Andrew Angyal
Department of English and Environmental Studies
Elon University
Thomas Berry's Earth Spirituality

Cultural historian Thomas Berry has devoted his career to understanding how Western religion and culture have been unable to sustain a nurturing relationship between humans and the earth. In his major works-The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story, and The Great Work-he has traced the Western spiritual estrangement from the earth in the growth of modern technology. Berry calls for a new cosmology that will reunite humans with the creative energy of the universe and overcome our estrangement from the earth. In "The Spirituality of the Earth," Berry envisions the earth as a maternal and nurturing principle that is the source of our existence and our spirituality. Because of our emphasis on redemption rather than creation, Western science and religion have become separate entities and the social impact of religion and ethics has diminished. Berry calls for a new spirituality "grounded more deeply in the numinous dimension of an emergent universe." An authentic new earth spirituality lies in the "Universe story," the emergent story of the unfolding of cosmic creation leading to life on earth. It affirms that "the universe is a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects."

Andrew J. Angyal is a professor of English and Environmental Studies at Elon University, where he has taught for the past twenty-seven years. A deep interest in American natural history writers has led to three critical biographies of Loren Eiseley (1983), Lewis Thomas (1989), and Wendell Berry (1995), and he is currently working on a biography of Thomas Berry. He has been active in developing the Environmental Studies Program at Elon, where he teaches seminars on American Environmental Writers and Environmental Visions. Angyal taught as a Fulbright Professor at Louis Kossuth University in Hungary in 1986, and has subsequently taught in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and China. He was awarded a USIA Samantha Smith Grant for a student exchange with Hungary (1990) and was a Fellow in Eastern European Studies at Appalachian State University (1990-91). He was a member of the NEH Summer Institute on the "Environmental Imagination" at Vassar College in 1997 and has attended many of the past Templeton Foundation advanced faculty seminars. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Duke (1976), a M. A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School (1972), and a B. A. in English from Queens College, CUNY. Along with his teaching, Professor Angyal runs Windy Knoll Farms, a small organic farm in which he raises organic fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, and Southern heritage apples, and has a small vineyard. He is an active member of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, which includes his farm on their annual spring farm tour.

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Monika Ardelt
Department of Sociology
University of Florida
'Love Thy Neighbor': Religiosity and Compassionate/Altruistic Love in a Sample of Older Hospice Patients, Nursing Home Residents, and Community-Dwelling Adults

All major world religions consider compassionate/altruistic love as one of the most critical elements of the path to salvation. Hence, people who belong to a religious group should have more love for others than should those without a religious affiliation. Yet, the emergence of compassionate/altruistic love might also require an intrinsic rather than an extrinsic religious orientation. Compassionate/altruistic love and intrinsic religiosity, in turn, might increase subjective well-being and decrease fear of death, particularly at the end of life. Using a sample of 164 older hospice patients, nursing home residents, and community dwelling adults (age 58+) from North Central Florida, bivariate and multivariate regression analyses revealed that respondents with a religious affiliation did not tend to score significantly higher on compassionate/altruistic love than did respondents without a religious affiliation, and there was no significant difference in compassionate/altruistic love between respondents from different religious denominations. Moreover, only intrinsic religiosity tended to have a positive effect on compassionate/altruistic love. Both, in turn, were positively correlated with subjective well-being and negatively related to fear of death. Extrinsic religious orientation, by contrast, had opposite effects. This might explain why religious affiliation in itself is unrelated to compassionate/altruistic love, subjective well-being, and fear of death.

Monika Ardelt, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Sociology, a Founding Faculty Member and Member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Spirituality and Health, and a Core Faculty Member of the Institute on Aging at the University of Florida. Dr. Ardelt received her Diplom (M.A.) in Sociology from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1999, she was elected as a Brookdale National Fellow to study the similarities and differences between aging and dying well. Dr. Ardelt's research focuses on successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, spirituality, aging well, and dying well. Dr. Ardelt has been published in several professional journals, such as Journal of Gerontology, Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Forces, Research on Aging, Journal of Aging Studies, and Journal of Religious Gerontology.

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Jay Azarow
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine
Generativity, Health, and Well-being: Are Erikson and Vaillant Correct?

Jay Azarow, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where his mentor is David Spiegel, M.D. Dr. Azarow received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Northwestern University in 2002. His psychology training followed a fifteen-year career in public health as an authority on health promotion programs (especially stress management) in community and workplace settings. Dr. Azarow's dissertation, under the mentorship of Dan McAdams, is a comprehensive investigation that largely confirms the Erikson/Vaillant hypothesis that generativity in middle age is an important factor in well-being. He has authored several articles, one book chapter, and several training manuals. Dr. Azarow's current research, funded by the American Cancer Society and the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, focuses on two areas: how individuals find meaning in and cope with medical illness (particularly cancer) and other trauma; and the linkages among generativity and altruism, religion/spirituality, and health and well-being. He is currently investigating generativity, altruism, and spirituality as meaning-making resilience factors in coping with breast and prostate cancer and in coping with the September 11 terrorist attacks. He also directs and is co-therapist for a randomized trial of group therapy for men with prostate cancer.

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Alison Benders
Department of Religion
Case Western Reserve University
Mystical Texts as Guidance for Interpersonal Relationships

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that even the rarified atmosphere of mysticism can provide guidance for interpersonal relationships through personal spiritual transformation. The first half of the paper will analyze representative 'mystical' passages in St. John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul, in Kabbalistic texts, and in Ramanuja's Vedarthasamgraha to discern the basis and outcome for interpersonal relationships between the divine and human participants. The significant values appear to be love in Christianity, creativity and unitive desire in Jewish mysticism and bliss or participation in divine joy in Vaishnavism. In addition, all the traditions emphasize a fundamental reorientation of self-perception. The second section will explore how the insights discerned from the texts, specifically that the elements of divine-human relationship such as love and radical redefinition of self, can serve as models in human interpersonal relationships. These mystical traditions teach that human relationships at their best are images of the divine relationship with humanity.

Alison Mearns Benders is currently embarked on a second career in the academic study of religion and comparative religious thought. While completing her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at Boston College, with a comparative religion minor in Hinduism, Alison has been teaching as an adjunct faculty member in the religion departments at Case Western Reserve and John Carroll University. She has recently taught "Hinduism", "Christ and Krishna" (a comparative study from theological and devotional perspectives), and "Mysticism and Religious Concepts of Self." Her dissertation will be a methodological and theological analysis juxtaposing several thinkers in each tradition on the questions of the unity and multiplicity of being, particularly with respect to the concomitant questions of creation and suffering. Alison earned a BA in philosophy from Yale University in 1979 and a JD from the University of Virginia, School of Law in 1982. Following a clerkship with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Alison practiced law in Philadelphia for ten years with two international firms and taught as an adjunct law professor at Villanova University. Her areas of expertise were antitrust law, white-collar crime and federal civil practice.

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Claus Bernet
Department of History
University of Halle
A German-American Love Affair? Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and Peace Dale, the Settlement of Brotherly Love

During the 18th Century there were numerous attempts to realize utopian ideas for social community. One significant example was the radical pietist settlement at Peace Dale in the small principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont, where diverse people came together in order to lead their lives according to principles of peace and respect. Remarkably enough, it was Quakers from Pennsylvania, who, starting in 1790, sought to introduce philanthropic and humanitarian ideals on the other side of the Atlantic. John Pemberton, a wealthy Philadelphian, who, without being able to speak a word of German, set out for the then poor hinterland of Germany to perform care work among the less well-off and disadvantaged. Pemberton's trip to Germany was his last, for in 1795 he died an exhausted man and could rightly be considered an advocate of philanthropic love. He, among others, brought a particular meaning to the word love in which active social involvement was valued more than theological reflection or academic debate. His was a love, which manifested itself only in worldly actions: a philanthropic love toward people of all religious persuasions, a humanitarianism toward the poor and disadvantaged, and a mutual respect between marriage partners.

Claus Bernet has been working on a dissertation at the Martin Luther University in Halle in the field of church history since graduating from the Free University of Berlin. Currently, Bernet is a Fellow of the University of Birmingham, Department of Theology / Woodbrooke (UK). He has served as a research assistant under Professor Merkens (Free University) and at the Berlin Center for Research of Democratic Institutions in Germany. His work has focused on the study of radical pietism, Quaker history, and the process of secularization via utopian societies during the 18th Century in Germany and North America.

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Rosemary Bertocci
Philosophy & Religion Department
St. Francis College
"The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd": Concupiscence and Altruism

Fran Rohlf and Rosemary Bertocci propose that, far from belying the possibility of acts seeking the good of another, the insights of the evolutionary sciences help make clearer the distinction between (nepotistic or reciprocal) altruism at the vital level and agapaic altruism at the level of ethical and religious values. Our ability to make ethical and moral judgments — which follows as a non-adaptive byproduct of our adaptive abilities to imagine, think, analyze possibilities and probabilities, make judgments of fact, and decide-enables us to recognize concupiscence, the human tendency to choose lesser over greater goods. The evolutionary sciences help us to see why this is so and, by elucidating the "selfish" nature of genetic survival, bring to the fore the dichotomy between evolved proclivities and high-level values. Rohlf and Bertocci assert that insights into vital-level adaptations, in conjunction with those concerning non-adaptive abilities to weigh values ethically and embrace religious values, are foundational for understanding altruism in the strict sense. Religious traditions need not deny the results of the evolutionary sciences in order to affirm the reality of selflessness. There is a possibility for synthesis. Evolution itself has made that possible.

Rosemary Juel Bertocci — B.A. Carnegie-Mellon University; M.A. Saint Vincent Seminary; and Ph.D. Duquesne University — has taught at Saint Francis College, Loretto, PA since 1993. Since the majority of students at Saint Francis pursue Bachelor of Science degrees, Dr. Bertocci's work focuses on challenging them to develop a framework for values that is consistent with their future careers. Moreover, Dr. Bertocci has addressed this concern at the international level by teaching in The Mexico Program — encouraging students to open-minded dialogue and the Franciscan spirit of humility. Dr. Bertocci has received three of the college's most prestigious teaching awards.

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Aimée Bessire
Art History
Maine College of Art
Namhala Nyumbani Shilinde: Spiritual Transformation and the Spirit of Healing

Namhala Nyumbani Shilinde, a Sukuma medical and religious practitioner who lived in northwestern Tanzania, descended through a lake to reach another lake where he lived for seven years to learn his healing and spiritual practice. During each of the seven years that he spent at Sin ya Ng'iwe lya mu-Nyanza, which is roughly translated as the universe of the rock at the lake, he underwent intense physical and mental challenges, such as fasting, living without sleep, and enduring physical pain. He was tested in this way, he suggested, "because, on earth you meet such problems. If you are going to be a healer, you must have a pure heart." At the end of this time, Nyumbani Shilinde reached a place of higher understanding of the physical and psychological body, a spiritual enlightenment that would empower his healing and religious practices until his death in 1998. This paper explores the unique life of Nyumbani Shilinde, a Sukuma practitioner who healed people and inspired them through his philosophy and example of spiritual enlightenment. In the paper I will examine Shilinde's healing and religious practices and the ways that Shilinde's training at the lake brought enlightenment to those around him.

AimŽe Bessire lived in Tanzania for two years while conducting research for her Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University. A large part of her research involved work with Sukuma medical and religious practitioners. She spent a great deal of time at the compound of Namhala Nyumbani Shilinde, who still serves as an inspiration for her and many Sukuma individuals even after his death in 1998. Currently AimŽe Bessire is an Assistant Professor at the Maine College of Art where she teaches African art history and a Lecturer in African-American Studies and American Cultural Studies at Bates College.

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Helen Black
Polisher Research Institute
How Moral Imagination in Long-Term Care Workers evokes Compassionate Love

This paper presents the case studies of three direct care workers-a dietary aide, a CNA, and an activities director-employed in a nursing home, and explores the relationship between workers' moral imagination and their attitudes and behaviors of compassionate love toward elderly residents. The case studies reveal how each worker's moral imagination is based on: 1) cultural, religious and spiritual beliefs about the significance of individual human life and death and, 2) personal experiences outside the institution, especially those concerning loss. The cases also show how workers' moral imagination, while useful in itself as an intangible asset in long-term care, leads them to a next step in relation to elderly residents-compassionate love. The central feature of compassionate love as shown by the direct care workers is a sense of relationship with elders. They inwardly appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of the elder and imagine themselves in the elder's situation. They emphasize the holistic individual in their model of care. That is, they address the elder's physical, emotional and spiritual health. They do not see death as an enemy but as an unmistakable entity in the long-term care setting.

Helen K. Black, Ph.D. is a religious studies scholar and gerontologist. Her research focuses on the religious, spiritual, and cultural aspects of elders' identities, and those who work with them. Her work explores how religious belief, personal spirituality and cultural traditions influence the subjective meaning of "lived experiences," such as poverty, childlessness, suffering and forgiveness, within the context of the respondent's entire life. The personal meaning of lived experiences is elicited through the ethnographic, narrative method of qualitative research, beginning with a request to hear the respondent's life story. In previous research, Dr. Black investigated the relation of forgiveness to religious adherence, explored definitions and theories of spiritual suffering, and studied how childlessness affected ego integrity at the end-of-life. Currently, she is researching the link between personal spirituality and the "work" attitudes and behaviors of long-term care workers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Dr. Black has published in edited anthologies, peer reviewed professional and scientific journals, and is the co-author of Old Souls: Aged Women, Poverty, and the Experience of God, published by Aldine deGruyter.

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Kevin Brien
Department of Philosophy
Washington College
Spiritual Transformations and Agape Love

In this paper various dimensions of spirituality are distinguished. The first is that dimension of the psyche within which basic existential resonate in lived experience; at this level the spiritual dimension is seen as historically variable. A dimension below the threshold of consciousness is then distinguished-one containing the wellsprings of human creativity that can flow in new ways when old modes of addressing existential needs break down and new ones come into being. A third dimension is distinguished within which the human being can have direct personal experience of the wider reality in a way that goes beyond the subject/object structure of ordinary consciousness. I argue that in most spiritual transformations one can probably only have glimpses of unlimited love. I suggest that such glimpses of unlimited love can and do occur in those transitional phases during which a given psychic configuration is undergoing destabilization, while a new more mature configuration has not yet fully crystallized. I argue that positive spiritual transformations, while mostly not being identical with unlimited love, constitute progressive stages toward such love - and this as modified forms of the ego-self come into play in the reorganizations of psychic structures that take place in spiritual transformations.

