When I was a kid, I loved to create “my favs” tapes. You know: recording the top 15 or so songs that really rocked! Or putting together a collection of “slow grooves” tunes to play for that special someone on the way to the movies.
I feel like my newest book, The Altruism Reader: Selections From Writings on Love, Science, and Religion, is like a “my favs” cassette. I had a great time compiling and editing 30+ selections on love and altruism from religious and scientific writings.
The book isn’t primarily a project for me, of course. I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to publish something so narrowly self-serving. Instead, I put this book together to provide people with easy access to some of the best writing on love and altruism available. Some of the writing has been around for centuries. But most of the material is very recent.
I also wanted readers to know that research on love and altruism is diverse and increasingly more common. This is due in part to developments in the sciences. Altruism research is HUGE today. But the increase in interest also has to do with the quest to discover commonalities among the world’s major religions. This quest seems pretty important in our religiously pluralistic age, an age noted for interreligious flare-ups and conflict.
The first half of my book provides material from religious traditions, important theologians, and moral philosophers. You’ll find short selections from the Qu’ran, Bhagavadgita, the Bible, Augustine, Anders Nygren, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Day Williams, Stephen Post, and others.
The second half of the book contains scientific research on love. Included are research summaries, theories, and analysis in scientific disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurology, sociobiology, and nonhuman primate studies. You might be familiar with scientific writers on altruism such as Robert Wright, Frans de Waal, Richard Dawkins, Robert Sternberg, Samuel Oliner, and Daniel Batson.
Of course, one problem with the old “my favs” projects is that a 90-minute cassette can only hold so much. You have to skip some really great stuff.The same is true of this Altruism Reader.
A book can only hold so much, and some really great writing was not included. But I’m working on ways to make you aware of some of the material left on the cutting floor (to mix metaphors).I’m hoping that two basic kinds of people will find this book interesting. The first kind is interested in a three-way conversation — a trialogue. Religion, science, and love/altruism together make for intriguing interactions. Those who have heretofore been limited to a dialogue (science and religion) may get excited about what it means to jump in the middle of this three-way.
The second kind of reader is the student. The book is perfect of a variety of higher-education courses. I plan to use this text in my university courses, for instance. It makes a great college, university, and seminary text. In fact, the idea for the project emerged from a discussion involving professors who won awards for their courses on altruism and love from religious and scientific perspectives. Stephen Post, director of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, and I brought these professors together for a conversation a few years ago.
Professors who really wish that I had included an additional essay or two can easily require that material as supplemental reading. In fact, one could say that this “my favs” collection could be easily coupled with another professor’s mini-collection of “my favs.”A final word of warning: this isn’t the kind of book that you’d read aloud to set a romantic mood.
This book largely explores love in its nonromantic form. Make CD of romantic songs, label it “slow grooves,” and give that a listen if you’re interested in that other kind of love. This book explores a grander set of ideas and actions.
Tom
Thomas Jay Oord Northwest Nazarene University
