1 hour, 9 mins
We’ve recently been wondering about the movement in Kentucky that has become known as the ‘Asbury revival’, and the mass religious experiences that have been reported there in the last couple of months. We could think of nobody better to help us think about it than TM Luhrmann, a highly esteemed psychological anthropologist currently based at Stanford University. Tanya is known partly for her study of religious groups, including evangelical and charismatic Christians. In this conversation with Bart, she talks about the ‘inner sense’ of believers that their beliefs are true, how religions allow these experiences to form the heart of their narratives, religious shame, authority, imagination and self-reinforcement, and more.