Calvin Mercer

Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension - Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and its Successors Calvin Mercer

Marc Notes: Originally published: 2009.; Includes bibliographical references and index.; 8; If the science of 'radical life extension' is realized & 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 from the perspective of the world's major religious traditions.. Table of Contents: Preface -- Introduction: Living for 1,000 Years-or Longer / Derek F. Maher, Calvin Mercer -- Chapter 1. Radical Life Extension: Technological Aspects / Aubrey de Grey -- Chapter 2. The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension / Pete Estep -- Chapter 3. Be Careful What You Wish For? Radical Life Extension coram Deo: A Reformed Protestant Perspective / Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Amy Michelle DeBaets -- Chapter 4. Extreme Longevity Research: A Progressive Protestant Perspective / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Chapter 5. Becoming Yet More Like God: A Jewish Perspective on Radical Life Extension / Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff -- Chapter 6. Karma, Austerity, and Time Cycles: Jainism and Radical Life Extension / Sherry E. Fohr -- Chapter 7. Told You So: Extreme Longevity and Daoist Realization / Livia Kohn -- Chapter 8. Churning the Ocean of Milk: Hindu Tantrism and Radical Life Technologies / Jeffrey S. Lidke in collaboration, Jacob W. Dirnberger -- Chapter 9. Two Wings of a Bird: Radical Life Extension from a Buddhist Perspective / Derek F. Maher -- Chapter 10. A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity / Aisha Y. Musa -- Chapter 11. Radical Life Extension: Implications for Roman Catholicism / Terence L. Nichols -- Chapter 12. 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 -- Selected Bibliography -- Notes on Contributors -- Index. Biographical Note: Dr. Calvin Mercer's four books and 25 articles are in biblical studies and religion and culture. Also trained in clinical psychology, he practiced professionally part-time for about a decade, and has utilized insights from this discipline in his published work on religion, as exampled in Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind (2008). He was a founding member and chair for six years of the American Academy of Religion's 'Transhumanism and Religion' group. He is professor of religion and director of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University, USA, frequently gives public lectures, and is co-editor, with Steve Fuller, of the series Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors. Dr. Derek F. Maher's 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, scientific, and biographical accounts. His publications include twenty articles, his annotated translation of the classic two-volume One Hundred Thousand Moons: A Political History of Tibet by Tsepon Shakabpa (2010), and the forthcoming volume co-edited with Tsering Wangchuk, The Tulku Institution in Tibetan Buddhism: Past, Present, and Future Prospects of the Reincarnation System (2014). Maher is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and teaches courses on Buddhism, Hinduism, methodology, and religion and violence at East Carolina University, USA. Review Quotes: "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

Contributor Bio:  Mercer, Calvin CALVIN MERCER is Professor and Co-Director of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University. For twenty years, Dr. Mercer has worked with fundamentalist Christians in the classroom as a professor of biblical studies and in the consulting room as the "go-to" therapist for fundamentalist Christians in his city. He is co-author of The Writings of Swami Sivananda (Edwin Mellen, 2007) and co-editor of Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension (Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming). He has published numerous articles in both religion and psychology journals and has presented a number of papers at the American Academy of Religion and other scholarly societies.