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For the past two and a half years, Tony Gill has interviewed over 135 guests on this podcast. Today, Prof. Steve Pfaff takes over as guest host and interviews Tony about his recent book, “The Political Origins of Religious Liberty.” We discuss what religious liberty is and why a government would ever want to allow religious groups to have greater freedom. Tony emphasizes the political and economic motivations behind “deregulating the religious marketplace”, including the need to attract immigrants, promote free trade, and generate economic growth and tax revenue. We focus attention on colonial American history, but also discuss religious freedom in Russia, China, Mexico, Chile and a few other places. This interview is a great complement to other podcasts we have had on the topic of religious liberty, and an opportunity to see what your weekly host is really thinking about!

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We are now in the midst of celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Second Vatican Council, which began in the fall of 1962 and lasted three years. Why was Vatican II called? What happened during this monumental gathering of Catholic prelates? And what impact has VCII had on the contemporary Church? Prof. James Felak, a popular guest on the show, returns to answer all of these questions and more. We explore the historical nature of Church councils and where Vatican II sits in the list of important councils.

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Prof. Rodney Stark returns to discuss the final part of his monumental book, “The Triumph of Christianity.” We pick up the story of Christianity with the Protestant Reformation and take it up to the contemporary period. Along the way, we talk about the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition, Christianity’s transfer to the Western Hemisphere and what is becoming of this faith tradition today.

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What role does faith play in the realm of elite athletics? Dr. Timothy Dalrymple shares his life story as a championship-caliber gymnast (winning a national title at age 15 and the NCAA with Stanford University in 1995) and also talks about his new book on Jeremy Lin, the underdog basketball phenomenon who took America by storm in 2012. Tim discusses the highs and lows of being a dedicated competitor and how his faith helped him through this journey. He also reveals what happened to him spiritually when he broke his neck in a gymnastic accident just before the 1996 Olympic tryouts. We use this discussion to help us understand the fascinating emergence of Jeremy Lin, who led the New York Knicks on an incredible seven game winning streak in February 2012 despite coming off the bench. We talk about the role that religion plays in Jeremy’s life and compare and contrast the media reaction to him with that being given to Tim Tebow (former Bronco quarterback now playing the NY Jets). We finish with some thoughts on what Christians in sports have to say about the state of American Christianity in general.

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Did Protestant missionaries help plant the seeds of democracy throughout the world? Prof. Robert Woodberry takes us on a historical tour-de-force around the globe showing how “conversionary Protestants” helped to promote literacy, spread printing technology, facilitate civic organization, defend religious and civil liberties, and protest the abuses of slavery and colonialism. We discuss how this happened and why Protestants were uniquely situated to do this, although we look at similar Catholic efforts in recent decades. We conclude with speculative thoughts about the Arab Spring.

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What role should religion be allowed to play in the public square? Prof. Hunter Baker (Union University) discusses how the concept of “secularism” has crept into our nation’s conscience and is believed to be a philosophy of “neutrality.” Prof. Baker argues that this isn’t the case as secularism is an ideological alternative to religious belief that is privileged over religious expression in the public square. Our wide-ranging conversation takes us through discussions of Judge Roy Moore, religiously-based progressive taxation, religion in Sweden, and the philosophy of John Stuart Mill and John Rawls.

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Sit in on a collegial discussion with Tony and his good friend Prof. Steve Pfaff as they discuss a range of topics including denominationalism and whether churches today emphasize sin enough. These two topics lead us down several different paths taking a look at how and why churches create brands, the benefits of religious pluralism, youth religious practice and whether megachurches are really just soft-peddling Christianity. This open-ended discussion is a window into what Tony & Steve often talk about while hanging out at the University of Washington and is a great wrap around to several recent podcasts we’ve featured on the show.

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Prof. G. Alexander Ross of the Institute for the Psychological Sciences discusses the decline in female happiness over the past four decades and how it is related to declining religious partipation. Our interview features a general discussion of happiness, the non-religious factors affecting one’s happiness, the general decline in female happiness (relative to males) and how religion promotes general contentment and joy. Prof. Ross notes that recent declines among church attendance, particularly among women, have led to a steeper decline in happiness for females as compared to men. We conclude with a discussion of the role of religion in psychological counseling.

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Brad Wilcox looks closely at how the institution of marriage has changed over the past several decades, with particular attention to “Middle America,” defined as middle-income Americans with high school education. Prof. Wilcox argues that increases in cohabitation, out-of-wedlock births, and divorce — which were common among the lowest socio-economic sectors of society in the 1960s and ’70s — is becoming increasingly common among “Middle America” today. We discuss some of the reasons for this trend and talk about various solutions. We close with a discussion of evangelicals men and parenting.

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Prof. Ahmet Kuru of San Diego State Univeristy joins Research on Religion to discuss the increasing presence of Islam in Europe and how various European nations are accomodating Muslim immigration. We address the contemporary origins of this immigration and how countries such as Great Britain, Germany and Frane have had different responses to integrating Muslims into their political and cultural arenas. We cover the recent ban in the hijab (Muslim headscarf) in France and also talk about how the US response to Muslim immigrants differs than Europe. Prof. Kuru introduces us to his concepts of assertive and passive secularism.

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