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Diffused Congruence: The American Muslim ExperienceAuthor: Parvez Ahmed & Omar Ansari
A podcast seeking to celebrate the many facets of the American Muslim experience. The goal of the show is to highlight and focus on unique and interesting personalities from both within and without the American Muslim community, and engage them in what will hopefully be a worthwhile and invigorating conversation not only for the guests, but also for listeners. Essentially, a long form interview format thats meant to flow organically. Language: en Genres: Islam, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 157: David Coolidge Returns to Discuss His Study of Hinduism
Episode 157
Thursday, 28 August, 2025
Parvez and Omar finally return after the longest hiatus in the show's history! They bring us up to speed with all the going-ons in their lives from new jobs, moves, kids graduating to new kids being born! As the show returns so does the show's guest! David Coolidge returns to discuss his groundbreaking new book, Hindu Bhakti Through Muslim Eyes. The book places the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition—devotion to Krishna—into conversation with Islam, tracing a rich millennium-long trajectory of Muslim reflection on Hindu theology and spirituality. The discussion balances between diving deep into the book while at the same time offering a layperson's perspective to the theology and basic tenants of the faith. The discussion is deeply enriched by David's ability to masterfully interweave analogs from his own Islamic theological, ethical, and liturgical commitments. This offers a unique perspective into Hinduism, a continuation of past Muslim studies of the Hindu tradition, and true inter-religious scholarship. The discussion ends with an examination of modern Hindutva politics and its relationship if any with the religious tradition of Hinduism. About David Coolidge David earned his PhD from the Graduate Theological Union in 2023 and serves as Research Faculty at Bayan Islamic Graduate School. David Coolidge was born in Chicago, and raised in Kenilworth, IL. He has a BA from Brown University and an MA from Princeton University. He converted to Islam in 1998. From 2008-2013 he worked as a Muslim chaplain, first at Dartmouth College and then again at Brown. From 2014-2017 he taught an undergraduate course on Islamic law and ethics at New York University. Highly recommend folks go and listen to David's first appearance on the show where he discusses his unique and deeply moving journey to Islam as well as within the Islamic Tradition.
