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal Education And Why the Liberal Arts Are Indispensable to Equality By Thomas Hibbs
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Transcendence and TikTok (Audio Essay)
What does it mean to “manifest” something, or for something to “become manifest”? For those familiar with Islamic mystical terminology, the concept of tajallī may come to mind. Often rendered into English as “manifestation,” tajallī denotes the appearance or disclosure of the divine names in...
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Other People's Truths: Reading Sacred Scripture in Secular Settings (Audio Essay)
Sacred scriptures certainly qualify as Great Books, but can they be read as literature in secular settings? Read the essay by Eva Brann- https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/other-peoples-truths
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Resisting the Architecture of Apathy (Audio Essay)
The way societies driven by profit and production design and build lived environments breeds an apathy that, unchecked, can only lead to the dissolution of human communities as we’ve known them. Article by Marwa Al-Sabouni https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/resisting-the-architecture-of-apathy...
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What Pico Thought—and What It Wrought (Audio Essay)
The dignity of man in his potential to be whatever he desires to be, this fifteenth-century Italian prince & philosopher gave rise to the modern secular worldview that privileges self-actualization above all else. Essay by Esme Partridge
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Where Islam and Nationalism Collide by Zaid Shakir (Audio Essay)
What if each and every ethnic group developed a very strong nationalist movement? There would be bloodshed and chaos until the unforeseeable future. https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/where-islam-and-nationalism-collide
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What is the Write Way to Read?
Does reading help you think if you write your thoughts about what you’re reading? What’s the difference between writing books about books, and writing books drawn from one’s own experiences? Such questions relate to matters that are both practical and philosophical. In this episode of our…
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Who Gets to Define Islam? with Caner Dagli
Who is better placed to say what Islam is: the academic from the “outside” or the practitioner from “within”? In this episode of the Renovatio podcast, Ubaydullah Evans interviews Caner Dagli, a scholar of Islamic Studies, to explore the surprisingly elusive answer to the question: “Who gets to...
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The Limits of Aggression
Asma Afsaruddin argues that jihad (martial engagement) as articulated in the Qur’an and by numerous classical Muslim scholars is primarily defensive in nature. The crux of her argument relies on relevant verses from the Qur’an and prominent Sunni exegetes such as Ibn Abbas, Mujahib ibn Jabbar…
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We Are Not Our Brain (Muhammad Faruque and Esme Partridge)
Modern science identifies the self with the brain, but this materialist conception of the self is wholly insufficient.
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The Ancient Roots of Transhumanist Thinking
Lenn E. Goodman, an expert on Jewish and Islamic metaphysics, joins Esme Partridge to discuss the philosophical heritage of AI (artificial intelligence)—which he locates in the medieval and renaissance study of alchemy, which ultimately sought to create man from matter—and the implications of our...
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"Is a Great Books Education for Everyone" with Thomas Hibbs
"One thing that is true of [the Great Books] list is that you cannot… think that it is a unified, monolithic view of the truth. Hobbes and Machiavelli disagree vehemently with Plato, right? There's some continuity there, but Aquinas does not agree with David Hume, who is an atheist. So, at a...
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"The Knowledge that Transcends the Empirical World" with Hasan Spiker
"The empirical in the traditional notion of reason is only one component in the uncovering of our knowledge. But knowledge really involves uncovering the intelligible object. So what that means is the intelligible object is not there in the empirical world—that actually means transcending the...
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"The Decline of Morality Amidst the Celebration of the Self" with Chris Hedges
“If your ultimate concern is yourself, if you have spent your life building a monument to yourself, then in biblical terms, that’s idolatry. I think we live in an idolatrous society… I think it is extremely difficult for people to achieve a moral life without a community.” Chris Hedges speaks to...
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Sculpting the Self with Muhammad U. Faruque and Esmé Partridge
In this podcast, Muhammad U. Faruque speaks with Esme Partridge on his recently published book, Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing, which examine notions of selfhood and subjectivity before and in the modern period. Muhammad U. Faruque is Inayat Malik Assistant Professor…
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What, Other Than God, Do We Worship?
