Can Religions Be Reborn?

A civilisation in crisis needs a story big enough to live inside. What would it take to renew religion?

With Liam Kavanagh · hosted by Sylvie Barbier · 29 Jan 2026

In this episode of “Over the Mountains,” Sylvie Barbier sits down with Liam Kavanagh, co-founder of *Life Itself *and co-director of The Climate Majority Project, for a conversation about why religion is suddenly “back,” why so many modern minds can’t swallow Christianity as-is, and why we may still need its root system to nurture a civilizational renaissance.

Exploring the historical tension between mythos vs. logos, we look at what modern reason helped us see, what it stripped away, and the “God-shaped hole” left behind. We examine how the “calcification” of traditional religious dogma has created a spiritual vacuum in the West, leading many to seek refuge in Eastern traditions or, more precariously, to project religious impulses onto technology, ideology, and AI.

If humans are inherently religious animals, what happens when technology, ideology, or AI quietly becomes our new God?

Along the way, we look at how religions have always evolved (texts shifting, meanings being reinterpreted), looking at Christianity as a case study in civilizational resilience, but one which struggles to renew itself today.

Humans are fundamentally “mythical animals” and our current global (meta)crisis requires a similar era of spiritual creativity, without sliding into dogma, ego, or violence—rather than a return to rigid authority, we need a “grafting” of new wisdom onto our ancestral lineages.

Humans are fundamentally “mythical animals” and our current global crisis requires a similar era of spiritual creativity,

The episode concludes with an exploration of prayer, the discomfort of spiritual discernment, and the necessity of reclaiming the sacred to find a path over the mountains to civilizational renaissance and a wiser future.

Chapters

00:00Exploring Personal Relationships with Religion
05:59The Conflict Between Mythos and Logos
09:23Childhood Questions and Adult Reflections on Christianity
13:00Evolving Christianity: The Need for Renewal
22:57Historical Context: Judaism and the Birth of Christianity
32:08Religion’s Role in Addressing Modern Crises
36:01Navigating the Crisis: Finding a Path Forward
36:18Innate Moral Sense: Bridging Wisdom Traditions
38:40Ego vs. Divine Guidance: The Inner Dialogue
40:27Rediscovering Prayer: A Personal Journey
42:17The Imperfection of Forms: Embracing Uncertainty
43:43Spiritual Creativity: The Need for Renewal
46:11Cultural Compost: Death and Renewal in Spirituality
48:57The Discomfort of Spiritual Independence
51:33Mysticism in Religion: A Comparative Perspective
54:56Renewal of Christianity: Key Dimensions for the Future
58:40Voicing Misgivings: The Need for Honest Dialogue
1:01:50Cultural Exchange: Bridging Eastern and Western Spirituality
1:04:28Non-Self and Its Implications: A Deeper Inquiry
1:06:40The Role of Religion in a Second Renaissance
1:08:44Looking Ahead: Future Conversations and Topics

Speakers

Sylvie Barbier is a co-founder of Life Itself, a performance artist, entrepreneur, and educator.

Liam Kavanagh is a Cognitive & Social Scientist devoted to using his understanding of human motivation, ideology, and economics to aid more effective responses to the climate crisis. Liam is a co-founder of Life Itself, the co-director of the Climate Majority Project, and has written a book on how Western ideology contributes to climate change inaction.

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