Two ways of being a Christian in the Muslim context of the Middle East

This article identifies two fundamental outlooks and basic orientations of Christians living among Muslims in the context of the Middle East that result in two ways of being a Christian in that region. The origin of the two types, labelled the ‘Arab Christian’ and the ‘Eastern Christian’, is traced back to early Christian contacts with Islam, and the content of those two ways is explicated in their political, cultural and religious implications by briefly elaborating two contemporary Lebanese Christian conceptualizations of the two ways. It is argued that these two types provide a hermeneutical key not only for understanding the behaviour, actions and thought of Christians of the Middle East, but also for understanding and evaluating the perceptions of non-Middle Eastern writers and historians about the topic of Christians in that region.     

Evolution and the meaning of being: Heidegger,Jonas and Nihilism

Hans Jonas accuses Heidegger of “never bring[ing] his question about Being into correlation with the testimony of our physical and biological evolution.” Neither the early nor later Heidegger has a “philosophy of nature,” Jonas charges, because Naturphilosophie demands a new concept of matter, a monistic account of cosmogony and evolution, and the grounding of ethical responsibility for future generations in an ontological “first principle.” Jonas’s ontological rethinking of Darwinism allows him to overcome the nihilism that a mechanistic interpretation of evolution forces upon us: a nihilism allegedly shared by Heidegger. I imagine a Heideggerian response to Jonas, and ask whether the dream of recovering a synthesis between cosmogony and moral insight has been irrecoverably shattered by modern natural science.     

Religiosity and the value of being moral: Understanding the meaning of morality through a personal values perspective

We demonstrate how religiosity predicts relationships between personal values and perceptions of morality in four studies across two cultures (Jews in Israel and mainly Christians in the US). In Studies 1A (N = 337) and 1B (N = 200), we explored the commonalities and differences between religious and non-religious participants in the association between values and the importance of being moral. In Studies 2A (N = 131) and 2B (N = 250), we tested the role of religiosity in the association between values and evaluations of others’ morality. Power (negatively) and Benevolence (positively) were associated with morality across levels of religiosity. The associations with Conservation were more positive for more religious participants; the associations with Universalism were more positive for less religious participants. Finally, the associations with at least one of the Openness-to-change values were more negative if a person was more religious. Studies 2A and 2B showed these associations existed over and above differences in personal values.     

The experience of being a victim of prejudice: An experimental approach1

Most research on prejudice has followed the unidirectional orientation of investigating why majority-group members become prejudiced toward minorities without considering the effects of prejudice and discrimination upon its victims, the members of minority and subordinate groups. Taking a bidirectional perspective, it is argued that comprehending prejudice will also require knowing how minority members respond to prejudice and defend themselves against it. Various methods for exploring the phenomenon of prejudice from the perspective of the minority member are surveyed. In particular, a recently devised technique for experimentally manipulating perceived prejudice and assessing its psychological consequences is presented along with the findings from several studies using members of different minority groups as subjects. After considering the impact of perceived prejudice upon stereotypic self-evaluations, self-esteem, and affect, some directions for further research into the “victimology” of prejudice are discussed.     

African American Muslim Women: An Invisible Group

Little is written about Islam and African American women or men from a psychosocial perspective. Most of the literature is on the historical and political development of the Nation of Islam, and the differences among the male leaders. This focus obscures the fact that the majority of African Americans Muslims belong to traditional Islamic groups. Drawing upon a variety of literatures, this paper seeks to explore some background information about Islam and the African American community, and to understand the appeal of Islam to African American women.     

An approach to the problem of meaning: Semantic networks

An approach to the problem of meaning through the postulation of semantic networks is presented. Subjects generated them for ten concrete and ten abstract nouns with two different procedures. Comparisons were made between the semantic network and the set of associations given to each concept. Finally, both the concrete concepts' and the abstract concepts' networks were compared. It was suggested that a form of meaning is given by the semantic network of the concept, by a reconstructive memory process.     

On the meaning of meaning when being mean: commentary on Berkowitz's "on the consideration of automatic as well as controlled psychological processes in aggression"

Berkowitz (this issue) makes a cogent case for his cognitive neo-associationist (CNA) model that some aggressive behaviors occur automatically, emotionally, and through conditioned association with other stimuli. He also proposes that they can occur without "processing," that is, without meaning. He contrasts his position with that of social information processing (SIP) models, which he casts as positing only controlled processing mechanisms for aggressive behavior. However, both CNA and SIP models posit automatic as well as controlled processes in aggressive behavior. Most aggressive behaviors occur through automatic processes, which are nonetheless rule governed. SIP models differ from the CNA model in asserting the essential role of meaning (often through nonconscious, automatic, and emotional processes) in mediating the link between a stimulus and an angry aggressive behavioral response.