Realized Religion includes research that investigates the impact of spirituality in health and healing, faith healing, religion and mental health, religion and life satisfaction, religion and mental disorders, religion and martial satisfaction, the effect of religion on suicide, and the effect of religion on alcohol use and abuse. This book documents over 300 scientific studies published by reputable scientific journals demonstrating that religion has an ameliorating effect on the survival rate of surgical patients, on depression and anxiety, on suicide rates, and on promotion of a healthy lifestyle.

Realized Religion presents useful and helpful information to researchers and scholars who seek to understand the subtle connection between healing and spirituality. It will be an invaluable resource for libraries and others interested in the emerging field of spirituality and healing.

 

The world of work is changing rapidly. As a Christian trying to discern the right career path, you might perceive the marketplace as a bewildering and anxiety-provoking place. You might even worry you’ll have to sacrifice your values to have a successful career. How can you hope to find work that is informed by faith and that serves God’s will? Redeeming Work was written to answer just this question.   
The author, Bryan Dik, PhD, is one of the leading psychologists in the world who specializes in vocation. A professor, entrepreneur, and follower of Christ, Dik wrote this book as a labor of love after devoting his career to research and development of practical strategies for helping others find purposeful work. His message: there are abundant opportunities for Christians to forge careers that answer God’s calling for their lives. In Redeeming Work, he shares the tools you need to find these opportunities and pursue them successfully.
Your purchase of Redeeming Work comes with a special bonus: free access to an evidence-based online career assessment system called PathwayU. By taking this assessment, you’ll learn about what makes you unique, including what you enjoy (interests), what matters to you (values), your general tendencies (personality), and what you most need from an organization (workplace preferences). Then, you’ll be able to explore career paths (and current job openings) that fit the pattern of gifts God has given you.
 

Postapartheid South Africa's efforts to come to terms with its past, particularly its Truth and Reconciliation Commission's emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation, is of special interest to many in the world community. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was mandated to go beyond truth-finding and to "promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends the conflict and divisions of the past." In contrast with other truth commissions, the TRC was led by clerics rather than lawyers and judge, and the TRC's approach to reconciliation was shaped by and imbued with religious content. The TRC submitted its final report to the Mandela administration in October 1998.

Over the next two years, the Rev. Bernard Spong, former communications director of the South African Council of Churches, conducted a series of in-depth interviews about the TRC with thirty-three key religious figures. In this volume, they discuss and evaluate the following issues:

•How should we understand the concept of national or political reconciliation and its requirements?
•What are the differences and similarities between religious and political approaches to reconciliation?
•Does national or political reconciliation require forgiveness between former victims and perpetrators?
•What is the appropriate role of religious representatives in a truth commission process? And is it recommended that other countries emulate the South African model?
•How do religious leaders assess the contributions and limitations of the TRC?
•What kind of initiatives are contemporary religious communities taking to promote reconciliation among their members and in the wider society?

The conversations presented in this volume, and the essays interpreting them, seek to illuminate issues and questions raised by the TRC model, including how to conceptualize reconciliation and the differences between political and religious approaches.

In recent years, researchers across the social sciences have made important contributions to the study of religion. Thanks to their inquiry, we have greatly improved our understanding of how religion influences the vital dimensions of our lives, communities, and institutions.
 
To give this research the attention it deserves, editor Jeff Levin assembled a panel of preeminent social scientists and gave them a single directive: write the ultimate statement on religion from within their respective social science discipline or field. The result is this single volume, “state-of-the-science” compendium—a first of its kind for the study of religion.
 
Composed of ten essays, this book details the study of religion within nine basic and applied areas of social science. Along with a critical introduction to this subject, these essays include the expert contributions of:

• Kenneth I. Pargament & Julie J. Exline on psychology
• Anthony Gill on political science
• Charles M. North on economics
• Barry Hankins on history
• Annette Mahoney on family studies
• Byron R. Johnson on criminology
• Linda K. George on gerontology
• William H. Jeynes on education
• Jeff Levin on epidemiology

Each essay features:

• An introduction to the history of the discipline’s or field’s religious research, as well as its most important people and published works.
• A comprehensive overview of key research findings and theories.
• A detailed research agenda to guide future scholars.
• An annotated bibliography of seminal works for the reader’s further consideration.

Broad in scope and essential in focus, Religion and the Social Sciences is a significant addition to the field. It will prove indispensable to both new and established scholars looking for a comprehensive treatment of the subject and seeking promising avenues to pursue in their own research.
 

Many people embark on the journey of adoption and foster care but are unprepared for the challenges that await them along the way. Replanted takes an honest look at the joys and hardships that come with choosing this journey and provides a model of faith-based support made up of three parts to help families thrive: Soil, Sunlight, and Water. 

• Soil, or emotional support, addresses the need for grace-filled settings where families can connect with other families who understand their experience. 
• Sunlight, or informational support, focuses on obtaining helpful training to raise children who may have unique needs or challenges. 
• Water, or tangible support, deals with concrete resources such as medical care, child care, and financial support. 

