Now Reading: Faculty Books

Spring 2025
By Amy McCaig, Avery Franklin and Lynn Gosnell

Beyond Dialogue
Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims
Craig Considine
Polity Press, 2025

In “Beyond Dialogue: Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims,” Rice sociologist Craig Considine presents a new perspective on fostering harmony between the two faiths, highlighting the deep historical and cultural ties between Western and Islamic societies.

“Cultivating a spirit of harmony and unity is not merely a moral imperative but a practical necessity,” he says. The book explores Christian-Muslim relations across seven regions marked by conflict and misunderstanding, presenting both challenges and opportunities for bridge building. Through a blend of historical analysis and contemporary insights, Considine underscores the mutual values shared by these Abrahamic traditions, emphasizing themes of compassion, justice and community.
 

In a world increasingly defined by division, the bonds between Christianity and Islam are not just historical artifacts but living bridges to a shared future.

Considine introduces a tool called the DEUCE framework — dialogue, education, understanding, commitment and engagement — intended to guide interfaith initiatives. This practical frame equips readers with strategies for nurturing unity in divided communities, particularly in regions plagued by fear and violence.

“In a world increasingly defined by division, the bonds between Christianity and Islam are not just historical artifacts but living bridges to a shared future,” he said. — AM

Craig Considine is senior lecturer in sociology at Rice.

Religion in a Changing Workplace
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Denise Daniels and Christopher P. Scheitle
Oxford University Press, 2024

For the past two decades, sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund has dived deep into questions about religion, science and work. Her funded research has produced countless scholarly articles and nine books, including, most recently, “Religion in a Changing Workplace” with co-authors Denise Daniels and Christopher P. Scheitle. 

The book draws on more than 15,000 surveys and 300 in-depth interviews. The authors argue that embracing religious diversity in the workplace helps foster diversity of other kinds and that their data can show managers, organizational leaders and workers how to engage thoughtfully and respectfully with religion in the workplace. 

“The workplace in the midst of these fraught times is a place we need to turn to, a place we need to examine, if we want to understand what it really means to get along with each other while expressing our deepest differences — what, in effect, a healthy religious pluralism really looks like,” Howard says.

The interviews repeatedly showed that the workplace is one of the only sectors of society where people are likely to meet those who are different from themselves, the authors explained. — AF

Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, professor of sociology, and director of the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice. Christopher Scheitle is associate professor of sociology at West Virginia University. Denise Daniels is the Hudson T. Harrison Professor of Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College.

The Colors of Life
Exploring Life Experience Through Color and Emotion
Marcia Brennan
Routledge, 2025  

Can a textbook written for middle school students find a home on a syllabus for premed college students? For Marcia Brennan, the answer is assuredly yes.  

“There is literally nowhere you can’t take the subjects of color and emotion,” writes Brennan, an award-winning professor of religion and art history at Rice, in the introduction to her new textbook, “The Colors of Life: Exploring Life Experience Through Color and Emotion.”

Brennan’s research and teaching ranges widely across topics in medical humanities, spirituality and art history, and she has published numerous scholarly works in these areas. This book, along with a companion guide for teachers and parents titled “Approaching SEL Through Emotion and Color,” is designed to support a pedagogical rubric called social and emotional learning — an integration of thinking, emotions and behavior.
 

There is literally nowhere you can’t take the subjects of color and emotion.

Each of the 12 chapters is an invitation to a “school of color,” containing stories and poems about each color, exercises, and field trip suggestions for experiential learning, visualization and reflection. For example, “The School of Green” explores living systems and the natural world — there are stories about Earth’s abundance, renewal, community and vibrancy. The softcover textbook features many original illustrations produced by Rice students Madison Zhao ’25 and Hannah Li ’25.

Brennan’s textbook duo is a key component of her course RELI 142/MDHM 142: The Colors of Life and the End of Life. The course draws not only from humanities scholarship, but also from her work as a literary artist in the field of psychosocial oncology. The class is popular with STEM-oriented learners and students planning to enter the health care professions or who, one day, will serve as caregivers. — LG

Marcia Brennan is the Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Humanities and professor of religion and art history. Since 2009, she has served as artist in residence in the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center.