A new volume with essays on EA from a religious perspectives is out.
The volume is open access. The first three chapters - after Lara Buchak's foreword - provide a general take on EA from a Buddhist, Christian, and Orthodox Jewish perspective. Among the other chapters, I would particularly like to highlight Stefan Riedener’s chapter. Given the focus on extinction risks in EA, his clear and helpful analysis from a Christian (more specifically: Thomist) perspective is a very valuable contribution.
How you can help: if you know academics in the field of religion, you can point them towards the volume or to one of these chapters. If you know anyone whom I should send a physical copy, let me know.
This volume is not the final word on the intersection of EA and Religion. It mostly consists of the written versions of papers given at the first - and exploratory - academic workshop on this theme. The book's main purpose is to get the ball rolling. Its aim is for EA to be taken seriously as a provider of important ideas in an area – religion – where altruism has long played a central role but where many EA themes (such as effectiveness, empirical evidence, etc) are often absent.
Important: this is an academic book about effective altruism rather than an outreach book making the case for effective altruism. However, for a Christian audience the latter is in the works as well. We hope to finish it in a couple of months. Thus, if you’d like to pass on something to Christian friends and family, this latter book will be the useful thing to pass on. We will post about it on the Forum once it’s out.
I'm not religious but (at a glance) I feel happy this book exists.
<3
This was good, thanks.
I am already working on EA from a religious perspective!
I have not had much contact with the movement proper, but I’m familiar with it through my friend. I thought I was the only one working on EA as manifested in religious work!
I mastered out of my biomedical engineering PhD program doing brain cancer research to join a practical theology PhD program. I just made an account on my phone, so I don’t know the forum rules, but I’d love to connect with the authors and anyone else reading this who is interested in the intersection of EA and religion!
Hi Sean,
I would be glad to connect with you to discuss EA and religion (especially Christianity!) Would you have time for a short call about this? https://calendly.com/jdbauman
Hey JD and Sean, did you guys ever end up getting connected?
Sincerely,
Someone else interested in the intersection of EA and religion (and also JD's friend)
Thanks, we did!
As someone who has studied religion at university, I've been patiently waiting for more conversations about this. I'm not religious myself, but I'm looking forward to reading about these perspectives.
Thank you so much getting this volume published. Had a quick look on the Jewish view chapter and looks credible and comprehensive. Putting it on my reading list and will try to spread the word.
Thanks!
Congratulations Dominic!