Contemporary scholarship has given rise to several different modes of understanding biophysical and human nature, each of which is entangled with related notions of science and religion. Envisioning Nature, Science, and Religion represents the culmination of three years of collaboration by an international group of fourteen natural scientists, social scientists, humanists, and theologians. The result is an intellectually stimulating volume that explores how the ideas of nature pertain to science and religion. Editor James D. Proctor has gathered sixteen in-depth essays, each of which examines and compares different aspects of five central metaphors or “visions” of biophysical and human nature. These visions are evolutionary nature, emergent nature, malleable nature, nature as sacred, and nature as culture. The book’s diverse contributors offer a wide variety of unique perspectives on these five visions, spanning the intellectual spectrum and proposing important and often startling implications for religion and science alike. Throughout the essays, the authors do a great deal of cross-referencing and engagement with each other’s ideas, creating a cohesive dialogue on the visions of nature.
What makes us alive? Is it our DNA? Our genetics? Is it our molecular or even our atomic composition? Somehow, all of this feels radically dissonant from our everyday experience of life. In Life beyond Molecules and Genes, experimental biologist Stephen Rothman makes the bold case that instead it is our adaptive abilities, hewn by evolution that make us alive. In making this point, he reveals a hidden harmony between science and life as we live it.The traditional understanding of adaptive properties (e.g., the abilities to obtain food, avoid predators, procreate) has been that they are actions of living things or traits that they express. Rothman makes the provocative statement that this foundational element of the theory of evolution by natural selection is entirely backward. Our adaptive properties do not exist because we are alive, but rather we are alive because they exist. The implications of this understanding turn the modern materialist perspective on its head by revealing that life transcends its material nature.For more than a century, the field of biology has focused on the task of identifying and cataloging life s chemical substances, while ignoring its grand question: What is it that makes us alive? With Life beyond Molecules and Genes, perhaps the field will move a bit closer toward an answer.Stephen Rothman is an emeritus professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He was an experimental biologist for more than forty years and is presently engaged in a writing project that considers some of biology s most vexing questions. He has written or edited seven books and published more than two-hundred articles in Nature, Science, and other prestigious scientific journals."
In the River They Swim is the antithesis of that search for solutions to the next big theory of global poverty. From the fresh perspective of advisors on the frontlines of development to the insight of leaders like President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Pastor Rick Warren, it tells the story of change in the microcosms of emerging businesses, industries, and governments. These essays display a personal nature to their work that rigorous analysis alone cannot explain.
Thus far, the dominant paradigms through which modern scientists have viewed nature have been structured primarily around Newtonian and Darwinian approaches. As theoretical ecologist Robert E. Ulanowicz observes in his new work, A Third Window, neither of these models is sufficient for explaining how real change—in the form of creative advance or emergence—takes place in nature.
"Vision" is the all-important ability to picture the world around us as it should be. Crafting one's vision is the first step towards enacting meaningful change. This inspirational little book will help readers understand their potential to be visionaries.
During the Middle Ages, philosophers and theologians argued over the extramental reality of universal forms or essences. In the early modern period, the relation between subjectivity and objectivity, the individual self and knowledge of the outside world, was a rich subject of debate. Today, there is considerable argument about the relation between spontaneity and determinism within the evolutionary process, whether a principle of spontaneous self-organization as well as natural selection is at work in the aggregation of molecules into cells and the development of primitive forms of life into complex organisms. In Subjectivity, Objectivity and Intersubjectivity, Joseph A. Bracken proposes that what is ultimately at stake here is the age-old problem of the relationship between the One and the Many, universality and particularity on different levels of existence and activity within nature.
Is the call to spirituality embedded in human biology? Authors Nancy K. Morrison and Sally K. Severino draw on cutting-edge research, including the recent discovery of brain "mirror neurons" and the elucidation of the physiology of social affiliation and attachment, to make a bold case that we are, in fact, biologically wired to seek oneness with the divine. They have termed this innate urge "sacred Desire."
Americans today often think of thrift as a negative value—a miserly hoarding of resources and a denial of pleasure. Even more telling, many Americans don’t even think of thrift at all anymore. Franklin’s Thrift challenges this state of mind by recovering the rich history of thrift as a quintessentially American virtue.
"What a tremendous work. Aging and the Church is Neal Krause's magnum opus, the first and last word on how social relationships mediate religion's impact on physical and mental health. Theoretically, conceptually, methodologically, this book exemplifies the very best of what social science has to offer this field." -- Jeff Levin, M.P.H.
"What we need now are pioneers willing to break new ground and build the intellectual scaffolding for a science of spirit. Positive Youth Development and Spirituality fits the bill--and then some. In its multidisciplinary scope and quality, this volume advances our understanding of the ideas that should link many disciplines in a shared journey of discovery." -- Peter L. Benson
"I have been involved in the Unity movement for over twenty-five years and am thoroughly knowledgeable of its origins and history. But it wasn't until I read Neal Vahle's biography, The Spiritual Journey of Charles Fillmore: Discovering the Power Within, that I truly felt the passion that permeated the mind and heart of Unity's co-founder... Vahle has an exceptional talent for making history come alive and be relevant for this day and age." -- Reverend Duke Tufty
Ever since the first edition of Verna Benner Carson's Spiritual Dimensions of Nursing Practice went out of print, second-hand copies have been highly sought after by practitioners in the field and nursing school faculty who appreciated the comprehensive scope of the seminal work on spirituality and health. In this highly anticipated revised edition, Carson and her co-editor, Harold G. Koenig, have thoroughly revised and updated this classic in the field.
