Templeton Foundation Press Newsletter

PUBLISHER OF FINE BOOKS

Science and Religion v Spirituality and Health v Character Development v Business and Spirituality

February 2007
Issue 26

In this Issue:

v                  Internet Specials

v                  New Book Examines the Human Spirit

v                  Polkinghorne Trilogy Now Back in Print

v                  Science and Religion Bookstore Updates

v                  Book Reviews

v                  Best Sellers

v                  Text Adoptions

v                  Ordering Information

v                  Contact Information


Internet Specials

January was Celebration of Life Month! Templeton Foundation Press is pleased to offer you the opportunity to purchase a set of books about individuals and organizations that are celebrating life by giving back to their communities and to their world in unique and inspiring ways! Learn more by visiting the individual book page and clicking on the "Look Inside" feature.

Purchase Pasionaries, Street Saints (pbk), and Equipping the Saints for a combined total of $28.00. Offer valid through February 28, 2007.

v

February is National Relationship Wellness Month! For our special this month, we are offering two original works that show love is multi-dimensional.

Love That Works is a highly readable book by Bruce Brander that poses a clear distinction between our customary form of love, which almost guarantees failure, and higher, more generous ways of loving that can succeed and enrich both individuals and society as a whole. Love That Works draws on history, psychology, theology, and science to offer a proposal on how to be successful in love and romance. It starts by showing why love that fails to meet expectations, often ends sadly or even tragically.

In Science of Love, Thomas Jay Oord explores various dimensions of love and illuminates the love-science symbiosis for both scholars and general readers. When science looks at love, it considers: cosmology, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, neurology, sex and romance, and the role of emotions. It also explores religious, ethical, and philosophical issues, such as virtue, creation ex nihilo, progress, divine action, agape, values, religious practices, pacifism, sexuality, friendship, freedom, and marriage. All affect the ways in which people understand each other and interact with one another.

Learn more by visiting the individual book page and clicking on the "Look Inside" feature.

Purchase Love That works and Science of Love for a combined total of $20.00. Offer valid through March 31, 2007.

To order: http://www.templetonpress.org/specialoffers.asp                         


New Book Examines the Human Spirit

In Something There: The Biology of the Human Spirit, zoologist David Hay analyzes extensive research on contemporary attitudes to provide an accessible interdisciplinary study of recent scholarly work in human spirituality. The research is drawn from surveys and polls; his investigative work with the late Oxford zoologist Alister Hardy, founder of the Religious Experience Research Unit; and more than thirty years of his own research experience.

Hay’s findings conclusively show that, regardless of cultural influences and variations in beliefs about traditional religion, the most common phenomenon is an all-pervasive sense of “something there.” He points to evidence that spiritual awareness is rooted in our physiological make-up and argues that this awareness is the underpinning of ethics. He notes the current upsurge of interest in spirituality which he sees as “both a symptom of the malaise and an opportunity to begin the reconstruction of a humane moral commonwealth.”

Please visit our Web site at www.templetonpress.org and click on the “Look Inside” feature to view a full table of contents of each of this book.


Polkinghorne Trilogy Now Back in Print

John C. Polkinghorne’s renowned trilogy on the compatibility of religion and science is back in print. One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology, the first book in the trilogy introduces issues in science and religion that Dr. Polkinghorne subsequently continued in Science and Providence and Science and Creation.  The books have been widely acclaimed individually and as a series. They are now all available from Templeton Foundation Press.

One World was originally published in 1986. A new preface has been added and the author assesses his original writing of this book, pointing to themes that have remained important to his thinking and topics that have been expanded and modified through recent scientific discoveries.

Polkinghorne contends that science does not have an absolute superiority over other forms of knowledge, nor does religion have all the answers. Both are searching for “the truth.” Both explore the universe as it is and submit to the evidence before them. Both must also be open to continual correction. We live in one world—a world in which science and religion can stimulate and benefit each other.

Please visit our Web site at www.templetonpress.org and click on the Look Inside feature to view a full table of contents for each of these books.


Science and Religion Bookstore Updates

The Science and Religion Bookstore content continues to grow.  Here you will be able to purchase such books as Let There Be Light: Modern Cosmology and Kabbalah: A New Conversation Between Science and Religion by Howard Smith.

Smith calls his book "the essential complementary of modern scientific cosmology and the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah," Jewish mysticism, the central work of which is the Zohar. Let There Be Light is based on lectures Smith has given during the last 30 years. He examines such subjects as Einstein's theories of relativity and modern quantum mechanics and awareness. The result is a book that Smith hopes will broaden readers' understanding of the creation of the universe.

Negotiating Darwin: The Vatican Confronts Evolution, 1877-1902 (Medicine, Science, and Religion in Historical Context) is written by Mariano Artigas.

