Synopses & Reviews
What if you found out you could live a healthy life lasting for a thousand years or longer? Advances in biomedical technology raise the theoretical possibility that people could dramatically prolong or even indefinitely extend “healthy” human life. If this science of “radical life extension” is realized and the technology becomes widely available, it would arguably have a more radical impact on humanity than any other development in history. This book is the first concerted effort to explore the implications of radical life extension from the perspective of the worlds major religious traditions.
Review
“To say that the questions this volume raises are better than the answers it proposes does not for a moment diminish the value of this rich anthology of recent thinking in the study of radical life extension. Two masterful introductory papers describe the current state of medical and technological research and raise all the significant issues. The responses that follow from representatives of world religions are properly tentative and exploratory but extraordinarily provocative. They stretch the imagination and left this reader confronting his own mortality in a very different spirit. The writing throughout is accessible to the lay reader, but be prepared. This book may affect you in unanticipated ways.”--Rabbi Neil Gillman, Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary
“In this fine study an outstanding group of scholars brings ancient religious traditions to bear on the possibilities for radical life extension. The results offer fascinating challenges to both science and religion as longevity inches toward eternity.”--Bill J. Leonard, Dean of the School of Divinity and Professor of Church History, Wake Forest University
Synopsis
If the science of 'radical life extension' is realized and the technology becomes widely available, it would arguably have a more radical impact on humanity than any other development in history. This book is the first concerted effort to explore implications of radical life extension from the perspective of the world's major religious traditions.
Synopsis
This book is the first concerted effort to explore implications of radical life extension from the perspective of the worlds major religious traditions. Introductory chapters outline the state of the science.
About the Author
Dr. Derek F. Maher is Co-Director of the Religious Studies Program and teaches courses on Buddhism, Islam, methodology, and religion and violence. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in the History of Religions, with an emphasis on Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. His research focuses on the interplay between religion, authority, and legitimacy. In particular, he studies how religious narratives influence other forms of discourse, particularly political, historical, and biographical accounts. His recent publications include: “The Rhetoric of War in Tibet: Towards a Buddhist Just War Theory” in Journal of Political Theology 9:2 (2008) and “The Dalai Lamas and State Power” in Religion Compass 2 (2007). His current research includes an annotated translation of the classic two-volume One Hundred Thousand Moons: A Political History of Tibet by Tsepön Shakabpa, forthcoming in 2009. He has conducted field research in India under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays dissertation grant. His background in physics enlivens his interest in the relationship between religion and science.
Dr. Calvin Mercer is Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University, where he recently received a “Scholar-Teacher” award and is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Studies Program. Most of his research is in the impact of human enhancement technologies, psychology of religion, and biblical studies, with an emphasis on the role of the Bible in modern culture. Dr. Mercer has organized panels titled “Radical Life Extension: What Religions Have to Say” for annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion. He is a founding member and first chair of the academys “Transhumanism and Religion” consultation. rained in clinical psychology, he practiced professionally part-time for over a decade and utilizes insights from this discipline in his research. His most recent book is Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind (2009). Dr. Mercer is the originator of The Monastic Project (www.ecu.edu/religionprogram/mercer/monastic.html), a comprehensive pedagogical program used by professors around the country that speaks to a deep yearning many people have for substantive religious experience. Dr. Mercer gives public lectures on the religious implications of radical life extension science, fundamentalism, and other topics.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Living For 1,000 YearsOr Longer / Co-Editors Derek F. Maher and Calvin Mercer * Radical Life Extension: Technological Aspects / Aubrey de Grey * The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension / Preston Estep * Be Careful What You Wish For? Radical Life Extension coram Deo: A Reformed Protestant Perspective / Nigel M. de S. Cameron and Amy DeBaets * Extreme Longevity Research: A Progressive Protestant Perspective / Ronald Cole-Turner * Becoming Yet More Like God: A Jewish Perspective on Radical Life Extension / Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff * Karma, Austerity, and Time-Cycles: Jainism and Radical Life Extension / Sherry Fohr * Told You So: Extreme Longevity and Daoist Realization / Livia Kohn * Churning the Ocean of Milk: Imaging the Hindu Tantric Response to Radical Life Technologies / Jeffrey Lidke in collaboration with Jacob W. Dirnberger * Two Wings of a Bird: Radical Life Extension from a Buddhist Perspective / Derek F. Maher * ...A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity / Aisha Y. Musa * Radical Life Extension: Implications for Roman Catholicism / Terence L. Nichols * “May You Live Long”: Religious Implications of Extreme Longevity in Hinduism / Arvind Sharma * Afterword: Theological, Spiritual, and Ethical Reflections on Radical Life Extension / Ted Peters
Introduction: Living For 1,000 YearsOr Longer / Co-Editors Derek F. Maher and Calvin Mercer * Radical Life Extension: Technological Aspects / Aubrey de Grey * The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension / Preston Estep * Be Careful What You Wish For? Radical Life Extension coram Deo: A Reformed Protestant Perspective / Nigel M. de S. Cameron and Amy DeBaets * Extreme Longevity Research: A Progressive Protestant Perspective / Ronald Cole-Turner * Becoming Yet More Like God: A Jewish Perspective on Radical Life Extension / Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff * Karma, Austerity, and Time-Cycles: Jainism and Radical Life Extension / Sherry Fohr * Told You So: Extreme Longevity and Daoist Realization / Livia Kohn * Churning the Ocean of Milk: Imaging the Hindu Tantric Response to Radical Life Technologies / Jeffrey Lidke in collaboration with Jacob W. Dirnberger * Two Wings of a Bird: Radical Life Extension from a Buddhist Perspective / Derek F. Maher * ...A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity / Aisha Y. Musa * Radical Life Extension: Implications for Roman Catholicism / Terence L. Nichols * “May You Live Long”: Religious Implications of Extreme Longevity in Hinduism / Arvind Sharma * Afterword: Theological, Spiritual, and Ethical Reflections on Radical Life Extension / Ted Peters