Listen and read show notes on Renovatio: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/what-other-than-god-do-we-worship
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Protection from Power with Mohammad Fadel and Lawrence Jannuzzi
Listen and read show notes on Renovatio: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/protection-from-power
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What Is the Nature of Being Alone? (Stephen A. Gregg and Asad Tarsin)
Listen and read show notes on Renovatio: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/what-is-the-nature-of-being-alone
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Why Beauty Is Not Optional with Oludamini Oggunaike and Ubaydullah Evans
What better topic for discussion than beauty, muses Oludamini Ogunnaike, a regular contributor to Renovatio and a scholar of Islam in north and west Africa. Beauty is inseparable from truth, goodness, and justice, yet reference to it is missing from many of our most important discussions on those...
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Graceful Giving and Grateful Receiving
Asad Tarsin, author of Being Muslim: A Practical Guide, speaks with Joshua Lee Harris, a specialist on the work of Thomas Aquinas, on his article for Renovatio, “The Human Arts of Graceful Giving and Grateful Receiving.” In their conversation, Harris explains how his desire to understand…
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Power to the People?
In this episode, scholars Caner Dagli and Andrew March discuss theories of democracy and their relationship to modern Islamic thought, how modern Muslims grapple with democracy’s promise as well as its baggage, and whether metaphysics can (or should) be untangled from politics. (While March…
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Cultivating the Life Skill of Writing
The mere act of writing for one’s self tends to reveal the fact that each one of us contains multitudes. When we write in our diaries or journals, we employ rhetorical devices even though our audience is within us. Scott Crider and Sarah Barnette—both are teachers and scholars committed to the...
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Are Believers a Political Tribe? (Asma T. Uddin and Caner K. Dagli)
Asma T. Uddin litigated issues of religious liberty for years, but it wasn’t until Burwell v. Hobby Lobby—the US Supreme Court case about whether the Affordable Care Act required Christian owners of a private company to offer contraception as part of their employee health coverage—that she felt...
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Equality in the Ancient World with Juan Cole and Ubaydullah Evans
What kind of equality could be universal? A scan of history shows that our modern ideal of equality is more fiction than fact. In this episode, Ubaydullah Evans interviews the historian Juan Cole on his forthcoming article for Renovatio that addresses the issue of equality by examining the text…
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What Makes a Book "Great"? Fr. Francisco Nahoe and Sarah Barnette
Sarah Barnette, a scholar of Victorian literature, speaks with Fr. Francisco Nahoe on great books and the pleasure of reading. Fr. Francisco, a Roman Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, is a scholar of Renaissance literature currently teaching courses in rhetoric and philosophy at Zaytuna...
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From Fanaticism to Faith: Joram van Klaveren and Ubaydullah Evans
In the Netherlands, the political climate was toxic with anti-Islam bigotry when Joram van Klaveren made a name for himself as a prominent and ambitious politician. He helped to lead the Party for Freedom, with its central platform hostile to Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands. When he set out…
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The Decline of Language and the Rise of Nothing: Hamza Yusuf and Thomas Hibbs
Hamza Yusuf interviews President Thomas Hibbs, former president of the University of Dallas, on the importance of rekindling a love of language so we might better articulate ourselves and possess the words to describe our experience of the world. Hamza Yusuf and Thomas Hibbs discuss, among other...
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Philosophy without God (David Bentley Hart and Caner Dagli)
How should religious philosophers understand the methods and goals of modern philosophy? In this episode, Caner Dagli interviews David Bentley Hart on the state of philosophy and whether the believer can be hopeful about its future. They take on the fragmentation of science, philosophy, and art…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A multimedia, multi-faith publication about the ideas that shape the modern world from the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, Zaytuna College.
HOSTED BY
Zaytuna College
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How many episodes does Renovatio: The Podcast have?
Renovatio: The Podcast currently has 60 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Renovatio: The Podcast about?
A multimedia, multi-faith publication about the ideas that shape the modern world from the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, Zaytuna College.
How often does Renovatio: The Podcast release new episodes?
Renovatio: The Podcast has 60 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Renovatio: The Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Renovatio: The Podcast?
Renovatio: The Podcast is created and hosted by Zaytuna College.
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