In its June 2010 issue, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith reviewed Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion by Malcolm Jeeves and Warren S. Brown.
This text would be an excellent accompaniment either to an upper-division undergraduate course or to an entry-level graduate survey course. It contains a list of recommended readings and an index of names and subjects.
For more information on Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion and its authors, click here.
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book reviews, Science and Religion, Spring 2009 | Tagged: and religion, book reviews, Malcolm Jeeves, Neuroscience, Psychology, Reviews, Science and Religion, warren brown | 
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America Magazine, a Catholic weekly magazine in the United States, recently explored the concept of thrift by reviewing two recent publications on the topic: Thrift: Rebirth of a Forgotten Virtue by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch (Encounter Books) and our very own Franklin’s Thrift: The Lost History of an American Virtue by David Blankenhorn, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and Sorcha Brophy-Warren.
America on Franklin’s Thrift:
. . .quite accessible to the general reader. Engaging the changing legacy of thrift from the 18th century to the present, the contributors to this volume write energetically and with a grounded conviction on a subject of deep cultural significance as they challenge and confound “reductive and unappealing” views thrift.
Leave a Comment » | Spring 2009, Thrift, Uncategorized | Tagged: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Blankenhorn, Reviews, Spring 2009, Thrift | Permalink
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Outside of the first week of January, it’s rare that we seriously look inward to evaluate our goals, our direction, or our purpose in life. When you stop to think about it, though, that timing is rather arbitrary. Anytime is a good time to take steps in a positive direction. Especially now: it’s a new school year, it’s a new season, it’s a new economy, it’s a new political climate. For so many reasons, now is the perfect time to stop and reflect on where you’re going and what you want to do with your life.
The first step to making any meaningful change is to create a vision for yourself. No matter where you are in life, a vision is crucial to getting you where you want to be.
According to Peter L. Benson, the capacity to generate vision is among life’s most beautiful and unheralded gifts. To him, a vision is more than just a goal, more than just a dream of what could be—it is a summons, a pull towards the future, an inspired call to make real that which should be. In his recent publication, Vision: Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World, Benson takes readers on an uplifting exploration of this powerful concept.
His book is the inspiration for today’s post, so the first three people who tweet their vision using the hashtag: #myvision, will receive a complimentary copy of Vision by Peter Benson.
Leave a Comment » | Spring 2009, Uncategorized | Tagged: contest, Peter Benson, Spring 2009, Vision | Permalink
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In its September/October 2009 issue, Spirituality & Health magazine reviewed Sacred Desire by Nancy K. Morrison and Sally K. Severino.
“A synthesis of science and spirituality, their work will satisfy those who seek a biological explanation for experiences of the divine and provide a basis for a dialogue between science and spirit that promises to be life changing.”
Leave a Comment » | Spring 2009 | Tagged: nancy morrison, Reviews, sacred desire, sally severino | Permalink
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Recently we asked authors Nancy K. Morrison and Sally K. Severino a few questions related to their latest title, Sacred Desire.
Here’s what they shared:
Give us a quick summary of your book.
Sacred Desire shows how we can psychologically, neurobiologically, spiritually grow in compassionate living during these turbulent times.
What’s your favorite part of the book and why?
The part of Sacred Desire that we find most hopeful is the chapter entitled “Redemptive Attuning: Desire’s Continuing Journey.” This chapter takes Desire beyond healing into a spiritual journey where our urge to embody the sacred is safer and freer.
Describe your writing process.
Because Sacred Desire is about interrelatedness, it required at least two authors interrelating to write it. The process of writing, therefore, involved us individually and together.
Individually both of us were motivated to integrate spirituality and science. Individually we brought complimentary talents to the process. Nancy brought the “big picture” and Sally served as the “detail person.” We talked about our ideas together and Sally put them on paper.
We faced at least four challenges. Our first challenge was to find one voice. Because psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality each had its own language, our second challenge was to find one language that integrated them. Our third challenge was to conquer our fear of speaking out about spirituality, which is commonly looked down upon by our colleagues. Our final challenge was to find a publisher who would endorse our integration.
What would you wish to add or change?
Now that the book is published, we wish we had been clearer about the distinction between the vagus nerve and the vagal complex. In addition, we would like to realign the last part of the sidebar entitled “Spiritual Development.”
Since there is continuing research about how our bodies mediate our spirituality, we would like to add these findings as they emerge. For example, in addition to mirror neurons, Von Economo neurons are being implicated in fast intuitive assessments of complex social situations.
What did you learn from writing your book?
Sacred Desire seemed to have its own process of evolving. We learned that if we trusted and stayed within its innate flow, it would come to fruition in its time.
