Renovatio: The Podcast

Can Materialism Explain the Mind?

Some philosophers believe materialism has now reached an insurmountable quandary in the question of consciousness.

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.

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

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?

Pluralism in a Monoculture of Conformity- Hamza Yusuf (Audio Essay)

The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal Education

The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal Education And Why the Liberal Arts Are Indispensable to Equality By Thomas Hibbs

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 physical forms. Similar to the notion of “theophany” in other religious traditions (with the philosopher Henry Corbin taking tajallī to be a synonym of just that), 1 it means passively experiencing God “mani...

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

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 Read by Lyba Hussain Produced by Faatimah Knight

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

The Sin of Cosmocide (Audio Essay)

Audio Essay: What Islam Gave the Blues by Sylviane Diouf

Audio Essay: Where Islam and Nationalism Collide by Zaid Shakir

Audio Essay: Counting the Minutes: Productivity and the Well-Lived Day between Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī and Benjamin Franklin

Audio Essay: Courteous Exchange in an Age of Empire by Sarah Barnette

Audio Essay: What Walking Can Do For Our Souls

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 podcast, Safir Ahmed, editor of Renovatio , interviews philosopher Sophia Vasalou who writes engagingly on philosophical theology, virtue ethics, Al-Ghazali, Schopenhauer, wonder, and much more. The conversatio...

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 define Islam?” As an academic, Dagli critiques the approach the academy has historically taken in defining Islam within certain predetermined frameworks. They explore the tension among scholars in their a...

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, and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. These commentators, writes Asfaruddin, argue that the Qur’an only authorizes Muslims to retaliate against those who aggress upon them. In conversation with Ubaydullah Evans, Asma ...

The Trouble with Consciousness (Mark Delp and Esme Partridge)

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.

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 rapid embrace of AI.

"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 minimum, an honest reading of that tradition is an introduction not to a monolithic unified conception of what the truth is, but to a series of important debates ." —Thomas Hibbs Philosopher Thomas Hibbs an...

"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 empirical world to make contact with this intelligible essence ." Zaytuna lecturer Hasan Spiker identifies the true ground of objectivity in a conversation with Esme Partridge.

"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 Renovatio editor Safir Ahmed about what fuels our contemporary narcissism and prevents us fulfilling our moral obligations to our selves and to society. Recommended Read: “ How the Cult of the Self Und...

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 at the University of Cincinnati. Esmé L. K. Partridge is a writer on Islamic thought and the dynamics between tradition and modernity in a secular age.

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

Protection from Power with Mohammad Fadel and Lawrence Jannuzzi

Listen and read show notes on Renovatio: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/protection-from-power

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

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 matters. The neglect of beauty has been detrimental to communities everywhere, notes Ogunnaike; it’s often seen as superfluous, compartmentalized from other values, or reserved for the elite when, in fa...