Prayers and Rituals at a Time of Illness and Dying: The Practices of Five World Religions by experienced physician and theologian Pat Fosarelli offers clear instructions for health care professionals on how to better understand the needs of their Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish patients during these difficult times. Devoting separate chapters to each tradition, Fosarelli briefly outlines the basic beliefs and then looks at the main tenets of each religion, exploring the varied approaches that they take to illness and end-of-life issues. For each tradition, she also describes practices and offers suitable prayers. Each chapter suggests modifications that may be necessary for Western hospitals, modifications for children, and specific suggestions about what not to do or say in respect to different faith traditions.
David Daube (1909-1999) was a world renowned biblical law scholar. He was a fellow at All Souls College at Oxford and emeritus professor of law at both Oxford and University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his life and continuing today, scholars have hailed his important research on Roman law, biblical law, Hebraic Law, and ethics. Now, for the first time, the first ten of his twenty Gifford Lectures, delivered in 1962 and 1964, are available to the public in The Deed and the Doer in the Bible. The overall theme of the lectures is law and wisdom in the Bible. Daube's wide-ranging deliberations reveal how complicated and profound the biblical text is. His lectures are aimed at professionals in the fields of biblical criticism, biblical history, ethics, and the history of law with respect to its roots in Old Testament traditions.
The Altruistic Species reinvigorates the debate over the prevalence of selfless motivation in human behavior—whether it is a rare or ubiquitous phenomenon—something considered exceptional or a capacity that members of any community could potentially develop. This noteworthy interdisciplinary examination of altruism balances science, virtue theory, and theology. It is ideal for ethics, human behavior, and evolutionary biology courses as an educational resource for other multidisciplinary studies and interested lay readers.
This anthology brings together, for the first time, leading essays and book chapters from theologians, philosophers, and scientists on their research on ethics, altruism, and love. Because the general consensus today is that scholarship in moral theory requires empirical research, the arguments of the leading scholars presented in this book will be fundamental to those examining issues in love, ethics, religion, and science.
In Unexpected Grace Bill Kramer offers a rare look into the human side of the world of scientific research. He goes behind the scenes of four scientific investigations on diverse aspects of the study of unlimited love and offers uplifting portraits of human beings struggling to understand and improve the complex issues facing them. He explores the dynamics between the researchers, the subjects they study, and the participants in the studies, and eloquently tells their personal stories. The stories touch on vastly different social and human issues, but all are connected by love.
Passionaries’ thirty-five profiles describe leaders of volunteer organizations that are significantly impacting millions of lives. Each story chronicles the personal inspiration behind the organization, the obstacles its creator had to overcome, and lives that have been touched or changed. The success of these heroes is shared with more than twenty million mini-passionary volunteers who donate millions of hours annually—and also create ripples of vision and change. Readers will be touched, moved, and inspired. They will have access to important facts, figures, and contact information, which can encourage their active participation. Often inspired by no more than an impulse or idea, many of these passionaries have been content to work in anonymity.
"Rolston's presentation of the methods of science, along with up-to-date summaries of the main achievements of the various sciences, is commendable for its clarity and critical acumen."
Malcolm Jeeves, former editor-in-chief of Neuropsychologia, a leading international scientific journal in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, explores the intersection of science and faith in defining what it means to be human. He reports on recent scientific research on consciousness and the link between mind, brain, and behavior. He examines issues such as determinism by indicating the possible relevance of chaos theory to enduring concerns about freedom and responsibility. He looks at similarities and differences between human nature and animal nature. He reexamines traditional dualist views of soul and body in the light of contemporary research on mind and brain and argues for a wholistic model. This leads to addressing questions such as: does spiritual awareness depend on the intactness of our brains or does spirituality stand apart from our biological substrate?
Now in paperback, this challenging and provocative book strips the veneer from the financial advice of some popular evangelical media celebrities and advocates a reintegrating of faith and finances. Faithful Finances 101 is a first-person narrative by an outspoken advocate of faith-based investing. A senior vice president of investments at Paine Webber before founding his own investment firm as "counsel to ethical and spiritual investors," Gary Moore warns that much of the economic advice emanating from some popular and influential evangelical authors and speakers is based on scare tactics and distortions of what the Bible has to say about finances. He draws on fifty years of studying the Bible, politics, and economics, and presents insights for those who want to be faithful in their finances--to use one hundred percent of the time, talent, and treasure with which they have been entrusted for the glory of God as well as for the benefit of others and themselves, and not just give ten percent of their incomes to the church.
Since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, many have found science and belief in God irreconcilable. Now, in the final decade of the twentieth century, stunning advances in physics, biology, and the new fields of chaos and complexity have brought the conflict to a crucial stage. More and more, scientists have begun to look for a single fundamental law or truth that underlies the beginning of the universe and its continued existence. But can we truly find either God or a scientific theory that will erase once and for all the notion of God? This strikingly original book expertly yet clearly encapsulates the various cosmological arguments from science, religion, and philosophy for the nonspecialist. Called "a brilliant intermediary between the thinking of the physicist and the thinking of ordinary people" by a German radio commentator, Kitty Ferguson provides a tour de force review of the modern search for fundamental truth, writing in simple, readable prose and using relevant analogies. The result is a provocative, sometimes mind-bending challenge to reconsider the way we think about ourselves, our origin, and our destiny. Moving beyond Stephen Hawking's quest (in A Brief History of Time) "to know the mind of God", Ferguson takes us one step nearer the answer to science's ultimate question: What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?
- An origin-of-the-universe classic, back in print- Insightful theories clarified for both lay readers and scientists- Perfect for classroom use
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