Kevin M. Brien is Professor of Philosophy and Religion, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Washington College, where he has taught since 1986. Before his years with Washington College he taught for many years at five other colleges and universities. His main areas of specialization and interest are: Eastern Philosophy and Religion, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Marxism. He is currently working on two book projects: (1) a new book tentatively titled Toward a New Liberation Spirituality; and (2) an extended paperback version of his book Marx, Reason, and the Art of Freedom originally published by Temple University Press in 1987. His most recent publication is a seminal paper called "Logos and Mythos: Humanistic-Marxism and Buddhism" published in Fall 2002 in Dialogue and Universalism, a journal published jointly by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Warsaw. In the summer of 2003 he will also present papers on "Religion, Politics, and Suffering" at meetings of the "International Society for Universal Dialogue" to be held in Olympia, Greece; and on "Marx in the Twenty-first Century" at the "World Congress of Philosophy" to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

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Norman Brown
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
The Place of Compassionate Love in a Comprehensive Emotional-Developmental Theory of Love: Introducing a Psychobiological Model

Compassion fits with the other basic forms of love when they are explained through Silvan Tomkins' affect theory and Jaak Panksepp's affective neuroscience. There are eight emotional-behavioral dynamics that singly and jointly generate compassionate loving. They normally develop through the four prior stages of loving in families and close relationships, as well as in social helping contexts. The innate affects of interest-excitement and joy, and the experience and reduction of distress affect, along with the complex affective dynamics of empathy and touch, are core constituents of love that arise first in infant attachment and then develop through the relational stages into the mature form of altruistic compassion. Affective dynamics derived from shame, fear and anger also contribute to intensifying compassionate as well as other basic forms of love. Through the practice of compassion, cognition and intention play increasingly sophisticated roles in managing both negative and positive affects in oneself and others, making personal and communal care-giving a school of wisdom for the human condition. We will survey the varying levels of social scientific and neuroscientific evidence for these affective dynamics

Norman M. Brown holds a Ph.D. in humanities and German studies from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in research psychology from Union Institute. He co-authored the social scientific textbook Love and Intimate Relationships (2000), along with a teachers' guide developed from his own course and yearly conference panels on teaching. He has taught at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University since 1987, where he developed a course in psychology of relationships, which combines clinical and empirical psychology with other social and biological sciences. As a contributor to research organizations for close relationships, he studies intimacy, love and shame. He also holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology and a license in Marriage and Family Therapy, and has been counseling since 1975.

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Susan Burggraf
Department of Psychology
Mount Holyoke College
Sky Mind is Where We Find Each Other

Social psychology provides empirically supported insights into ways we label and harm each other thereby inadvertently normalizing such phenomena as prejudice and ingroup-outgroup (thus providing excuses as to why we are all not humanitarians.) This is inevitable given the current paradigm wherein causes of behavior and attitudes are sought in either person (e.g., personality, beliefs) or situation factors (e.g., social or physical environment.) A contemplative perspective shifts focus from this person-situation dichotomy to mind states. Two common features of harmful social phenomena, mindlessness and arousal (i.e., we harm when aroused and attention is passive) are addressed in contemplative practice wherein mind states are intentionally cultivated. In shifting to states rather than traits or situations altruism is normalized. Moreover, the contemplative model insists that caring is not only normative (e.g., everyday altruistic acts), it is universal (e.g., "hardened criminals" can experience moments of tenderness even if with a beloved pet.) The contemplative approach presented here proposes a model of three levels of mind or experience. ('Mind' here means heart-mind, qualities of immediate experience present in the moment.) The third level is sky-mind, an open spacious state free of distorting conceptual lenses. Current research using this model is presented briefly.

Susan Burggraf, a social psychologist, is visiting assistant professor at Mount Holyoke College where she teaches courses in social and humanistic psychology and conducts research into the effects of meditation on prosocial attitudes and behavior. Prior to coming to Mount Holyoke, Susan was also on the faculty at Bowdoin College. She took her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 2000 where her dissertation on the appeal of horror movies was supervised by Clark McCauley. She has studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for several years and is the Buddhist Advisor through the Office of Religious Life at Mount Holyoke. Her work on the social effects of meditation was sparked by a desire to integrate the insights she has gleaned from contemplative practice into her work in social psychology. Susan has been an active participant in a faculty seminar in contemplative pedagogy at the 5-Colleges in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. Inspired by William James's work on 'radical empiricism', she has developed a contemplative practice laboratory component of her social psychology course to give students access to the insights of contemplative psychology and a way of integrating these into our understanding of social behavior and attitudes.

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John Cecero
Fordham University
Love Conquering Fear: A Psycho-Spiritual Perspective

From a psycho-spiritual perspective, the experience of compassionate love is a spiritual antidote to the emotional and interpersonal paralysis generated by core human fears. When left unchallenged by love, fear leads to mistrust, hostility, isolation, and to disease. One might argue that the best therapeutic intervention against fear is genuine, unconditional, selfless loving. Integrating psychological models of cognitive and schema theory with spiritual perspectives on love and healing, this paper will emphasize the spiritual dimension of compassionate love and its potential to interact with cognitive, experiential, behavioral, and relational approaches that are used therapeutically to overcome fear. I will describe four dimensions of compassionate love: 1) selfless commitment to another; 2) familiarity with one's own brokenness and acceptance of personal vulnerability; 3) the development of empathy; and 4) openness to growth in intimacy. Specific strategies for accomplishing growth in each of these areas will be outlined in the paper (e.g. mindfulness meditation, imagery, Gestalt role-playing techniques, prayer exercises, and the practice of forgiveness), and connections will be drawn between change along each of these dimensions of compassionate love and a reduction in fear.

John J. Cecero, S.J., Ph.D. is a Jesuit priest, clinical psychologist, and assistant professor of psychology at Fordham University in New York City. Cecero recently authored Praying through Lifetraps: A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Freedom (2002), and since 1998 has served as associate editor of Human Development. In addition, he maintains a part-time clinical practice at the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York, where he sees individuals and couples for outpatient psychotherapy. Following four years of graduate theological studies at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, MA, leading to priestly ordination in June 1989, he completed doctoral studies in clinical psychology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and received his Ph.D. in September 1996. Following clinical internship at the Boston VA Medical Center, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in substance abuse treatment in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He maintains an interest in substance abuse treatment research at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, and is also interested in personality assessment and the role of spirituality in mental health.

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Evgenia Cherkasova
Department of Philosophy
Penn State University
The Heart's Work: Duty to Love in Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky

My paper focuses on the ethics of unconditional love in Kierkegaard's The Works of Love and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Contrary to the rationalistic tradition which views reason as the primary source and arbiter in the realm of ethics, Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky insist that the only genuine morality is the morality of the loving heart. The philosopher and the novelist praise the heart as a center in which life dwells, to which God speaks and which embodies the agony, doubt, and resoluteness of moral consciousness. The ethics of the loving heart is quite radical: it is not merely based on the heart's commandment (as opposed to rational apprehension of duty) but insists that as ethical creatures, human beings are under the "obligation" to love. I discuss the ways in which Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky deal with the alleged contradiction involved in the unconditional commandment to love. Both thinkers devote much care to showing that while indeed love cannot be forced or commanded, unconditional love IS a matter of choice. Choosing here does not mean meticulous rational deliberation or making a formal "decision" to love; choosing to love is choosing to learn the language of the heart, to be receptive to its expressions.

Evgenia "Genia" Cherkasova is research associate in the Philosophy Department and the Rock Ethics Institute at the Pennsylvania State University. She also holds a position of managing editor of Hypatia, a Journal of Feminist Philosophy. In addition to editorial work, research, translations and development of distance education courses, Cherkasova teaches introductory and senior level philosophy courses. Cherkasova received her doctorate in philosophy in 1999 from Pennsylvania State University. Her dissertation, entitled "The Deontology of The Heart: A Study in Dostoevsky and Kant's Unconditional Ethics," was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship. She also has Master's Degree in mathematics and history of science from Moscow State University, Russia. Cherkasova has participated in various research projects and presented essays at national and international philosophical and literary forums, such as the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, All her writings and publications are interdisciplinary and draw extensively from philosophy and literature.

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Kathryn Coe
Arizona Cancer Center
University of Arizona College of Public Health
Altruism and Compassionate Love: An Ancestress Hypothesis

Altruism is explained by means of inclusive fitness, reciprocal altruism, or sexual selection. Here it is proposed that humans have been selected not just to favor close kin, practice tit for tat, and search for mates, but to be highly social beings. Building on the maternal kinship and descent strategies seen in other primates and the influence that mammalian mothers have over their children, our distant ancestress moved towards an extreme K-strategy. She protected her costly and vulnerable offspring and prepared them for life, including what they would face after her death, by encouraging her descendants to cooperate with those identified as kin and to transmit these cooperative strategies to their descendants. Humans, across cultures, regularly identify and cooperate with both close and distant kin (co descendants of a common ancestor) even though those kin may be strangers. Art is the mechanism used to identify one's co descendants (e.g., clan and tribal decoration) and to attract attention to kinship obligations, altruism that one must provide to those "kin." This behavior is so common that Fortes referred to it as the "axiom of kinship amity." As kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and group selection cannot account for this behavior, Coe turns to social selection.

Kathryn Coe, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology and evolutionary biology, currently serves as director of American Indian Oncology Program and the Shared Service for Special Populations at the Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, and is assistant professor in the College of Public Health. In addition to her studies on the biocultural epidemiology of cancer, Coe's research focuses on the linkage between moral systems, kinship, common ancestry, religion, and art. She recently published The Ancestress Hypothesis: Visual Art as Adaptation, as part of the Rutgers University Press Human Evolution Series. In this book she attempts to account not only for the origin and persistence of art, but also the origin and persistence of moral philosophies and behavior. Coe has worked with traditional people for more than 30 years in the Southwestern United States; Northern Mexico; small villages in Spain; Colombia's highlands; and Ecuador's paramos, coastal rainforest (Chachi and Tsachila), and Upper Amazon region (Canelos Quichua).

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Kathleen Duffy
Department of Physics
Chestnut Hill College
The Evolution of Love in Teilhard de Chardin

In an attempt to reconcile the Christian God with the theory of evolution, Teilhard de Chardin developed a synthesis unique and daring for his day, one that summons the full resources of the human person to participate in a cosmic work of love. In this paper, I will consider an image that Teilhard uses to present this challenge. The cosmic tapestry, with its weaving spacetime threads and fibers continually allured by Omega, reveals the tendency of the cosmos to form vast networks, the evolutionary nature of love, the co-evolution of matter and spirit, and the deep interconnectedness among the elements of the universe. As the ultimate source of love, Omega encourages the cosmic tapestry threads to create more complex wholes and elicits a heightened sense of responsible participation in the cosmic work of love. Teilhard's optimistic view of the future emboldens him to propose the final victory of love and the convergence of Spirit in Omega. He states his conviction as follows: "The day will come when... we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, [we] will have discovered fire" (Towards the Future, 86-7).

Kathleen Duffy, SSJ received her Ph.D. in Physics from Drexel University. Currently, she is Professor of Physics at Chestnut Hill College. Formerly, she taught physics at Drexel University, Bryn Mawr College, Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines. She has published research in atomic and molecular physics and in chaos theory in journals such as Physics Review Letters, Journal of Chemical Physics and Chemical Physics Letters, as well as Philippine journals and bulletins. She is presently a member of the Board of Directors of the Metanexus Institute for Religion and Science and Cosmos and Creation. Her current research interest is in the synthetic work of Teilhard de Chardin and its relationship to modern developments in science. She has published some of her work in this field in Teilhard Studies.

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Tim Eastman
Plasmas International, Silver Spring, MD
From Objects to Physical Relationships

Prime characteristics of human experience include at least the following: 1 (via cognition) the world of perceptual objects, and 2 (via feeling and love) whereby we experience both physical and human relationship as fundamental. In most interpretations, classical physics is associated with a world-view of perceptual objects as primary the "objective" world. This framework places complex expressions of relatedness, such as altruism, into a "subjective" realm, thus creating the subject-object split. In contrast, modern science points to a world-view of physical fields and ecological systems, which recognizes the centrality of physical relationships. More inclusive "both-and" understandings (external and internal relations / continuity and quantization / particles and waves / parts and wholes / symmetry and asymmetry /...) undercut earlier arguments that set up simple objects, or one pole of these dualities, as primary and relationships as merely subjective. Working from only a world view of perceptual objects encourages the quick dismissal of such relationship-centric notions as altruism. Field theory, nonlinear dynamics, and systems theories help level the philosophical playing field so that the best evidence and arguments from the humanities and the human sciences can be applied to the altruism question without threat of being ultimately undercut by a simplistic reductionism

Timothy E. Eastman is a consultant in plasma science and a group manager at NASA's space science data center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is widely known in the field of space plasma physics for his discovery of Earth's front side low-latitude boundary layer. Eastman has twice led the nation's research community in space plasma physics while serving as program director at both NASA Headquarters and the National Science Foundation. He created and maintains the web site plasmas.org, which thoroughly covers plasma science and applications worldwide. Eastman's early interest in philosophy of science was interrupted by military service and graduate work in physics. However, his continuing interest in philosophy has led to a book scheduled for publication by SUNY press late in 2003-Physics and Whitehead: Quantum, Process and Experience, T. Eastman and H. Keeton, eds.

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Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer
Religious Studies Program
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Human Hospitality and Volunteerism: A Case Study Divine Love

The Interfaith Hospitality Network brings together churches, synagogues and mosques that choose to open their doors to homeless families. In Philadelphia, one synagogue and ten churches have worked together for over 13 years on this project. This qualitative study reports on the interplay between theology, faith and activism in the lives of ten Philadelphians who have been involved as volunteers in IHN for many years. How did their faith nurture their volunteer work and how did their volunteer work nurture their faith? The report will include narrative material from interviews tied together by theological reflections on the meaning of hospitality and volunteerism in Jewish thought. This study explores how the experience of volunteering with people who are homeless, particularly through a faith based project, can strengthen individual's experience of the divine. How can people's discernment of divine love be channeled toward volunteerism? What could religious institutions do to enhance and deepen this effect? What are the sources in Judaism that can help us build the connection between personal spiritual growth and social activism in the lives of individuals and in the lives of communities?

Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Ph.D., Director of Religious Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. from Yale Divinity School, a PhD from Temple University (Jewish-Christian Relations), and Rabbinic Ordination (1982) from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She is the author of Parenting as a Spiritual Journey (HarperCollins, 1996; Jewish Lights, 1998) and many articles and book chapters in the field of interfaith dialogue, practical theology, and contemporary Jewish thought. Nancy worked for four years at the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia as the Rabbinic Director of the Jewish Identity Program. She is the immediate past president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and serves on the board of the Metanexus Institute.

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Kathleen Curzie Gajdos
Private Practice
When Compassionate Lovers Meet — What Do They Tell Us?

This paper studies the well known, the somewhat known, and the unknown who manifest compassion. How are they alike and how are they different in the way their actions are loving? Is there a common element in their life histories that led them to compassionate living? What compelled these individuals to loving action? Further, what can we learn from these individuals so that such compassion can be fostered in ourselves and others? Mr. Rogers is the "known" celebrity among the compassionate actors discussed in this presentation. We will explore how Mr. Rogers lived his compassion in his work and life. Quite different from Mr. Rogers, but nevertheless an influence upon others through the media of art, is the life and work of KŠthe Kollwitz. This German artist faced death in life, touching love and compassion in her Pieta sculptures and her drawings. Finally, there are the unknowns, the anonymous and ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They don't necessarily sit for hours in a meditation hall but somehow seem to "chop wood, carry water" post enlightenment. This paper intends not to create distance from these compassionate lovers but to invite us to connect with them and carry on their work in our own way.

Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") holds master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. She has a wide array of experience and training that includes the fields of addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, dreamwork, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, grief, and trauma. Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice - working with individuals, couples, and families - with leading workshops and presentations on such topics as: grief and healing; motherless daughters; the grief of birthing; family then, family now; meditation and relaxation; synchronicity; narcissism; shame; the shadow and self; the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma; and vicarious traumatization. Dr. Gajdos also co-facilitates a support group for survivors of accident and murder. On the faculty of Wilmington College's Community Counseling Graduate Program, she is also an adjunct professor and field faculty advisor for Vermont College of Norwich University's graduate program and for the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning in Cincinnati.

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Maria Glowacka
Department of Anthropology
Idaho State University
Nagotooh-gahni — The Bonding Between Mother and Child In Shoshoni Tradition

The paper discusses a traditional model of the maternal nurturance of newborn babies in the Shoshoni culture from a native language perspective. It examines the process of nagotooh-gahni, a 30-day period of the bonding between mother and child and the symbolic shaping of the child's cognitive and emotional disposition. During nagotooh-gahni (literally: "fire within the house"), which symbolizes the extension of the mother's womb, the Shoshoni mother began a process of introducing her child into Deniwape, a traditional Shoshoni way of life. She had to assume the perspective of the child inside the womb and be aware that her thoughts, emotions and activities could directly affect the child's development. The Shoshoni term sunzaa' (literally: "good thought") is the closest to the Western concept of maternal love and means "surrounding (the child) with good thoughts". By maintaining mental, emotional and physical bonds with her baby the Shoshoni mother was able to "mold" the baby's disposition: strong mind (getaa suande) that helped to endure life obstacles, strong heart (getaandi bihi bainde) that gave the child a strong cultural identity, and strong hands (demabaaduhkande) that allowed the survival in changeable environment. The tradition of nagotooh-gahni taught young Shoshoni women to accept the responsibilities of motherhood

Maria D. Glowacka is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University, Pocatello. She received her M.S. in Biology and M.S. in Philosophy from Jagiellonian University and was awarded the Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Warsaw University. She was a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

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Drusilla Gould
Department of Anthropology
Idaho State University
Nagotooh-gahni — The Bonding Between Mother and Child In Shoshoni Tradition

The paper discusses a traditional model of the maternal nurturance of newborn babies in the Shoshoni culture from a native language perspective. It examines the process of nagotooh-gahni, a 30-day period of the bonding between mother and child and the symbolic shaping of the child's cognitive and emotional disposition. During nagotooh-gahni (literally: "fire within the house"), which symbolizes the extension of the mother's womb, the Shoshoni mother began a process of introducing her child into Deniwape, a traditional Shoshoni way of life. She had to assume the perspective of the child inside the womb and be aware that her thoughts, emotions and activities could directly affect the child's development. The Shoshoni term sunzaa' (literally: "good thought") is the closest to the Western concept of maternal love and means "surrounding (the child) with good thoughts". By maintaining mental, emotional and physical bonds with her baby the Shoshoni mother was able to "mold" the baby's disposition: strong mind (getaa suande) that helped to endure life obstacles, strong heart (getaandi bihi bainde) that gave the child a strong cultural identity, and strong hands (demabaaduhkande) that allowed the survival in changeable environment. The tradition of nagotooh-gahni taught young Shoshoni women to accept the responsibilities of motherhood

Drusilla Gould is an instructor in the Department of Anthropology, at Idaho State University, Pocatello. She is a Shoshoni native speaker and tribal member at Fort Hall. She teaches a 2-year Shoshoni language curriculum and is a co-author of Dammen Daigwape: An Introduction to the Shoshoni Language.

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Yudit Greenberg
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Rollins College
Can Love Be Commanded?

This paper will address the question of the meaning/wisdom of the love commandments in the Hebrew Bible and the interrelationship between eros and altruistic love expressed in a selection of Jewish writings. I will begin by raising the question: what does it mean to be commanded to love? The notion of commanding love seems to contradict perceptions of love as a free and perhaps spontaneous occurrence. Drawing upon the distinction between laws and commandments emphasized by Buber and Rosenzweig, I examine the meaning of divine and human love in The Star of Redemption, in which Rosenzweig develops a theology centered on the movement from divine love to interhuman love. Like numerous thinkers before him who were inspired by the Song of Songs, he perceives God as the lover and the soul as the beloved and the experience of divine love as qualitatively erotic. He explicates the meaning of commandment and contrasts it with law, thereby clarifying the existential and phenomenological nature of a spiritual experience in which the command to love is spoken by God as "lover" for whom the reciprocity and mutuality of the love event "commands" the response of the "beloved." I bring into this discussion of Rosenzweig's theology of the relationship between "love your God" and "love your neighbor," other Jewish thinkers such as Maimonides and Isaac Luria suggesting a close nexus between eros and unlimited love in Jewish thought.

Yudit Kornberg Greenberg is professor of religious studies and director of the Jewish Studies Program at Rollins College. Her fields of teaching and research include modern and contemporary Jewish thought, women and religion, cross-cultural studies of the body, and religion and science in dialogue. She writes on issues related to language, love, and the body in religious and philosophical writings. Dr. Greenberg is the author of Better than Wine: Love, Poetry and Prayer in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig (Scholars Press), and has written numerous articles in modern and contemporary Jewish thought in leading journals such as The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. She has contributed essays to several books in modern and postmodern Jewish philosophy, and is presently completing her second book entitled Divine Love and Eros in Jewish Thought. Dr. Greenberg has lectured nationally and internationally, has served as co-chair of the Studies of Judaism Section of the American Academy of Religion and is on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. She has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard, and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Jewish Studies at Oxford University.

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Roma Stovall Hanks
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of South Alabama
Love Beyond the Bond: Exploring Limits of Grandparental Love and Linkages to Altruism and Volunteerism

The grandparent-grandchild relationship is socially constructed as unconditionally loving. Yet extant research has not investigated the limits of unconditional grandparental love or the transference of this kind of love to the societal level. Do grandparents, once they experience the joy of unconditional love within the grandparent-grandchild relationship, become more altruistic, philanthropic, or service-oriented in communities; are they likely to become mentors or to otherwise use their grandparenting skills in the community; do they seek to replicate the joy of loving unconditionally in their broader social connections? This research builds on a previous study in which almost 80% of the 4,982 responding grandparents reported feeling that "unconditional love" was the greatest joy of grandparenting (Hanks, Mungenast, & Hall, 2001). One hundred fifty grandparents, randomly selected from the original sample, responded to a follow-up survey that included previously developed scales (Bengtson, & Harootyan, 1994; Fetzer Institute/NIA Working Group, 1999) and researcher-developed items designed to explore in greater depth the concept of unconditional grandparental love and to examine whether that unconditional love is unlimited, altruistic, and transferable to other situations and relationships. Discussion suggests the grandparent role as metaphor for unlimited love in other intergenerational relationships in communities and the larger society.

Roma Hanks is associate professor and Graduate Program Director, University of South Alabama Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Also, she serves as Director, USA Programs in Gerontology. Her academic credentials include the PhD from the University of Delaware and the M.A, from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Dr. Hanks is author/editor of 7 books and numerous book chapters and professional journal articles. She serves on editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Gerontology, the Journal of Family Issues, Sociological Inquiry, and the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. Dr. Hanks has received over $700,000 in research funding. She has conducted grandparenting seminars nationally and has given over 100 professional presentations. Dr. Hanks is President of the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family and holds membership in many other professional organizations, including the National Council on Family Relations, the Gerontological Society of America, and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. Her areas of research are intergenerational relationships in families and communities, work and retirement, and program evaluation.

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Ann Higgins-D'Alessandro
Department of Psychology
Fordham University
Identifying Necessary Psychological Abilities for the Expression of Compassionate Love

Our study focuses on the relationships between life event stress, relaxation practices, and key psychological abilities necessary for compassionate love. Underwood's (2002) identification of 6 key aspects of compassionate love, in part, guided our study design. We measured cognitive understanding of situations and free choice to help another (Moral Judgment Interview, Colby & Kohlberg, 1987), self understanding as measured by an ego development measure (Loevinger & Wessler, 1970), and self-acceptance as measured by the Unconditional Self-Acceptance scale (Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001). Openness and receptivity to others, awareness of the natural environment, and the frequency of altruistic acts were also measured. The Norbeck Life Events Questionnaire (1984) was used to quantify negative and positive life events and the impact of the events on the respondent's life. The Smith Recalled Relaxation Activities Inventory (2001) was used as a measure of the frequency of relaxation practices and the degree of relaxation received from those practices. We hypothesized that greater life stress would be associated with a lowered psychological presence of the key aspects of compassionate love. We hypothesized that relaxation would mediate the relationship between life event stress and aspects of compassionate love, and that spirituality and religiousness would moderate the relationship.

Ann Higgins-D'Alessandro, Ph.D., is associate professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Developmental Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York. For 20 years her research has focused the positive effects of democratic schooling and school culture on promoting moral reasoning, social well-being, and academic achievement of adolescents. Research publications in 2002 on adolescent attitudes toward deviance and risk-taking (with Drs. Alice Scharf & Daniel Mroczek) and on attitudes predicting alcohol consumption (with Dr. Tara Kuther) show the importance of religious beliefs and family expectations on behavior. Her work points clearly to the importance of identifying necessary support from families and schools and intervention efforts to strengthen their interconnections for youth development and leadership. Recent presentations include "Moralizing Our Selves and Taking Responsibility: Personality or Character?" and, with Dr. John Cecero, SJ, "How Heart and Mind Inform Religious and Moral Dialogues: William James, Religion, and Morality, Association for Moral Education," Chicago, Ill. November 2002.

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Karen Hoffman
Department of Religion and Philosophy
Hood College
Dangerous Altruism: Kierkegaard and King on the Good Samaritan

The ethical requirement to love one's neighbor sets a standard for morality that is so high as to be labeled impossibly ideal by some and to be considered perniciously inimical by others. In my paper, I respond to these charges, placing particular concentration on responding to the latter. Using the Samaritan's story as an exemplary work of love, I discuss Kierkegaard's use of this parable in his exposition of the requirements to love one's neighbor. I then turn to the sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr. to show how the parable of the Samaritan might be interpreted in such a way as to raise additional questions about the wisdom of helping one's neighbor, since the Samaritan has reason to believe that the "wounded traveler" might himself be the source of potential harm. Given that the very person who appears be in need of aid may actually be a threat, the requirement to love one's neighbor may result in what King calls "dangerous altruism." Following King in his call for us to pursue this dangerous altruism, I conclude my paper by defending the Good Samaritan's works of love.

Karen D. Hoffman received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 2000. Since then she has continued the research she began with her dissertation "Forgiveness: Offense and Obligation in Kant and Kierkegaard." She has presented several papers on forgiveness as an ethical obligation, including "Forgiveness and Commanded Love," "Kierkegaard on Obligations to Forgive," and "Forgiveness and the Affective Moral Gap." Specializing in ethics, her research interests include the virtues, the role of emotions in the moral life and the nature and scope of the ethical requirement to love one's neighbor, particularly as presented in the works of Kierkegaard. Having taught at Saint Michael's College (Burlington, VT) and The University of the South (Sewanee, TN), she is currently an assistant professor of philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, MD.

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Dale Ironson
Ironson & Associates
Love as a Field: A New Framework For Thinking About and Enhancing Altruism

It seems clear that altruism and love are intimately connected. One is altruistic out of an inspired, expanded state of being which motivates one to perform altruistic behaviors. The current model for altruism can be thought of as a heroic one-an extraordinary person doing extraordinary things that we all respect and admire. Such a view focuses on the individual - his motivation, beliefs, values, religious factors, etc. But what if we focus on love itself as the causative agent? What if we were to consider love as a field and approach altruism and altruistic behaviors from this point of view? The basic idea is that given a certain level of consciousness, or the proper context within which human beings operate, that altruistic behaviors would actually be quite normal and natural. How would such a framework work, and what difference might it make in informing the design of programs and interventions in seeking ways to inspire and enhance altruistic behaviors?

Dale S. Ironson has been involved in the fields of the psychology of consciousness, academic teaching and corporate consulting throughout his career. He was an associate professor of psychology at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire and Adjunct Faculty at the Antioch Graduate School in Keene, N.H. Dr. Ironson has also served as the Academic Director of External Degree programs at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which focuses on studying the spiritual dimension of human experience and the evolution of consciousness. Dr. Ironson's career took a practical turn while working at Stanford Medical Center. He became involved in organizational development, which he has since pursued, by serving as a senior organizational consultant specializing in all aspects of organization development, management training and leadership development activities in leading Fortune 500 High Technology corporations. In addition Dr. Ironson has a serious interest in the areas of creativity and innovation having written a monthly column on Enhancing Creativity for International Television magazine and being a guest speaker at Stanford University's Creativity in Business course. In addition Dr. Ironson has academic teaching experience at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the fields of psychology, the psychology of consciousness and leadership/management/organization development.

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Timothy Jackson
Candler School of Theology
Emory University
Heroism on an Empty Stomach: Weil and Hillesum on Work, Love, and Self-Sacrifice

Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum: What are we to make of these two young Jewesses both of whom were drawn to Christianity but did not formally convert, both of whom died as a result of the Nazi Holocaust but might easily have saved themselves, and both of whom left behind powerful spiritual reflections on love and suffering but published little in their lifetimes? Some think of Weil and Hillesum as modern-day saints, possessing an extraordinary and costly compassion all too rare in our secular age, while others see them as benighted victims who rushed to embrace a masochism from which feminist philosophy might eventually have liberated them. This ambivalence is not accidental; rather, it reflects both the complexity of the women and the religious uncertainty of our times. I propose to do three things in this essay: (1) briefly to describe the life and work of each woman, (2) to note some interesting (also troubling) similarities between them, as well as salient differences, and (3) to use their examples as lenses through which to look at contemporary attitudes towards faith vs. conversion, altruism vs. prudence, writing vs. doing, and eating vs. fasting. I am especially concerned with the relation between self-sacrifice and self-love when confronted by radical evil.

Timothy P. Jackson is associate professor of Christian Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a Senior Fellow at The Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion at Emory. In addition to Emory, Professor Jackson has held teaching posts at Rhodes College, Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of Notre Dame. He has been a Visiting Fellow at The Center of Theological Inquiry, The Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, and The Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Jackson received his B.A. in Philosophy from Princeton and his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale. He is the author of The Priority of Love: Christian Charity and Social Justice (Princeton, 2003), Love Disconsoled: Meditations on Christian Charity (Cambridge, 1999), and numerous scholarly articles. Jackson's current research project is entitled, "Souls and Selves: Sanctity and Dignity in Medical Ethics."

