The Mystery of Sexuality

Abstract

Mystery is a term that permeates and energizes the Catholic tradition. In its strictest terms, it refers to the infinite incomprehensibility of God, but the USCCB speaks also of “the great mystery” of human sexuality. In this essay, only to establish the meanings of mystery as we use the word, we consider, first and briefly, the mystery of God and the oikonomia established by God and, then and more extendedly, the mystery of human sexuality. We offer a meditation on this mystery, leading to a theological understanding of it as a lower-case sacrament of the presence of the incomprehensible God in human history. This analysis leads us to conclude that human sexuality demands ongoing analysis to be better understood physically, psychologically and spiritually in order to be better understood theologically as a lower-case sacrament revelatory of the presence of God.     

从"玄之又玄"到"重玄"的演变

从"玄之又玄"到"重玄"经历了一个演变过程."玄之又玄"本意是"幽远而又幽远",指道的不可知性与终极性."重玄"的最初含义是"重天",佛道两教学者用它来指宗教的终极境界.隋唐时期"重玄"与"双遣"连用,指"遣有、遣无、遣其遣"的三重否定思想方法."重玄"与"双遣"的结合标志着从"玄之又玄"向"重玄"的转变最终完成.     

The Mystery of Direct Perceptual Justification

In at least some cases of justified perceptual belief, our perceptual experience itself, as opposed to beliefs about it, evidences and thereby justifies our belief. While the phenomenon is common, it is also mysterious. There are good reasons to think that perceptions cannot justify beliefs directly, and there is a significant challenge in explaining how they do. After explaining just how direct perceptual justification is mysterious, I considerMichael Huemer’s (Skepticism and the Veil of Perception, 2001) and Bill Brewer’s (Perception and Reason, 1999) recent, but radically different, attempts to eliminate it. I argue that both are unsuccessful, though a consideration of their mistakes deepens our appreciation of the mystery.     

The Mystery in the Kitchen: Culinary Creativity

This article highlights the impact of technology on the ability of individuals to be creative within society. The role of computers in the creative act is explored from a broad perspective to allow for the discovery of general principles of creativity. Insight into the barriers that individuals must overcome to function creatively in the information age are then presented. To this end, the process by which creativity occurs is reviewed, and the consequences of the development of technology and the impact of computers on creativity are discussed. Examples of computers used to facilitate creativity are then illustrated. Finally, the necessary conditions for creativity to exist in society are highlighted, and suggestions are offered for the coexistence of creativity and technology in the future.     

启蒙的逻辑与现代性的秘密——霍克海默、阿多诺《启蒙辩证法》文本学解读

《启蒙辩证法》通过对启蒙理性"抽象同一性"原则的批判,指证了"神话变成了启蒙,启蒙倒退为神话"的启蒙逻辑.《启蒙辩证法》通过揭秘启蒙理性蜕变为工具理性,从而得出启蒙的逻辑作为现代性之秘密的基本判断.《启蒙辩证法》虽然将卢卡奇基于"物化"思想的现代性批判推进到了工具理性主义的现代性批判定向,然而这一批判仅止步于理性主义批判,尚未达到现代社会资本统治原则的历史唯物主义存在论的原则高度,对启蒙理性蜕化为工具理性的现代性批判,就其本质而言只是对现代性"副本"的批判.     

The Paschal Mystery and Catholic Education

The paschal mystery holds a place of prominence in the lives of Catholics, both theologically and pastorally. Given its prominent theological and ecclesial place since the Second Vatican Council, this article examines the place and role of the paschal mystery for Catholic education. With the move from a ‘classicist world view to historical mindedness,’ the thought of Bernard Lonergan is employed – particularly his understanding of the person as subject and his law of the cross – as a means to frame the relationship between the paschal mystery and Catholic education.     

The Complex of Androcentrism and the Mystery of Omoousion Other

Abstract

The mystery of the one-triune God sheds light onto the mystery of the one-dyadic human being. In their union, man and woman experience life as a loving communion, which means, as a mutual indwelling of difference and unity. The Fall brought about an adversarial existence between man and woman and set gender as a priority over personhood. Male-centredness lowers the woman into an idol or an object, thus dehumanizing or depersonalizing her. Christ restores the relationship of man and woman as a mystery where the absolute otherness of the persons, but also their indivisible unity are both elevated at the same time.     

The Passion of the Christ: A Modern Mystery Play

In a review article the author reflects upon the recent film by Mel Gibson in the tradition of the medieval mystery play. As the biblical story of human origins begins in a garden, so too does this story of the birth of a new creation brought into being by the suffering of Jesus. With an understanding and acceptance of Jesus' unique vocation as the Christ, Mary is a central figure of spiritual empowerment to her son as he fulfills his mission.     

