Templeton Bookspark

In April of this year, Templeton Foundation Press published Unexpected Grace: Stories of Faith, Science, and Altruism by Bill Kramer, a freelance journalist who lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Kramer gives us the opportunity to observe the events of four compelling studies of compassion in action, which are all contributing to the study of altruism in the twenty-first century.

Kramer has arranged several book readings to be held throughout the fall, which are posted on our Web site.

TFP Editor: How is the field of altruism expanding?

Kramer: For more than a century, funding in psychology and much of science focused on the destructive nature of mankind—everything from mild neurosis to outright psychosis. So the very fact that since the early 1990s researchers have been investigating the moral high ground of humanity is a major first step in this new field of scientific inquiry. These studies ask: Who are the moral exemplars of our era—and what makes them live the kind of life that inspires us? I’m talking about people like Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, all the ordinary Europeans who sheltered Jews from the Nazis, and young people right here in America who do volunteer work and learn the lifelong value of service. Today, there are a growing number of organizations around the country devoted to funding and investigating this kind of research: the John Templeton Foundation, The Fetzer Institute, The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, the Metanexus Institute, the Institute of Noetic Sciences—to name just a few. Each may have its own particular mission, but all of them are proceeding in this general direction. And as we add to knowledge in the field of altruism, so too will the importance and the expression of altruistic impulses expand in our personal lives. It’s like a chain reaction—one that we desperately need in a world plagued by conflict and sorrow.

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In April of this year, Templeton Foundation Press published Unexpected Grace: Stories of Faith, Science, and Altruism by Bill Kramer, a freelance journalist who lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Kramer gives us the opportunity to observe the events of four compelling studies of compassion in action, which are all contributing to the study of altruism in the twenty-first century.

Kramer has arranged several book readings to be held throughout the fall, which are posted on our Web site.

TFP Editor: What inspired you to write Unexpected Grace? 

Kramer: I’ve long been fascinated by the way individuals attempt to integrate spiritual beliefs with the challenging circumstances of real world social issues. A few years back, after returning from India where I go for intensive meditation practice, I learned that there was a research institute just fifteen minutes from my home that was attempting to build bridges between science and altruism. It’s called the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love and is based in the Case Western Reserve University Medical School. In its first year of operation, the Institute funded twenty-five studies from around the country that used scientific techniques to examine aspects of “positive psychology” like forgiveness, generativity, empathy, selfless service, and the nature of holiness – to cite just a few.

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