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Katherine Jankowski
Identifying Necessary Psychological Abilities for the Expression of Compassionate Love

Our study focuses on the relationships between life event stress, relaxation practices, and key psychological abilities necessary for compassionate love. Underwood's (2002) identification of 6 key aspects of compassionate love, in part, guided our study design. We measured cognitive understanding of situations and free choice to help another (Moral Judgment Interview, Colby & Kohlberg, 1987), self understanding as measured by an ego development measure (Loevinger & Wessler, 1970), and self-acceptance as measured by the Unconditional Self-Acceptance scale (Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001). Openness and receptivity to others, awareness of the natural environment, and the frequency of altruistic acts were also measured. The Norbeck Life Events Questionnaire (1984) was used to quantify negative and positive life events and the impact of the events on the respondent's life. The Smith Recalled Relaxation Activities Inventory (2001) was used as a measure of the frequency of relaxation practices and the degree of relaxation received from those practices. We hypothesized that greater life stress would be associated with a lowered psychological presence of the key aspects of compassionate love. We hypothesized that relaxation would mediate the relationship between life event stress and aspects of compassionate love, and that spirituality and religiousness would moderate the relationship.

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Thomas Johnson
Department of Psychology
Indiana State University
Cultivating Loving-Kindness: A Two-Stage Model for the Effects of Meditation on Compassion, Altruism and Spirituality

Meditation or contemplative practice, whether within Judeo-Christian or Eastern traditions, is strongly associated with engagement of spiritual growth. This paper explores the role of meditative practice in cultivating experiences of loving kindness and compassion, and addresses an apparent paradox. Meditation is often associated with solitary retreat, if not preoccupation with one's own concerns. How, then, does such a practice promote compassion for others? This paper proposes a two-stage model: the first stage involves cultivating an ability to disengage from usual preoccupations with self-reinforcing, self-defeating, or self-indulgent behaviors and reactions. This stage also produces a range of other well-recognized meditative effects including physiological relaxation and emotional regulation. The model then proposes that a second stage is required for cultivation of experiences or action related to compassion and/or altruism. This second stage entails explicit instruction or direction related to developing one's engagement, in a compassionate, loving way with others. Such engagement is often incorporated intrinsically into spiritually-based meditative practices, either during the practice or as part of the larger ritual, but may be lacking in secularized versions. Data from a limited number of relevant studies will be reviewed in the context of this model.

Tom Johnson received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1993. Dr. Johnson is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Indiana State University and is the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Health, Religion, and Spirituality. Most of his research has focused on alcohol use in college students and, more recently, the role of personal goals in self-regulation, psychological adjustment, and life satisfaction. He is currently conducting a study on religiousness/spirituality and alcohol use in college students, funded by the National Institutes of Health - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and supported in part by the Fetzer Institute. Dr. Johnson is also collaborating with other researchers on projects related to spirituality in cancer patients, the role of narcissism and forgiveness in predicting violence among prisoners, and alternatives to self-report measures of religiousness and spirituality. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in personality theories, theories of addiction, treatment of addictions, cognitive and constructivist psychotherapy, history and systems of psychology. He has also taught an undergraduate Honors Seminar on the interface of science and religion and has recently spent a week in Ecuador with a medical missionary team

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Warren Johnson
Department of Geography
San Diego State University
The Gift of Peaceful Genes

In the end, the meek do inherit the Earth, mainly because they can live together peacefully. The great achievement of our hunting and gathering ancestors was to overcome the violence of primate society, and in ways that enabled humans to work together effectively to move ahead. But primate aggressiveness remains a part of human nature, with the critical role of culture being to control it while encouraging cooperation. The invention of irrigated agriculture that led to conflict and exploitation was only overcome by the rise of the great faiths, all of which ask for selflessness in one form or another. This ideal shaped the world's traditional cultures-the ones that are now being swept away by the rise of the modern. Even though offering many benefits, the modern way is taking us toward conflict, and levels of population and environmental exploitation that cannot be sustained. The market economy that organizes modern society is functioning as our religion now, and we feel trapped in it in many ways. But if this small, beautiful planet is to be a true home for our species, we will have find satisfactions in the social, emotional, and spiritual realms rather than the material and competitive.

Warren A. Johnson trained as a civil engineer at UC-Berkeley. He worked for the National Park Service for six years before receiving his doctorate in natural resources at the University of Michigan in 1969. Having traveled widely, he taught in the Geography Department at San Diego State University, where his research was focused on resource economics, energy policy, and traditional resource management. With John Hardesty, he published Economic Growth vs. the Environment in 1971, and in 1978 his Muddling Toward Frugality pointed to the advantages of the energy crisis of that time, as permitting simpler, more cooperative ways of living. In 2001 he studied for a year in the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

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Jean Kristeller
Department of Psychology
Indiana State University
Cultivating Loving-Kindness: A Two-Stage Model for the Effects of Meditation on Compassion, Altruism and Spirituality

Meditation or contemplative practice, whether within Judeo-Christian or Eastern traditions, is strongly associated with engagement of spiritual growth. This paper explores the role of meditative practice in cultivating experiences of loving kindness and compassion, and addresses an apparent paradox. Meditation is often associated with solitary retreat, if not preoccupation with one's own concerns. How, then, does such a practice promote compassion for others? This paper proposes a two-stage model: the first stage involves cultivating an ability to disengage from usual preoccupations with self-reinforcing, self-defeating, or self-indulgent behaviors and reactions. This stage also produces a range of other well-recognized meditative effects including physiological relaxation and emotional regulation. The model then proposes that a second stage is required for cultivation of experiences or action related to compassion and/or altruism. This second stage entails explicit instruction or direction related to developing one's engagement, in a compassionate, loving way with others. Such engagement is often incorporated intrinsically into spiritually-based meditative practices, either during the practice or as part of the larger ritual, but may be lacking in secularized versions. Data from a limited number of relevant studies will be reviewed in the context of this model.

Dr. Jean Kristeller received her doctorate in clinical and health psychology from Yale University in 1983, and her M.S. from the University of Wisconsin in psychophysiology and clinical psychology in 1978. She is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for the Study of Health, Religion and Spirituality at Indiana State University, which is partially supported as part of the Metanexus Institute Local Societies Initiative. Previous appointments have been at the Univ. of Massachusetts Medical School and Harvard University Medical School. She currently has funding through the NIH Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine for a study of the use of mindfulness meditation in treating binge eating disorder. She has been working with the use of meditation as a therapeutic tool for over 20 years, has taught courses on the psychology of meditation, and received a teaching fellowship from the Fetzer Institute for this work. Other research is in the area of spirituality with a focus on how health care professionals can effectively address spiritual concerns with seriously ill patients, and on a psychometric model of how spirituality can serve a protective function in development of drinking problems. She has over 50 articles or chapters and has a book under contract, on psychotherapeutic applications of meditation.

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Beverly Mack
Africana Studies
University of Kansas
Morocco Faith-based Communities and their Activities in Relation to the Spiritual Ideal of Unlimited Love Sufi Communities in Fes

Among Sufi brotherhoods in Fes, the acquisition of knowledge of God involves active peace making, and the accomplishment of good works. Sufi study groups involve both men and women who live by the social welfare ideals inherent in Islam and which constitute the core of Sufism-the sharing of capital for redistribution to the less fortunate, voluntary good works for the benefit of others, civility driven by faith in Divine Love. This study seeks to illuminate the extent to which Sufism is responsible for the perpetuation of civility and mutual welfare in a densely populated urban center of over a million people. Based on my field research in Fes, this study will examine the extent to which the principles of Sufi devotion to Divine Love guide the course of daily activities and choices made by individuals in Fes. The conscious decision to participate in a Sufi community carries with it an inherent commitment to Sufi principles of peace and love; these are guides for a peaceful social order in the region.

Beverly B. Mack is an associate professor of African Studies and a Courtesy Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. She lived and conducted research in northern Nigeria among Hausa Muslim women, collecting and analyzing their poetry and extemporaneous performances. Recently she has done fieldwork in Morocco, focusing on Sufi groups in Fes, and the role of women scholars in Moroccan society. Professor Mack is the recipient of numerous research fellowships, including: a Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation grant, a Woodrow Wilson Women's Studies grant, several NEH fellowships, and a Carnegie Scholars fellowship. Among her major publications are the books: The Popular Song: Muslim Hausa Women's Poetry and Performance (forthcoming, Indiana University Press); One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe (with Jean Boyd) (Indiana University Press, 2000); The Collected Works of Nana Asma'u, bint Shehu Usman Dan Fodio 1793-1864 (with Jean Boyd) (Michigan State University Press, 1997); and Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century (with Catherine Coles) (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991).

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Ashok Malhotra
Department of Philosophy
SUNY Oneonta
Wisdom Used Compassionately to Build Character Brick by Brick

To me, philosophy means, "wisdom used compassionately" to serve humanity. There are 50 million impoverished children of India, who are born, live and die as illiterate because of the limited resources of the government and private educational institutions. I have established the Ninash Foundation, a charitable organization, which "promotes literacy among children and adults of India." To accomplish this goal, I have created the SUNY Oneonta "Learn and Serve in India" Study Abroad Program, where undergraduate students from the USA put their compassionate wisdom to work by raising funds and building elementary schools for underprivileged children of India and while doing this, they build their character brick by brick. During the past three years, the participants of the SUNY Oneonta Program helped build three Indo-International Schools for 400 impoverished children. I drew my inspiration of using "wisdom compassionately" to serve humanity from the Nishkam Karma (unselfish service) doctrine of the Bhagavad-Gita and its practical adoption by Mahatma Gandhi. I will show a video on the construction of the first Indo-International School by the SUNY participants to reveal concretely that individuals can and do make a positive difference.

Ashok Kumar Malhotra, Ph.D., is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy, SUNY Oneonta. His publications include: Pathways to Philosophy: A Multidisciplinary Approach; Sartre's Existentialism in Nausea and Being and Nothingness; Sartre's Existentialism in Literature and Philosophy; Instant Nirvana; Hindu Philosophies of Experience; Culture and Self; Transcreation of the Bhagavad-Gita; An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy and poems on What is Love?; What is Life?; What is Death?; Joyous Nothingness; Celebration of Life; and Song of Love. Malhotra is the recipient of: Gold Medal in MA Examination; Certificate for Bringing Cultural Understanding between East and West, University of Hawaii; SUNY Chancellor's and UUP Awards for Excellence in Teaching; City of Oneonta Friend of Education Award; East-West Center Distinguished Alumni Award; Bharat Excellence Award; and Jewel of India Gold Medal Award. Malhotra is the founder of the Ninash Foundation (www.ninash.f2s.com) of Oneonta, a charitable organization that builds elementary schools for impoverished children of India. The Foundation has established the Indo-International Schools in Dundlod, Rajasthan; in Kuran, Gujarat; and is building a school in Mahapura, Rajasthan. Malhotra was a consultant for the TV series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and has made TV appearances in India, Holland and USA.

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Judith Miller
Department of Human Development
Columbia University
Spiritual Transformation: Love and the Fruits of the Spirit

Judith Miller is a psychology professor in the Department of Human Development at Columbia University and teaches courses in Child Development and Adult Development. She also is a practicing psychotherapist and assists her clients in meditative practices that expand their consciousness, opening them to a spiritual reality, another world-view. She has worked in the public mental health system and now serves as a consultant, helping those suffering from psychoses and schizophrenia to decipher the spiritual meaning of their hallucinations and delusions, to differentiate between the dualities of dark and light that so often keep them in turmoil. For the last four years, she and a German colleague have worked together clinically in Germany with children and grandchildren of Nazis. Miller is an American Jew. She is the author of Direct Connection: Transformation of Consciousness (Rutledge Books, 2000) and Personal Consciousness Integration: The Next Phase of Recovery (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Spring, 2000, Vol. 23, No.4, pp. 342-352).

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Mary Montgomery-Clifford
Chicago Theological Seminary
Paul Tillich and Pitirim A. Sorokin on Love: Contributions of a Dialogue between Science and Religion

An analysis of Systematic Theology, Volumes One, Two and Three by Paul Tillich and The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation by Pitirim A. Sorokin reveals how a metaphysical dialogue on God and love can contribute to the emerging field of scientific and theological scholarship on altruism. This paper focuses on the parallels of similarity and difference in Tillich and Sorokin. Similarities include a belief in the importance of the ontological/love connection and the conclusion that a special state (i.e. ecstasy) is integral to the experience of genuine love. Differences serve to compliment rather than negate. For example, Tillich's recognition that ecstatic connections with the Divine within finitude are fragmentary balances Sorokin's view that these ecstatic peaks are reached only by the few. These and other parallels include differences and similarities that act as point and counterpoint to one another, playing off each other in a grand design that is strengthened by their interaction. I will demonstrate that the similarities give resonance and point to the overall creation, while the differences often serve as counterpoint to balance the ideas of both scientist and theologian.

Mary Montgomery-Clifford has a Master's Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) and is currently working on a Ph.D. at CTS with a focus on Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues. At CTS, Ms. Montgomery Clifford is part of the Templeton Foundation funded project team facilitating a Fall 2003 conference and course on "Race, Gender & Genetic Sciences." She is also in the process of completing ordination requirements for her denomination, the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC). In addition, Ms. Montgomery Clifford is a freelance writer and public relations professional, specializing in spirituality and non-profit organizations. Her column, Cyberweave, Spirituality and the Internet, appears in The Monthly Aspectarian and at www.lightworks.com. Ms. Montgomery Clifford is also a contributor to Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology and the editor of the NSAC News. In addition to her presentation at the Works of Love Conference, Ms. Montgomery Clifford will present a paper on Paul Tillich and Pitirim A. Sorokin at the American Academy of Religion's Annual Meeting in November 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia. During the 1980s and early 90s, Ms. Montgomery Clifford was co-founder and executive editor of EXTRA Bilingual Community Newspapers in Chicago.

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Nancy Morrison
Department of Psychiatry
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Toward a Biological Framework for Morality

The morality of human beings, defined here as our ability to determine whether our actions are right or wrong, depends not just on following rules but also on understanding the impact of our actions on another person. How we understand the impact of our actions on another person depends on our state of consciousness, which is mediated by our brain and nervous system. By integrating research findings from attachment theorists with knowledge about brain functioning as it relates to the development of self and interpersonal relationships with research findings about the neurological correlates of spiritual experiences, we propose a framework for understanding how human morality flows naturally from the physiological state we are living in and how our physiology and our morality mutually interact. A change in one changes the other. Another way of saying this is that changing either our morality or our physiology changes the other and changes who we are and what we do.

Nancy K. Morrison, M.D. is associate professor and Director of Residency Training, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. In 1999, Morrison received a Templeton Foundation grant to incorporate the teaching of spirituality into the standard psychiatric curriculum. Her clinical work focuses on issues of attunement and shame, deriving from her study with the late Helen Block Lewis who wrote the first book in psychiatry on shame (Shame and Guilt in Neurosis). Morrison received her M.D. in 1972 and her B.A. with distinction in1968 from the University of Colorado. She is an ordained priest in the Evangelical Anglican Church in America and has practiced contemplative meditation for many years.