Mystery of the anti-McCollough effect

The McCollough Effect (ME) is a complex perceptual aftereffect that remains of interest half a century after its discovery. It is argued that a recently reported variant, dubbed the anti-McCollough effect, is not the reverse of the ME, with aftereffect colors in the same direction as the inducing stimuli. A red-horizontal stimulus leads to a reddish aftereffect not because of red-horizontal parings, but despite them. The anti-ME is a weak standard-direction ME produced by complementary afterimage colors (afterimage green with horizontal), rather than by environmental colors, first shown decades ago. It is not a new type of contingent aftereffect. The red-horizontal pair does not interfere with the afterimage green-horizontal pair it produces because a single color-orientation pairing provides more ambiguous input than does the standard two orientation-color pairings (red-horizontal, green-vertical) of the ME. It is also argued that not even one orientation-contingent color aftereffect is convincingly shown in the "anti"-ME, let alone, as has previously been suggested, two simultaneous orientation-contingent color aftereffects in opposite directions at different levels of the visual system, in which the higher-level effect suppresses the downstream effect from reaching consciousness. The "anti"-ME can be explained by existing theories of contingent aftereffects, including perceptual-learning theory.     

Mystery Appeal: Effects of Uncertainty and Resolution on the Enjoyment of Mystery

To investigate determinants of mystery enjoyment, a short story was manipulated to produce different levels of uncertainty regarding two suspects' criminal involvement (low vs. high uncertainty) and to create different resolution types (denouement, confirmation, and surprise). Participants' (N = 84) reactions and enjoyment were ascertained via questionnaires after reading the mystery development and after the mystery resolution. Moreover, personality assessments were administered. Results show that enjoyment of the mystery reception was greater when participants were highly uncertain regarding the culprit and experienced high levels of curiosity. As hypothesized, resolution enjoyment depended on type of resolution and self-esteem. A resolution that confirmed respondents' suspicion was disliked by persons with high self-esteem, whereas respondents with low self-esteem disliked a surprising resolution. Enjoyment of a general denouement, when participants had not held specific expectations, was not affected by self-esteem; high self-esteem participants in the "surprise" condition and low self-esteem participants in the "confirmation" condition experienced comparable enjoyment.     

The Mystery of the Mozart Effect: Failure to Replicate

The Mozart effect is the purported increase in spatial-reasoning performance immediately after exposure to a Mozart piano sonata. Several laboratories have been unable to confirm the existence of the effect despite two positive reports from the original laboratory. The authors of the original studies have provided a list of key procedural components to produce the effect. This experiment attempted to produce a Mozart effect by following those procedural instructions and replicating the procedure of one of the original positive reports. The experiment failed to produce either a statistically significant Mozart effect or an effect size suggesting practical significance. This general lack of effect is consistent with previous work by other investigators. We conclude that there is little evidence to support basing intellectual intervention programs on the existence of the Mozart effect.     

Easter and the Mystery of Creation

Abstract

The reflective reading of the Scriptures has always been the foundation of daily prayer, offering a way for private prayer to flow from and intensify our response to the liturgy. The proclamation of the word is enhanced for each member of the assembly by prayerful preparation and grounding in Scripture. Many parishes and congregations have tried various ways to encourage regular Bible study only to encounter meager participation, not because of a lack of enthusiasm but because proposed schedules and methods are not compatible with busy lives. One parish religious-education facilitator in conversation with Liturgy offers the following model for a Bible study program that has the advantages of simplicity, flexibility and direct ties to Sunday's liturgy.     

Solving the Mystery of the Human Cerebellum

The mystery of the human cerebellum is this: Why did it enlarge so dramatically in the last million years of human evolution, concomitantly with the greater enlargement of the cerebral cortex? A solution to this mystery was proposed in the 20th century as a result of research by several groups of scientists who investigated the contributions of the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex. In contrast to the 19th century investigations, which were focused on the motor functions of the cerebellum, the focus of the subsequent investigations was expanded to include some mental functions because evidence was produced that the cerebellum contributes to cognition. It was proposed that the combination in the cerebellum of motor and mental capabilities enables the cerebellum to confer on humans some adaptive advantages of great value, and this ability would explain why the human cerebellum has continued to enlarge so dramatically. A valuable adaptive advantage that is included in the proposal is the possibility that the cerebellum couples the motor function of articulating speech to the mental function that selects the language to be spoken, thus helping to produce fluent human speech and language. The validity of this proposal about linguistic processing has not yet been verified. Therefore the mystery of cerebellar enlargement in humans is not yet solved and requires further research.