Honesty when lighting votive candles in church: another look

An informal 3-yr. follow-up enquiry of a prior study suggested that the use of electrical, rather than wax, candles seemingly is not a variable relevant to peoples' behavior in paying for lighting votive candles in church. Also, the number of people paying apparently continues to decline: now down (from about 30 percent in 2003) to approximately 25 percent.     

The Sabbath as dialectic: Implications for mental health

Jewish tradition established the Sabbath as a special day. Its observance was both part of a religious tradition and an example of psychological health. This article explores the values and attitudes that underlie Sabbath observance, identifies some of the themes and behaviors most characteristic of these observances, and relates these to current mental health practices.     

Transitional phenomena as evidenced in prayer

In this paper, we demonstrate that the study of prayer facilitates understanding of the deeply personal object related nature of religious experience. Within prayer, individuals enter the transitional sphere and meet their God representation. Both conscious and unconscious aspects of prayer can be made available through the use of a projective test developed by the authors, known as STARR: Spiritual Themes and Religious Responses test. The data obtained suggest the usefulness of Winnicottian concepts of transitional phenomena, playing, communicating, and capacity to be alone as a contemporary psychoanalytic framework for interpreting religious experience.     

祈祷词——在老子诞辰纪念法会上

伏以仲春协序,丁临月望之辰;红可呈瑞,适际真元之节。今据中华人民共和国北京市白云观内中国道教协会洎各地玄裔道侣,沐手焚香,奉道陈情,庆贺诞辰。百拜摅诚,志心皈命,太上老君混元上德皇帝道德天尊玉几下。恭惟金液炼形,玉英孕秀。得一二三生生之蕴,显八十一化化之灵。紫气东来,著道德以开明玄奥。青牛西去,施教化而隐显莫测。其往无涯,其来无迹。德而不德。玄之又玄。伏惟祈冀:圣德昭彰,玄风丕振。挽战乱之颓风,世界以和平。国安民丰,时和岁稔。政通人和,元首吉庆。厉气消散,邪魔归正。齐同博爱,互敬以诚。化干戈为玉帛,释冤愆为祥和。永…     

The priest as counsellor: An investigation of critical incidents in the pastoral work of catholic priests

Given the number of priests engaged in the apostolate and considering the interpersonal nature of most of their tasks it is remarkable that despite the number of books and articles written on the priesthood, it appears there has been no attempt to empirically examine and typify the interpersonal context of priestly practice. This paper presents the results of an investigation which was undertaken to identify and analyze what actually happens at the priest-priest and priest-layperson interace apropos interpersonal communication in the pastoral work of catholic priests. The paper provides a picture of critical incidents in interpersonal interactions. It presents a report of the central communication problems in priestly work using an ethnographic approach to sketch and analyze the range of factors which impinge on the interpersonal process. The results indicate that counselling skills form a key part of the day-to-day work of the priest.     

Attending to the Sabbath: An Alternative Direction in Karl Barth's Theology of Prayer

Most accounts of Karl Barth's theology of prayer focus on the active dimensions of prayer, as prioritized in the formal sections on prayer in the Church Dogmatics. This leads to the suspicion that Barth has little time for the contemplative and reflective dimensions of prayer. This article will complement the existing approaches by broadening the scope of inquiry from the formal prayer‐sections into other, less obvious areas of the Dogmatics to uncover an alternative, contemplative, direction in Barth's theology of prayer. It will suggest, therefore, that attending to his rich but often‐neglected account of the Sabbath affords the opportunity to begin the work of reassessing Barth's relation to the contemplative tradition.     

Performing gender justice: the 2005 woman-led prayer in New York

On March 18, 2005, a group of American Muslim women and men participated in a Friday prayer led by Dr. Amina Wadud, who also gave the Friday sermon. Widely publicized in various media and debated among Muslims around the world, this event was hailed as a turning point in Muslim gender discourses by the organizers and many media representatives. This article describes the prayer as a performance and argues that the organizers, participants, and media representatives all participated in the production of meaning embodied by the prayer. According to the organizers, the achievement of Qur'anic gender justice required changes in Muslim communities, and various forms of media were of vital importance for the discussion and realization of this goal. As such, the prayer was an act of symbolic significance, which despite its discursive, spatial, and temporal limitations, became much more than an act of Islamic worship.     

