Christianity: Maidservant to War?

In this multi‐book review article, the author examines three new texts that make the case for a deeper, richer understanding of the Christian tradition of nonviolence. All three authors argue that traditions of nonviolence, and misgivings and suspicion regarding the sanctioned shedding of blood, are central to the understanding and practice of Christianity, and deserve to be taken more seriously by researchers and practitioners alike.     

The motivation to breastfeed: a fit to the opponent-process theory?

The opponent-process theory, a dynamic model of acquired motivation presented by Solomon and Corbit (1974), was applied to the process of breastfeeding. A modified form of the Nowlis Mood Adjective Checklist (MACL, Nowlis, 1965, 1970) and a discomfort measure were used in assessing through recall the affective course predicted by the theory. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and correlational procedures. Results were highly significant: Women who breastfed for relatively long periods recalled positive affective responses while the baby was at breast and a subsequent negative or dysphoric response. The additional characteristics of acquired motivation, habituation, and withdrawal, were also evidenced in the data. As a control for possible confounding demand characteristics inherent in the methodology, a sample of childless women was surveyed using an "as-if" form of the same questionnaire. Very little similarity to the breastfeeders was found in the pattern of responses yielded by this group. It was concluded that our major findings are quite likely free of influence from this source.     

The ethnocentric gaze: From ethnology to ethnophilosophy to “Africa”

In this essay I deploy Sartre's phenomenology of the gaze as the foil to demonstrate the cultural and philosophical movement from ethnology to ethnophilosophy that produces a specific conception of Africa. The violence of the Western gaze on Africa led several ethnological and anthropological excavations of Africa's cultural beingness, and the eventual creation of ethnophilosophical reason. Despite the obvious limitations of ethnophilosophy, I argue in this essay for a conception of cultural agency around which we can properly understand “Africa” as a meaningful site, a territorial imaginary that is far from the ethnophilosophical imagination, but not too far. Ethnophilosophy serves as the platform around which we can commence a reconstruction of an African self that is sufficiently recuperated, through false memory and historical reinvention, to return the gaze and renegotiate its freedom.     

In Progress … I Hope: From Pediatrics to Psychoanalysis to …

Psychoanalysis must be an idiosyncratic matter. That means that the encounter between the patient and the analyst is carried out through the personal character of both participants. But there is something more. Historical and cultural patterns are also most influential. The present and the past social context where the psychoanalytic bipersonal meeting occurs is a significant factor in the evanescent constitution and the constant movement between the ego of the analyst and the ego of the patient. Therefore, in this radical view only Freud would fulfill a Freudian encounter. We, as probable post-Freudians, must be permanently searching for personal, idiosyncratic ways in the clinical work. Brazilian psychoanalysts face the challenge to treat their patients in a Brazilian way. To understand Brazilian people and the way psychoanalysis may develop in this land, we must know that Brazilians' lived experience is frequently blended by irony, paradox, and the fleeting character of the human life. Words—a pragmatic perspective of Brazilian words in action—are essential for the task. Interrogative psychoanalytic dialogues are my main topic of research.     

“It All Comes Down to Imagination”: Reply to Commentary

In her generous and full discussion of my paper, Doris Brothers writes about patient's efforts to restore themselves following trauma and how that runs into walls caused by their “systemically emergent certainties.” She beautifully writes, “Since our capacity to hope depends on being able to tolerate uncertainty we sometimes join our patients in their hopelessness” (p. 231). Brothers emphasizes how Murakami can help us tolerate uncertainty. My emphasis is on how writers like Murakami help us restore our imaginative and empathic capacities. Frozen landscapes, as evoked by Murakami in “UFO in Kushiro,” are depictions of shut-down psychic states. Animated imagery helps to melt the ice, creating living motion in thought and affect. Both Brothers and I are looking at the crucial movement from simplified to complex shared states of mind. We seem at first to differ in our understanding of the function of rage in treatment, though I believe we may be discussing different clinical situations.     

From dialectic to organization: Bogdanov’s contribution to social theory

This paper situates Bogdanov in the context of social theory generally and socialist theory in particular. It outlines briefly the principal characteristics of his mature system, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of his approach to the fundamental problems of social thought. The paper devotes particular attention to the problem of just how systems develop from less complex to more complex forms of organization, and evaluates Bogdanov’s solution to this problem against the background of populist, social democratic, and Leninist alternatives.     

Teaching Theology to Undergraduates: Are mature students easier to please?

A total of 1,687 course evaluation questionnaires, submitted by students attending undergraduate programmes in theology, indicated some significant age-related differences in responses. Overall, mature students displayed a higher level of appreciation for the lecturers, although they tended to be more critical when opportunities were not given for an interactive learning experience.     

Unsinnig: A Reply to Hutto∗

Abstract

In the late 1930s Heidegger makes allusions to ‘the wild’ and ‘the mild’ in connection with a human liberation that he understands as a steadfast response to the claim that historical being (Seyn) makes upon us. The following paper elucidates these allusions in terms of the overturning of metaphysics that they entail.     

Muslim fundamentalism: Something to be understood or to be explained away?∗

This article surveys various attempts to make sociological sense of the diverse Muslim movements often lumped together under the label of fundamentalism. Explanations of fundamentalism as a form of resistance to modernization or those reducing it to social and economic discontent may have some prima facie plausibility but fail to explain why this protest takes a religious form. Orientalist studies emphasizing the theological dimension, on the other hand, do not even attempt to explain why certain religious ideas rather than others can inspire social movements. Not all fundamentalist movements, in fact, are inspired by the same or even similar theological ideas; besides puritan fundamentalist movements we also find many that are strongly influenced by Süfism. Empirical studies of Islamic militants in several different countries indicate that they are not, as is often assumed, marginalized and alienated but relatively well‐integrated and successful persons. Muslim fundamentalist movements have perhaps more in common with Protestant sects in pre‐modern European history than with present Christian fundamentalism. Like those sects, they may perform a stimulating role as critics in the margin and contribute to enriching the discourse of the mainstream; once they achieve power, their practical failures will gradually undermine the claims of fundamentalist ideologues.     

From ‘slumdog’ to humanitarian: educating orphans to save the world

The purpose of education should not only be to build content knowledge and literacy but to awaken the inherent human values within each child and encourage the translation of those values into social transformation. At the Hariharananda Balashram, we see one example of how destitute children are being provided with a moral and academic education that fits both Paulo Freire’s model of empowering the oppressed and Joseph and Efron’s emphasis on the seven worlds of moral education. The result is a group of children who not only are determined to succeed, but to use that academic and moral foundation to give back to their communities and become agents of social change.