“You knit me together in my mother’s womb”: a theology of creation and divine action in light of intersex

ABSTRACT

Some Christian theologians and intersex Christians maintain that intersex is part of God’s good and intended creation, in contrast to those who view intersex as a pathological result of fallen nature. The former claim that intersex bodies “are how God made them” and that “God does not make mistakes;” however, these statements risk implying a belief in special creation or divine intervention, two theological positions which have been challenged by evolutionary theory and contemporary natural sciences. This paper provides a more nuanced theology of creation and divine action as a foundation for a positive theology of intersex. Drawing from the work of Thomas Aquinas on primary and secondary causality, the author argues that God, as primary cause, creates the intersex person through the free interplay of secondary causes, in the same way and to the same extent that God acts in the creation of every other person.     

‘The friend of my enemy is my enemy’: Modeling triadic internation relationships

The evolution of internation relationships is studied by means of a mathematical model based on a popular rule of triadic interaction: the friend of my friend is my friend, the friend of my enemy is my enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the enemy of my friend is my enemy. The rule is shown to lead to the formation and preservation of unipolar and bipolar configurations of nations, with the strengths of relationships, both friendly and conflictual, intensifying through time. These results confirm speculations originally made in static, graph theoretic studies of the balancing of relationships within individuals, small groups and systems of nations.This research was funded by a grant from the World Society Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland.     

Congruence and functions of personal and cultural values: do my values reflect my culture's values?

Two studies are described examining the correlation between self- and culture-referenced values at a culture level (Study 1) and correlation between self- and culture-referenced values and self-reported behavior at an individual level (Study 2). It is found that values related to individual-group relationships (embeddedness) and expression and experience of affective feelings and emotions (affective autonomy) are significantly correlated at a culture level. In Study 2, culture-referenced values are shown to correlate with behaviors attached to social norms, whereas self-rated values are found to correlate with behaviors that are not norm-governed. Implications for measurement of cultural values and cultural and cross-cultural research designs are discussed.     

“Sport has always been first for me” but “all my free time is spent doing homework”: Dual career styles in late adolescence

ObjectivesIn adolescence, personally meaningful autobiographical memories begin to integrate into cultural narrative structures to form a life story. We examined how and to what extent adolescent Finnish athletes narrate and integrate significant life events in sport and education into their identities and future narratives in order to delineate the different styles of athletes’ career construction.DesignLongitudinal qualitative study.MethodTen female and eight male, elite junior athletes, aged 15–16 at baseline, participated in individual conversational interviews. The resulting interview data were analyzed using narrative analysis.ResultsThirteen of 18 adolescent athletes drew primarily on the performance narrative plot to construct their life story and five of 18 athletes could not project into the future beyond their athletic selves. We identified three styles of athletes’ career construction. Employing musical terminology as a metaphor, the contrapuntal style entwines sport and education as harmonically related life-themes; monophonic style draws on a prominent athletic life-theme; and dissonant style is underpinned by discord of sport and education. We did not detect direct associations between narrative types (performance, discovery and relational) and career construction styles. We show the dominant style development within an exemplary story.ConclusionExploration of the future and possible selves are critical for developing meaningful (dis)continuity of a dual career pathway from adolescence to adulthood. We conclude that dual career discourse is gaining traction in directing young athletes’ future thinking; however, a broader repertoire of exemplary success stories which allow athletes to imagine achieving excellence in diverse ways would enable them to channel action.     

“because a fire was in my head”

This is a case study of a woman in midlife, trying to negotiate a transition from family attachment to sexual love and intimacy. The move was derailed earlier by traumatic adolescent losses, her denial of her lesbian identity, and the onset of bipolar disorder. By entering therapy, following her dreams and synchronous life events, and enduring another bipolar break, the woman was able to make the transition and become more completely herself.     

“Is it me or should my friends take the credit?” The role of social networks and social identity in recovery from addiction

This study explored the role of social network and social identity factors in recovery from addiction. The sample consisted of 537 individuals who completed a survey about their experiences of recovery. Results indicated that the transition from addiction to recovery was characterized by an increase in social connectedness and changes in social network composition coupled with the emergence of a “recovery” identity. These factors accounted for 14% of the variance in quality of life when controlling for known predictors, accounting for a greater proportion of variance than substance use variables. Results suggest that recovery from addiction can be understood as a socially mediated transition characterized by social network and social identity change, which drive broader improvements in quality of life.     