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Stuart Muszynski
Project Love
The Power of Love: Fact or Fantasy

In 1993, Cleveland insurance executive Stuart Muszynski was stricken with Chronic Fatigue Immunodysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), which prevented him from working at his job or even performing everyday tasks that required advanced thinking. In bed for nearly 1 1/2 years, he became hopeless and depressed, not envisioning a time that he would return to any normal career, family or social life. After extensive sessions with a cognitive therapist and reading Dr. Bernie Siegel's best-selling book "Love, Medicine and Miracles," he developed a "love therapy" that consisted of affirmative and positive visualizations and elimination of negative thoughts. The therapy enabled him to get our of bed, resume normal functioning and co-found- with his clinical psychologist wife Susan-Project Love Remember the Children Foundation, which trains teen leaders - in part using Stuart's experiences-how to promote kindness, caring and mutual respect in their high schools and middle schools. His talk focuses on his own experiences in his recovery, the tangible results of Project Love's work in training more than 23,000 teens across the country and the use of love as a "value" that can be taught in schools or transmitted by parents and grandparents.

Stuart Muszynski is the president and CEO of Project Love Remember the Children Foundation, a national non-profit character education organization that partners with high schools to train teen leaders how to promote kindness, caring and mutual respect - and to transform the culture - in their buildings and communities. He founded the Integrated Group of Companies, which was among the first of its kind in integrating the disciplines of insurance, investments, and consulting for businesses and individuals. He was also a sales leader and a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable with Northwestern Mutual Life. Stuart's career was interrupted in 1992 when he became ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. His illness and recovery enabled him to understand the relationship between beliefs, actions, overcoming obstacles and love. These insights led him in 1994 to co-found Project Love with his wife Susan Yulish Muszynski, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist. Stuart is also the co-host of Project Love 's weekly TV show, "Principles: Turning Our Schools Around," aired nationally on PAX-TV. In 1999, Stuart was executive producer (with Jerry Molen, producer of "Schindler's List") of "In the Lead," a video documenting teen leadership success stories.

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John Napora
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Kutztown University
Love and Lover Transformed: The Sufi Path to God

I shall describe the Sufi path as a dialectical process, which transforms the person through love. Drawing upon the lives and thoughts of such seminal figures as Hallaj, Ibn 'Arabi, and Rumi, I shall examine the belief system of Islamic mystics as a journey involving both creativity and passion. Each step in the path will be seen as a metaphor, a symbolic inclusion with what came before and an extension to what is yet to come. Through the metaphoric transformations of the various stages in the journey, the person draws ever closer to God, and is transformed. The Sufi's yearning for God provides a means to be subsumed by and consumed with love. The entire path serves as a metaphoric expression of love. Done for love, the path is a transformation of desire, one which fills the believer with greater longing still. The Sufi path provides a model of and for the transformative power of love, becoming in itself a guide to love's potential for enriching the human condition.

John A. Napora, Ph. D. is a sociocultural anthropologist who has studied Islam and Islamic mysticism since being an undergraduate. His master's thesis included work on Sufism, and his nearly two years of participant observation in Morocco involved field research with Muslim brotherhoods. Professor Napora was then able to pursue his interests further as a research assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Virginia in 1998 for his dissertation, which included a description and analysis of a powerful Moroccan religious order. Dr. Napora has repeatedly taught courses involving Islam and Islamic mysticism at a number of schools, including in his present position at Kutztown University, earning teaching awards both at Lafayette College and at Kutztown. He has a forthcoming article describing his interaction with a Moroccan sheikh, and a manuscript in preparation detailing religious life, past and present, in northern Morocco. In addition to having received both Fulbright and National Science Foundation grants for past research, Professor Napora currently has a grant from Kutztown University to renew his fieldwork in local Muslim belief and practice.

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Lynn O'Connor
The Wright Institute
Altruism as a Fundamental Motivation: The Role of Interpersonal Guilt and Empathy

Informed by clinical theory and anecdotal observations suggesting that patients' more antisocial motivations and feelings were often conscious, while their altruism was hidden from full awareness, we began to study altruism indirectly through the lens of interpersonal guilt, often exaggerated in clinical populations. Through a series of empirical studies, we confirmed our hypothesis that patients were inhibited from the pursuit of normal goals by an exaggerated concern about the well-being of others, and fear that their actions might be harmful. However, empathy, altruism and interpersonal guilt are also present in ordinary human life, and while guilt may be most obvious in our species, there is ample evidence of empathy and altruistic behavior in non-human mammals. We describe our recent empirical studies linking altruism to guilt, empathy, and attachment, and discuss an experimental study comparing altruism towards friends, family and strangers. We conclude by suggesting that, contrary to the Freudian and gene-centric Darwinian perspective, the unconscious mind is adaptive, organized and oriented towards empathic and altruistic concern for others

Lynn E. O'Connor, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Director of Evaluation at the Wright Institute, Berkeley, where she teaches doctoral students in clinical psychology and directs a program of research on emotions, personality, altruism and psychopathology. Her research includes studies of drug preferences and personality, and differences between men and women in recovery from addiction. Influenced by the importance of nonconscious altruism as a fundamental human motivation in clinical work, she initiated a series of studies of interpersonal guilt, including: guilt, shame and psychopathology; guilt and responses to terrorism; guilt, empathy, and submissiveness in depression; and most recently, empathy, altruism, guilt and personality. Pursuing her research from an evolutionary perspective, Dr. O'Connor has been involved in cross cultural studies with data gathered in Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Japan, and carried out studies of psychological problems in chimpanzees, under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Institute. Dr. O'Connor has been a research associate at the Haight Ashbury Detoxification Project and at Walden House Drug Treatment Program. A scientist-practitioner grounded in clinical work, she has been active in the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group since 1987 and on its Board of Directors since 1992. She also works with adults in private practice.

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Doug Oman
Public Health Institute
University of California Berkeley
A Spiritual Toolkit For Compassion and Effectiveness: A Randomized Intervention Among Health Professionals

We report underlying theory and results from a randomized, wait-list controlled experimental intervention (N=61) using a nonsectarian meditation-based Eight Point Program (EPP), originally due to Easwaran (1991/1978). The EPP fosters learning from both everyday and exalted (tradition-based) spiritual exemplars through social cognitive (spiritual modeling) processes that include attention, retention, behavioral reproduction, and motivation. The program is usable by both nonbelievers and religiously devout persons.

METHODS: An 8-week, 2 hour per week EPP training (CME credits included) was offered to health professionals with patient contact. Participants completed questionnaire assessments and were randomly assigned to intervention (n=30) or wait-list comparison groups (n=31). Most (n=58) completed post-test and 8-week follow-up assessments.

RESULTS: Favorable trends were observed at posttest and were strengthened at follow-up for almost all outcomes. Beneficial effects at follow-up included sense of compassion (p<0.05), sense of mercy (p<0.01), forgiveness of self (p<0.01), forgiveness of others (p<0.01), altruism (p<0.01), perspective-taking (p<0.05), reduced stress (p<0.001), reduced burnout (p<0.05), increased caregiving self-efficacy (p<0.01), and increased spirituality (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Increasingly favorable trends over time suggest that observed effects cannot be explained solely by enhanced attention temporarily provided to intervention group. Effective nonsectarian interventions fostering compassion and spirituality appear possible in healthcare and other secular settings.

Doug Oman, Ph.D. is on the faculty of the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley. His research and professional publications involve theoretical, observational and experimental studies of spirituality, religion and health, including epidemiologic studies of religious involvement and mortality, the application of social cognitive theory to religion and spirituality, and studies of effects on health professionals from receiving training in a comprehensive nonsectarian spiritual toolkit. Dr. Oman obtained his doctorate in Biostatistics from U.C. Berkeley, where he subsequently undertook postdoctoral work studying relationships between spirituality, religion and health. He was principal investigator on a grant from the National Institute of Aging to examine the positive effects of volunteer work on physical health, and is currently principal investigator on a grant from Fetzer Institute to conduct a randomized wait-list controlled study of a nonsectarian spiritual toolkit usable for integrating spirituality into patient care and the training of health professionals. He has advised faith-based healthcare organizations and made presentations at medical education conferences regarding how to integrate spirituality into health promotion and healthcare. Dr. Oman also serves as lecturer and research advisor in the Division of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley.

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Thomas Oord
Department of Philosophy and Theology
Northwest Nazarene University
A Metaphysics for the Love-and-Science Symbiosis

A growing body of research has emerged in the last decade pertaining to science and religious love (what I call the "love-and-science symbiosis"). The love-and-science symbiosis needs a third partner, metaphysics, in order to produce greater fruit. I suggest that a relational metaphysics, which draws from a variety of philosophical traditions, is most adequate for the love-and-science symbiosis. In the first segment of this paper, I offer a brief apologetic for the enterprise of metaphysics itself. In the bulk of the paper, I address major categories of the relational metaphysical scheme that I propose. These ultimate categories are (1) actual individuals existing in relation, (2) power for agency and freedom, (3) multiple value-laden possibilities, and (4) an active and relational deity. The causative scheme that I suggest in relation to these categories entails free creatures expressing love when responding to prevenient grace. This grace includes gifts to creatures of freedom and value-laden possibilities necessarily provided by the God who essentially relates with the universe.

Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D., is professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University and former philosophy chair at Eastern Nazarene College. Oord has written and/or edited several books, his latest volumes include, Thy Nature and Thy Name is Love and Philosophy of Religion: Introductory Essays. He authored the theology and philosophy segment of the soon-to-be-published annotated bibliography, Research on Altruism and Love, edited by Stephen G. Post, et. al. Oord earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy of religion at Claremont Graduate University and a M.Div. from Nazarene Theological Seminary. He currently serves on the executive councils of several academic societies, including the American Academy of Religion's Open and Relational Theology group, the Wesleyan Theological Society, and the Wesleyan Philosophical Society. Thomas also serves as Academic Correspondent for Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology. He is an ordained minister.

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Augustine Pamplany
Institute of Science and Religion
Little Flower Seminary
Cosmic Harmony as Cosmic Sacrifice — A Scientific Hermeneutic of the Hindu Mysticism of Love

The rich Eastern Hindu allusions to love and altruism draw substantively complementary theoretical tools from the metaphysical and theological underpinnings of the emerging scientific worldview. The "cosmotheandric" vision of reality which is the core of the Hindu mystical perspectives binding the perennial problematic trio of philosophy and theology, viz., God, world and the human, in an intuitive matrix of communion and interrelatedness serves as the solid metaphysical and conceptual foundation for an ontology of love and as the universal axiomatic norm for an altruistic praxis. This religious vision is very much corroborated by the metaphysical underpinnings of the recent revolutionary developments in modern science especially in physics and biology. The rich Hindu metaphors of Yajna (sacrifice) Dharma (Righteousness), Bhakti (Devotion), Ahimsa (Non-violence), etc., share analogical regions of convergence with the scientifically coined cosmic epithets of harmony, unity, symmetry, interrelatedness, etc. Thereby both science and religion can be said to have become so hermeneutical and metaphorical to such hitherto unprecedented levels whereby the same reality described by science as cosmic harmony is in a way addressed by the Hindu mystical mind-set as the all pervading Brahman or as the all-loving Bhagavan.

Augustine Pamplany CST is presently the dean of Philosophy at Little Flower Seminary, Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Aluva, India. He did his postgraduate studies in philosophy of science at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth of Pune. The philosophy of quantum mechanics was his area of specialization for his Masters in Philosophy. He is a regular visiting staff of Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth of Pune and St. Joseph's Pontifical Seminary, Aluva, India. He has occupied himself with an Eastern Religious appropriation of the developments in modern science. He is also the founder-director of the Institute of Science and Religion based at Little Flower Seminary, Aluva. His publications include books on science and religion in English and Malayalam, his mother tongue, and several articles to various national and International Journals of India. He won the Templeton Foundation's Students' Essay Competition Award (II prize) in 1998. He has also won the Young Literarists' Award of the Literary Association of Kottayam in Kerala for his writings in Malayalam. He is the managing editor and publisher of Omega - Indian Journal of Science and Religion. He is chair of a recipient of the Local Societies Initiative Grant of the Metanexus Institute on Science and Religion.

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Kuruvilla Pandikattu
Jnanam Discussion Group
Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth
Gandhi as a Symbol of Unconditional Love that Crosses Borders!

Kuruvilla Pandikattu (b. 1957 in Kerala, India) teaches science, philosophy and religion at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, India. He has three Master's Degrees and two doctorates, both from the University of Innsbruck. He has won Templeton Course Award (1998), Development Grand Award (1999) and is the director of Jnanam, a Local Societies Initiative. Three of his articles have won special awards from CTNS and Templeton Foundation. He is a founding member of Association of Science, Society and Religion, the first of its kind in India. He is the moderator of Jnanam Discussion Group, an LSI grantee. He is a catholic Priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. His area of specialization is dialogue between science and religion and between religion and hermeneutics. Among his numerous books are: Dialogue as Way of Life, Idols to Die, Symbols to Live, It's Time! Science, Religion and Philosophy on Time; Tamas [There Are Many Alternative Stories], scientist@religion.com; Promises of Life. He has edited seven books, including Hopefully Yours, Meaning of Mahatma for the Millennium, Human Longing and Fulfillment. He has written more than thirty scholarly articles. He had a regular column in the local newspapers on science and religion. He is the secretary to two scholarly journals. He has organized five international conferences and seven national ones and is regularly invited for conferences and symposia in the area of science and religion and has participated more than twenty international conferences. He is a visiting professor in many universities and colleges. He is an active member of various learned associations and societies related to science, religion and philosophy.

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Keum Young Pang
Department of Nursing
Howard University
Health: Holistic Harmony with Vital Energy, Compassion and Forgiveness

Vital energy obtained through demonstrating compassion, forgiveness, meditation, diet and exercises are essential ingredients of holistic health. Vital energy cannot harmonize self and others' body and mind for health without love and forgiveness. The gist of this ethnographical paper is to demystify "the only biomedical treatment" by describing a multidisciplinary integrated health care of alternative, biomedical, and complimentary integration of health prevention, promotion, healing and cure through a Nature oriented self-health care. A case of a Korean-American woman was closely studied by great deal of participant observation. Holistic traditional and current multidisciplinary approaches of health care rooted in multi-religiously and spiritually reflected in virtuous unlimited love and socio-cultural background--alternative, biomedical, and complementary-have been preferred to only biomedical medicine, and found to be more beneficial. An eclectic and multi-cultural, multi-religious, syncretic, virtuous and spiritual health care theoretical paradigm emerges through compassion and forgiveness. The informant's health prevention and promotion strategies are eclectic, idiosyncratic, syncretic, and different from biomedicine alone. The informant's holistic alternative and complementary health beliefs and practices proved to be effective by her self-evaluation, evaluation of significant others as well as biomedical laboratory tests.