Woman as Vulnerable Self: The Trope of Maternity in Levinas's Otherwise Than Being

Much due criticism has been directed at Levinas's images of the feminine and “the Woman” in Time and the Other and Totality and Infinity, but less attention has been paid to the metaphor of maternity and the maternal body that Levinas employs in Otherwise Than Being. This metaphor should be of interest, however, because here we find an instance in which Levinas uses a female image without in any way seeming to exclude women from full ethical selfhood. In the first three sections of this paper I explain how maternity functions in Otherwise Than Being. I argue that maternity is used as (1) an image of the vulnerability or passive sensibility that characterizes the relation with the Other, as well as (2) a metaphor for Levinas's account of ethical responsibility as substitution. In the final section of the paper, I defend the claim that Levinas's maternal metaphors are not disparaging to real, empirical women. I also discuss a remaining worry that feminists may have about the metaphor: namely, that it characterizes pregnancy and motherhood in ways that challenge some pro‐choice assumptions.     

Kate Hevner Mueller: Woman for a Changing World

Kate Hevner Mueller was a pioneer, not only in student affairs administration but also in the graduate-level preparation of student affairs staff and in the education of women for diverse roles in society. At the same time, she was a scholar of many interests, from psychometrics to aesthetic expression, who made a lasting contribution to the knowledge and literature of student affairs. Mueller's personal papers included extensive autobiographical reflections on her life and her experiences as a teacher, researcher, and mentor. These writings, as well as the recollections of her students and colleagues, were fashioned into the “interview” that follows.     

Using prayer in psychotherapy: applying Sue's differential to enhance culturally competent care

In this article, the authors discuss the application of Sue's cultural competence differential of hypothesis testing, dynamic sizing, and cultural specific expertise as a model for considering cultural factors in the treatment of an African American family. Three cultural dimensions are highlighted: spirituality, womanism, and community exposure to trauma. Given the centrality of spirituality for this African American family, prayer is used to facilitate the therapeutic process. Discussion from a womanist perspective highlights the spiritual, communal, and personal dimensions that the aunt faces as an African American woman. Consideration of the community context and potential exposure to trauma and loss allows for a fuller appreciation of the psychosocial context of the nephew. Sue's differential guides the case discussion.     

Somatic Countertransference as Evidence of Adhesive Identification in a Severely Traumatized Woman

This paper discusses the use of somatic countertransference as a means of learning about the patient, about projective and adhesive identification and about the object relating nature of the most traumatized and withdrawn part of the personality. It assumes an elemental knowledge of British Object Relations and uses clinical material to illustrate the hypotheses that somatic countertransference is an indicator of a very elemental communication occurring from the aspect of the psyche that is united in a body mind or mind body. The paper assumes that this body mind was object seeking at birth and perhaps before. Because these early aspects of the personality are non verbal and non conceptual, the analyst must rely not only on the verbal material in a session but on the emotional and sensual experiences within the transference and the countertransference. Such reliance requires a faith in one’s own intuition without a certainty that one is “right.” Because speaking of such early experience is difficult, often writers and analysts appear more certain than they are. This is a hazard of this type of analytic work. What I am writing about is conjecture or imagination or dream, but I am suggesting that such dream work is a valuable tool for analysis.     

Silver linings and candles in the dark: differences among positive coping strategies in predicting subjective well-being

Ideal coping strategies enhance positive aspects of well-being as well as reduce distress. Although researchers have identified several "positive coping" strategies, it is unclear which are most strongly associated with well-being or whether all strategies are equally appropriate for all kinds of stressors. Participants completed well-being measures, and described the most negative event of the day and their emotion regulation strategies for the next 7 days. Dispositional use of positive emotion-inducing coping strategies was most strongly associated with positive aspects of well-being. Use of positive coping did not decrease with increased objective stress during the week, and use of particular strategies was partly predicted by the types of stressors that were reported. Implications for theories of positive coping are discussed.