Podcasts Education Self-Improvement Conversations with Tyler Reza Aslan on Martyrdom, Islam, and Revolution

Reza Aslan on Martyrdom, Islam, and Revolution

Published: Oct. 19, 2022, noon

Reza Aslan doesn\u2019t mind being called a pantheist. In his own \u201croundabout spiritual journey\u201d and study of the world\u2019s religions, which has led him to write books on Islam, the life of Jesus Christ, God, and most recently an American martyr in Persia, he has come to believe the Sufi notion that religion is just a shell one must break through to truly understand God\u2014and that if God is anything at all, then all is God.

He joined Tyler to discuss Shi\u2019a and Christian notions of martyrdom, the heroism of Howard Baskerville, the differences between Sunni and Shi\u2019a Islam, esoteric vs. exoteric expressions of religion, how mystical movements arise more organically than religion, the conflicts over Imams in the Islamic world, how his upbringing as an Iranian immigrant shaped his view of religion, his roundabout spiritual journey, the synthesis of Spinoza and Sufism, the origins of Wahhabism, the relationship (or lackthereof) between religion and political philosophy, the sad repetition of history in Iran, his favorite Iranian movie, and more.

Read a\xa0full transcript\xa0enhanced with helpful links, or watch the\xa0full video.

Recorded October 12th, 2022

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