Keum Young Pang, Ph.D. is professor at the Howard University. She taught at the Niagara University and the Catholic University of America in the U.S. She was educated in Korea, England and America. She received Ph.D. in medical anthropology, Catholic University of America. One of her research projects, "Depression and somatization in Korean elderly" was supported by National Institute of Aging, NIH research grant. One of her books, "Virtuous Transcendence" is written with the NIH research data. She published two books and articles mainly about spirituality, depression and Korean popular illnesses among Korean elderly immigrants. Her book titles are: Virtuous Transcendence: Self-Cultivation and Holistic Healing in Korean Elderly Immigrants and Korean Women in America: Everyday Life, Health, and Illness. Some of my articles are published in the international journals such as Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry; Social Medicine and Science; and Medical Anthropology Quarterly. She is interested in studying spirituality, religion and spirituality. She has done a pilot study in the area. The results seem to reflect that people without receiving love and compassion with multiple stressors such as marital problem, disability, financial problems or abuse seem to be depressed because of lack of meaningful and satisfaction of life, i.e., spirituality.

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F. David Peat
Pari Center for New Learning
The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (2 Corinthians, 22)

Artistic creation comes close to an act of love when it involves a deep and compassionate identification with the object of desire. This intensity of love, present in the creative act, gives rise to a new space in which the artist, object and viewer/reader/listener become co-participators and co-creators in ways that transcend all divisions. In a similar way the deepest achievements in science arise through identification with the underlying order of the cosmos and a deep feeling for beauty, economy and "fittedness" within an elegant theory of nature. Such visions of the inner harmony and order of the world inspired the physicist Wolfgang Pauli to suggest that the scientific revolutions of the twentieth century have brought us to the point of "the resurrection of spirit in matter".

Dr. F. David Peat obtained his Ph.D. at Liverpool University and carried out research in theoretical physics at Queens University (Canada) and the National Research Council of Canada. He became a close associate of David Bohm until his death. In addition to scientific research Peat took a deep interest in the approaches of Carl Jung and has given workshop at many Jungian conferences and centers. While in North America, Peat organized a series of circles of Native American Elders and Western Sciences as well as between artists and scientists. Peat is also the author of some twenty books exploring scientific ideas, looking at the social implications of science, exploring Jungian ideas and looking at creativity. In 1996 Peat moved to the medieval hilltop village of Pari, near to Siena, where he established a center to run conferences, courses, research projects and host an active program of visitors. The Center's maxims are "The future has an ancient heart" and "science, spirit and community". In 2002 the Center was chosen by the Metanexus Institute as a grantee of its Local Societies Initiative Program. He is the author of many books including Blackfoot Physics: A Journey into the Native American World View; Infinite Potential: The Live and Times of David Bohm; Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind; From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century; and The Blackwinged Night: Creativity in Nature and Mind.

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Varadaraja V. Raman
Emeritus Professor of Physics and Humanities
Rochester Institute of Technology
Bhakti-ratakara: The Hindu View of Love as a Many Splendored Thing

In the classical Hindu framework, there is a whole spectrum in the experience of love, from instinctive physical attraction to the most sublime emotional entanglement with the divine, called bhakti. Moreover, the various gradations of love manifest themselves in countless ways is a continuum. These are categorized and discussed in various works on devotion as well as on erotics. What is unique to the Hindu world is the intertwining of eroticism with love for the transcendent, through symbolism, poetry and esoteric practice. This paper will present these perspectives, and elaborate on the thesis that the Hindu view may be regarded as an insight into the dual aspect of love: the physical and the emotional.

Varadaraja V. Raman received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of Calcutta before doing his doctoral work on the foundations of quantum mechanics at the University of Paris where he worked under Louis de Broglie. He has taught in a number of institutions, including the Saha Institute for Nuclear Physics in Calcutta, the UniversitŽ d'Alger in Algiers and the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, from where, after serving as professor of physics and humanities, he has retired as Emeritus Professor. He was associated with the UNESCO as an educational expert. Dr. Raman has also devoted several years to the study and elucidation of Hindu culture and religion. He is an associate editor in the eighteen volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism project. Dr. Raman has authored scores of papers on the historical, social, and philosophical aspects of physics/science, as well as on India's heritage, and has authored eight books including Scientific Perspectives, Glimpses of Ancient Science and Scientists, Nuggets from the Gita, and Varieties of Science History. During the past decade Dr. Raman has been contributing to science-religion dialogues in various forums.

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Thomas Reynolds
Department of Religious Studies
St. Norbert College
Love Without Boundaries: Theological Reflections on Parenting a Child with Disabilities

The idea of caring for another person with unconditional regard always seems more attractive as an abstract ideal rather than a concrete reality. For once we encounter another's genuine difference from us — their strange and perhaps threatening ways-we are asked to give up our hold on reality as we see it and let something foreign enter into our own space without conditions that restrict or deny its uniqueness. We are asked to transgress boundaries. And this is difficult, even traumatic. Yet it empowers the deepest kind of mutual belonging imaginable, transforming us in the direction of the divine itself. Reflecting on the author's personal experience of parenting a son diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Aspergers and Tourette's Syndrom, the paper argues that "letting go" and becoming open to another in love is an experience of redemption. It marks a conversion by which the self becomes disposed toward the well-being of others, involving both forgiveness and gratitude. Such a conversion radiates with "relational power," evincing the transformative work of God. For God is the relational power of the whole of reality, that which makes love imaginable, indeed possible.

Thomas E. Reynolds is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere WI. Reynolds recently received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University (spring, 2002), writing in the area of cross-cultural dialogue and religious pluralism. His teaching and public speaking focus on uncovering religious resources for cultivating global solidarity and hospitality. He has published articles in the areas of Buddhist-Christian dialogue, wonderment as a theological virtue, and Friedrich Schleiermacher's theory of religion. Prior to graduate school, Reynolds worked professionally as a musician, touring with a variety of groups out of Nashville, TN. Recently, he has been exploring the theological implications of human disability, as one of his children is mentally disabled. Reynolds is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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Brent Robbins
Department of Psychology
Allegheny College
Joy, Awe, Gratitude and Compassion: Common Ground in a Will-to-Openness

Four emotions are investigated: Joy, awe, gratitude and compassion. Through philosophical and empirical perspectives, these emotions are found to be mutually determining and reinforcing, thus part of an experiential, structural whole. Taken as a unity, they are understood to be existential emotions that are revelatory of existential meaning. In awe, existence is disclosed as being, yet potentially not-being. While anxiety emphasizes potential non-being, joy is disclosive of existence's "that it is." From joy's pure revelation of being as it "is," gratitude flows. In gratitude, existence is revealed as a gift, and from the recognition of existence as a gift, compassion emerges. In compassion, existence is revealed as a gift to be cherished and cared for. Both qualitative and quantitative empirical studies are found to support the interrelations between these emotions. Finally, these emotions are found to share a basis in a particular style of being-in-the-world, a "will-to-openness" as opposed to a "will-to-power." The implications of this style of being-in-the-world, and the emotions that belong to it, are explored, particularly with regard to Maslow's theory of "self-actualization" and "peak experiences."

Brent Dean Robbins, Ph.D. is Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Allegheny College, where he teaches courses in Motivation and Emotion, Research Design and Statistics, Qualitative Research, and Phenomenological Psychology. He earned his Doctoral in Clinical Psychology at Duquesne University. He recently completed his first book, Joy and the Politics of Emotion, based on his doctoral dissertation. He is founder and an editor of Janus Head, an interdisciplinary journal that explores the intersections among continental philosophy, literature, and phenomenological psychology. He is also an editor for the International Journal for Existential Psychology and Therapy (IJEPT), and a regional director of the International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM), which is dedicated to the promotion of health, spirituality and peace through meaning. In 2001, the American Psychological Association's Division 32 honored him with the Sidney Jourard Award for his qualitative research on joy. Dr. Robbins' research is currently devoted to exploring the experiential structure of positive emotions such as joy, ecstasy, gladness, elation, compassion, gratitude and awe. His other research projects include studies of the effects of religious attributions on psychological well-being, the role of embodiment in panic disorder, and spiritual themes in the narratives of those suffering from psychosis.

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Francis Rohlf
Philosophy & Religion Department
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
"The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd": Concupiscence and Altruism

Fran Rohlf and Rosemary Bertocci propose that, far from belying the possibility of acts seeking the good of another, the insights of the evolutionary sciences help make clearer the distinction between (nepotistic or reciprocal) altruism at the vital level and agapaic altruism at the level of ethical and religious values. Our ability to make ethical and moral judgments-which follows as a non-adaptive byproduct of our adaptive abilities to imagine, think, analyze possibilities and probabilities, make judgments of fact, and decide-enables us to recognize concupiscence, the human tendency to choose lesser over greater goods. The evolutionary sciences help us to see why this is so and, by elucidating the "selfish" nature of genetic survival, bring to the fore the dichotomy between evolved proclivities and high-level values. Rohlf and Bertocci assert that insights into vital-level adaptations, in conjunction with those concerning non-adaptive abilities to weigh values ethically and embrace religious values, are foundational for understanding altruism in the strict sense. Religious traditions need not deny the results of the evolutionary sciences in order to affirm the reality of selflessness. There is a possibility for synthesis. Evolution itself has made that possible.

Dr. Francis H. Rohlf has degrees in philosophy, pastoral theology, and both Masters and Ph.D. in systematic theology. He has worked in pastoral and campus ministry and, for the last ten years has taught courses in religious studies, theology, and science and religion at Saint Francis University, Loretto, PA and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was theological contributor to the 2000 Templeton Award-winning Syllabus, "Evolutionary Science and Religion."

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Dwight Roth
Department of Lifelong Education - Sociology
Hesston College
The Emergence and Impact of Helping Behavior in Young People: Impressionistic Self-Reflections of Mennonite College Students Serving Frail Elders in Light of World Religions

Post-modern society typically runs counter to the quintessential teachings of world religions. While these teachings suggest that we are to love and serve humanity, American society stresses individualism and greed. This is reflected in the way we care for frail elders. The good news is this care is changing as seen in the Culture Change movement, a holistic paradigm of care vis-ˆ-vis the traditional medical model. As part of the Culture Change movement, students in my applied Religion of the World and my Cultural Anthropology classes at Hesston College have opportunity to serve frail elders at the Schowalter Villa Retirement Community. Their service includes activities ranging from feeding elders to involvement in intergenerational group discussions. My paper will analyze the helping behavior of Mennonite college students in their work with elders. This will be examined in terms of student reflections, scriptures from religions of the world, and Mennonite theology.

Dwight E. Roth is chair of the sociology department and directs the Wisdom Center at Hesston College located in Hesston, Kansas. Roth is especially interested in developing links between elders and young adult college students for an interfacing of wisdom, knowledge, energy, and vision. Currently Roth is working to blend the campuses of a senior center, a retirement community, and Hesston College. Utilizing electronic technology, Roth has created an online Religions of the World course that focuses on the idea of love and service in these belief systems. He was co-recipient of the National Institute of Senior Center's Annual Research Award in 2001 and received the Kansas Intergenerational Award in 1996 for work in connecting the generations. He has a variety of publications related to cross-cultural views of aging, expanding the roles of older adults, and intergenerational relationships. He is Chair of the Editorial Board of The Older LEARNer a publication of the American Society on Aging. Roth received an MSW from Temple University in 1973 and an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Wichita State University in 1981. He is a member of the Mennonite Church.

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Steven Sandage
Marriage and Family Studies
Bethel Seminary
Faces of Compassion and Forgiveness: Psychological and Theological Relationality

Forgiveness has historically been a prominent theme of theological study. Recently, forgiveness has also emerged as a topic of interest to social scientists. Empirical studies on interpersonal forgiveness suggest the ability to compassionately empathize with the other mediates the process of forgiveness. However, important questions have been raised about the dangers of practicing forgiveness in the face of abuse and trauma, particularly if forgiveness is construed as including compassion for an offender. Models of forgiveness and compassion that are likely to be consonant with health and justice will require interdisciplinary research and cultural contextualization. I will describe one approach to interdisciplinary research in relation to compassion and forgiveness. An emphasis on relationality and intersubjectivity can be illuminative in model-building, and the motif of the "face" can facilitate interdisciplinary integration. The motif of the face is engaged with respect to actual human faces and the expression of emotion, as well as more theological understandings of the face. I will also delineate three semantic "fields of meaning" in which forgiveness is commonly used (i.e., forensic, therapeutic, and redemptive) with implications for research on compassion and forgiveness. Indigenous psychological research with Hmong-Americans will be used to help contextualize models of compassion and forgiveness.

Steven J. Sandage, Ph.D., LP, is currently Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Studies at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN. He is also a Licensed Psychologist in outpatient clinical practice with Arden Woods Psychological Associates. Sandage received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology in 1998 from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. His primary area of psychological research has been interpersonal forgiveness with a focus on seeking forgiveness from others and group interventions to facilitate forgiving others. He co-authored the book To Forgive is Human (InterVarsity Press) with Michael McCullough and Everett Worthington, Jr. Presently, he is investigating empirical connections between forgiveness and other psychological virtues and working toward understanding the cultural psychology of forgiveness. This latter effort involves a grant to study forgiveness among Hmong-Americans in the Twin Cities area. His interdisciplinary book, The Faces of Forgiveness (2003, Baker Academic), is co-authored with theologian F. LeRon Shults. Dr. Sandage's second main area of research involves religious and spiritual change. He is Principal Investigator of a longitudinal study of psychological health and spiritual formation among seminary students funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. He has also published on spirituality and religiosity in the psychotherapy process.

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Anthony Scioli
Department of Psychology
Keene State College
An Integrative Theory of Hope

A careful study of the literature reveals that hope is derived from three primary human motives: attachment, mastery and survival. The field of psychology has tended to focus on the mastery aspects while medicine and nursing have concentrated on the coping and survival dimensions. Philosophers have done most of the work on hope from an attachment perspective. Scioli and his colleagues have been working on an integrative theory of hope. While incorporating the mastery and survival motives, attachment is considered the most important of the three contributing systems. Some of the elements of this new theory include: trust and openness (attachment system components), the will to hope and mediated power (mastery components), symbolic immortality and reality surveillance (survival components). Viewed from an attachment perspective, hope is a unifying construct that can be used to illuminate discussions of altruism, compassionate love and investments in the community as well as the divine. In this paper, the implications of an integrative approach to hope will be discussed in terms of the following: the psychology of altruism and compassion, love and spirituality, science and metaphysics. Data from a pilot study will also be provided, revealing links among hope, generativity and death-related depression.

Anthony Scioli is Associate Professor of Psychology at Keene State College. His undergraduate education at the University of Massachusetts focused on psychology, biology and philosophy. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island and completed an internship at the Worcester Youth Guidance Center. His postdoctoral experiences include a research fellowship at Harvard University with Dr. David McClelland as well as a clinical fellowship at the Behavioral Medicine Program of the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Scioli has presented and published over thirty studies on coping and health, and authored a chapter on emotion and cognition for the Encyclopedia of Mental Health. He has also evaluated grant proposals for the National Institutes of Health in the areas of stress and emotion.

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Sally Severino
Department of Psychiatry
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Toward a Biological Framework for Morality

The morality of human beings, defined here as our ability to determine whether our actions are right or wrong, depends not just on following rules but also on understanding the impact of our actions on another person. How we understand the impact of our actions on another person depends on our state of consciousness, which is mediated by our brain and nervous system. By integrating research findings from attachment theorists with knowledge about brain functioning as it relates to the development of self and interpersonal relationships with research findings about the neurological correlates of spiritual experiences, we propose a framework for understanding how human morality flows naturally from the physiological state we are living in and how our physiology and our morality mutually interact. A change in one changes the other. Another way of saying this is that changing either our morality or our physiology changes the other and changes who we are and what we do.

