Shaping debate on religion in public life.

John Atherton’s Landmark New Book on Religion, Wealth & Wellbeing

3 Oct 2014

We are excited to celebrate the publication of John Atherton’s Challenging Religious Studies: the Wealth, Wellbeing and Inequalities of Nations by sharing an exclusive series of extracts on our website, in advance of the book’s publication later this month. This landmark new book represents a breakthrough in our understanding and development of the practices, ethics and theories of religious studies through engagement with the world of daily life and its breath-taking transformation since 1800, as revealed particularly in living standards, life expectancy and subjective wellbeing. John has been a member of the William Temple Foundation team for many years, and currently serves as a member of our board of trustees as well as an Associate Research Fellow of the Foundation.

The publication is already being celebrated for its rigorous treatment of the question of why religion is better at delivering greater subjective wellbeing and how it does so. Engaging with key related disciplines, experiences and practices, the book’s research encompasses economics, psychology, sociology and economic history. But it also increasingly offers religion the opportunity to participate in such developments but always and increasingly through collaboration with other such disciplines and experiences, and always with the objective of furthering the greater wellbeing of all people in and through their environments.

An exclusive series of three edited extracts will appear on the William Temple Foundation blog in advance of the book’s publication on 31st October.

The official book launch will take place at Reclaiming the Public Space: Archbishop William Temple 70th Anniversary Conference on Monday 10th November in Manchester.

Click here to book tickets.

Published by SCM Press, pre-orders are available here.

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4 Comments

William Temple Foundation | Challenging Religious Studies: Part 2

03/10/2014 08:00

[…] the second of a three part series to celebrate the publication of his landmark new book, William Temple Foundation Associate Research […]

William Temple Foundation | Challenging Religious Studies: Part 3

03/10/2014 08:00

[…] third and final edited extract from ‘Challenging Religious Studies: The Wealth, Wellbeing and Inequalities of Nations’ consists of the concluding note or ‘Afterword’ to the book. It summarises the whole necessary […]

William Temple Foundation | Food Poverty Reveals Britain’s Starved Political Imagination

03/10/2014 08:00

[…] material nature of our existence. As my colleague John Atherton has pointed out in his recent book Challenging Religious Studies: The Wealth, Wellbeing and Inequalities of Nations, calorific or nutritional deficiencies are sources of deprivation, and there was a point in the […]

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03/10/2014 08:00

[…] example John Atherton’s latest book reminds the Church (perhaps unfashionably) of the immense benefits, empirically proven, to humankind […]

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