The Chicken Soup Group: Peer Supervision for Orthodox Jewish Therapists Treating Orthodox Jewish Clients

This article describes an ongoing peer supervision group, to which the author belongs, comprised of Orthodox Jewish mental health professionals, all in full-time private practice and specializing in the treatment of Orthodox Jewish patients. The benefits of this group experience are described together with some of the unique features of clinical work with Orthodox Jewish patients.     

Free will and the human act in seventeenth century Eastern Orthodox theology

This article analyses the doctrine of free will (autexousion) in the confessions of St. Peter Mogila and Dositheos II Notaras of Jerusalem. Free will is a central concept in Eastern Christian anthropology and these two monuments of theology represent how the understanding of the concept of free will developed in Eastern Orthodox theology in the context of the confrontation with Western theologies in the seventeenth century.     

The cultural salience of moral character and virtue declined in twentieth century America

In a large corpus of American books, we tracked how frequently words related to moral excellence and virtue appeared over the twentieth century. Considering the well-established cultural trend in the USA toward greater individualism and its implications for the moral domain, we predicted that terms related to morality and virtue would appear with diminishing frequency in American books. Two studies supported our predictions: Study 1 showed a decline in the use of general moral terms such as virtue, decency and conscience, throughout the twentieth century. In Study 2, we examined the appearance frequency of 50 virtue words (e.g. honesty, patience, compassion) and found a significant decline for 74% of them. Overall, our findings suggest that during the twentieth century, moral ideals and virtues have largely waned from the public conversation.     

The epistemology of religiosity: an Orthodox Jewish perspective

This paper focusses on the Rabbinic suggestion that the attitude of awe, rather than any particular belief, lies at the heart of religiosity. On the basis of these Rabbinic sources, and others, the paper puts forward three theses: (1) that belief is not a sufficiently absorbing epistemic attitude to bear towards the truths of religion; (2) that much of our religious knowledge isn’t mediated via belief; and (3) that make-believe is sometimes more important, in the cultivation of religiosity than is mere belief.     

Between vision and reality: reassessing Jewish agricultural colony projects in nineteenth century America

This article reassesses the story of agricultural colonies established by Jews, for Jews, in the USA during the nineteenth century. Well established Jews developed schemes to settle recent Jewish immigrants on the soil. These schemes were characterized by unrealistic expectations, bad planning, and, when implemented, frequent failures. Yet, Jewish agricultural colonies must be distinguished from Christian, proto-Socialist or other utopian projects. The sponsors of Jewish colonies in the USA did not strive for separation from general society. Rather, they sought to assist Jewish integration through settlement on the land. The conceptual framework of Jewish productivization in America closely echoed the discourse of emancipation in Central Europe.     

Investigating Inter-Christian and Intercultural Couples Associated with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America: A Qualitative Research Project

This qualitative research project described individual, marital, and family challenges from the perspective of 376 intermarried respondents associated with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Participants' observations generally suggested that their religious and cultural differences enriched their own and their family's well-being. However, some participants described pervasive and lingering unresolved couple disagreements linked to their religious and cultural differences. These differences seemed to have a decidedly negative impact on individual, couple, and family well-being. Clinical implications suggest that intermarried couples' different religious and cultural backgrounds may be interconnected to the presenting problem(s) of couples.     

争取第二次独立的斗争:非洲空间的社会-政治建构

非洲比在世界其他任何地方更为明显地表明 ,2 0世纪是一个空前大变革的时代。这样的变革在任何一个生活领域里都比不上非洲大陆社会 政治组织领域里那样激烈。在 2 0世纪初 ,非洲绝大部分地区 ,特别是撒哈拉沙漠以南 ,刚刚出现前封建或者封建的社会结构。稍后 ,欧洲殖民冒险家们来到了这里 ,他们对于征服和殖民地的贪欲 ,随着产业革命完全展开而拥有的技术能力增强以及欧洲繁荣的资本主义新经济市场的扩张主义需要 ,急剧膨胀 ,他们的到来改变了非洲的面貌。在 2 0世纪末 ,可以说这些冒险家已作鸟兽散 ,正如他们初来时一样。尽管他们在非洲…     

The triadic legitimacy model: Understanding support to disobedient groups

In a social-psychological perspective, many scholars have argued that disobedience plays a significant role in avoiding the degeneration of the authority into autocracy and in promoting social change. In particular, the tripolar model (minority-majority-population) proposed by Mugny (1982) emphasized the role of the population for the stability or the progress of every society. Authority may indeed preserve the status quo only on the grounds of its influence on a large population. Likewise, protesters may achieve social change only by influencing and involving a large part of the population in their struggles. In understanding why people decide to join a protest, the aim of this article is to integrate Kelman and Hamilton's (1989) analysis of legitimacy with the tripolar model on social influence. The model we propose – namely the triadic legitimacy model (TLM) – explains the dialectic between social stability and social change by considering both authority's and disobedient groups' legitimacies.     

The Orthodox Church in the Contemporary Ecumenical Dialogue

Since its beginnings, the ecumenical movement has been influenced by the Orthodox Church, as seen, for example, in the 1920 Encyclical of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Two convictions have underpinned the ecumenical commitment of the Orthodox Church: the need for better mutual understanding between churches and the desire of the Orthodox Church to witness to the truth in its ecumenical relations. There have been instances where the Orthodox Church has not been able to assert its views, and indeed its dialogue partners have come to decisions contrary to the principles of the Orthodox Church. However, this article will focus on the extent to which the Orthodox Church has been able to present its message and effectively influence developments, something that can be observed mainly in two areas: (i) the early church creedal tradition, specifically the Nicene Creed, and (ii) the liturgical heritage, particularly the relationship between baptism and chrismation.