Sally K. Severino, M.D. is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. Severino received her M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1970, her certificate in psychoanalysis from Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research in 1980 and her B.A. from Wichita University in 1961. Before becoming Professor and Executive Vice-Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in 1995, Severino spent eighteen years in academic psychiatry at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. For decades she was an active member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Committee on Psychiatry and Religion. Severino is grounded in the Christian contemplative tradition. She serves on the Board of Directors and is an oblate at the Contemplative Center of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Lisa Sideris
Faculty of Religious Studies
McGill University
An Unfit Altruist: The Life and Work of Rachel Carson

Genuine altruism might be defined as love with universal intent, embracing all forms of life. As Holmes Rolston notes, the environmental ethicist is the "ultimate altruist," extending concern to an "expanding circle of relationships" far beyond the human species. This paper explores the life and work of a supreme altruist, Rachel Carson, author of the pesticide exposŽ Silent Spring. I discuss Carson's altruism with reference to both biological and theological contexts. From the standpoint of selfish-gene theories, Carson was evolutionarily unfit, her concern for all organisms maladaptive. According to biologists, behaviors are altruistic when they increase the evolutionary fitness of others while decreasing the actor's fitness. Altruism is generally considered maladaptive because altruists take on risks to themselves and often fail to reproduce, as was the case with Carson. Edward O. Wilson's biophilia hypothesis may partially account for Carson's concern for nonhuman life forms, yet the existence of biophobia makes it difficult to explain Carson's actions on behalf of even "pest" species — organisms posing dangers to humans and engendering aversive responses. Scientific approaches cannot adequately explain Carson's altruism with universal intent; she drew much of her inspiration from the selflessness of other exemplary altruists, including theologian Albert Schweitzer to whom Carson dedicated Silent Spring.

Lisa Sideris is assistant professor at McGill University, jointly appointed in the Faculty of Religious Studies and the McGill School of the Environment. In 1999, while a graduate student in Religious Studies at Indiana University, she received an award from the Templeton Foundation for her course on "Science, Religion, and the Environment." In 2000-2001 she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion as part of the Center's thematic project on Darwin and Religion. Sideris's book entitled Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology and Natural Selection will be released in June 2003 by Columbia University Press, in Columbia's Series in Science and Religion. At McGill, she teaches courses at the intersection of science, religion, ethics, and the environment in both Religious Studies and the School of Environment. She is currently co-editing a collection of essays commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

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Israela Silberman
Department of Psychology
Columbia University
Religions as Facilitators of World Peace

Despite their calls for universal peace, unselfish love, and compassion, religions have been throughout history major contributors to intolerance, hatred, and blood shed on both national and international levels. How could the potential of religions to facilitate world peace and inhibit national and international conflicts be realized? First, the potential of religions to facilitate world peace would be described. Second, the mechanisms through which religions may facilitate national and international conflicts would be discussed. Third, current psychological approaches to national and international conflicts would be described in a critical way as underestimating the power of religions. Fourth, an alternative approach, which emphasizes the nature of religions as unique systems of meaning, would be recommended. This approach illuminates the complexity of religious meaning systems, their dynamic nature, and how they can be directed by religious individuals and leaders in a variety of directions, both peaceful and hostile ones. Finally, initial efforts to encourage interfaith dialogues around the world, and to construct interventions that utilize the potential of religions as facilitators of peace, would be described, and more intensive collaboration between academic, religious, and political leaders, in this context, would be encouraged.

Israela Silberman received her B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in psychology and philosophy and her Ph.D. (1999, with distinction) in social-personality psychology from Columbia University. She is an Associate Research Scientist at the Psychology Department of Columbia University and an Assistant Professor at the Jewish Studies Department of Yeshiva University's Stern College. Dr. Silberman has written extensively on the relations between religion and individual and societal well-being, particularly in the context of recent world events. Her theoretical and applied research illuminates the importance of religion as a powerful meaning system that can affect the lives of individuals in terms of their beliefs, motivations, emotions, and behaviors, and can influence their interpersonal and intergroup interactions. She is the editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Social Issues on "Religion as a Meaning System", and is co-editing a book on the role of religion in national and international relations. Dr. Silberman received the Richard Christie Award for Research on Social Issues (1996), awards from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1999, 2000), and a teaching grant from the Columbia University Center for the Study of Science and Religion (2002) for her seminar on the psychology of religion.

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Lisa Stenmark
Austin College
The Power of Love: Hannah Arendt and Discipleship

Lisa Stenmark earned her MA in Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, and her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Vanderbilt University. She is the founder and Director of Women in Religion, Ethics and the Sciences (WiRES) and the Associate Director of the Institute for Social Responsibility, Ethics and Education at San Jose State University. She is currently Lilly Scholar-in-Residence at Austin College in Texas. Her scholarly interests include the implications of Feminist and Postmodern trajectories (especially narrative thought) for understanding the relationship between science, technology and religion, particularly in a global context. This reflects a concern about the ways that underlying cultural narratives perpetuate-intentionally or otherwise-destructive practices of science and technology (and religion). She is increasingly addressing these issues in the context of the religions and cultures of Viet Nam. She is collaborating on a book with William Stahl, addressing the relationship between narratives and communities. This includes broader questions of the demonic and how to move from collectivity (passive groups) to community (active groups). In her spare time she trains for triathlons and is STILL an avid Trekker.

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Patricia Terrell
Theology Department
Oxford University
Theobiogenesis: The Expression Of Love in Bios-Consciousness©

This paper will briefly explore the hierarchy in human consciousness that increases one's appreciation of life and the manifestation of Love. Herein, the existence of God, creatio ex nihilo, is connected with the primordial state of Bios, which means "life" (Lat.). God took bios from God's own-Self, conveying a non-uniform consciousness to primitive organisms (cells communicated and organized). In more complex species, actual altruism occurred (F. Ayala, S. Pope). Arthur Peacocke locates awareness of the God-human relationship within the cortical chemical cocktails as well as experiences affecting neurological systems throughout the body-developing meaning and a deeper awareness of the divine. Jesus' baptismal "commitment" in/of faith exemplified the move beyond altruism to a Meta-consciousness (The Ethic). His penultimate metamorphosis at Mt. Tabor, with its bright light and voices of the prophets, represented the Enlightenment of/by bios. That super-elevated state of consciousness has been repeated over the ages as disciples encountered Jesus' resurrection and external natural influences, such as wind, tongues of fire, and illumination — with reports of joy and an immanent consciousness of Eternal Love. Eventually, Love consumes even human ethics. Arguably, bios is the Life force that forms "The" common denominator for theistic and non-theistic religions and/or philosophies.

Patricia Terrell's Ph.D. research focused on writing "a church position paper to legislatures on the ethics of genetic diagnosis" at the Dawson Institute, Baylor University, TX. She continued her research in the faculty of Science and Theology at the University of Oxford, UK where she wrote an informed theology about imago Dei (humankind made in the image of God) and investigated the stability of theories and therapies used for molecular medicine. Terrell integrated her medical science research with theology by reading Michael Polanyi, Austin Farrar, etc. She became interested in multi-cultural approaches to bioethics and has participated in the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee for five years, predominantly in ecclesiastical diplomacy. Terrell has found science and theology to be a vibrant resource for reconciliation and developing a holistic worldview. Prior to the Ph.D., Patricia was coordinator of the MD/PhD program at UCI, served on several committees, and taught in the bioethics series. She taught classes for the civil air patrol, lectured to community clubs, and served in her church. Terrell began with a B.A. in international relations from Chapman University, explored the avenues of entrepreneurship, had a family, and moved onto theological interests — acquiring a Masters in Theology and a Ph.D.

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Alan Tjeltveit
Department of Psychology
Muhlenberg College
Psychology's Love-Hate Relationship with Love: Critiques and Affirmations

Psychologists' contributions to our understanding of compassionate love have fallen far short of their potential. A major reason, it will be argued, is psychologists' love-hate relationship with the concept of love. Psychologists raise challenging questions about love (or some understandings of love), based on their own deep (albeit rarely clearly articulated) ethical intuitions (e.g., telling battered women they are obligated to show greater love for their abusers) harms them. In addition, many psychologists' understandings of love (e.g., a "soft" topic, and/or pertaining to what is good or obligatory, to human choices, and/or to divine action) fit poorly with psychology's natural scientific methods, which address hard facts. On the other hand, psychologists conduct research relevant to love and ample evidence exists that psychologists are deeply committed to love. Psychologists thus both critique love (hate it) and affirm it. When we acknowledge the critics' partial truths, routinely clarify what we mean by love, articulate how psychologists currently affirm compassionate love (often using other terms), and clarify what empirical methods can (and cannot) tell us about love, then, and only then, will psychologists' critical and affirming voices join to decidedly deepen our psychological understanding of compassionate love.

Alan C. Tjeltveit is Professor of Psychology at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. A clinical psychologist, he practiced psychotherapy for fourteen years and has taught at St. Olaf College, Fuller Theological Seminary, the University of Minnesota, and Muhlenberg. The ethical character of both psychotherapy and psychology is his primary scholarly interest. He has published articles in Clinical Psychology Review, Psychotherapy, Word and World, the Counseling Psychologist, and the Journal of Psychology and Theology and conducted ten Continuing Education ethics workshops for practitioners. His book, Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy, was published by Routledge in 1999. He is list owner of the Psychology Ethics Educators listserv, chaired a psychological association ethics committee, served on a hospital bioethics consultation team, and has evaluated whether over 150 research proposals meet contemporary standards of research ethics. Tjeltveit also explores the relationship of psychology, theology, spirituality, and religion. He completed his undergraduate work at St. Olaf (B.A. summa cum laude; Departmental Distinction in Psychology; Departmental Distinction in Religion; Phi Beta Kappa), received his M.A. in theology from the School of Theology at Fuller, and earned his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller. He is a member of the Episcopal Church.

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Donald Turner
Iliff School of Theology
Denver University
Altruism Across Species Boundaries: Levinasian Ethics and the Meaning of Human Uniqueness

This paper examines the concept of altruism vis-ˆ-vis the human relationship with other animals. The first section examines current empirical literature on the question of whether non-human animals exhibit altruistic behavior. The second section links this question with the two dominant and opposing modern schools of thought regarding non-human animals' ethical status, grounded in the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham, and closes by linking conceptual problems each approach entails to a foundational assumption that they share: that for other animals to qualify for direct ethical consideration, it is both necessary and sufficient to identify some essential aspect of similarity between them and human beings. The third section brings the work of Emmanuel Levinas to bear on this issue, in an attempt to avoid the dilemma produced by the confrontation between the two dominant approaches examined in the previous section. Themes discussed here include the priority of ethics over ontology, the valorization of alterity, and the asymmetrical structure of the ethical relationship. The paper closes with a discussion of Levinas's idea of the "face"-a theme that is particularly helpful in formulating a more appropriate conception of the human relationship with other animals.

Donald L. Turner began formal study of philosophy and religion at The University of the South and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Joint Ph.D. Program in Philosophy, Theology, Comparative Religion, and Cultural Theory at Denver University and The Iliff School of Theology, where he is writing a dissertation on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and the human relationship with other animals. His other writings are diverse, including articles on the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, American philosophers William James and Alfred North Whitehead, continental thinkers Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida, and the contemporary "UFO cult." He teaches Philosophy at Austin Peay State University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Camille, an Occupational Therapist who works with adults with severe and persistent mental illness in a community based mental health center. They attend the Nashville Friends' Meeting.

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Amelia Uelmen
Law & Lawyer's Work Institute on Religion
Fordham University School of Law
Chiara Lubich: A Life for Unity

This paper depicts the life of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, honorary president of the World Conference on Religions for Peace, and winner of the 1977 Templeton Prize and the 1996 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, as a "remarkable life exemplifying love for all humanity." From her initial discovery of the Gospel as a personal and collective revolution that can heal division, resolve conflict, and help to build a more just society, to her current path-breaking work in inter-faith dialogue, Lubich has inspired millions people of different races, cultures, social backgrounds and religious traditions to be seeds of spiritual and social renewal and to build a more united world. In her address upon accepting the UNESCO Prize, one intuits something of the heart of her message: "For whoever tries today to move the mountains of hatred and violence, the task is very heavy and immense. But what is impossible for [millions] of isolated and divided persons seems to be possible for those who have made mutual love, understanding and unity the essential dynamic of their lives." As we face the particular tensions and challenges of our day, there is much to celebrate in Lubich's life of compassionate love.

Amelia (Amy) J. Uelmen is the Director of the Fordham University School of Law Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer's Work. The Institute promotes scholarship and develops programs to help practicing lawyers, faculty, and law students in their efforts to live integrated lives of faith. Amy also teaches legal ethics and a seminar on religion, law and lawyering. Her scholarship focuses on how religious values and Catholic spirituality may be integrated into various areas of legal practice. Prior to joining Fordham in 2001, she worked as a litigator in the New York office of Arnold & Porter. She is a graduate of Georgetown University's College (B.A. American Studies, 1990) and Law School (J.D. 1993). Throughout her career Amy has worked closely with the Focolare Movement's Center for Education in Dialogue, helping to plan inter-faith conferences and programs, including the November 2000 Washington DC Faith Communities Together gathering of more than 5,000 Christians and Muslims. She has also served as a legal consultant for the Focolare's Economy of Communion project in which businesses operate according to principles of responsibility to the larger community and share profits with the poor. She is Roman Catholic.

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Allen Utke
East Central Synod of Wisconsin
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Michael Faraday and Altruism: The Rest of The Story

Despite a current, growing interest on the part of science in altruism, specific scientists are seldom mentioned as being prime examples or role models of altruistic love and behavior! However, based on some unique insights into the life of Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the author begins the paper with the thought-provoking contention that Faraday actually deserves a nomination of being history's most altruistic scientist. The author then defends that provocative nomination with further, interrelated, challenging contentions (supported with little-known evidence) that Faraday also deserves nominations of being: 1.) history's greatest chemist, scientist, and scientific educator, and, thus, overall one of the most influential people in history, and 2.) history's most admired, respected, and loved scientist, largely because of his altruistic personal and professional life. In the concluding, "rest of the story" in the paper, the author next speculates on the possible origins of Faraday's life-long altruism. And, lastly, the author uniquely contends that, with or without some relevant, up-dated modifications, Michael Faraday's interdisciplinary, holistic, altruistic paradigm could serve as a general model, key, and template in most areas of life, and most human endeavors today, but particularly in contemporary, rapidly-expanding, interdisciplinary attempts to (re)integrate scientific and religious thought.

