239 Trinity Hall
Chico, California
95929-0740
Phone: 530/898-5661
Fax: 530/898-5468
Email: rs@csuchico.edu
Chico, California
95929-0740
Phone: 530/898-5661
Fax: 530/898-5468
Email: rs@csuchico.edu
Join the faculty authors of CSU, Chico's Department of Religious Studies as they explore a range of exciting and provocative issues in religious studies and related disciplines. The following books are available for purchase from bookstores across the country. The links below will take you to Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com where you can read reviews, peruse related texts, and buy new or used copies of these volumes.
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Andrew Flescher and Daniel Worthen, The Benevolent Species: An Interdisciplinary Account of Human Altruism (Templeton Foundation Press, 2008) |
The topic of altruism has as of late been of considerable interest to scholars in fields as diverse as philosophy, religious studies, psychology, sociology, economics, and biology; however, while there are a multitude of sources that cover altruism from each of these perspectives, there has not yet appeared a single introductory volume that adequately covers the phenomenon of altruism from all of these disciplinary vantage points. This volume is intended to fill this gap in the literature. It provides a way of understanding the phenomenon of altruism that takes seriously the insider testimony of the altruist herself, while also managing to incorporate explanatory theories from several disciplines into a comprehensive account. In it, we argue that altruism is a genuine phenomenon; other-regarding behaviors are not merely instances of self-interest in disguise. At the same time, we believe that there are important kernels of truth in biological, sociological, psychological, economic, and finally philosophical and religious theories for accounting for selflessness, and that they furthermore represent pieces of a larger puzzle that can be synthesized to contribute to a coherent, truly interdisciplinary account of the phenomenon. In our book, we not only aspire to introduce students and general readers to the major theories from different fields that have been advanced to explain the mystery of altruistic conduct, but also to propose an equally accessible argument of our own that integrates these classic approaches in a new way. The book is significant in its attention to human altruism. Selflessness in the animal kingdom, which plausibly can be explained through exclusive reference to the theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism from the field of evolutionary biology, is an occurrence that becomes significantly more complex in the human situation. Indeed, in the human case distinctively, we show that “nurture” works from the limits of “nature,” by human beings availing themselves of philosophical and religious traditions in order to "expand their circles" of concern. Our decision to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human altruism is thus not motivated by the egalitarian desire to be ecumenical in our outlook, but rather by a genuine conviction on our part that no one discipline or perspective is able to provide an adequate explanatory framework for grasping this particular phenomenon.
Click here for further publication information or to order this book (forthcoming)
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Kate McCarthy,
Interfaith Encounters in America (Rutgers University Press, 2007) |
In my latest book I explore the paradox of Americans' deeply held religious beliefs and simultaneous commitment to diversity and freedom of religion. Through a set of case studies of five sites of interfaith encounters in the United States (ranging from the intimate domestic dynamics of multifaith families to the official exchanges of religious institutions at academic and ecclesial conferences) the book is an on-the-ground exploration of what motivates people to engage with those who are religiously different, what happens when they do, and what these encounters can tell us about the evolving meanings of religious identity in America.
Click here for further publication information or to order this book (forthcoming)
Daniel Veidlinger, Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand (University of Hawaii Press, 2006)
An important idea in this modern “information age” is that the medium through which a message is communicated affects the way this message is understood. While it seems to me self-evident that listening to a text provides a very different experience than does reading it, most studies of Buddhism have focused on the content of the sacred texts to the exclusion of the ways in which they were communicated to the faithful. In this book, I examine the two main ways by which Buddhist texts were historically disseminated in Southeast Asia: through the oral tradition and through written manuscripts. The book focuses mainly on the development of writing and its displacement of the oral tradition in northern Thailand, and is based on data drawn from extant manuscripts, inscriptions, chronicles, archaeological evidence and reports of early European and Chinese travelers. I have tried in this book to paint as detailed a picture as possible of the roles that both memory and manuscripts had in the dissemination and preservation of Buddhist canonical texts. I also touch upon the different attitudes that various segments of society had towards writing and the oral tradition, and show that not everyone was happy to see the written word eclipse the oral tradition as time went on.