Leave a Comment » | Author Q&A, Spring 2009, Uncategorized | Tagged: nancy morrison, sacred desire, sally severino | Permalink
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We need your help! Amazon is a wonderful resource, but sometimes our lines of communication get crossed, and our data doesn’t always quite make it to their systems in tact. So we turn to the power of crowdsourcing!
If you have a few moments to spare head on over to Amazon and check out the listings for some of our books. If you see one of our titles listed without a cover image or product description… let us know here in the comments section! In return for helpful information, we will send you a book of your choice from our recently released Spring 2009 titles.
Just think… a mere five minutes of browsing could win you a FREE book!
NOTE: We’ll need to limit this to one book per user.
2 Comments | Spring 2009 | Tagged: contest | Permalink
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David Blankenhorn, the principal editor of both Thrift: A Cyclopedia and Franklin’s Thrift, just published another great article on the topic of thrift. This one appears in next week’s edition of The Weekly Standard and deals specifically with “the paradox of thrift.”
He provides a spirited rebuke of the popular theory that thrift is a bad thing during economic downturns and offers the top five reasons why that theory simply isn’t true.
You can find the article, in its entirety at the website of The Weekly Standard. It’s definitely worth a read.
Leave a Comment » | Fall 2008 Books, News, Spring 2009, Thrift | Tagged: David Blankenhorn, economics, Institute for American Values, Keynes, Thrift | Permalink
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Franklin’s Thrift by David Blankenhorn, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, and Sorcha Brophy-Warren is now available!
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.
Click here to order your copy!
Leave a Comment » | Spring 2009, Thrift | Tagged: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Blankenhorn, Spring 2009, Thrift | Permalink
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We are thrilled to be publishing a book this month entitled In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. It offers a fascinating look into the efforts of people who have dedicated their lives to waging an ongoing battle against poverty and its pages are full of lessons learned from the front lines of this global struggle. It’s a really great project and it we love “talking it up” whenever someone asks what’s new for the Press lately.
After we’ve explained the idea, and gushed about how wonderful the book is, the ineveitable next question is: “So what’s the story with the title? In the river? They swim?”
A fair question – just what is the story behind that title? For an answer, I’ll turn it over to editor Michael Fairbanks who explains the allegorical roots of the title ever-so-eloquently in his Introduction:
A Sufi master once told his disciples about the different levels of knowledge. ‘There are different ways to know a river,’ he began. First, you can read books about it and learn its length, its source, its depth, its width, the power of its current, the types of fish it contains, and other tangible facts. Then you can undertake the long journey to see it. You invest time, money, and hardships to travel to that river so that you can one day sit on its shores and look at it. When that day comes, you have attained a greater level of knowledge because you know its smell, you feel the sand that borders it, and you watch the birds that play over it. Finally, at last, you take off your clothes, and dive in to swim in the river. You feel its current along your body, the gradients of temperature, its depth. You taste something of it. You wonder if you have the strength to swim its length.
… So it goes with every thing worth knowing. If the work of human economic development is a river, the authors in this volume, and perhaps some readers, will no longer be satisfied to stand along its banks.
Want the full story? We hope you’ll grab a copy of the book, of course, but also be sure to check out the beautiful new web site for the project at http://intherivertheyswim.com.
Leave a Comment » | Freedom and Free Enterprise, Spring 2009 | Tagged: economics, enterprise, entrepreneurship, In the River They Swim, Michael Fairbanks, poverty, Rumi | Permalink
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What should I do about our ailing economy?!
What should I do about the Swine Flu?!
What should I do about the fact that I’m not as rich, as beautiful, as popular, as happy, as successful as I want to be?!
The 4th century Chinese philosopher Chaung Tzu would probably suggest that our best course of action in these scenarios is doing nothing at all. While the causes of our twenty-first century anxieties may be different from those faced by 4th century Chinese philosophers, Chuang Tzu’s approach to life is remarkably applicable to our present circumstances.
In Do Nothing: Inner Peace for Everyday Living, author Siroj Sorajjakool explores how we can follow the way of Chuang Tzu and embrace nothingness, even in this era of deadlines, cell phones, traffic, bills, multitasking, and ever-present connectivity. It’s a beautiful and fascinating little book and Siroj has also started a companion blog, where he posts further reflections on the lessons we can glean from the thinking of this important Taoist philosopher.
Leave a Comment » | Author Blogroll, Spring 2009 | Tagged: butterfly dream, Chinese philosophy, Chuang Tzu, eastern philosophy, Hundred Schools of Thought, inner peace, Master Chuang, Sorajjakool, stress, taoism, Zhuangzi | Permalink
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