Throughout the book, the Replanted model is brought to life by stories and examples based on the clinical work and personal experiences of the authors. Their candid insight will serve families who are actively involved in adoption or foster care, as well as people who are eager to help support those families.

Replanted affirms that with the right support system in place, parents can answer this sacred call not only with open hearts but also with their eyes wide open.

Research on Altruism and Love is a compendium of annotated bibliographies reviewing literature and research studies on the nature of love. An essay introduces each of the annotated bibliographies.

A variety of literature either directly related to science-and-love issues or supporting literature for those issues is covered in the Religious Love Interfaces with Science section. This annotated bibliography is unique in that it approaches the field from a decidedly religious perspective. It includes classical expositions of love that continue to influence contemporary scholars, including Platos' work on eros, the work and words of Jesus, Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, Kierkegaard, and Ghandi, among others. The contemporary discussion includes Anders Nygren's theological arguments in his classic, Agape and Eros; Pitirim Sorokin; and others. An issue that often emerges in this literature is the question of the nature and definition of love.

A second annotated bibliography features current empirical research in the field of Personality and Altruism, with a focus on social psychology. Among the topics covered are the altruistic personality, altruistic behavior, empathy, helping behavior, social responsibility, and volunteerism. Methodologies are diverse, and studies include experiments, local and national surveys, naturalistic observation, and combinations of these.

The Evolutionary Biology annotated bibliography covers the most significant works on altruism and love in the field of biology and evolutionary psychology.

The fourth and final annotated bibliography in this volume is entitled Sociology of Faith-Based Volunteerism. Here the focus is on literature on the interface of helping behavior and religious organizations, as well as major pieces on voluntary associations.

Burn out. Two words that haunt those in high stress jobs, especially in the medical profession. Long hours and the literal life-and-death nature of the field creates expectations to not only be on call at all hours, but to be at one’s best, even at 3:00 AM after a twenty-hour shift. So much energy is devoted to the care of others that self-care is forgotten.
Yet, more are noticing and research confirms that self-care is needed, not only for personal sanity but also for quality of work. Unwell medical professionals are not the best at treating others. And this self-care includes not just rest, food, and water, but a deeper care, one that tends the spiritual side as well.
To both the spiritually active and the spiritually resistant, hospital chaplain William Dorman offers a guide to understand a more comprehensive, full-bodied self-care. Each chapter begins with case studies, concrete experiences that help unpack abstract concepts which bring much needed peace to stressed individuals. Dorman also structures each chapter to end with prayers and action steps, which offer more concrete ways to care for the self.
From working as a hospital chaplain for over 18 years, and serving as the director of chaplaincy services for the largest integrated health care system in New Mexico, Rev. Dorman recognizes the stresses that come to those who have made it their profession to heal others. Healers need healing too—and this guide is the first step.

This book contains a collection of John Templeton's favorite inspirational passages.

                 

“From the Bible, from philosophers and poets, and from other writers, we begin to form a clear understanding of the spiritual and ethical laws of life. The world's literature teaches us valuable lessons that no amount of money can buy. Those lessonsare there for everyone. They are free and they are priceless.”—John Marks Templeton

 

How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? How did the Universe become self-aware? In The Runes of Evolution, Simon Conway Morris revitalizes the study of evolution from the perspective of convergence, providing us with compelling new evidence to support the mounting scientific view that the history of life is far more predictable than once thought.
 
A leading evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge, Conway Morris came into international prominence for his work on the Cambrian explosion (especially fossils of the Burgess Shale) and evolutionary convergence, which is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.
 
In The Runes of Evolution, he illustrates how the ubiquity of convergence hints at an underlying framework whereby many outcomes, not least brains and intelligence, are virtually guaranteed on any Earth-like planet. Conway Morris also emphasizes how much of the complexity of advanced biological systems is inherent in microbial forms.
 
By casting a wider net, The Runes of Evolution explores many neglected evolutionary questions. Some are remarkably general. Why, for example, are convergences such as parasitism, carnivory, and nitrogen fixation in plants concentrated in particular taxonomic hot spots? Why do certain groups have a particular propensity to evolve toward particular states?
 
Some questions lead to unexpected evolutionary insights: If bees sleep (as they do), do they dream? Why is that insect copulating with an orchid? Why have sponges evolved a system of fiber optics? What do mantis shrimps and submarines have in common? If dinosaurs had not gone extinct what would have happened next? Will a saber-toothed cat ever re-evolve?
 
Cona Morris observes: “Even amongst the mammals, let alone the entire tree of life, humans represent one minute twig of a vast (and largely fossilized) arborescence. Every living species is a linear descendant of an immense string of now-vanished ancestors, but evolution itself is the very reverse of linear. Rather it is endlessly exploratory, probing the vast spaces of biological hyperspace. Indeed this book is a celebration of how our world is (and was) populated by a riot of forms, a coruscating tapestry of life.”
 
The Runes of Evolution is the most definitive synthesis of evolutionary convergence to be published to date.