A graduate student from Harvard Divinity School has a secular twist on religion, which he’s explaining in his “Ministry of Ideas” podcast series.
Podcaster and graduate student Zachary Davis believes that religion plays a precise role in the present age of society and he’s explaining that role through what he calls “secular sermons.”
“At its best, a sermon calls forth better versions of its listeners — it condemns and asks them to be better — but it also offers hope and strength, and I think the spirit of our show is using history to help you critically evaluate the ideas that you probably take for granted but all come from somewhere,” Davis explained to the Harvard Gazette.
The Harvard podcast has even caught the eye of Buzzfeed, which regards it as a “great little podcast.”
In each episode, Davis focuses on typical socio-cultural topics and applies them to either religious allegories, societal and economic trepidation, or historical explication of either American society or more broadly Western civilization.
For instance, in “Episode 11: Forbidden Fruit,” the “Ministry of Ideas” crew draws a parallel between the growing epidemic of obesity in America and that of the Adam and Eve creation story found in the book of Genesis.
“This 2,000-year-old religious text has echoes in a surprising place: contemporary American diet culture,” Davis states. “Are we also afraid we’ll lose paradise if we eat the wrong thing?”
In “Episode 14: Apocalyptic Politics,” Davis examines how the immense support for President Trump by evangelical Christians prior to his inauguration in 2017 is indicative of the ominous doomsday alerted in Abrahamic eschatology.
Davis believes that secularism has overwhelmed the general public for years, but thinks that certain religious and spiritual values can re-enter the everyday lives of individuals.
“If I could succeed at anything, it would be to rehabilitate vital religious terms and concepts in a way that can be adopted by our secular polity,” said Davis.
“My agenda is not necessarily to get everyone to go back to church — I don’t think I could — but people should be aware of its social function, and they shouldn’t be scared to have a worldview that includes ideas of love, goodness, redemption, and grace,” Davis added.
The “Ministry of Ideas” podcast is a part of the Harvard Divinity School Religious Literacy Project, which “is dedicated to enhancing and promoting the public understanding of religion.”
