Renovatio: The Podcast

What if you could take a pill that let you see the world with the wonder of Adam on the morning of creation? Aldous Huxley tried it—and his experiment reveals profound truths about wonder, meaning, and what makes us human.In 1953, Aldous Huxley ingested mescaline under supervision and sat back to experience the results. Colors became more intense, flaming out like precious stones. Ordinary things—chairs, tables, the folds of his trousers—took on miraculous aspect. Everything seemed charged with "isness," with what Huxley described as "the unfathomable mystery of pure being." He felt he was seeing "what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation."Philosopher Sophia Vasalou explores what this experiment reveals about wonder as a mode of perception. Unlike emotions rooted in survival or practical interests, wonder arises before we've considered whether something benefits or harms us. Following Aristotle and Descartes, Vasalou suggests wonder reflects a uniquely human capacity to respond to the world in ways that transcend utility—the ability to ask "why?" purely for the sake of knowing.But can wonder be found without pharmaceuticals? Vasalou argues yes—through the stories we tell each other and the ways we help each other think and see. If we had to be captive to one mood, we could do worse than make that mood wonder.Read the full essay: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/to-see-the-world-for-the-first-timeAbout the Author: Sophia Vasalou is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, specializing in Islamic and ancient Greek philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of emotion.Subscribe for more essays on philosophy, wonder, and human experience#Wonder #Philosophy #AldousHuxley #DoorsOfPerception #Consciousness #HumanExperience #Aristotle #IslamicPhilosophy #Renovatio #ZaytunaCollege

Can English Capture the Language of Revelation? Robert Alter's Torah and Lessons for the Translation of the Qur'an by Caner K. DagliCan English truly capture the language of divine revelation? Robert Alter's literary approach to translating the Hebrew Bible offers profound lessons for how Muslims might translate the Qur'an—and why most English Qur'an translations fall short.KEY INSIGHTS: • Why Alter's one-man Torah translation caused a literary sensation • How respecting register, rhythm, and rhetoric preserves sacred text's power • The problem with committee translations that flatten sacred language • Three historical English Qur'an translations that achieved literary excellenceRobert Alter, a comparative literature professor, challenged centuries of biblical translation by prioritizing literary style over theological smoothness. His jarring translation of Esau's crude demand—"Let me gulp down some of this red red stuff"—preserves the original's colloquial register, shocking modern readers just as it shocked ancient audiences.Scholar Caner K. Dagli explores what Muslims can learn from this approach, examining three English Qur'an translations that rise to literary merit: George Sale's 1734 version (Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an), and more recent attempts to capture the rhetorical power of Arabic revelation. While Muslims have traditionally insisted the Qur'an cannot be translated—only "interpreted"—Dagli suggests Alter's methodology offers a path forward for conveying the Qur'an's linguistic majesty in English.The essay challenges translators to honor both the uniqueness and beauty of sacred language rather than domesticating it into contemporary idiom, preserving what makes scripture unlike ordinary speech.Read the full essay: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/robert-alters-torah-and-lessons-for-the-translation-of-the-quranAbout the Author: Caner K. Dagli is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross and general editor of The Study Quran.Subscribe for more essays on sacred texts and translation#QuranTranslation #BiblicalStudies #RobertAlter #SacredTexts #LiteraryTranslation #IslamicStudies #HebrewBible #Renovatio #ZaytunaCollege #ComparativeReligion

Cultural Devolution:How the new victimhood culture rejects human dignity and divinityBy Hamza Yusuf Read by Michael Sugich"Cultures vary in their approaches to instilling a sense of right and wrong in children, and in determining how to encourage rights and redress wrongs. One key difference in approaches relates to the religiosity, or the lack thereof, of the specific culture. In cultures where a significant number of people remain religious, parents often introduce scripturally derived concepts of reward and punishment, promote emulation of prophetic or sagely character, and warn of God’s wrath or bad karma upon those who break moral codes or disregard divine sanctions found in such presentations as the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. Other cultures, especially in modern secular societies, take a more humanistic approach, arguing that basic moral precepts—such as telling the truth—are simply self-evident and result when good people act appropriately. In other words, good people exhibit upright moral behavior, they tell the truth, they don’t steal, and they abide by the rule of law. Teaching young people these basic principles of behavior takes time and constant vigilance, since many youth display a rebellious spirit expressed in testing limits, getting away with things, and violating the status quo. Young people commonly question the mores of a culture, and shifts in cultural norms usually occur first among them."Hamza Yusuf is the president of Zaytuna College. He promotes classical learning in Islam and emphasizes the importance of the tools of learning so central to Muslim civilization and known in the West as the liberal arts. He serves as vice president for the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, and he has published numerous articles, essays, encyclopedia entries, and translations, including The Prayer of the Oppressed and Purification of the Heart.

The modern world knows it faces a void of meaning—and in a strange recurrence of history, some secular intellectuals are now calling for various forms of paganism.An essay by Faraz Khan

Contrary to its usage in today’s public discourse, dignity is not something all humans universally have, but something that everyone must do.Article by Caner K. Dagli https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/dignity-is-for-the-heart-not-the-ego

There is something paradoxical about that deepest and most original source of social organization—namely, the giving and receiving of gifts. Read the Article: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/the-human-arts-of-graceful-giving-and-grateful-receiving

Despite the diversity of our countless creeds, colors, and cultures, our society has been subsumed into a monoculture of ersatz arts, entertainment, and consumerism. How can we recapture humanity’s once extraordinary individuality?

The Egalitarian Objection to Liberal EducationAnd Why the Liberal Arts Are Indispensable to EqualityBy Thomas Hibbs

Sacred scriptures certainly qualify as Great Books, but can they be read as literature in secular settings?Read the essay by Eva Brann- https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/other-peoples-truths

The dignity of man in his potential to be whatever he desires to be, this fifteenth-century Italian prince & philosopher gave rise to the modern secular worldview that privileges self-actualization above all else.Essay by Esme Partridge

No description provided.

No description provided.