“We don’t electric shock children. Even I wouldn’t do that,” Coan reassured the audience, with an infectious laugh.

At , Coan delivered a .” That presentation was published as a chapter in the conference book, (Cascade Books, 2013).

On March 10, 2014, Coan brought his chock-a-block Powerpoint slides back to EMU for another entertaining, anecdote-filled lecture about his neuroscience research on how simply holding a loved one’s hand can regulate stress in threatening situations.

Research shows calming effect of companionship

In his lab, Coan shows subjects threat cues on a screen that indicate a one-in-five chance of receiving a small electric shock to the ankle. Using an MRI scanner and cutting-edge brain-mapping tools, he and his colleagues observe blood flow through various regions of their brains when exposed to this threat of pain.

These threat cues and shocks are administered under three conditions: with the subjects alone, while holding the hands of strangers and while holding their spouses’ hands.

Coan and his team of researchers found that holding a loved one’s hand during stressful and threatening situations causes a big decrease in the response to threat when compared to being alone or holding a stranger’s hand.

In cases when their subjects, reassured by a spouse’s presence, showed a decreased threat response, Coan and other neuroscientists expected an alternate sector of the brain to “light up.” Curiously, however, they found that no other area of the brain was doing this. This suggests, Coan says, that an expected function of the test subject’s brain was being “outsourced” to another person.

“In traditional psychology, we see the individual – the single person – as our unit of analysis. But what if that isn’t the case?” asks Coan. Accordingly, he and his fellow researchers have proposed an alternative perspective, which they call “social-baseline theory.”

Interdependence as a survival strategy

Humans are not designed to efficiently solve problems alone, Coan continues. “We are designed to be interdependent, always and constantly to be placed in a social frame,” he says. Alone, we have to devote more of our brain’s resources to solving problems and responding to threats. “If you are by yourself, the world is a more daunting place.”

He saved the “weirdest” (his descriptor) bit for last as he postulated what folks from the world’s religious traditions will readily affirm: The “self” is extendable and dynamic, distributed and malleable, and most at home when connected to a healthy community.

The significance of Coan’s research, says , professor of , is its suggestion that life “is much less daunting … in a community in which you can trust that people are there for you in a moment of need.” The bright side of community in the Anabaptist tradition – “sending help to a far corner of the world or a sign-up list for bringing meals to someone who has fallen sick” – is, however, not the complete picture.

Early points to “the shadow-side of community: betrayal, conflict and histories of abuse. If we want to take seriously our mission to bring healing to the world, we will need to accept that that includes the inner world as well.”

Coan’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Time, BBC News, Discovery Channel and other major media outlets, and his groundbreaking research with John Gottman appeared in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink. He also has about . (Interestingly, his first paper describing the hand-holding research was rejected by six journals prior to its 2006 publication.)

His visit was co-sponsored by Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society and EMU’s .

One of the 20th century’s great thinkers, Holmes Rolston III, offered a small ripple of his big-vision thoughts – on cherishing the environment and feeling awe for the evolution of life – with two low-key presentations in a morning chapel and an afternoon colloquium at 草莓社区 on October 23.

Rolston summed up his message with these pithy words: “The start-up looks like a set-up.”

In the colloquium, Rolston focused on whether the big-bang origin of all matter and its subsequent exponential movement toward increasing complexity and diversity possibly “signals a transcendent presence” in the universe. He stressed that what occurred during the first few microseconds of time following the big bang has led through various uniquely synchronized processes to precisely what was necessary to eventually support the beginnings of the forms of life known to us today.

Referencing his latest book, (Columbia University Press, 2010), Rolston elaborated on three big-bang points he sees over billions of years: (1) the start-up of the universe, involving the origin of matter-energy; (2) the explosion of life on earth; and (3) the development of the human mind.

Awesome human brain

Rolston pointed out that the human brain emerged suddenly about 1.5-2 million years ago and became the fastest growing organ yet seen. The development in humans of the ability to speak and form words to communicate has made non-genetic learning possible, using sophisticated methods of transmitting knowledge and culture. Unique to humans, Rolston argued, was the development of self-consciousness, leading us to detect the presence of something greater than ourselves.

In spite of the awesome capacity of the human mind today, Rolston emphasized that “some things are over our heads [and] … we just don’t know,” as in the question of whether evolution has happened due to design, chance, necessity or other factors.

Rolston’s talk drew faculty members and administrators from almost every corner of the campus – , , , , , , , , , , , , , graduate studies, and the .

Rolston was clearly at home with his material – moving efficiently through his lecture points, echoed on his PowerPoint slides – before he concluded by showing an iconic scene from the 1968 movie 2001 Space Odyssey regarding the gap between a primate’s ability to wield a bone as a hammer and humans’ space travel.

Father of environmental ethics

Rolston is credited with being the first scholar to articulate a philosophical basis for protecting the environment from human abuse. He thus helped to usher in the environmental protection movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He has written numerous books, book chapters and journal articles on the subject, including Environmental Ethics (Temple University Press, 1988) and Conserving Natural Value (Columbia University Press, 1994)

At age 80, Rolston is one of several dozen living recipients of the prestigious , awarded annually since 1972 to an individual “who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.” Rolston was the 2003 recipient, joining such influential people as Mother Teresa, Nobel Physics Laureate Charles Hard Townes, novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Prison Fellowship founder Charles W. Colson, and the Dalai Lama. The 2013 Templeton Prize went to Desmond Tutu, along with $1.7 million in award money.

says he has written chapters in 80 books and over 100 articles and been cited by scholars over 1,000 times. It says his words have been translated, reviewed and cited in journals and books in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Finnish, Czechoslovakian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovenian, Slovak, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.

