Multifaith Matters

Episode 1: Wes Markofski and the “other evangelicals”

Evangelicals and Humility in Multifaith Engagement

American Evangelicals are not known for embracing intellectual humility, but there are notable and promising examples. This podcast series explores the topic through the story of how Evangelical Christians and Zen Buddhists in Portland have been able to engage in an intellectually humble exchange of perspectives without compromising their core convictions. The series also includes analysis and commentary from scholars who specialize in the psychology of intellectual humility. As this is time of extreme national polarization on many fronts, this series is especially relevant as it demonstrates that strong religious convictions are not necessarily incompatible with intellectual humility and do not always lead to antagonism between groups. Our hope is that this series is inspiring, and that it demonstrates the need for additional research exploring how those with strong religious convictions develop humility while doing so across worldview-threatening differences.

Episode 1: Wes Markofski and the “other evangelicals”

Wes Markofski is a sociologist at Carleton College, and author of Multiculural Evangelicalism and Ethical Democracy in America (forthcoming). He discusses his research on “reflexive evangelicals.” Despite popular images of white American Evangelicals as the embodied antithesis of intellectual humility, responsiveness to facts, and openness to the other, Markofski discovered that Evangelicals can and do practice intellectual humility in public life while simultaneously holding fast to particularistic religious convictions.

Video: https://youtu.be/ULbFxYiC3qw
Audio: http://johnwmorehead.podbean.com/e/episode-1-wes-markofski-and-the-other-evangelicals/

Exploring further:  https://tif.ssrc.org/2018/01/11/the-other-evangelicals/

Episode 2: Evangelicals and Zen Buddhists reflect on 20 years of dialogue

Members of the Evangelical group New Wine, New Wineskins, and Buddhists from Dharma Rain Zen Center reflect on their twenty years of dialogue and relationships. Two leaders from these religious communities, Paul Louis Metzger and Kyogen Carlson, got together in Portland to discuss religious and political divisions after the 2004 re-election of George W. Bush. The talks then expanded to involve other members of these religious communities through common meals.
Video: https://youtu.be/FEBib0emq5k
Audio: http://johnwmorehead.podbean.com/e/episode-2-evangelicals-and-zen-buddhists-reflect-on-20-years-of-dialogue/

Exploring further: https://tricycle.org/magazine/beloved-community/

Episode 3: Daryl Van Tongeren and the psychology of humility

Daryl Van Tongeren is a psychologist at Hope College and a leading researcher on the science of humility. He is the author of Humble: Free Yourself from the Traps of a Narcissistic World. He defines “intellectual humility,” and discusses the psychological challenges we face in exercising humility, particularly in the context of cultural worldviews where religion is a part of our identity. He also shares his thoughts on how we might develop more empathy and bridge divides.

Video: https://youtu.be/tzY-pm8LYkY
Audio: http://johnwmorehead.podbean.com/e/episode-3-daryl-van-tongeren-and-the-psychology-of-humility/
Exploring further: https://www.workman.com/products/humble/hardback

Episode 4: Peter C. Hill and the context of theistic humility

Peter Hill is a social psychologist at the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University. His unique contribution to humility research is in exploring considerations related to theistic intellectual humility. He discusses how existing concepts related to intellectual humility have not taken account of the way this is experienced and expressed by theists, the importance of emotions, and how strong religious convictions and exclusivism are not necessarily incompatible with theistic intellectual humility.
Video: https://youtu.be/9mTci8CYmek
Audio: http://johnwmorehead.podbean.com/e/episode-4-peter-c-hill-and-the-context-of-theistic-humility/
Exploring further: https://researchoutreach.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Peter-C.-Hill.pdf

Podcast series produced by the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy/Multifaith Matters.

We appreciate the contributions of Wes Markofski, Daryl Van Tongeren, Peter C. Hill, the Dharma Rain Zen Center, and New Wine, New Wineskins.

Learn more about our work at https://www.multifaithmatters.org.

