Samuel M. Powell
Here's some stuff taken from my website: http://samuelmpowell.com/impassioned-...
The Impassioned Life: Reason and Emotion in the Christian Tradition is my latest book, published by Fortress Press and due to appear early in 2016.
Why did I write this book?
Because I wanted to produce a study in the Christian doctrine of creation, and specifically theological anthropology, and I was not satisfied with the general state of scholarship in this area. Many books treat the doctrine of creation in a strictly theological way–without incorporating the results of scientific study. I was convinced that today theological engagement with the sciences is both necessary and salutary. Other books on creation do engage the sciences; however, the majority of these deal with cosmological issues (Big Bang cosmology, quantum physics) or with evolutionary theory. As important as these studies are, they don’t address the concrete realities of human nature. I was initially interested in the Christian idea of freedom and then realized that, relative to freedom, the main theological and pastoral concern of the Christian tradition is emotion (construed broadly enough to include feelings, affects, impulses and desires). It is emotion that is morally and spiritually problematic. Human rationality, on the contrary, is rarely regarded as a problem. Quite the contrary, the Christian tradition has usually identified the image of God with rationality. So, I thought I could contribute to Christian thought by reviewing the concept of emotion in the formative centuries of Christianity and by incorporating the insights of scientific research into a theological understanding of emotion and its relation to reason.
A brief description:
The Impassioned Life argues that theology’s task today is to rethink the nature of the emotions and their relation to human reason. Such rethinking is necessary because the Christian tradition feels ambivalently about the emotions. Armed with a commitment to body-soul dualism, many writers have equated the image of God with rationality and wondered whether emotion is an essential feature of human nature; however, the tradition has also affirmed the value of emotions such as love and compassion and has sometimes asserted the value of so-called negative emotions such as anger. The question, then, is whether the tradition’s pastoral insight into the importance of moderation and control of the emotions requires us to think dualistically about soul (identified with reason) and body (the seat of emotions). To answer this question, The Impassioned Life explores the vital resources of the Christian theological tradition and also of contemporary scientific and psychological research in order to achieve a more adequate theological understanding of the emotions and reason. At heart, it offers a holistic, integrated vision of the Christian life lived passionately in its full range of human feeling as life in the Spirit.
Status report:
I submitted a draft of the book to Fortress Press around June 1, 2015. Their acquisitions editor, Michael Gibson, has read through the draft and seems to like it. I just sent in promotional-information–list of possible endorsers, author information, and so on. Next stop: the tedious interaction with the copy editor, whose job it is to scrutinize the manuscript, looking for errors. The scheduled publication date is Spring 2016.
Thanks for asking.
Sam Powell
The Impassioned Life: Reason and Emotion in the Christian Tradition is my latest book, published by Fortress Press and due to appear early in 2016.
Why did I write this book?
Because I wanted to produce a study in the Christian doctrine of creation, and specifically theological anthropology, and I was not satisfied with the general state of scholarship in this area. Many books treat the doctrine of creation in a strictly theological way–without incorporating the results of scientific study. I was convinced that today theological engagement with the sciences is both necessary and salutary. Other books on creation do engage the sciences; however, the majority of these deal with cosmological issues (Big Bang cosmology, quantum physics) or with evolutionary theory. As important as these studies are, they don’t address the concrete realities of human nature. I was initially interested in the Christian idea of freedom and then realized that, relative to freedom, the main theological and pastoral concern of the Christian tradition is emotion (construed broadly enough to include feelings, affects, impulses and desires). It is emotion that is morally and spiritually problematic. Human rationality, on the contrary, is rarely regarded as a problem. Quite the contrary, the Christian tradition has usually identified the image of God with rationality. So, I thought I could contribute to Christian thought by reviewing the concept of emotion in the formative centuries of Christianity and by incorporating the insights of scientific research into a theological understanding of emotion and its relation to reason.
A brief description:
The Impassioned Life argues that theology’s task today is to rethink the nature of the emotions and their relation to human reason. Such rethinking is necessary because the Christian tradition feels ambivalently about the emotions. Armed with a commitment to body-soul dualism, many writers have equated the image of God with rationality and wondered whether emotion is an essential feature of human nature; however, the tradition has also affirmed the value of emotions such as love and compassion and has sometimes asserted the value of so-called negative emotions such as anger. The question, then, is whether the tradition’s pastoral insight into the importance of moderation and control of the emotions requires us to think dualistically about soul (identified with reason) and body (the seat of emotions). To answer this question, The Impassioned Life explores the vital resources of the Christian theological tradition and also of contemporary scientific and psychological research in order to achieve a more adequate theological understanding of the emotions and reason. At heart, it offers a holistic, integrated vision of the Christian life lived passionately in its full range of human feeling as life in the Spirit.
Status report:
I submitted a draft of the book to Fortress Press around June 1, 2015. Their acquisitions editor, Michael Gibson, has read through the draft and seems to like it. I just sent in promotional-information–list of possible endorsers, author information, and so on. Next stop: the tedious interaction with the copy editor, whose job it is to scrutinize the manuscript, looking for errors. The scheduled publication date is Spring 2016.
Thanks for asking.
Sam Powell
More Answered Questions
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how do i get the book discovering our christian faith online?
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