Native of the Valley

During his visit to EMU, Rolston alluded to growing up in the Shenandoah Valley, in Staunton, as the son and grandson of Presbyterian pastors. In his first adult career, he became an ordained minister and served as a Presbyterian pastor for nine years.

“I grew up barefoot, roaming the woods, in the rural countryside. I always had a kind of interest in the natural world that came from … having spent a lot of time with the ground under my feet and the sky over my head,” he said in a 1997 article in the Denver Post’s Empire Magazine.

After earning a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1958 and an MA in the philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1968, Rolston gained renown for his arguments in favor of viewing the natural world as having intrinsic value beyond its usefulness to humans; Rolston felt there was a religious imperative for respecting nature or creation. Others, such as poets, painters and explorers, had expressed such feelings, but Rolston was one of the first to approach the topic as an academic philosopher, laying the groundwork for the field of environmental ethics.

Rolston has been based at Colorado State University since the late 1960s and was named Distinguished Professor there in 1992. In 1997-98, he was the at the University of Edinburgh, joining an illustrious group of lecturers since 1881 that includes Reinhold Niebuhr, John Dewey, Albert Schweitzer, Arnold Toynbee, Iris Murdoch, Charles Taylor and Steven Pinker.

Rolston visited EMU as a guest of the , an EMU group promoting dialogue between science and Christian faith.

A noted Christian leader for social change will speak 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, in Lehman Auditorium.

Jim Wallis, founder and editor of “” magazine, activist and international commentator on ethics and public life, will address issues of social justice and moral politics espoused in his latest book, “God’s Politics.”

Wallis was a founder of “Sojourners” – Christians for justice and peace – more than 30 years ago and continues to edit the magazine, covering faith, politics and culture, with a combined print and electronic media readership of more than 100,000 people.

In 1995, Wallis was instrumental in forming “Call to Renewal,” a national federation of churches, denominations and faith-based organizations from across the theological and political spectrum working to overcome poverty.

Wallis speaks at more than 200 events a year, and his columns appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers.

His most recent book, “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” (Harper Collins, 2005), debuted at No. 4 on the New York Times’ best-sellers list and remained there for 16 weeks. He offers regular commentary and analysis for radio and television and teaches a course at Harvard University on “Faith, Politics and Society.”

Wallis lives in inner-city Washington, D.C., with his wife, Joy, and their sons, Luke and Jack.

The is a student-initiated endeavor to bring well- known speakers on campus to address socially relevant issues. Sponsorship for this event comes in part from , and the .

A $5 donation is suggested at the door.

The at 草莓社区 will sponsor a by Dr. Nancey Murphey, "From Neurons to Politics – Without a Soul," 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.

Dr. Murphy, a professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif, will draw her remarks from her book, "Whatever Happened to the Soul: Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature."

Murphy received a BA degree in philosophy and psychology from Creighton University, a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and a ThD from from the Graduate Theological Union.

Her first book, "Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning" (Cornell, 1990), won the American Academy of Religion award for excellence and a Templeton Prize for outstanding books in science and theology. She is author of seven other books and co-editor of seven volumes.

Her research interests focus on the role of modern and postmodern philosophy in shaping Christian theology and on relations between theology and science.

She is on the board of directors of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and former chair of the board.

Dr. William Hawk, professor of philosophy at James Madison University, and Dr. Myron Augsburger, EMU professor emeritus, will respond to Murphy’s presentation.

Refreshments will be served 15 minutes prior to the program. Admission is free.

A group of EMU faculty from a cross-section of departments are seeking to improve growing conditions in this arena by forming the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society (SASS) for constructive engagement of science and religion.

The group has received a three-year, $15,000 matching grant administered by the the , a Philadelphia, Pa.-based organization, with funding from the John Templeton Foundation.

One of the SASS organizers is Kenton T. Derstine, director of (CPE) at . He said that the Metanexus funds “will be used to support ongoing study and discussion groups, bring outside speakers on the subject to campus, support publications that emerge from the group’s work, organize conferences and provide other forms of outreach in the larger Shenandoah Valley area.”

Events and special presentations “will be open to all interested people from the broader community,” Derstine said.

Another steering commmittee member, Roman J. Miller, professor of at EMU, said the Society “will provide resources and a formal context to encourage the integration of Christian faith – particularly in its Anabaptist expression and convictions concerning peacemaking and service.”

“The Society will help deepen our faculty’s collaborative work across departments and disciplines as well as provide opportunities for students to benefit both from ongoing discussions and outside resource persons brought to campus,” Dr. Miller said. “We expect that students will gain important practical experience in helping with the organizational work and in learning more about major real-world issues at the intersection of science and Christian faith,” he added.

Society activities have started over the Thursday noon hour in the east dining room with a weekly discussion of the book, “Whatever Happened to the Soul: Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature,” by Nancey Murphy and others. Discussion leaders are Theodore (Ted) Grimsrud and Christian Early of EMU’s department. The book’s author will be on campus Oct. 27 to interact with faculty, students and community persons.

SASS membership is open to EMU students, faculty and staff and community persons, including faculty and students from neighboring academic institutions. Membership dues are $5 for students and $10 for others. For more information, contact Ann G. Hershberger of the EMU department, (432-4190 or hershbea@emu.edu) or Kenton T. Derstine of the seminary (432-4565 or derstine@emu.edu).