A Long and Consistent Life of Creating: James Krenov,Cabinetmaker and Teacher

James Krenov (1920–2009), a lifelong cabinetmaker and teacher, demonstrated and encouraged a balance of discipline and playfulness in his work and writings. He gave voice to woodworkers who objected to the commercialism of creativity. Taimi Barty, a student of Krenov, explores his physical workspaces throughout his life in an effort to understand his effectiveness in inspiring an international audience of craftspeople.     

Crossing the Picket Line: A Brief Faculty Memoir of the Historic University of Bridgeport Strike

This memoir provides the personal story of a tenured poet who initially walked the picket line during the 1990 University of Bridgeport faculty strike. During the strike's second week, he made the difficult decision to cross the picket line of a union he helped create seventeen years earlier. He continually relives his strike experience.     

Musa Posseliana: Johannes Posselius the Elder (1528-91) and the Lutheran Greek Program

Abstract

In this article I examine one outcome of the programme for teaching Greek in Lutheran schools during the second half of the sixteenth century. Luther had insisted upon the teaching of Latin and Greek as a means to help ensure orthodoxy. Melanchthon had developed a curriculum in which the ancient languages formed the basis of Humanist education in the liberal arts. Johannes Posselius was a member of the first generation to study under this new curriculum. An examination of the texts he composed for the classroom shows his commitment to the active use of Greek. He presented Greek as a language suited to conversation and original composition, and modelled these uses in his own work. In his Greek poetic compositions, Posselius wrote for an elite audience, again demonstrating how Greek could contribute to contemporary literature.     

Nizarre Qabbani’s Original Versus Translated Pornographic Ideology: A Corpus-Based Study

Nizarre Qabbani, the modern Arabic poet, has evoked a firestorm of controversy. Some consider him a stunning feminist poet, while others consider him an abysmal anti-feminist erotic one. This study allows his literary works to speak up loud, statistically revealing the dominant genre of his original work and his translated work. This enables the reader to evaluate objectively the original ideology of the poet and the rendered ideology of the translators. A corpus of Qabbani’s complete works is created; the keywords and their concordance are processed automatically and are reviewed manually. A lexicon of his poetic images and symbols is created to focus the light on his filtered-version poems that appeared in the Arabic media. Basic findings are tabulated and compared to the findings of his translated works in order to judge the objectiveness versus subjectiveness and the representativeness versus selectiveness of the translated works.     

The egg, the vessels and the words. From Izdubar to answer to job for an imaging thinking

This essay on The Red Book seeks to underscore a characteristic specific to Jung's approach to psychoanalysis. In this book, and more generally, in all of his writings, Jung's thinking is based on his personal experience of the unconscious, in which he leaves himself open to progressive encounters. Some of them, in the years 1913-14 and 1929-30, particularly his meeting with the giant Izdubar, were quite threatening. As a result, he forged an original way of thinking that is qualified here as 'imaging' and 'emergent'. The Red Book served as the first vessel for theories Jung would later express. His way of thinking, with its failures and semi-successes, all of which are always temporary, of course, is compared to the art of the potter. The author shows the kinship between the formation of the main Jungian concepts and the teachings of the French poet, professor, and art critic Yves Bonnefoy. He also considers certain recurrent formal themes in the work of contemporary German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Lastly, this epistemological study, constantly aware of the demands of Jungian clinical practice, demonstrates the continuity in Jung's work, from The Red Book to Answer to Job, where Jung ultimately elaborated a conception of history that defines our ethical position today.     

The poet’s school and the parrot’s cage: the educational spirituality of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Asia’s first Nobel laureate, was a man of myriad gifts, but he sought to articulate a single global vision. He believed that for our flourishing we must strive towards ‘the other and the beyond’. In so doing we discover that, as we seek, we are ourselves being sought. Tagore believed that we find our meaning and fulfilment relationally; in our relationships one with another, to be sure, but fundamentally in our kinship with all that is. We must be liberated, Tagore believed, from the bounds of our separateness and so discover a wholeness larger than our individual well‐being. That wholeness is ultimately realised in our union with the eternal Divine Spirit. In the establishment of his ‘poet’s school’ at Shantiniketan Tagore sought to make his ideals come true. This paper will focus on Tagore’s understanding of childhood and on the pattern of education by which, he believed, the spirit of the child may be nurtured. It will also enter a plea that we return to someone whose neglect in the West has been much to its loss.     