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#humility #intellectualhumility #multifaith #interfaith #dialogue

Religion and Hiroshima: Beyond the Mushroom Cloud

How should the horror of the atom bomb be remembered? In what ways might we remember so that the terrible experience of its use might be transformed into hope for a universal community of peace? In a fascinating case study, Yuki Miyamoto compares how Buddhist and Catholic survivors of the 1945 bombings make sense of their experiences through an ethic of "not retaliation, but reconciliation." This study is not only of great historical interest, but also provides help for us as we reflect on the continued threat of nuclear catastrophe.

Yuki Miyamoto is Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University and is an ethicist whose work centers on nuclear discourse and environmental ethics through the framework of comparative ethics. She is the author of various books, including Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: Commemoration, Religion, and Responsibility After Hiroshima.

Yuki Miyamoto: https://las.depaul.edu/academics/religious-studies/faculty/Pages/yuki-miyamoto.aspx

Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: Commemoration, Religion, and Responsibility After Hiroshima: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Mushroom-Cloud-Commemoration-Responsibility/dp/0823240517

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#Hiroshima #Nagasaki #nuclearweapons #YukiMiyamto #Catholics #Buddhists

Summum

A conversation with three leaders of Summum (a Latin term meaning “the sum total of creation”), a religious group in Salt Lake City, including Su Menu, president of Summum, Bernie Aua, vice president, and Ron Temu, counselor who oversees their mummification practices. Summum began in the fall of 1975 when founder Claude “Corky” Rex Nowell began to have a series of encounters with highly intelligent beings who work the pathways of spiritual evolution. During these encounters he received instructions concerning the underlying principles (Laws of Nature) which establish and maintain the universe. In this podcast we learn how they came to embrace Summum, its Seven Aphorisms or principles, practices like meditation, their book SUMMUM: Sealed Except to the Open Mind, and the significance of its pyramid structure and the process of mummification.  

Summum websites: 
https://www.summum.us/  
http://www.summum.org/  
http://www.summum.tv/ 
http://www.kphi.org/  

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#Summum

Massimo Introvigne on The Church of Almighty God

In this conversation, Massimo Introvigne shares the story of The Church of Almighty God, a group in China that has seen rapid growth, dramatic persecution, and the struggle of believers to see asylum in countries around the world. Among the items discussed, Introvigne reconstructs the Church's idiosyncratic theology, centered in the belief that Jesus Christ has returned in our time in the shape of a Chinese woman, worshipped as Almighty God, to eradicate the sinful human nature and that we have entered the third and final time period in the history of humanity: the Age of the Kingdom.

Massimo Introvigne is an Italian sociologist, the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), in Torino, Italy, and the author of some 70 books in the fields of new religious movements and pluralism.

Inside the Church of Almighty God: The Most Persecuted Religious Movement in China by Massimo Introvigne: https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Church-Almighty-God-Persecuted/dp/0190089091/

CESNUR: https://www.cesnur.org/

Bitter Winter: https://bitterwinter.org/

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#MassimoIntrovigne #ChurchofAlmightyGod #ChineseReligion

George Chryssides Introduces Jehovah’s Witnesses

The Jehovah's Witnesses have been the focus of much evangelical apologetic and secular media critique. In this podcast, new religions scholar George Chryssides presents an overview of the Watch Tower organization's origins, their lived religion, key beliefs and practices, and controversial aspects like disfellowshipping, blood transfusions, and sexual abuse allegations. Chryssides is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at York St. John University, UK. His books include The Bloomsbury Handbook to Studying Christians, Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses second edition, Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change, and The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements.

In this podcast we discuss some of the material from Jehovah's Witnesses: A New Introduction - https://www.amazon.com/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Introduction-George-Chryssides/dp/1350190896/

George D. Chryssides: https://yorksj.academia.edu/GeorgeChryssides

Jehovah's Witnesses website: https://www.jw.org/en/

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#JehovahsWitnesses #GeorgeChryssides #newreligions

Divine and Demonic COVID-19 Vaccine Explanations

A discussion of research around demonic and divine attributions surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. Julie Exline discusses a research paper of she and her colleagues which showed that demonic vaccine attributions were linked with more anti-vaccination attitudes, and were also linked with conspiracy beliefs, QAnon, and apocalypticism. Exline is professor of psychology and spirituality at the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Reserve University. A special emphasis of her research includes religious and spiritual struggles, and the causes and consequences of supernatural explanations for events.

