A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero

Laura Borghetti and Thomas Arentzen, "Ecologizing Late Ancient and Byzantine Worlds" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

How can we study the late ancient and Byzantine history from ecological perspectives? How might one grapple with the more-than-human in sources and media created by humans? Exploring the diverse ways in which pre-modern texts engaged with the broader natural world, Ecologizing Late Ancient and Byzantine Worlds  [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9781350505926](Bloomsbury, 2025) presents scholarly ventures into the terrains of the past. From the ancient treatises on dreams to monastic tales from the Hexameron literature to the Byzantine romance, from the Exeter Book to a mysterious Byzantine icon, the chapters investigate a diverse range of literature and other sources, uncovering intricate ecosystems of relationships. The team of leading international experts behind the volume focuses on encounters between human and more-than-human beings. They pay attention to the entanglement of multiple agencies that cut through texts and other meshes. With insights from such theoretical traditions as ecocriticism, new materialism and environmental humanities, they re-expose ancient media to the elements. New Books in Late Antiquity is presented by Ancient Jew Review [http://ancientjewreview.com/] Laura Borghetti [https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-grk-man-nature/laura-borghetti/] is a Doctoral Candidate in Byzantine Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. Thomas Arentzen [https://www.sanktignatios.org/dr-thomas-arentzen/] is a Reader in Church History at Lund University, Sweden, and Associate Professor at Sankt Ignatios College, Stockholm School of Theology, Sweden. Michael Motia [https://www.umb.edu/directory/michaelmotia/] teaches Classics and Religious Studies at UMass Boston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network]

Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken (Sydney Anne Bennett): A Young Woman Facing A Neurological Disorder Is A Case Study In Theodicy

At age 22, Sydney’s Bennett’s brain stopped communicating with her body correctly; she was suffering from Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a condition in which the nervous system stops sending or interpreting signals the right way. Suddenly this bright, beautiful, college girl, recently married, was having seizures, numbness, difficulty moving. Soon she needed a cane, then a wheelchair. But, when we are weak, we are strong, and she found her rock in Jesus our cornerstone. Today she is a faithful and faith-filled advocate, mother of two, and (in the view of your host) present-day Job; and Job reminds us, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” * Sydney’s book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken [https://www.amazon.com/Fearfully-Wonderfully-Broken-Fighting-Falling/dp/1400350492], on Amazon, and also from the publisher, Thomas Nelson [https://www.thomasnelson.com/p/fearfully-and-wonderfully-broken/#aboutauthor], where you can listen to the first chapter of the audio book. The episode of Almost Good Catholics with Mako Fujimura talking about kintsugi (which I excerpted): * Mako Fujimura on Almost Good Catholics, episode 14: The Silence of God: The Meaning of Our Suffering and Redemption [https://newbooksnetwork.com/14-the-silence-of-god-the-meaning-of-our-suffering-and-redemption] Other related Almost Good Catholics episodes about the Book of Job and the meaning of suffering: * Jonathon Fessenden on Almost Good Catholics, episode 58: The Book of Job: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? [https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-book-of-job-with-jonathan-fessenden] * Brian Zahnd on Almost Good Catholics, episode 112: The Tree of Life: “no one who loves the way of Grace ever comes to a bad end.” [https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-tree-of-life-bryan-zahnd] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network]

Rebecca Kosick, "Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press" (Wayne State UP, 2026)

Can publishing change the world? In Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press [https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780814350249] Rebecca Kosick [https://bsky.app/profile/rkokayokay.bsky.social] (Wayne State UP, 2026), an Associate Professor in Comparative Poetry and Poetics at the University of Bristol [https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/rebecca-kosick/], tells the story of The Alternative Press. Beginning in Detroit in the late 1960s, initially based in the house of Ann and Ken Mikolowski, the press created a rich and eclectic set of artworks. The story of The Alternative Press is also the story of US art and radical politics from the 1970s into the 1990s, with lessons for art and politics today. Drawing on a huge amount of archival work, interviews, and visual reproductions to analyse both the form and content of The Alternative Press’s activity, the book will be essential reading for arts and humanities scholars, as well as for anyone interested in the history of radical art and culture in the USA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network]

Grizzly Man

Tennyson called nature “red in tooth and claw,” but that warning didn’t keep Timothy Treadwell from living among the grizzlies of Alaska for thirteen summers–until one of them killed him and his girlfriend. Werner Herzog’s 2005 documentary Grizzly Man tells Treadwell’s story and raises the issues of what happens when we ascribe human motives and characteristics to animals and the ways in which we all attempt to stake out our own territory in an indifferent world. Incredible bumper music by John Deley [https://www.johndeleymusic.com/]. Herzog’s most recent book The Future  [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-of-truth-werner-herzog/f9c4c6830df7e0fe?ean=9780593833674&next=t]o [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-of-truth-werner-herzog/f9c4c6830df7e0fe?ean=9780593833674&next=t]f  [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-of-truth-werner-herzog/f9c4c6830df7e0fe?ean=9780593833674&next=t]Trut [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-of-truth-werner-herzog/f9c4c6830df7e0fe?ean=9780593833674&next=t]h (2025) is a series of essays about what constitutes truth and the threats truth faces in our age of AI and deepfakes. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find over three hundred episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Letterboxd [https://letterboxd.com/15minfilm/] and email us any time at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Check out Dan Moran’s substack, Pages and Frames [https://pagesandframes.substack.com/], where he writes about books and movies, as well as his many film-related author interviews on The New Books Network [https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/arts-letters/film]. Read Mike Takla’s substack, The Grumbler’s Almanac [https://miketakla1.substack.com/], for commentary on offbeat topics of the day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network]

A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero

In Jewish memory, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi were heretics, false messiahs who rebelled against the rabbis and against normative Judaism. But a funny thing happened in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: modern Jewish writers and artists reclaimed these heretics and gave them an honored place in Jewish history. In doing so, they transformed the historical figures, Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, into heroes, projecting on to them these thinkers own modern dilemmas. This lecture originally took place on December 22, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices] Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network [https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network]