Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension

This book is the first concerted effort to explore implications of radical life extension from the perspective of the world's major religious traditions. Introductory chapters outline the state of the science.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Living For 1,000 Years - Or Longer / Co-Editors Derek F. Maher and Calvin Mercer * Radical Life Extension: Technological Aspects / Aubrey de Grey * The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension / Preston Estep * Be Careful What You Wish For? Radical Life Extension coram Deo: A Reformed Protestant Perspective / Nigel M. de S. Cameron and Amy DeBaets * Extreme Longevity Research: A Progressive Protestant Perspective / Ronald Cole-Turner * Becoming Yet More Like God: A Jewish Perspective on Radical Life Extension / Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff * Karma, Austerity, and Time-Cycles: Jainism and Radical Life Extension / Sherry Fohr * Told You So: Extreme Longevity and Daoist Realization / Livia Kohn * Churning the Ocean of Milk: Imaging the Hindu Tantric Response to Radical Life Technologies / Jeffrey Lidke in collaboration with Jacob W. Dirnberger * Two Wings of a Bird: Radical Life Extension from a Buddhist Perspective / Derek F. Maher * ...A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity / Aisha Y. Musa * Radical Life Extension: Implications for Roman Catholicism / Terence L. Nichols * "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

About the Author :
Dr. Derek F. Maher is Co-Director of the Religious Studies Program and teaches courses on Buddhism, Islam, methodology, and religion and violence. Dr. Calvin Mercer is Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University, where he recently received a "Scholar-Teacher" award and is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Studies Program.

Review :
"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