Syzygy: Love Made Strange

Abstract : This paper argues that there can be an intimate, non‐marital loving communion between two persons or, sometimes, two groups. The Christian tradition has its own concept, syzygy, for such love. An awareness of this forgotten tradition may be valuable in discussing some broader problems in the church, such as rivalry between different parties or homosexuality. The syzygic relationship of love and rivalry is characteristic of some well‐known biblical and mythological narratives.     

“野人“怪象

我们这个时代出现的怪物和怪论,比以往任何时代毫不逊色,神秘主义一派繁荣.不是吗?在喜马拉雅山雪地,在神农架森林,在北美大陆,有一种形体或大或小,毛色或红或灰的行为敏捷、直立行走的人形动物--“野人“.对于那些通俗读物和小报的读者说,是多么好的饭后谈资.……     

The Strange New World in the Church:

Hauerwas's refusal to translate the argument displayed in With the Grain of the Universe (his recent Gifford Lectures) into language that “anyone” can understand is itself part of the argument. Consequently, readers will not understand what Hauerwas is up to until they have attained fluency in the peculiar language that has epitomized three decades of Hauerwas's scholarship. Such fluency is not easily gained. Nevertheless, in this review essay, I situate Hauerwas's baffling language against the backdrop of his corpus to show at least this much: With the Grain of the Universe transforms natural theology into “witness.” In the end, my essay may demonstrate what many have feared, that Hauerwas is, in fact, a Christian apologist—though of a very ancient sort.     

How Whites Should Live in This Strange Place

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that Samantha Vice is correct to claim that whites should feel shame and regret, though perhaps not guilt, at their whiteness. She is wrong, however, to suggest that there is a sense in which whites should live in silence and humility, and withdraw from public political space. In particular, I argue that this latter claim has absurd consequences, since it implies a withdrawal from non-public and non-political spaces also. Besides, whites, as complex selves, face conflicting reasons for action which Vice insufficiently grapples with. I conclude, however, that Vice is best interpreted as rightly suggesting that whites should live in careful reflective self-awareness of how their whiteness, and whiteliness, unfairly privileges them, still. This is preferable advice to Vice’s notions of silence and humility which are rightly but unnecessarily susceptible to confusion and compelling counterargument. Or so I argue.     

Strange situation behavior of infants with adolescent mothers

Forty 6-month-old infants and their adolescent mothers were observed interacting at home and in Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure when the infants were 14 months old. There were significantly more A-group infants (45%) and fewer C-group infants (3%) at 14 months in this sample of adolescent mothers than in other samples of adult mothers. Furthermore, A-group attachments were more common when levels of dyadic engagement at 6 months had been lower, and future A-group infants were less vocal at 6 months than were future B-group infants. At 6 months, mothers of future B-group infants provided more care than did mothers of future A-group infants. These findings provide some support for claims that adolescent mothers provide parenting of lower quality than adult mothers and that quality of early interactions may predict subsequent infant behavior in the Strange Situation.