Dr. Allen R. Utke is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. However, over the last 38 years or so, beyond his accomplishments in chemistry, he has extensively centered his professional activities, whenever and wherever possible, on using an interdisciplinary (re)unification of scientific, religious, philosophical and futuristic thought to help mold and even save the future. Overall, Dr. Utke's accomplishments as an interdisciplinary scholar have included authoring three international books, 21 articles, and 40 papers (many in foreign countries); developing 14 new interdisciplinary courses; making 80 radio and television appearances and giving more than 600 professional and public presentations; receiving two distinguished teaching awards, extensively based on his interdisciplinary teaching and research; and being the 1999-2000 President of the International Society for the Study of Human Ideas on Ultimate Reality and Meaning, centered at the University of Toronto. In 1995 and 1996, Dr. Utke received three Templeton Foundation Awards for the development of the first science/religion course and first science/religion speakers series at his university, and for the article titled "Michael Faraday's Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning", judged to be one of the best recently-published articles on science and religion. Dr. Utke is co-chair of the LSI granted Synodical Task Force on Science and Religion, a project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), East Central Synod of Wisconsin.

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Douglas Vakoch
Center for SETI Research
SETI Institute
Encoding the Biology of Compassionate Love

This project identifies key principles of altruism that can be translated into interstellar messages for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. The message contents focus specifically on the evolution of altruism, drawing on sociobiological accounts. For example, aspects of reciprocal altruism can be described through mathematical modeling and interactive computer programs, which in turn can be encoded in interstellar languages based on potentially universal principles of mathematics. Similarly, kin selection can be explained through the transmission of DNA from generation to generation, sometimes via acts of altruism. This can be expressed through possibly universal chemical principles, supplemented by 3D animation sequences showing acts of self-sacrifice at the level of the individual rather than the gene. Both the SETI Institute's in-house project in message composition and the recent international workshop, "Encoding Altruism," will be discussed. The translation of concepts about altruism into interstellar messages in turn provides a starting point for a dialogue with theologians to determine the extent to which these scientific accounts of altruism capture the varieties of altruistic love. A preview of upcoming dialogues planned for India will be provided.

Douglas Vakoch is a psychologist at the SETI Institute, where he investigates the cultural implications of the search for extraterrestrial life. His primary research interests focus on the construction of messages that would be comprehensible to independently evolved civilizations at interstellar distances. Dr. Vakoch's current project in interstellar message composition, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, communicates concepts about the evolution of altruism as seen from sociobiological, evolutionary psychological, and theological perspectives. As a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) SETI Committee, he is engaged in discussions about whether we should reply to electromagnetic signals we might detect from distant extraterrestrial civilizations, and if so, what we should say. In addition to being a member of IAA Subcommittees on Issues of Policy Concerning Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, on Post-Detection Science and Technology, on Media and Education, and on the Arts and Literature, he is affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Vakoch is also committed to facilitating work on the societal impact of SETI by other scholars from the social sciences, arts, and humanities.

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Helen Vassar-Sullivan
Peace International Foundation
Called to Demonstrate Unconditional Love

Helen Vassar Sullivan, M.Th. was reared in western India. Love through unconditional service was modeled by her parents as they provided caring services for orphans and destitute children, a farming project, and an elementary school. After supporting her husband's ministry in the United States, Helen and Bob settled in Ahmadabad, India in 1993. As a free lance writer, Helen's work has been published in the United States and India. The opportunity to show unlimited love to both Hindus and Muslims occurred in the spring, 2002 when violent riots erupted first in Gohdra and spread within one block of her home in Ahmadabad. Her usual work with tribal schools and village health care was expanded to multicultural mediation, accessing trauma counseling, assisting with physical needs, and supporting retraining efforts for both Hindus and Muslims. She walked and fed them; cried and wiped their tears with her duputa, and mourned loss of family with many Muslim widows. Within her hands she held their heads, prayed for a blessing, and tenderly kissed their hair until her lips turned black. Helen shares the costs and benefits when one shares unlimited love in a riot torn environment. She speaks from understandings and experiences that only a child from the third culture can articulate. These transformations bring a renewed understanding of the Fruits of the Spirit.

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Michael Ventimiglia
Department of Philosophy
Sacred Heart University
Agape and Spiritual Growth

This paper offers a partial explanation of why agape, a nurturing and unconditional love, seems to be capable of fostering spiritual growth in the beloved. After offering a sketch of spiritual growth, I suggest that such growth is contingent upon at least two conditions: (1) freedom and (2) a willingness to part with one's current ends. I then show how agape provides the beloved with a context in which these conditions are or can be met.

Michael Ventimiglia received his doctorate in philosophy from the Pennsylvania State University in December of 2001. His dissertation, "Evolutionary Love" in Theory and Practice" applies Charles Peirce's ideas on cosmic love and growth to the problem of how and why agape tends to foster spiritual growth in the self. Recent scholarly contributions include "Science and Sentiment: Peirce, Lamarck and Evolutionary Love," published by the Metanexus Institute on Metanexus.net (January, 2002) and "Peircean Agape as a Philosophy of Education," a paper presented at the International Network of Philosophers of Education in Oslo, Norway (August, 2002). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.

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Joan Walling
Center for the Study of Religion
Princeton University
Indebtedness, Gratitude, and Community: Recipients' Interpretations of Caregiving

With much recent policy discussion about the effectiveness of faith-based organizations in helping needy people, the question arises: how are churches and other religiously affiliated organizations perceived by those they help? While there is a body of literature that examines how caregivers talk about their motivation for helping people, there has been almost no research about how the recipients of such care interpret the givers' motives. How do people respond to and perceive these works of love? This study examines the kinds of moral meanings recipients attach to the care they receive from religious and secular organizations. I find that recipients of care from religious organizations are more likely to say that they feel "indebted" for the care they've received, and are more likely to want to repay this debt by helping others. While some would see this as a critique of faith-based organizations, my study suggests that people feel better when they can give something back, and that the indebtedness they feel is perceived as a positive aspect of receiving.

Joan Walling graduated from Williams College in 1999 with majors in sociology and English and is a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at Princeton University, She realized that the issue of how people view care from a religious organization wasn't just about ideas of obligation and reciprocity, but also about how people interpret acts of compassion and altruistic love. She is particularly interested to hear what theologians and ministers will have to say about their own perspectives on caregiving. While her dissertation grew out of a sociological curiosity, her interest in the intersection of faith, altruism, and compassionate love is not limited to the academic sphere. She has been active in a United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania for nearly four years, and for three years a leader in a graduate student group that does an inductive study of biblical passages. She has been personally involved in a volunteer effort to organize graduate students to tutor ESL students at the nearby Trenton YWCA.

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Laura Weed
Philosophy Department The College of St. Rose Why Violence Begets Violence, and Love Enables Love

Research in Cognitive Science is revealing interconnections among consciousness, brain biochemistry, reason and the emotions. I focus on the physiological manifestations of two specific, and directly opposed physiological conditions; religious ecstasy and post-traumatic stress disorder to demonstrate the opposing effects of peace and violence on human emotions, cognition, and ability to love. I discuss the physiological mechanisms in the brain by which violence begets violence, as Mohandas Gandhi pointed out, and love promotes and enables love. In post-traumatic stress disorder, a victim's neuronal response to perceived attack is chemically altered by catecholamines and CRF, a stress hormone, which interfere with higher-level thought processing. Victims of PTSD, thus, become biochemical tinderboxes primed to explode, who misjudge others, and who are less rational and loving than others. In contrast, states of meditation or religious ecstasy stimulate the amygdala and autonomic nervous system in productive ways, that make people more creative, intellectually focused for problem solving, personally appealing and compassionate toward others. I concur with D'Aquili and Newberg, who point out that a recipient of religious experience can inspire an entire community, and add research of my own on the productivity of religious states of calm for developing compassion in human beings.

Laura Weed, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of St. Rose, in Albany, NY. She received her doctorate in philosophy from Syracuse University in 1992, and has taught for Russell Sage College's JCA division, Siena College and Maria College before becoming tenured at St. Rose. Dr. Weed is currently a committee member of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religions, and a vice president of the International Institute for Field Being, an organization for Asian-Western philosophical discussion. She is also an assistant editor for the IIFB's on-line journal, The International Journal for Field Being, and has recently edited a special edition of the IJFB on Whitehead and process philosophy. She has one book in print, The Structure of Thinking, published by Imprints Academic, UK, and is now doing research for another book, The Epistemology of Religious Experience. Some of her research for this book will be presented at this conference. Dr. Weed is active in interfaith dialog in the capital district area of New York State, and is on the planning board for an interfaith workshop conference, Building Peaceful Communities, which will be offered at the College of St. Rose on October 13, 2003.

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Patricia Williams
The Evolution and Revelation of Love

Through science's revelations, we learn how love becomes manifest in our universe and how to extend our love beyond humanity to all earthly organisms as well as to the cosmos beyond. This essay investigates this proposition in three sections. First, love is a product of evolution, as disclosed by sociobiology's exploration of relationships of kinship and pair bonding. Second, because we are a symbol-wielding species, love in human beings can spread beyond its roots in kinship to embrace all humankind. Third, science has forced us to locate God either nowhere or everywhere. In revealing the remarkable autonomy, unity, and creativity of the universe, science points toward a God who is love at work everywhere. God's love is first manifest explicitly in the universe when love evolves.

Patricia A. Williams is a philosopher of science, a philosophical theologian, and an award-winning author. She has numerous publications in professional journals, collections, and encyclopedias, and has published frequently in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. With Robert Wesson, she is the coeditor of Evolution and Human Values (1995). She is the author of Where Christianity Went Wrong, When, and What You Can Do About It (2001), a book based on scholarship on the historical Jesus. She is also the author of Doing without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin (2001), which appeared in Fortress Press's esteemed Theology and the Sciences series. Choice magazine, which reviews some 22,000 titles a year for academic libraries, selected Doing without Adam and Eve as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2002. Williams earned a B.A. with honors, two M.A. degrees, and a Ph.D. in philosophy of biology. She has taught in Australia, Canada, and the United States. She is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). More information appears in Who's Who, 2003, and on her website, www.theologyauthor.com.

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Daniel Wisniewski
Department of Mathematics/Computer Science
DeSales University
Salesian Images of Love in Creation

The Doctor of Love, Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), has much to contribute to any discussion about love. Author of the Treatise on the Love of God, the gentleman saint considers love to be the central quest of human life. The collaborative and creative relationship of love between God and humanity is a cyclic interplay of benevolence and complacence (joyful satisfaction), the two movements of love at the heart of Salesian spirituality. Created in the image of God, humanity has been given love, which is highly creative in its own right. Love, as creative, has been associated with kenosis, which in turn raises new questions with regard to the classical notions of divine immutability, divine knowledge, and divine power. In concert with some kenotic theological views, many of de Sales' images for this relational dynamic of love are considered. In particular, the images of parental, altruistic love demonstrate the relevance that the bishop-saint's spiritual writings have within contemporary discussions. His wealth of imagery provides a unique lens through which to examine love in creation. A humanist aware of the realities of ordinary living, de Sales' spirit is practical and continues to offer insight as human knowledge about the cosmos expands.

Daniel P. Wisniewski, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, is currently an Instructor of Mathematics at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. A native of Philadelphia, Brother Wisniewski holds degrees in mathematics from The Catholic University of America and Villanova University. His interests include dynamical systems, cryptology and the history of mathematics and science. In 2001, he received a M.A. in theology from The Washington Theological Union. Since completing this degree, his studies have centered on the relevance of the spirituality of Francis de Sales to contemporary issues in science and religion. In addition to academic pursuits, he is also a member of the Advisory Board of DeSales Service Works, the volunteer program of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

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Elaine Yuen
Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care
Thomas Jefferson University
Cultivating Compassionate Love and Empathy within a Medical School Curriculum

As caregivers of those who are sick and suffering, medical professionals have an ongoing responsibility to consider what qualities beyond mastering the science of medicine contribute to healing. Recent studies increasingly identify compassionate love or empathy as crucial to this process. This presentation describes how observing empathy in a medical setting and recording reflective narratives can engender compassion and a re-evaluation of professionalism to include spirituality and emotional support. Our presentation is based on essays submitted by third year medical students at Jefferson Medical College in response to their visits to hospice. The results reveal that witnessing the compassion/empathy of the hospice teams towards the patients and families as well as the love between the patients and their caregivers evoked a spiritual understanding of dying and the role of healers in this context. As suggested by student responses, modeling and reflection within medical training may be crucial for cultivating spiritual awareness and compassion. Other innovations at Jefferson Medical College affirm self-reflection and empathy as vital values to the healing profession. A recent curriculum reward from the Templeton Foundation provides increased opportunities for weaving spiritual aspects of suffering, healing, and end of life issues into the four-year medical school program.

Elaine Yuen, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, as well as an inter-faith chaplain in the Clinical Pastoral Education Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She has an enduring interest in the interface between science and religion, and has served as a study subject in one of Dr. Andrew Newberg's study of religion, spirituality and its relationship to brain functioning. At Jefferson Medical College, she serves on the Faculty Advisory Committee of the John Templeton Spirituality and Medicine Curricular Award. She has also studied how diverse cultural values may affect caregivers and providers, and spoken at the International Conference on Caregiving and workshops sponsored by the American Society on Aging. Dr. Yuen is also a senior teacher and Buddhist minister at the Philadelphia Shambhala Meditation Center, and regularly teaches national and international workshops on meditation, contemplative arts, and Buddhism. She has lectured on Buddhism, end of life issues, and medicine at the Jefferson Health System, Chestnut Hill College, LaSalle University, Drexel University, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania; and has been a regular columnist for the Living Religion Page of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Eliezer (Eduardo) Zeiger
Torah Science Foundation
Love as Evolution, and Evolution as Love

Love is the light and the life force that brings all potential to actuality. The light of love is the Divine light that is the initial act of the first day of Creation. An analysis of Genesis (1:1-31 and 2:3-24) reveals two distinct verbs for the creative act: And G-d created (ex nihilo, "something from nothing") the man, and The Lord G-d formed the man. The concept of formation is clearly not ex nihilo. So the first account of Creation is a creationist story; the second hints at development and unfolding, and it is an evolutionary story. This analysis of the two accounts of creation integrates the seemingly contradictory viewpoints of scientific creationism and evolutionary theory. It further teaches that macroevolution, the creation of species is the direct work of the Creator, whereas "formation", the process described by science as microevolution, is driven by natural selection. The evolution of consciousness is at the forefront of the evolutionary process. As we become more conscious of the Creator, our faith in, and love for the Creator increase, and we become cognizant of the purpose of Creation. Divine love is the driving force of the evolving universe. Evolution is the process that unfolds the Divine plan for a perfected universe.

Eliezer (Eduardo) Zeiger is a professor of plant biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and the co-author of 3 editions of a plant physiology textbook. His research studies the use of light by plant cells as an environmental signal, and the control of gas exchange in leaves. Brought up in an observant Jewish home in Argentina, he lived as a secular Jew in his youth and early adulthood, and returned to Jewish observance after completing his professional education. Professor Zeiger is a founder and the CEO of the Torah Science Foundation (www.torahscience.org ), an organization devoted to the unification of Divine and secular wisdom. He has written several articles on the relationship between Torah and science and has lectured on the subject throughout the world.