Drawing on primary sources made available to scholars only after the archives of the Holy Office were unsealed in 1998, Negotiating Darwin chronicles how the Vatican reacted when six Catholics—five clerics and one layman—tried to integrate evolution and Christianity in the decades following the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species. In this book we see who acted and why, how the events unfolded, and how decisions were put into practice. With the long shadow of Galileo's condemnation hanging over the Church as the Scientific Revolution ushered in new paradigms, the Church found it prudent to avoid publicly and directly condemning Darwinism and thus treated these cases carefully. The authors reveal the ideological and operational stance of the Vatican and describe its secret deliberations. In the process, they provide insight into current debates on evolution and religious belief.

For a comprehensive listing of books published in the fields of science and religion, visit the online Science and Religion Bookstore. Here you will find more than 1,000 books published by more than 300 publishers. While you are there you will be able to access the online Research Library.

All books featured on the Science and Religion Bookstore are offered at a twenty percent discount. Visit today at: http://www.scienceandreligionbooks.org/


Book Reviews

Christianity and Process Thought

Spirituality for a Changing World

Joseph A. Bracken, S.J.

“Heavily influenced by Alfred North Whitehead’s process-oriented approach to reality, Bracken is a first-rate writer whose ideas will find broad appeal from both Christian and MBS [Mind, Body, Spirit] readers.”

Foreword Magazine,

January/February 2007

“Bracken offers a process theology that is both critically engaging and in no need of a glossary. . . . Those looking for a way to teach process to the uninitiated and / or to those that have no need for the Whiteheadean language, will find this text to be a very useful tool. . . . Bracken’s book does not subject theology to the metaphysics, nor vice versa, but rather brings them together into a constructive theology.”

Theology and Science

Volume 4, Number 3—November 2006

G. K. Chesterton
Thinking Backward, Looking Forward

Stephen R. L. Clark

“Until the appearance of the present work, no writer has devoted a full-length study to examining Chesterton’s stories, novels and ideas for themes and plot developments that foreshadow or coincide with similar aspects of modern science fiction.”

Washington Times,

January 14, 2007

Something There
The Biology of the Human Spirit

David Hay

“A book well worth buying, which will repay critical, attentive reading.”

The Tablet

Volume 16, Number 23—December 2006

In the Wake of Disaster

Religious Responses to Terrorism and Catastrophe

Harold G. Koenig, M.D.

“Timely book that discusses what and how faith-based and community organizations can contribute in the aftermath of disasters and terrorism.”

New York Disaster Interfaith Services
January 3, 2006

Science and Creation

The Search for Understanding

John C. Polkinghorne

“This book is recommended to all who seek to grasp the implication of science for faith and theology.”

Catholic Library World
Volume 77, Number 2—December 2006

Kindness and Joy

Expressing the Gentle Love

Harold G. Koenig, M.D.

“I recommend this tiny book of 104 short pages and suggest that you keep it close at hand to use as a touchstone for inspiration. I found that after I read it my heart yearned to offer kindness, indeed to teach kindness in all that I did. I hope the same happens for you.”

ALAM

December, 2006

Full reviews may be found on our Web site at www.templetonpress.org.


Best Sellers

The current best sellers for Templeton Foundation Press are listed below. The statistics are an accumulation of both domestic and foreign sales and are updated monthly.

Books

1.       Hand of God, The

           http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=1

2.       Spirituality in Patient Care

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=47   

3.       Forgiveness and Reconciliation

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=39     

4.       Something There

http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=98    

5.       Kindness and Joy

http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=93

6.       Worldwide Laws of Life

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=21    

7.       Science of Love

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=73   

8.       Words of Gratitude

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=17   

9.       One World

http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=101

10.     Passionaries

http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=91

Audio Books

1.       Power of Forgiving

          http://www.templetonpress.org/audio_books.asp  

2.       The Healing Connection

          http://www.templetonpress.org/audio_books.asp

3.       Templeton Plan

          http://www.templetonpress.org/audio_books.asp    

4.       Thrift and Generosity

          http://www.templetonpress.org/audio_books.asp  

E-books

1.       Unlimited Love

           http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=58

2.       Spirituality in Patient Care

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=47   

3.       Research on Altruism and Love

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=59    

4.       Dimensions of Forgiveness

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=38

5.       Words of Gratitude

          http://www.templetonpress.org/book.asp?book_id=17


Text Adoptions

Templeton Foundation Press is pleased to provide an examination copy of textbooks to qualifying professors. Copies are limited to one copy per title per professor, for possible textbook use only.

For more information or to download the request form, please visit http://www.templetonpress.org/textbookexamination.asp


Ordering Information

Books from Templeton Foundation Press are available at better bookstores and through our Web site at www.templetonpress.org.  You may also order by calling our distribution center at 800-621-2736. Orders placed through our Web site receive a twenty percent discount.


Contact Information

Templeton Foundation Press

300 Conshohocken State Road, Suite 670
West Conshohocken, PA 19428

Email: tfp@templetonpress.org


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