Human Flourishing
«This book offers a very broad panorama about many areas and fields, and an updating for those persons less informed about developments in a vast range of subjects and areas that know a growing production and new insights in the last few years.»
Luis Oviedo, Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology
'A careful and thoughtful provocation' (Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury)
Ambitiously placed at the intersection of scientific insights and spiritual wisdom, Human Flourishing prompts us to reflect on what constitutes a good life and the choices that can help achieve it.
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Ambitiously placed at the intersection of scientific insights and spiritual wisdom, Human Flourishing prompts us to reflect on what constitutes a good life and the choices that can help achieve it.
For thousands of years, humans have asked 'Why we are here?' and 'What makes for a good life?' At different times, different answers have held sway. Nowadays, there are more answers proposed than ever. Much of humanity still finds the ultimate answers to such questions in religion. But in countries across the globe, secular views are widely held. In any event, whether religious or secular, individuals, communities and governments still have to make decisions about what people get from life.
This book therefore examines what is meant by human flourishing and see what it has to offer for those seeking after truth, meaning and purpose. This is a book written for anyone who wants a future for themselves, their children, and their fellow humans - a future that enables flourishing, pays due consideration to issues of truth and helps us find meaning and purpose in our lives.
At a time when most of us are bombarded with messages about what we should or should not do to live healthily, attain a work-life balance and find meaning, a careful consideration of the contributions of both scientific insight and spiritual wisdom provides a new angle. This is therefore a book that not only helps readers clarify their views and see things afresh but also help them improve their own well-being in an age of AI and other new technologies.
Detaljer
- Forlag
- Oxford University Press
- Innbinding
- Innbundet
- Språk
- Engelsk
- ISBN
- 9780198850267
- Utgivelsesår
- 2021
- Format
- 22 x 15 cm
- Priser
- Winner, General Readership Category, 2023 International Society for Science and Religion Book Prize null
Om forfatteren
of Ultimate Questions, has been widely reviewed internationally, and formed the basis for a documentary film and a series for children. His subsequent book, It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy, and Religion, written with Hans Halvorson and Andrew Steane, was chosen by Times Higher
Education as Book of the Week for the first issue of 2019.
Reverend Professor Michael J. Reiss holds the Chair of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, visiting professor at the University of York and the Royal Veterinary College, a priest in the Church of England, and president of the International Society for Science and Religion. The former Director of Education at the Royal Society, he is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and has written extensively
about curricula, pedagogy, and assessment in science education and has directed a very large number of research, evaluation, and consultancy projects over the past twenty-five years funded by UK research councils, government departments, charities, and international
agencies.
Anmeldelser
«This book offers a very broad panorama about many areas and fields, and an updating for those persons less informed about developments in a vast range of subjects and areas that know a growing production and new insights in the last few years.»
Luis Oviedo, Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology
«This is an important and necessary book, and one that not only inspires but informs about that central topic»
Reviews in Science, Religion and Theology, March 2022
«This is a book for a general reader who already suspects that the 'scientism' (the belief that science alone can establish truth) of the so -- called new atheists is flawed. … The authors identify three crucial, interrelated dimensions of flourishing: the material, the relational and the transcendent. … Their inclusive approach to a wide variety of academic disciplines, tempered in the end by a strong appeal to transcendence, has much to be recommended.»
Robin Gill, Theology
«This is a book for a general reader who already suspects that the 'scientism' (the belief that science alone can establish truth) of the so-called new atheists is flawed... [The authors] inclusive approach to a wide variety of academic disciplines, tempered in the end by a strong appeal to transcendence, has much to be recommended.»
SAGE Perspectives Theology, January 2022
«The struggle for human beings to integrate a thoughtful understanding of the world as described by science and an ambitious hope of human flourishing as described by philosophy or faith is one at which humans have largely failed over the last three hundred years. This book is a major step in the right direction. It is very serious about science and very serious about human beings and their hopes and fears. I warmly commend it for a careful and thoughtful provocation towards a deeper commitment to the flourishing of human beings and of the creation.»
Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
«The theme of this highly readable and enlightening book is broad and ambitious. It's the product of the authors' deep engagement with science, ethics and religion, and analyses the requisites for a fulfilled life, highlighting those that too often elude politicians and economists. The text is enlivened with historical allusions and quotations. It offers a wise perspective that's much needed as individuals and societies contend with the anxieties of the present era.»
Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society
«In this magisterial book, Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss address one of the most fundamental issues confronting humanity—human flourishing. Drawing on science and religion, they examine it from the perspective of the material, relational and spiritual. What emerges are profound insights into meaning, purpose, truth, and the reason for being. This book should be read by anyone interested in what it is to be human.»
Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies, University of Oxford
«What enables the good life? Material goods? Supportive relationships? Transcendent purpose? In this state-of-the-art synopsis, scientist Andrew Briggs and bioethicist Michael Reiss weave these and other threads into the fabric of human thriving. With a breath-taking sweep of scholarship that draws insights from multiple disciplines, they illuminate a path toward meaningful well-being and sustainable joy.»
David Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College, author of The Pursuit of Happiness
«A sophisticated and much-needed and insightful integration of science and humanity. As an economist I am embarrassed by my profession's stunted characterisation of humanity as 'Homo economicus', which shrivels us to hedonistic consumers. In reality, as Professors Briggs and Reiss demonstrate, we thrive from morally-guided agency that transcends ourselves and our time on Earth. In this time of uncertainty and pessimism, it is a hopeful guide to meaningful lives.»
Sir Paul Collier, Blavatnik School of Government, author of The Future of Capitalism
«In a world where human flourishing seems somewhat more elusive and abstract than ever, Professors Briggs and Reiss capture the many dimensions of human flourishing in the 21st century. In doing so, they give us reason to hope and to work toward a world where all people flourish. This is a delightful and uplifting treatise on what it means to be human.»
Heather Templeton Dill, President, John Templeton Foundation
«In Human Flourishing: Scientific insight and spiritual wisdom in uncertain times, acclaimed scholars Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss provide insight for navigating a world of uncertainty and complexity to find more meaning, purpose, and happiness all around us. Using a combination of science and ancient wisdom, they demonstrate why love is essential for human flourishing.»
Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and The New York Ti
«In the midst of a great pandemic, unprecedented poverty, and natural disasters alongside never-before-seen development of new technologies and great wealth, nothing could be more important than wrestling with what it really means for humans to flourish. Here, Briggs and Reiss provide a comprehensive, synthetic and highly readable book that addresses this topic head on. It is the kind of book that should be read and re-read.»
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University
«Individually, we can all contribute to the good common life, and this book provides a deeply reflective consideration of what this means in increasingly uncertain times.»
David Lorimer, The Summer
«For those of my generation, who grew up with post-war austerity, the twenty-first century promised an era of unparalleled human flourishing. But it was a mirage. Material wealth has led to problems of disparity, over-consumption and climate catastrophe. Social media has produced alienation and a retreat from shared values. Democracy and common decency look increasingly fragile. We have entered a strange new era in which extraordinary promise is coupled with a burgeoning sense of insecurity and uncertainty. Science, the powerful facilitator of progress, also threatens our undoing. In this lucid and comprehensive analysis, Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss carefully examine the rich tapestry of religious, cultural and scientific factors that define our current predicament, and offer a message of hope, a way ahead founded on that familiar, yet too-often elusive, human quality - love.»
Paul Davies, Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State Univer
«This book by Briggs and Reiss covers questions that are of critical importance to everyone everywhere: How do we understand human life? What is human flourishing? How do we flourish? The book's rich insights and comprehensive scope will be of benefit to all readers. It provides a roadmap to flourishing in this life, and beyond.»
Tyler J. VanderWeele, Loeb Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Human Flourishing Program,
«As I read this book, Modest Mussorgsky's wonderful Pictures at an Exhibition started playing in my mind. The same sense of multiple perspective, overt spaciousness with periodic attention to intense detail, yet a persistent crescendo in continuity of purpose emerges in this elegant and comprehensive tour of a rich and pan-disciplinary subject. Briggs and Reiss have given a compelling introduction to human flourishing, and show us why, though discussed since the ancient world, it has become ever more pressing in our own times.»
Tom McLeish, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of York
«... especially comprehensive in its coverage. Individually, we can all contribute to the good common life, and this book provides a deeply reflective consideration of what this means in increasingly uncertain times.»
David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer, 2022/2