Synopsis
Anthropology — the study of man — is unlike every other study because humans are its subject.  And because we are its subject we cannot manage the philosophic and emotional distance necessary to see clearly.  Unable to stand apart from ourselves to comprehend our own truth, we are compelled to assume things about ourselves that we cannot prove.  In a word, anthropology begins in faith.  Lloyd Sandelands approaches the anthropological quest for God by comparing the faiths of modern social science and of the Christian church.

Sandelands describes the social scientific faith articulated by Hume, Kant, Rousseau, Schopenhauer among others, as an imagined state of nature that sees the individual as solitary, self-sufficient, and contented.  By contrast, the Christian faith unites us as male and female persons in one flesh before God.  the challenge in the author's view is to decide which faith to build our lives upon.  Sandelands poses questions about the basic terms of human study—what is a person, and what is society?—and how do the different metaphysics of science and Church lead to different anthropologies?

A worthwhile anthropology must address the questions of what constitutes human freedom, desire, and the nature of the good.  Comparing the answers given by science and by the church, he finds that the one paradoxically denies freedom, denies want, and denies the good, while the other affirms freedom, affirms want, and affirms the good.  Between these two anthropologies he finds there is but one true study of man. 

A companion to Sandelands' Man and Nature in God, his most recent book, An Anthropological Defense of God attempts to establish that an anthropology in God succeeds where an anthropology in science fails.  Such success is measured not only by its ideas and findings about man, but even more by its wisdom in teaching us how to live.

Reviews:

"Based on the perspective, understanding, and wisdom offered by the Church this insightful and provocative book challenges many assumptions of modern social science.  It speaks to desires and longings that social scientific approaches often don't even begin to grasp, and reminds us that these longings are central to our existence as whole persons.  I strongly recommend it." —Jean M. Bartunek, Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Chair and professor of organization studies, Boston College.

"This is a deeply provocative book that is also intensely person.  Sandelands writes with clarity and elegance, making one of the most profound of all subjects—God—immensely understandable.  Through his private reflections and scholarly analyses, Sandelands is enlightening.  He invites the reader to share his passion for the divine and to come to understand his God.  It is a thoughtful and engaging work that is sure to challenge one's beliefs in the divine." —Mary Ann Glynn, fellow, Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics and professor of organization studies, Boston College.

Synopsis
Contemporary American life is tinged with dissatisfaction. Increased wealth and comfort and technological advances have not made individuals happier or society more companionable. Today Americans marry later or not at all, and they fail at marriage as often as they succeed. Man and Nature in God is a story of contemporary American decadence, a grim tale of our flagging relation to nature, a tale confirmed at the center of our sexual lives. Sandelands grounds his critique in a modern philosophical error. We have conflated a particular metaphysical outlook - the subjective standpoint of science - with our relationship, as humans, to nature. We fail to see that however much we may learn about nature by treating it as object to our subject, we cannot in this way learn what we most want and most need to know about nature and about ourselves. Answers to such questions as "How are we related to nature?" and "How are we to think and act truly in nature" continue to elude us. Cast as ideology by the "isms" of humanism, naturalism, and mongrel postmodernism, today's subjective standpoint has turned the question of truth into a question of politics. The unhappy result has been and continues to be...

Synopsis
This book is a work of philosophy concerning how we should think about social life. Whereas social science has traditionally been a study of social physics (a study of material individuals that interact in time and space) it must become a study of social life (a study of the vital forms and feelings of an inherently social species). Working upon an image of life as a branching tree, the book makes a case for a concept of social life founded upon a study of three fundamental dynamics: love, play, and individuation.

Synopsis
Sex is a theoretical puzzle because it is much older than we are. A primary fact of biology, sex has defined society from nearly the beginning of life on earth, and as a result we cannot see its effects in our lives in evolutionary comparisons with near primate or mammalian relatives. Sex is a puzzle, too, because it is often misconstrued in social science. It is not, as many social scientists believe, a mere feature of a person, like hair or skin color. Rather it is a part played in the life of the species. This propensity to view sex as a personal feature has kept social science from seeing how sex figures in the social life of the species. Male and Female in Social Life presents a theoretical framework to describe how sex (the division of our species between male and female) brings life and order to society. It argues that sex is the mainspring of social life and it tells us the most about social dynamics and forms. The book centers on five chapters that describe four "moments" of human social life. Following an introduction, chapter 2 begins with the first moment of social life - unity

Synopsis
Despite the significant contributions of Durkheim, Freud, Kroeber, Mead, Asch, Giddens, and others, social science remains uncertain about its founding idea of society. There is little certainty about what, if anything, is created when people come together in a romantic pair, a family, a club, a work team, a business corporation, or a nation state, which only leads to important philosophical problems for social scientists and practitioners. Feeling and Form in Social Life shows how a vigorous and practical science of society can be built. Drawing in part from the philosophy of Susanne Langer, Lloyd Sandelands reveals human societies to be forms of life known intuitively as feelings of a whole rather than as observed interactions of persons. These feelings, which are personal and subjective, are made public and objective by the uniquely human capacity for artistic abstraction. Through art, people turn invisible feelings and forms of society into visible objects and performances that can be shared and studied scientifically. The book brings this idea of society to life with diverse examples of social feelings and forms expressed in a stadium chant, folk dance, gift ritual, tree symbols, photograph, and organization chart. Sandelands concludes with a powerful discussion of the implications of this idea for expanding the scope of social science and for resolving its persistent underlying confusions.

Reviews
"Marvelously argued, this book presents a fundamental challenge to much of contemporary social science."
- Mayer N. Zald, University of Michigan

"Sandelands' is a wonderfully creative and challenging thesis, virtually a prolegomenon for new forms of inquiry into organized social life. The rich and sensitive blending of social science, philosophy, history and art places it in a class of its own, and will give rebirth to intuition and the senses in understanding our lives together."- Kenneth J. Gergen, Swarthmore College, author of Realities and Relationships.

"Sandelands' writing is lively, his observation of social relations is sympathetic, and his pursuit of understanding is infectious. Students will be drawn not just to the ideas of sociology and anthropology, but to a sense of why these fields matter."- Craig Calhoun, New York University