Aristotle's Metaphysics: Form,Matter and Identity

ABSTRACT

The example of the Spanish poet’s amnesia, mentioned by Spinoza in the scholium of proposition 39 of part IV of the Ethics in order to elucidate his conception of death, has given rise to many controversies in the scholarly interpretations, which in most cases maintain that the poet dies and that Spinoza himself thought this way. However, the matter is more complex than it at first appears and in this article I take a different path by reconstructing this scholium anew and providing an alternative interpretation. The comparison with selected passages of part V highlights the presence of a bi-conditional between the ratio of motion and rest that a body possesses, and its aptitude to be affected and affect in many more ways. In particular, the latter allows us to acknowledge the continuity of the poet’s individuality, expressed in his mind–body union grounded by the parallelism theory. As a result, the poet case has a crucial explanatory role for Spinoza’s theory of the eternity of the human mind and if one misunderstands the former, the latter is also misconceived.     

Social facilitation during the initial stage of motor learning: a re-examination of Martens' audience study

This study partially replicated Martens' (1969a) social-facilitation study of motor behavior. His very robust performance findings provided impressive confirmation for Zajonc's hypothesis, and his arousal findings have since been used as evidence for a nonlearned-drive basis for social facilitation. The present study also extended Martens' investigation by examining the separate and combined effects of an audience and videotape camera. The effects due to the presence of the audience and camera were not additive; instead, the audience detrimentally affected subjects' performance consistency and the camera resulted in more trials with errors greater than 30 msec after the performance criteria had been attained. Martens' most robust findings for constant error were not replicated, nor were some of his physiological arousal findings. His pattern of constant error results over all trials is atypical of known learning strategies that subjects use to reduce error over successive trials. Overall, audience effects accounted for only a very small portion of the variance.     

What is Testimony?

C.A.J. Coady, in his book Testimony: A Philosophical Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), offers conditions on an assertion that p to count as testimony. He claims that the assertion that p must be by a competent speaker directed to an audience in need of evidence and it must be evidence that p . I offer examples to show that Coady's conditions are too strong. Testimony need not be evidence; the speaker need not be competent; and, the statement need not be relevant or directed to someone in need of evidence. I give alternative conditions. Coady was led into the stronger conditions by investigating testimony as it occurs in legal contexts, where special steps are taken to ensure that testimony provides the jury or the judge with evidence by a competent speaker that is relevant to the disputed question of the guilt or innocence of the defendant.     

Clément Marot,the Learned Poet: Jewish Medieval Exegesis and the Genevan Psalter

Abstract

The article suggests that viewing the French poet, Clément Marot, as a ‘learned poet’ opens up new possibilities both for understanding why he translated the Classics and for better appreciation of how he versified the Hebrew Psalter. It outlines the Renaissance rediscovery of medieval Jewish exegetes and how the Strasbourg Reformer, Martin Bucer, valorized their insights in his Psalms Commentary. Instead of allegory and direct prophecy, a plain historical meaning is often preferred, supplemented by typological reference to Christ. Analysis of Marot's versification of Psalm 110 shows that he went even further to construct a consistent literary and historical narrative. To achieve this he folllowed an unusual Jewish interpretation. Instead of presenting Psalm 110 as a messianic prophecy, Marot produced a poem evoking an oracle on the enthronement of an ancient king and his victory in battle. Thereby he so seriously diminished the christological potency of this psalm that his versification was not acceptable to the Genevans who adapted it to fit the traditional interpretation.     

Jesus and the Play of Imagination: The Role of His Stories and Parables in Faith Formation

Jesus’ stories and parables—the products of his own imagination—are at the core of Christian religious education. Christian religious educators are to encourage their audience to engage their imagination to let Jesus’ stories retain their power to form and transform them. Although imagination operates imperceptibly, it is essential to faith formation. Religious educators are to befriend imagination and employ it as an efficacious means to form their audiences in the faith. This article aims to describe the “obvious” dynamics involved in the act of imagining. The first part of this essay examines the multifaceted nature of imagination. The second part suggests ways how religious educators may develop the imagining skills of their audience.     

Isma'il Al‐Faruqi on Muslim‐Christian dialogue: An analysis from a Christian perspective

Until his death in 1986, Isma'il al‐Faruqi was an active Muslim participant in the field of Muslim‐Christian dialogue. This article begins by outlining his many contributions to this subject and continues with an analysis of these sources. Al‐Faruqi understood the development of Christianity to be a corruption of the original teaching of Jesus which was instead preserved faithfully by Islam. He believed that Christains have hindered constructive dialogue through their involvement in mission and Orientalism. His primary basis for an academic dialogue was reason, yet this actually led to an affirmation of Islam. He regarded ethics to be the more appropriate area for discussion. The assessment here finds that al‐Faruqi essentially required Christians to abandon their Christian heritage in favour of the principles of a rationalistic Islam. Nevertheless, he may be commended for his commitment to dialogue and his ultimate vision of inter‐religious unity.     

