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Prof. Robert Delahunty (University of St. Thomas) discusses the life and thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, particularly as it pertains to his views on religion and democracy. We discuss Tocqueville’s personal religious history and how this influenced his thought, as well as the observations he made with respect to the role of religion in a newly-formed democratic nation. Prof. Delahunty explores Tocqueville’s thoughts on church-state relations and the role of civil religion in comparison with Niccolo Machiavelli, and we reflect upon what Tocqueville’s observations recorded in America’s Jacksonian Era tell us about the role of religion in the U.S. today.

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Prof. Mark Koyama of George Mason University explains why King Edward I expelled the Jews from England in July of 1290, giving them only three months to leave. Rather than focusing on anti-semitism or explanations based upon “greed,” Prof. Koyama shows how changes in feudal revenue collection during the 13th century led to a devaluation of the moneylending role that Jews played in the English economy and how expulsion represented a credible signal to the ever-rebellious lower nobility. He generalizes this explanation to help us understand why further expulsions of Jews occured in continental Europe in the subsequent centuries.

Use this podcast as a basis for book club discussions with your friends. A great podcast for understanding medieval history!

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In an unusual podcast format, we take a peek into a “small group” at Redemption Church called “Theology on Tap” to discover how your typical churchgoer wrangles with political issues in light of their evangelical faith. The topic of the night’s discussion was “Who would Jesus vote for?” Listen to the various twists and turns, and sometimes surprising statements, from this group of sixteen individuals in the small town of Duvall, WA.

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With the election season heating up, we revisit the issue of whether religion plays a role in voting behavior in the United States. Prof. Gerald De Maio (Baruch College, CUNY) discusses his collaborative research with Louis Bolce on the “religion gap” in American politics. This research indicates that those who attend church more regularly, or who hold more orthodox religious views, tend to vote much differently than seculars. De Maio and Bolce’s research also shows how the media has failed to pick up on this electoral divide while touting other “gaps” — e.g., gender, age, soccer moms — that are much less salient when it comes to predicting election outcomes. We speculate how the “religion gap” will play out in the November 2012 elections.

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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently released a document on religious liberty that criticized a new regulatory provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. Prof. Phillip Muñoz (Notre Dame) helps us wade through this controversy explaining the bishops’ argument, the politics surrounding this issue, and the various streams of Catholic social thought including the principle of subsidiarity. While primarily focused on health care (and specifically issues related to reproductive health), we take our discussion into other areas of religious freedom that the Catholic Church and others have considered important.

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If you need to get a daily fix of religious-related news, where are you going to go? Real Clear Religion, of course! Jeremy Lott, the editor of Real Clear Religion and other related news portals, joins us to chat about how the Interwebs have changed the way we hear about religious news. He reveals the history of the “Real Clear” network of news sites (or “intelligent aggregators”) and how RCR fits into that general model of internet sites. We then talk about the various media trends Jeremy has seen over the years, including some discussion on the state of religion & politics and the upcoming election.

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Did religion or church-state institutions have anything to do with the great economic divergence between Christian Europe and the Islamic world beginning in the 11th century? Prof. Jared Rubin of Chapman University reviews the economic history of these two civilizations, covers the dominant explanations for the observed divergence, and then discusses his own research showing that the relationship between religious and political authorities in each region of the world had a great deal to do with why Europe surged ahead economically. We focus primarily on the role of usury laws and financial interest, but Prof. Rubin gives us a taste of some of his work relating to the economic importance of the printing press.

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Prof. Sabine Hyland of St. Norbert College reveals what happens when Jesuits meet Incans in the Peruvian highlands during the 16th century, with a particular focus on the mestizo priest Blas Valera. Our conversation corrects some of the longstanding misconceptions of the role of religion during the Spanish Conquest, as well as misunderstandings about Incan religions. We also chat about how scholars and religious organizations deal with different cultures they encounter.

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Douglas Baker (Union University) clarifies the recent debate surrounding “Dominionism” and its relation to various Republican presidential candidates, most notably Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. He covers the influence of thinkers such as Francis Schaeffer and Rousas John Rushdoony and how their thought has influenced others, as well as how their thinking has been misrepresented in the popular media. We also reflect on the proper role of religion in the public square.

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Prof. Louis Bolce reveals how the news media view Christian fundamentalists and how that media image translates into elite opinion. Based upon extensive use of survey research, Prof. Bolce notes that even though there has been a growing “religious gap” in the American electorate (larger than the “gender gap”), media outlets did not pick up on this trend in a serious way until the 2004 presidential election. The coverage of fundamentalists and evangelicals at that time tended to reinforce stereotypes about this group among individuals who are most attentive to the news.

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