The Altruism Reader: Selections from Writings on Love, Religion, and Science, compiled and edited by Thomas Jay Oord begins with material from religious traditions, important theologians, and moral philosophers. Oord points out that research on love in religious studies is more prevalent in recent years, fueled in part by the attempt to overcome inter-religious conflict.

Primary readings on love and altruism from the sciences are featured in the second half of the book. Research summaries and theories in psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurology, sociobiology, and nonhuman primate studies are included, with material written by Daniel C. Batson, David Sloan Wilson, Robert Wright, Stephen G. Post, Robert Axelrod, Richard Dawkins, and other renowned scientists.

Love That Works, written by Bruce Brander, offers a fresh look at love and romance. Brander draws on history, theology, literature, psychology, and sociology to show why romance is a notoriously poor basis for stable, loving relationships. He points out that in past generations, when romance was relatively safe and sweet, people tempered its impetuous urges with other types of love that are all but forgotten in our time.

Changes in romance over the past century reflect trends in the culture as a whole, he explains: from religious to secular; from duty-centered to self-centered; from humane to indifferent; from stress on responsibilities to emphasis on rights; from supportive community to impersonal society; from serving, contributing, and cooperating to competing and consuming. Romance as we do it today fails so often because it is a vastly incomplete mode of loving that arises from wishes and fantasies.

Humility: The Quiet Virtue and The Power of Forgiving are both written by Everett L. Worthington Jr.  Humility is a virtue that can be difficult to describe because of its contradictory nature: claiming authority about humility and claiming that one is humble each suggest a lack of humility. Dr. Worthington examines the characteristics of humility that people such as Jesus, Siddhartha, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. share, and, in doing so, formulates a working understanding of humility. He looks at what science has found in studying humility and then presents quotations from others that help illuminate the nature of humility and provide inspiration.

In The Power of Forgiving Worthington draws on professional experience, his own dramatic personal history, and the wisdom of others to explain and illustrate the power of forgiving. Through forgiving, we find inner peace, heal relationships, and we also restore our own health.