The Altruism Reader
Selections from Writings on Love, Religion, and Science
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.
The first half of The Altruism Reader offers essential selections from religious texts, leading contemporary scholars, and cutting-edge ethicists. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are represented. Among the highly respected writers are Thomas Aquinas, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, John Polkinghorne, Stephen Pope, Louis Fischer, Amira Shamma Abdin, Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, and Daniel Day Williams.
The book’s second half features primary readings on love and altruism from the sciences. Here the focus is on anthropology, psychology, sociology, biology, and neurology, with material written by Daniel C. Batson, David Sloan Wilson, Robert Wright, Stephen G. Post, Robert Axelrod, Richard Dawkins, Holmes Rolston III, and other renowned scientists and philosophers.
“Virtually all people act—and often talk—as if they have some clue about love. We speak about loving food, falling in love, loving God, feeling loved, and loving a type of music. We say that love hurts, love waits, love stinks, and love means never having to say you’re sorry. We use the word and its derivatives in a wide variety of ways . . . . My definition of love is this: To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote well-being.” —Thomas Jay Oord
Thomas Jay Oord, PhD, is professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. In addition to books published by Templeton Press, Dr. Oord has written and edited nearly twenty books, including Defining Love: A Philosophical, Scientific, and Theological Engagement (Brazos Press) and The Nature of Love: A Theology (Chalice Press). He and his wife, Cheryl, have three daughters.
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Part I: Defining Love
1. The Core Meaning of “Love” by Stephen G. Post
2. The Love Racket: Defining Love and Agape for the Love-and-Science Research Program by Thomas Jay Oord
Part II: Ancient Religious Writings on Love
3. The Hebrew Scriptures: Psalms 100, 107
4. The Dhammapada: Joy
5. The Bhagavadgita: The Religion of Faith
6. The New Testament: Luke 10:25–37, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4:7–21
7. The Qur’an: The Cow
8. Teaching Christianity: On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo
9. Summa Theologica: The Treatise on Charity by Thomas Aquinas
10. Agape and Eros: Excerpts by Anders Nygren
11. Love in Any Language by Thomas Jay Oord
Part III: Contemporary Religious Writings on Love
12. Loyalty: The Calling of the People of God by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld
13. Understanding Our Fundamental Nature by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
14. Ahimsa: The Path of Harmlessness by Thich Nhat Hanh
15. The Incarnation by Daniel Day Williams
16. Agapeistic Ethics by Gene Outka
17. Philia by Edward Collins Vacek
18. Kenotic Creation and Divine Action by John Polkinghorne
19. Kenosis: Gender Connotations by Sarah Coakley
20. Love in Islam by Amira Shamma Abdin
Part IV: The Physics of Altruism
21. Ethics, Cosmology, and Theories of God by Nancey Murphy and George Ellis
Part V: The Biology of Altruism
22. Evolutionary Ethics by Robert Wright
23. The Selfish Gene: Excerpts by Richard Dawkins
24. The Robustness of Reciprocity by Robert Axelrod
25. Getting Along by Frans de Waal
26. Bentham’s Corpse by Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson
27. The Four Paths to Cooperation by Lee Alan Dugatkin
Part VI: Altruism in the Social Sciences
28. Affect and Prosocial Responding by Nancy Eisenberg, Sandra Losoya, and Tracy Spinrad
29. Aversive-Arousal Reduction by Daniel C. Batson
30. Triangulating Love by Robert J. Sternberg
31. Saving Others: Was It Opportunity or Character? by Samuel P. Oliner and Pearl M. Oliner
32. Progress through Love by Stephen G. Post
