WELCOME...

Carol Rausch Albright's work and writing examine the relationships among neuroscience, religious experience, theology, and complexity studies.

Albright's early work with campus ministry involved considerable theological training but at that time no career path was available for women in theology, and so she moved into publishing.

During the extended final illness of her first husband, and then as a single parent, Albright wrote encyclopedia articles for five years and a newsletter for physicians for ten years, learning considerable science and medicine along the way. She also edited college textbooks, especially in psychology and business. Savvy in publishing led to work advising theological faculties on how to get their work finished and into print. Albright's interests in both religion and science came together in work as executive editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science.

In 1991 she married physicist John R. Albright, who is also active in the science-and-religion dialogue. Together, the Albrights ran programs for the John Templeton Foundation and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, attended dozens of conferences, heard a great many lectures and delivered a few, and became well acquainted within this community of scholars. In fact, she organized a good many of these conferences herself.

Background in medicine and psychology, gained from previous writing and editing, helped lead to her research specialization in neuroscience, religion, and complexity. As far as she knows--and somewhat to her chagrin--she is the first U.S. Lutheran woman to publish a book of constructive theology (Ashbrook & Albright, The Humanizing Brain, 1997).

The Humanizing Brain has been required reading in courses at a variety of colleges and universities, including Columbia University, The University of Vermont, St. Louis University, and Ouchita Baptist University. The University of Santa Clara offers a course "Religion and Modernity," covering Descartes, Nietsche, Freud, Jung, and Ashbrook & Albright. A similar course has been taught at Georgetown University.