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Joel Zimbelman and Becky White, eds., Moral Dilemmas in Community Healthcare: Cases and Commentaries (Pearson Longman, 2005) |
Most people who teach health care ethics, public policy, law, and business think that case studies can help students understand both the theories they have encountered and the messiness of real moral deliberation and justification. We agree. But in the past most case books in bioethics have usually focused on the commentary of one or two types of professionals and a few professional ethicists. Our book tries to change this in some significant ways. The cases in this volume have been posed not only by physicians, but also by nurses, pharmacists, social workers, dieticians, and citizens and take place in rural or small-town health care settings (not, for the most part, in large, technologically sophisticated tertiary medical centers). The 20 cases cover a wide range of clinical encounters that focus on dilemmas involving the management of patients who are chronically ill; in extended care facilities and ambulatory care/outpatient settings; who have a limited choice of providers or institutions; and whose cultural and religious tenets are typically underrepresented in the extant health care setting and larger community. Analyses by physicians and ethicists are supplemented by those of nurses, social workers, psychological and religious counselors, lawyers, health care administrators, pharmacists, and private citizens. Introductions to each case identify key moral components and pose study questions to help students think through these issues.
Click here to read reviews or order a copy.
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Sarah Pike, New Age and Neopagan Religions in America (Columbia University Press series on Religion in Contemporary America, 2004) |
This book is part of a series that surveys the American religious landscape at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. I describe the nineteenth-century roots of the Neopagan and New Age movements and their emergence from the 1960s counterculture. I focus on healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience as the aspects of these religions that attract participants as well as critics.
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Jed Wyrick, The
Ascension of Authorship: Attribution, Textualization, and Canon Formation
in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian Traditions(Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 2004) |
I was never really as interested in the question "who wrote the Bible?" as I was in the question, "who did early Jews and Christians think wrote the Bible?" Most scholars really get caught up in the first question, and forget or ignore the second. But the thing is, the second question is in some ways more crucial for understanding how the Bible and other ancient texts were shaped than the first. This book explores the evidence from the nooks and crannies of literary history (such as passages from the Jewish Talmud, references in the Apocryphya, Pseudepigrapha, and Dead Sea Scrolls, scribal headings attached to the Psalms in the Bible and its early translations, Greek grammatical handbooks, writings by ancient historians and theologians) that convey information about the way books such as the Hebrew Bible, Homeric Epic, and the New Testament got written down, and by whom. My conclusion: Jews, Greeks, and Christians judged the authenticity of the book in question by evaluating the status of its scribe and his place in the prophetic succession (Jews and Christians) or the likelihood that it was actually written down by the person whose name it bore (Greeks and Christians). I also maintain that the modern Western notion of the author stems from St. Augustine's amalgamation of Greek and Jewish views on how much a text can be credited to the person who composed it.
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Andrew Flescher,
Heroes, Saints,
and Ordinary Morality (Georgetown,
2003) |
Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality constitutes a significant shift in the way in which we think about moral requirement in everyday society. I argue that ordinary assumptions about what we perceive and accept our duty to be ought to be more influenced by the moral insights of heroes and saints than they normally are. I suggest that morality is not merely about the avoidance of wrongdoing; and I claim against the commonsense view, that we should embrace the heroic and saintly insight that the virtues of self-introspection, discomfort, and striving are those that lie at the center of the moral life. I look closely at the testimony, religious and social backgrounds, and altruistic influence of heroes and saints in the modern and contemporary eras. I examine actual "heroes"---from harborers of refugees fleeing genocide to rescue workers responding to the September 11th tragedy, as well as political and moral "saints"--- ranging from Dorothy Day (co-founder of the Catholic Social Workers Movement) to Martin Luther King, Jr. to saints that emerge within other specific religious traditions.
Click here to read reviews or order a copy.
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Sarah Pike, Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community (University of California Press, 2001) |
Recent decades have seen a revival of Paganism, and every summer people gather at Neopagan festivals across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. I attended these festivals over a five-year period, interviewing participants and sometimes taking part in rituals and workshops. In the book I look at debates over drumming, sacred space and sexuality and conflicts between Neopagans and other religious communities, such as conservative Christians and Native Americans.
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Click here to read reviews, order, and peruse related volumes. |
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Kate McCarthy and Eric Mazur, eds., God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2000) |
God in the Details gave me the chance to combine a lifelong interest in popular culture generally and popular music specifically with my training in religious studies. The book is a collection of essays on the religious dimensions of everyday American life - everything from watching The Simpsons or the Superbowl to eating pork barbecue or going to a Bruce Springsteen concert. In the current American landscape, where religion is significantly privatized, eclectic, and individualized, this look at the religious insights and quasi-religious practices of popular culture tells us something about the deep values and conflicts that are shaping our lives as individuals and in communities. If you've ever had the suspicion that there was some deeper meaning to the music you listen to or the movies you enjoy, you might find these essays both fun and enlightening.
