The act of death and the gift of suffering: a response to Breck, Amundsen, and Bresnahan.

This response to the articles by Breck, Amundsen, and Bresnahan is argued from a traditional Orthodox point of view, which accepts the historical Tradition of the Church and recognizes the relevance of this Tradition in the modern world. Traditional Orthodox ethics is grounded in a radical perception of the Resurrection of Christ. Many Western and Eastern commentators on Orthodox religion and spirituality have noted the centrality of the Resurrection to all facets of our Tradition. Thus the discussion of euthanasia should be seen in the light of the Resurrection of Christ.     

Chinese values in Singapore: Traditional and modern

A series of three studies was conducted to test the internal structure of the Chinese value hierarchy (CVH) in Singapore. Study 1 identified the empirically best–fit model with six factors: Prudence, Industry, Civic–Harmony, Moral Development, Social Power and Moderation. Relative magnitudes and interfactor correlations suggested that these factors could be further grouped into two superordinate clusters: (i) The Modern factor, with significantly higher magnitude, consisted of Prudence, Industry, Civic–Harmony and Moral Development; and (ii) the Tradition factor, with lower magnitude, consisted of Social Power and Moderation. Study 2 surveyed university students with differential preference for language usages: English or Chinese. Both language groups were equally high on the Modern factor, but the Chinese–language–preferred group showed a significantly higher endorsement for the Tradition factor, Chinese Worldview (CWV) and Chinese Health Beliefs (CHB). Further convergent validation for the Modern and the Tradition factors was provided by investigating their correlations with traditional Chinese beliefs and practices for the two language groups separately. Study 3 tested generation differences in CVH. University participants (Self) were compared with their parents (Parents) and friends (Friends). There were no differences between Self and Friends on both the Modern and Tradition factors, CWV and individual differences of modernity. Parents and Self did not differ on individual differences of modernity. Parents, however, were higher on the Modern factor, the Tradition factor and CWV. Results were discussed to support the concept of 'multiple modernity' (Tu, 1900) in Asian societies, and the 'revised convergence hypothesis' proposed by Yang (1988).     

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN VIRTUE ETHICS AND CARE ETHICS

A dialogue between virtue and care ethics is formed as a step towards meeting Pellegrino's challenge to create a more comprehensive moral philosophy. It is also a dialogue between nursing and medicine since each practice draws on the Greek Virtue Tradition and the Judeo-Christian Tradition of care differently. In the Greek Virtue Tradition, the point of scrutiny lies in the inner character of the actor, whereas in the Judeo-Christian Tradition the focus is relational, i.e. how virtues are lived out in specific relationships, particularly unequal relationships where vulnerability of one of the members is an issue. In a care ethic relational qualities such as attunement rather than inner qualities are the point of scrutiny. A dialogue between these two traditions makes it possible to consider the relational virtues and skills of openness and responsiveness that are required for a respectful meeting of the other.     

Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II

Books reviewed:
Tracey Rowland, Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II. Reviewed by Susan F. Parsons Nottingham     

Stirring Christianity

Book reviewed:
Norman Russell. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Baruch Halpern, David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King
Victor H. Matthew, Social World of the Hebrew Prophets
S. Walton and D. Wenham, Exploring the New Testament, Vol. 1: Introducing the Gospels and Acts
D. Burkett, An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity
Wai-Yee Ng, Water Symbolism in John: An Eschatological Interpretation
Mark J. Goodwin, Paul, Apostle of the Living God: Kerygma and Conversion in 2 Corinthians
Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross
David Brown, Tradition and Imagination: Revelation and Change
David Brown, Discipleship and Imagination: Christian Tradition and Truth
Patricia A. Williams, Doing Without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin
Charles T. Mathewes, Evil and the Augustinian Tradition
Kevin L. Flannery, Acts Amid Precepts: The Logical Structure of Thomas Aquinas' Moral Theory
Christopher W. Steck, The Ethical Thought of Hans Urs Von Balthasar
Jacques Derrida, On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness
Peter C. Hodgson, The Mystery Beneath the Real: Theology in the Fiction of George Eliot
Scott Matthews, Reason, Community and Religious Tradition
J. Wijngaards, The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church: Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition     

Review

Book reviewed in this article:
Jean Porter, Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming the Tradition for Christian Ethics     

Ordeal by Fire: The Tragedy of the Solar Temple

On October 4th and 5th, 1994, fifty-three people were found dead in Switzerland and in Canada. Their bodies—some showing signs of violence suffered before the fires—were found in the incinerated centres of a neo-Templar movement called originally International Order of Chivalry Solar Tradition or, for short, Solar Tradition, and after 1990-91 Order of the Solar Temple. The movement is part of one of several currents which as a whole compose the universe of the contemporary occult-esoteric movements, the neo-Templar tradition. In this paper I propose to trace, first of all, the history of the neo-Templar tradition, then that of the Solar Temple, relating the essential information on the tragedy of October 1994, and finally suggesting some possible interpretations.     

