Review of the podcast series “Kalamopod”

Alongside Christianity, Islam is one of the world’s two most important religions. Like Christianity, it has a deep intellectual history, which most people are unaware of.

While this ignorance is perhaps understandable amongst non-Muslims, I am saddened by the high proportion of Muslims who know little about Islamic scholarship. Listening to a podcast like this one is an easy step towards rectifying that.

Overview of the podcast series

Kalamopod is a podcast series on classical Islamic theology, which is available free on Spotify and on YouTube. The subject is what it says in its title, kalam, an Arabic word for classical Islamic theology.

Spotify describe it as follows:

“This podcast introduces some of the themes and problems which classical Islamic theologians discussed. It covers how the science of kalam came about; what aims and concerns its practitioners had; how they defended their activity and methods against the detractors of kalam; and finally what sort of arguments and methods of knowledge making the science of kalam rested on.”

The presenter, Dr. Hannah Christine Erlwein, has a PhD in Islamic Studies from SOAS University of London, with a distinguished CV. Her PhD thesis “Arguments for the existence of God in classical Islamic thought : a reappraisal of perspectives and discourses” can be downloaded from the SOAS website.

She is German, speaking impeccable English in a wonderful voice with a faint German accent. She also has a page on Academia.edu.

There are only 13 relatively short episodes.

Why I listened to it

I cannot remember how I came across it. However my membership of the British Association of Islamic Studies and of the International Quranic Studies Association means that I am on a number of mailing lists.

Since I went on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2002, I have been become very interested in Islamic scholarship alongside my many other interests. Accordingly, I gave the first episode a listen, and was hooked.

My opinion of the podcast series

I cannot think of an easier or more pleasant way of learning about classical Islamic theology than listening to Hannah Erlwein talking about it! I recommend it to everyone.

Video of the first episode

I have embedded below the YouTube video of the first episode to provide an immediate sample.