Emory Law School: CSLR Awarded Grants to Study Pursuit of Happiness

From the press release:

The John Templeton Foundation has awarded a grant of $750,000 to the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) at Emory University for research on the ancient ideal of “the pursuit of happiness.” The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (IRUL) at Case Western Reserve University collaborated with the CSLR to make the project possible.

Titled “The Pursuit of Happiness: Scientific, Theological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Love of God, Neighbor, and Self,” the research project begins in the Fall of 2006 and will run five years with a total budget of $1.5 million. It will analyze the concept of “the pursuit of happiness” using the methods and insights of science, theology, ethics, law, politics, and the behavioral sciences. Eighteen distinguished scholars from a variety of specialties will collaborate as senior fellows, and each will be expected to write a book or a series of articles. The fellows also will distill their work into popular articles and deliver public lectures on the Emory campus.

The project is unusual in its emphasis and methodology. The senior fellows will consider happiness at the intersection of two axes. One axis is the relationship between personal fulfillment or wellbeing and unselfish love. The other axis is the relationship between the teachings of religious traditions and the findings of science....