By Levi Wright
“All religions are ultimately focused on an experience of transcendence, an experience that goes beyond the material realm,” said renowned religion scholar and Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus Reza Aslan, who will début his new CNN show “Believer” at the Englert, 221 E. Washington St., at 7:30 p.m. today.
“When it comes to certain values and morals, religions are almost identical in the things that they preach.”
Aslan received an M.F.A. from the Workshop and has put it to good use since, publishing five books exploring the different aspects of culture and religion. His book Zealot, a New York Times Bestseller, explores the historical Jesus of Nazareth. It has been optioned for film.
The show at the Englert follows Aslan on his journey around the globe as he explores different religions. It doesn’t aim to offer judgment about which religion is right and which is wrong — rather, it’s a way to find unity and commonality through religions.
“[‘Believer’] is not about talking to religions, it’s about going and immersing myself in these different religious communities and becoming one with them,” Aslan said. “I’m not there to talk to them or talk about them, I’m there to join them. It’s only shored up my beliefs that while religions come in many different varieties and spiritual expressions, underneath them all there is a commonality, similar sentiment, a desire to experience something beyond just the material world we live in, and I think that allows for a far greater sense of unity among different religions than we usually see.”
At its base, the show is a spiritual, not religious, journey. In fact, you don’t have to be religious at all to watch the show as long as you’re at least a little bit curious.
At the Englert, Aslan will also talk about the anti-Muslim sentiment that has arisen in the United States.
“It has been fostered by the press, by certain individuals, by many people behind the pulpit, and certainly politicians of all stripes in the case of Donald Trump, ascending to presidency,” Aslan said.
Anti-Muslim sentiment is by no means a new concept; however, it is a rising one and should be addressed as such.
“I tend to simplify and make palatable very complex and sometimes opaque ideas and notions, that through my years of being a high-school teacher and college professor, I’ve gotten really good at presenting complex ideas in easy to understand ways,” Aslan said.
This can be seen in his ability to hold his own over the years as a contributor to CNN.
At the end of the event, there will be a Q&A for anyone who is curious about religion, the new show, or anything else.
“Almost every religion in the world has some form of the so called ‘golden rule’: Do unto others as you would have done unto you, and so, in a sense, there’s a lot more that binds different religions together than there are that divides them,” he said.