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Click here to read reviews, order, and peruse related volumes. |
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Sumner B. Twiss and Bruce Grelle, eds., Explorations in Global Ethics: Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue (Westview Press, 1998) |
In 1993 Sumner Twiss and I attended the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. There we witnessed more than 6000 representatives of the world's major faiths and many smaller traditions who had gathered to mark the centennial anniversary of the origins of the modern interfaith movement. Attendees at the Parliament acknowledged the role played by religion in many of the world's conflicts, and they challenged the world's religious traditions to find constructive and collaborative ways to address a range of critical moral issues that are facing the global community - issues ranging from intolerance, violence, and the abuse of human rights to poverty and the destruction of the environment. These discussions culminated in the Parliament's approval of a "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic," a statement of minimal moral principles upon which it is hoped that the diverse religious and cultural traditions of the world can agree.
Twiss and I were struck by the gap that existed between the practical and dialogical approach to moral issues that we witnessed at the Parliament, and the more critical and theoretical approach to many of these same issues within our own academic field of comparative religious ethics. This book is an effort to help bridge that gap for the mutual benefit of both the interfaith movement and the field of comparative religious ethics.
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Click here to read reviews, order, and peruse related volumes. |
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The Jewish Parents' Almanac is a comprehensive how-to guide for Jewish family living. I wrote this book to provide Jewish parents (or anyone who wants to learn more about Judaism) with the knowledge, information and practical tools with which to create a rich and vibrant Jewish home life. The book goes beyond simple "how-tos" and also provides philosophical and psychological perspectives on Judaism and parenting.
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Click here to read reviews, order, and peruse related volumes. |
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Bruce Grelle and David A. Krueger, eds. Christianity and Capitalism: Perspectives on Religion, Liberalism, and the Economy (Center for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1986) |
This book presents a range of diverse perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. Among the contributors are Cornel West and Douglas Sturm, who provide a theological and moral critique of capitalism and the liberal assumptions about human nature and society that underlie this form of economic life. Others, such as Robert Benne and W. Widick Schroeder, argue for the compatibility between Christian moral principles and liberal capitalism. John T. Pawlikowski and David A. Krueger provide overviews of classic Catholic and Protestant approaches to the ethics of economic life. Franklin I. Gamwell and Daniel Rush Finn explore the intersections between ethical theory and economic theory. Kay Warren provides an anthropologist's perspective on capitalist expansion into the Third World, and my own essay assesses the role of Max Weber and other social theorists in shaping contemporary discussions of Christianity and capitalism.
| Click here to read reviews, order, and peruse related volumes. |
Books by former faculty at CSUC are also available. Just click on the titles below for further information.
Sarah Caldwell, Oh Terrifying Mother: Sexuality, Violence and Worship of the Goddess Kali
Jean Graybeal, Language and the Feminine in Nietzsche and Heidegger
Donald Heinz, Christmas: A Celebration of Christian Culture (Yale, 2006), The Last Passage: Recovering A Death of Our Own
Laura Hobgood-Oster, "She Glanceth From Earth to Heaven": The Phenomenon of Love Mysticism Among Women in Antebellum Virginia and Maryland. Religious Studies and Women's Studies Series
Laura Hobgood-Oster, The Sabbath Journal of Judith Lomax, editor and introduction, Atlanta
Derek Jeffreys, Defending Human Dignity: John Paul II
James Karman, Stones of the Sur: Poetry by Robinson Jeffers/Photographs by Morley Baer; Of Una Jeffers: A Memoir; Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California
Loren Lybarger, Between Sacred and Secular: Religion, Generations, and the Transformation of Palestinian Political Identities in the Post-Oslo Era (Princeton University Press, 2006)
Eric Mazur, The Americanization of Religious Minorities: Confronting the Constitutional Order
Nancy McCagney, Nagarjuna and the Philosophy of Openness and Religion and Ecology
Sarah K. Pinnock, The Theology of Dorothee Soelle
Sarah Pinnock, Beyond Theodicy: Jewish and Christian Continental Thinkers Respond to the Holocaust (Suny Series in Theology and Continental Thought); The Theology of Dorothy Soelle.
George Williams, Shinto; Handbook of Hindu Mythology; Liberal Religious Reformation in Japan Jiyu Shukyo: Including Call for International Association for Religious Freedom from Rev. Shininchiro Imaoka; The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda, a Study of Religious Change