Normal Versus Noncentral Chi-square Asymptotics of Misspecified Models

In this article, we present a Bayesian spatial factor analysis model. We extend previous work on confirmatory factor analysis by including geographically distributed latent variables and accounting for heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation. The simulation study shows excellent recovery of the model parameters and demonstrates the consequences of ignoring spatial dependence. Specifically, we find inefficiency in the estimates of the factor score means and bias and inefficiency in the estimates of the corresponding covariance matrix. We apply the model to Schwartz value priority data obtained from 5 European countries. We show that the Schwartz motivational types of values, such as Conformity, Tradition, Benevolence, and Hedonism, possess high spatial autocorrelation. We identify several spatial patterns—specifically, Conformity and Hedonism have a country-specific structure, Tradition has a North–South gradient that cuts across national borders, and Benevolence has South–North cross-national gradient. Finally, we show that conventional factor analysis may lead to a loss of valuable insights compared with the proposed approach.     

ONCE MORE. . .

Books reviewed:
A.J. Heschel (ed. and trans.), G. Tucker. Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations. Reviewed by David R. Blumenthal
Robert Murray. Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition. Reviewed by Augustine Casiday     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article
Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy by Bernard Williams
Law and Theology in the Middle Ages by G.R. Evans
Dominikus - En Europeers Liv På 1200-Tallet by Per Bjørn Halvorsen OP.
A Theology of Compassion: Metaphysics of Difference and The Renewal of Tradition by Oliver Davies
Abortion and Martyrdom. The Papers of the Solesmes Consultation and an Appeal to the Catholic Church, edited by Aidan Nichols OP     

Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community
Paul Matthews, The Revelation of Nature
Jeremy S. Begbie, Theology, Music and Time
Oliver Davies, A Theology of Compassion: Metaphysics of Difference and the Renewal of Tradition     

Some recent thinking on personhood.

This essay surveys four recent theological works on the issue of personhood: John F. Crosby's The Selfhood of the Human Person, Stanley Rudman's Concepts of Person and Christian Ethics, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos' The Person in the Orthodox Tradition, and James Walter's What is a Person? An Ethical Exploration.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. By Elizabeth Grosz
Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. Ed. Linda Nicholson
Ethics of Eros: Irigaray's Rewriting of the Philosophers. By Tina Chanter
Mann, Patricia S. Micro-Politics: Agency in a Postfeminist Era
Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics. Edited by Peggy Zeglin Brand and Carolyn Korsmeyer.     

An Independent Theory of Clinical Technique

The history of Independent analysis in the British Psychoanalytical Society is reviewed. The Independent Tradition, as an approach to psychoanalysis, is distinguished from the organisational grouping in the British Society that is the Independent Group. The Independent Tradition emphasises what differentiates human beings rather than how they exemplify general principles. This derives from Freud through Ferenczi. Ferenczi's stress on the quality of the patient's experience, on the need for analysts to be aware of the effect on themselves of the analytic process, and on the need for restraint in interpretation are all characteristically Independent aspects of analytic technique. Later Independent thinkers have developed these themes further. Especially important is Enid Balint's idea that theory mediates the analyst's creative imagination. The analytic setting infuses ordinary human interaction with psychoanalytic awareness, and another function of theory is to imbue with psychoanalytic understanding the use of everyday language. Independent clinical technique is primarily a way of listening. Regression is accepted, and free association valued as being in itself a vehicle of psychic growth. A central idea is that the analyst is an analytic object to be made use of by the patient. Several clinical examples illustrate the functioning in practice of these concepts.     

Once More ≡

Books reviewed:
Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Maryanne Dunn and Linda Kay Davidson (eds), The Pilgrimage to Compostela in the Middle Ages
D. Bruce Hindmarsh, John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition: Between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce
George Guiver CR, Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and the People of God     

Reviews

Book reviews in this articles:
SCEPTICISM AND REASONABLE DOUBT, The British Naturalist Tradition In Wilkins, Hume, Reld, and Newman by M. Jamie Farralra.
PHILOSOPHY IN RUSSIA by Frederic C. Copleston.
THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM by William Charlton, Tatiana Mallinson, Robert Oakeshott.
THE UNACCEPTABLE FACE. The Modern Chruch in the Eyes of the Historian by John Kent.
TONGUES OF FIRE. AN ANTHOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS AND POETIC EXPERIENCE, introduced and edited by Karen Armstrong;
AIDS. MEETING THE COMMUNITY CHALLENGE. Ed. Vicky Cosstick.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap: To the Vienna Station. By J. Alberto Coffa (edited by Linda Wessels).
The Crooked Timber of Humanity. By Isaiah Berlin.
Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy. By Maudemarie Clark.
Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics. By Seyla Benhabib.
Die Konstitution der Moralität: Transzendentale Anthropologie und praktische Philosophie. By Thomas Rentsch.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Remembering the Christian Past by Robert L. Wilken
Exbodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis by L. Gregory Jones
Boundaries of Our Habitations: Tradition and Theological Construction by Delwin Brown
Theological Essays II by Eberhard Jüngel, ed. John Webster, trans. Arnold Neufeldt-Fast and John Webster (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994); and, The Possibilities of Theology: Studies in the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel in his Sixtieth Year , ed. John Webster     

Book reviews and book received

The inside story Danny Danziger: The Noble Tradition: Interviews with the Medical Profession. London: Viking, 1990. £14.99.

Social analysis Barry Richards (ed.): Crises of the Self: Further Essays on Psychoanalysis and Politics. London: Free Association Books, 1989.