Religious Studies, Theology, and Human Flourishing

Religious Studies, Theology, and Human Flourishing explores the implications of religious studies and theology for well-being, illuminating connections between theory, pedagogy, and practice with nuance and depth. Contributors to the volume, part of The Humanities and Human Flourishing series, construct and critique various conceptualizations of well-being and different approaches to its cultivation, both inside and outside of the classroom. From north India to the buckle of the American Bible Belt, the volume provides a variety of perspectives on approaches to the cultivation of well-being, including formations of the ideal life and the perfect death in antiquity and modernity in the Muslim world; constructions of existential meaning, purpose, and goodness in pastoral theology, care, and counseling; and skepticism surrounding understandings of religion and spirituality in positive psychology, among others.

Justin Thomas McDaniel is an Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hector Kilgoe is a Doctoral Candidate of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Series Editor Foreword

Introduction: Aporias and Affordances: An Introduction to the Study of Religion, Theology, and Human Flourishing - Justin McDaniel

Part I: Aporias: Defining and Debating Religious Studies, Theology, and Positive Psychology

Chapter 1: Sometimes Pessimism Is Good for the Soul: Human Flourishing and a Plea for Complexity - Pamela Cooper-White
Chapter 2: Augustine of Hippo's Eudaemonic Counsel - Ellen Charry
Chapter 3: Discerning the Good Life: Theology and the Humanities - Matthew Croasmun

Part II: Affordances: New Ways of Teaching and Learning Religious Studies and Theology after the Eudaimonic Turn

Chapter 4: Sanmati, the Art of 'Generous Disposition': Flourishing Amidst Religious Difference - Leela Prasad
Chapter 5: Suffering, Joy, and Wonder: Turning toward the Fullness of Life - Mary Clark Moschella
Chapter 6: Teaching Islamic Sources of the Self - Noah Salomon
Chapter 7: From the Head to the Heart: Rethinking Approaches to Teaching Buddhism at a Regional State University in the Bible Belt - Jeffrey Samuels
Chapter 8: Can 'Spiritual Fitness' be Bad for You?: Lessons from a Military Experiment - Steven Weitzman
Chapter 9: Lab Courses for the Humanities: Monastic Living and Existential Despair - Justin McDaniel

Index