Call me doctor? Confessions of a hospital philosopher

Accustomed as many of us have become in the era of clinical bioethics to the idea of a “hospital philosopher”, on reflection the historical novelty of the role is astonishing, as are its ambiguities. As a result of considering my own experience I found myself writing this miniature intellectual autobiography. In the course of this essay I raise two specific questions: what can the Western philosophical tradition contribute to the clinical setting; and (a question that is rarely asked), what are the implications of this experience for that tradition?     

Who is my Jung? A personal and symbolic history

Identifying the reality of Jung in my life requires first of all a historical examination. How Jung first came into my life through my reading a book by P.W.Martin, Experiment in Depth, stands as a metaphor for the conscious unravelling of psychological development. His further appearance in a sequence of dreams demonstrated the significance of both the instinctual and the numinous in Jung's life and in my personal individuation. Finally, through a consideration of light and shadow, particularly in two photographs of Jung, a conclusion is reached that individuation requires an integration of shadow in the personality, in order to achieve wholeness, not perfection.     

Revolutionen und Bohème. 1917–1918

This article analyzes the similarity of the revolutions of 1917–1918 with earlier revolutions in Russia and Germany. Several common characteristics are noted: “theatricality”, the connection of politics with Bohemianism, and politics’ concealed connection with art. The revolution presents a theatre stage on which representatives of the Boheme play their dreams (and nightmares) out in politics. Furthermore, the article investigates methodological pluralism, which constitutes the philosophical foundation of Bohemianism. Finally, the author distinguishes two types of Bohemian politicians: the first type, a “fantasist, dreamer, poet,” is represented by Kurt Eisner, whereas the other type, that of a “multi-souled artist” is represented by Fyodor Stepun.

     

“Do this in remembrance of me … ”

This essay discusses the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist within Lutheran theology, in dialogue with Roman Catholic theology. It starts by making some remarks on the controversial nature of the subject, the substance of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the “Eucharistic Sacrifice”, and on Luther’s removal of the Offertory, and his revision of the Eucharistic prayer or the Canon, before making some comments on the various views on the “Eucharistic Sacrifice” amongst the Church Fathers, the ecumenical and catholic aim of Confessio Augustana, and the Lutheran emphasis on God as giver and creation (including man) as receiver. After that, it returns to the main point, arguing for a “Eucharistic Sacrifice” within Lutheran theology, with emphasis on our participation in Christ, building on the contributions of Wolhart Pannenberg and Joseph Ratzinger, and against Lutheran critiques, here represented by John T. Pless.     

What is my evidence that here is a cup?

This paper is about Susanna Schellenberg's view on the explanatory role of perceptual experience. I raise a basic question about what the argument for her view might be. Then I develop two new problem cases: one involving “seamless transitions” between perception and hallucination and another involving the graded character of perceptual evidence and justification.     

Who is my Jung? Memories,Reflections, Prospects

The author describes his personal and professional journey in relation to the subject of the AJA 40^th anniversary conference, ‘Who is my Jung?’ The first part of the paper covers his early life and his attempt to bring together two opposing parts within him: valuation of a scientific approach, and an interest in the inner world, dreams and the paranormal. Discussion of his professional life follows, including his relationship with Gerhard Adler, past problems and splits within the Jungian community and the author's attempts to heal these. The value of both remembering and forgetting is questioned. This leads onto ideas that bring value and meaning to his work and life, and which bridge the inner divisions he felt in his early life: notably Jung's focus on applying scientific theory to the mystery of the psyche, his relational attitude (exemplified by the dialectical process and his interest in countertransference) and his theory of synchronicity. Recent discussion in Jungian writing has questioned the nature of synchronistic experiences and explored how they may emerge naturally from complex systems. The paper ends the author's continuing journey with two personal vignettes describing how meaning may emerge from the unconscious.     

Will it be me? Identity,concern and perspective

Self-reflexive or egocentric concern has been taken to present a serious problem for reductionist and eliminativist metaphysical accounts of personal identity. Philosophers have tended to respond in one of three ways: by continuing the search for a metaphysical account of identity that (prudentially if not morally) justifies egocentric concern; by accepting that egocentric concern can hold between persons who are not numerically identical; or by advocating the abandonment of egocentric concern altogether. All these approaches, however, distinguish between metaphysical ‘facts’ and affective responses to them. Exploring a well-known example from Bernard Williams, I argue that egocentric concern presents itself as irreducibly first-personal and as making its own set of numerical personal identity claims on the phenomenal level. Williams' example also points to the need to complicate the first/third person schema by factoring in a further distinction between present-tense and implicitly atemporal perspectives on the self. Once this move is made, we can see that the identity claims figured in first-person present-tense experience and those arrived at through metaphysical deliberation need to be distinguished. We should resist the temptation to privilege one perspective over the other in all instances, or to collapse them into a unitary account of selfhood.