Julie Exline: https://psychsciences.case.edu/faculty/julie-exline/

Journal article: "Demonic and Divine Attributions around COVID-19 Vaccines: Links with Vaccine Attitudes and Behaviors, QAnon and Conspiracy Beliefs, Anger, Spiritual Struggles, Religious Beliefs and Political Variables, and Supernatural and Apocalyptic Beliefs"
Religions 13 (2022) https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/6/519

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#COVID19 #demonic #divine #conspiracy #QAnon

Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) as Lived Religion

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose members were formerly known as Mormons have been the focus of evangelical critique for many years by way of a doctrinal contrast and a heresy apologetic template. But what might we learn about the LDS by other pathways? In this conversation Charles Randall Paul, founder and president of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, shares aspects of the faith of the LDS as lived religion such as the importance of ritual, ethics, and sacred mythic narrative.

Charles Randall Paul: http://religious-diplomacy.org/board-of-directors/

Converting the Saints: A Study of Religious Rivalry by Charles Randall Paul: https://www.amazon.com/Converting-Saints-Religious-Rivalry-America-ebook/dp/B07F458LZM/

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints official website: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/about-us?lang=eng

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#Mormonism #LatterdaySaints

Threat rejection, COVID-19 and dehumanization

The COVID-19 pandemic brought lots of surprises, including the political and religious conflicts connected to it. In this podcast we explore one facet of this as Emily Kubin and Frank J. Kachanoff discuss their research published in the paper "Threat Rejection Fuels Political Dehumanization" published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. Part of their abstract for the paper reads, "Americans disagree about many things, including what threats are most pressing. We suggest people morally condemn and dehumanize opponents when they are perceived as rejecting the existence or severity of important perceived threats." Although not a part of their research project, this dynamic may play a part in conservative Christian reactions to those who take a different stance on COVID-19 vaccines.

"Threat Rejection Fuels Dehumanization": https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506211068922

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#socialpsychology #dehumanization #COVID

Andrew DeCort on Christian Nationalism in Ethiopia

Andrew DeCort is a lecturer on religious and political ethics and Ethiopian studies. He's the author of Bonhoeffer's New Beginning: Ethics After Devastation, he founded the Institute for Faith and Flourishing, and co-directs the Neighbor-Love Movement. His forthcoming book is titled Why Pray?: Seven Practices of Flourishing on the Edge of Faith. In this podcast we discuss his article "Christian Nationalism Is Tearing Ethiopia Apart," published at Foreign Policy, and his book Why Pray?.

Andrew DeCort: https://andrew-decort.com/

"Christian Nationalism Is Tearing Ethiopia Apart": https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/18/ethiopia-pentecostal-evangelical-abiy-ahmed-christian-nationalism/

Neighbor-Love Movement: https://balinjeraye.org/en/

Bonhoeffer's New Beginning: https://www.amazon.com/Bonhoeffers-New-Beginning-Ethics-Devastation-ebook/dp/B07GBJND67/

Why Pray?: https://bittersweetmonthly.com/books/why-pray

#Ethiopia #AndrewDeCort #dehumanization #ChristianNationalism

From Bubble to Bridge: Educating Christians for a Multifaith World

The great book From Bubble to Bridge: Educating Christians for a Multifaith World by Marion H. Larson and Sara L. H. Shady (IVP Academic, 2017) is the focus of a conversation between Charles Randall Paul, founder and president of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, and John W. Morehead, Director of FRD's Evangelical chapter.

From Bubble to Bridge: https://www.amazon.com/Bubble-Bridge-Educating-Christians-Multifaith/dp/0830851569/

John Morehead's review of this book from Cultural Encounters journal: https://www.academia.edu/35625175/From_Bubble_to_Bridge_Educating_Christians_for_a_Multifaith_World

Multifaith Matters podcast on harm-based morality with Kurt Gray: https://youtu.be/9mbQ0ul9Jo4

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