G. Stanley Hall and his times: Too much so, yet not enough

Early in his career, G. Stanley Hall was an innovator, even a rebel in his thinking--for example, about religion and evolution. He maintained these ideas throughout his career, even into his 70s. Consequently, he became ever more distanced from the thinking of his scientific colleagues. This perspective may help psychologists understand better Hall's monumental Adolescence: Its psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education, which to contemporary readers may appear full of errors, pedantry, and eccentricities.     

C. S. LEWIS & CHRISTOLOGICAL PREFIGUREMENT

This paper is an examination of the Christology and Pneumatology that C. S. Lewis read from the apparent prefiguring of elements of the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative in religious myths, and also his assertion that the incarnation‐resurrection narrative operates on us both as fact and myth. After an initial examination of the term myth and mythopoeia, Lewis' writings on the myth that became reality (the Christ event) are discussed along with examples of prefigurement. Through his understanding of natural theology (rooted in that of Augustine, though fed by Lewis' daily reading of the Summa Theologiae) and his cautious respect for human imagination (from the poet, theologian and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and in contrast to his earlier deference for the conclusions of the Victorian religionist and social anthropologist James George Frazer, Lewis came to regard these prefigurements as the work of the Holy Spirit – intimations of God's salvific action in Christ – though Lewis' orthodoxy saw human imagination as flawed through original sin. This leads us to ask three questions: first, how do these prefigured ideas come to be in these myths and how do these intimations, splintered fragments of the true light, relate to Lewis' understanding of Christ as the light of the world; second, how does the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative act/operate on us as a myth, whether spoken or read (a baptized imagination is crucial here for Lewis in both the creation and receiving/hearing of such narratives); and third, is there internal evidence for a mythopoeic interpretation within the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative? Our conclusions can be illustrated by a brief examination of Lewis' own Christian myth – Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia– originally written for a Christian audience but now read by mainly non‐Christian/post‐Christian children and adults.     

A Muslim response to Harnack

Mohamed Ali, an Indian Muslim political activist of the 1920s, hoped to articulate an empowering perspective for his generation of Indian Muslims. He found Harnack's critique of the history of Christian dogma a suggestive basis for a new image of the relation of Islam to the religious life of the centuries before the Prophet Muhammad. He wanted to create a scheme for a ‘Federation of Faiths’ which would enable Indian Muslims to co‐operate in the new India with persons of other traditions. The article explains the context of Mohamed Ali's thought. Although his perspective lost momentum in India after the collapse of the non‐cooperation and Khilaft movements, it may be that a reconsideration of his ideas would be useful in the context of inter‐religious dialogue.     

"The physician as poet" review of: Pereira, Peter Saying the World

Peter Pereira is a family physician and a poet. I weave excerpts from Dr. Pereira's poems into a brief history of medicine's mythological and historical roots, beginning with the Egyptian god Thoth, and the Greek physician Hippocrates. Along the way, I touch on the European Middle Ages and the Islamic World. Finally, I quote poet-critic T.S. Eliot, who was an early influence on Dr. Pereira's decision to become a poet, and contemporary physician-poets Rafael Campo and William Carlos Williams. I end by placing Dr. Pereira, whose practice is oriented toward immigrant families, in his indigenous Pacific Northwest, arguing that being both physician and poet helps Pereira to live in a world that is both intimately human and naturally impersonal.     

Mandel'štam and Dante: TheDivine Comedy in Mandel'štam's poetry of the 1930s

Osip Mandel'?tam (1891–1938?) belongs among the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century. During the thirties, when he led a tragic existence and felt a premonition of his inevitable violent death, Mandel'?tam saw in Dante not only the greatest poet, but also his own superior teacher, and his poems of that period contain a tormented meditation on the masterpiece of Dante's genius — theDivine Comedy. Epic poetry of Dante, Homer, Virgil and others was possible because the inner world of each poet was essentially at one with the ethos of the society in which he lived. Mandel'?tam's inner world was Judaeo-Christian, European, and rooted in classical and neo-Platonic philosophy, but his outer world, consisting of a new Marxist or pseudo-Marxist system, was totally at odds with it. Thus Mandel'?tam could not embody the epic impulse of the society he opposed. He was left with the tormented lyric impulse. The fundamental conflict between Mandel'?tam as a lyric poet and the society in which he had to live and work accounts for the fact that his vision of Stalinist society in a number of respects remarkably corresponds to Dante's vision of a perverted divine order in theInferno.     

Becoming verbal: autism,trauma and playfulness

This paper will describe work in progress with a boy who was 3.4 years old at the time of referral. At this time he had no speech and there were a number of marked autistic features in his presentation, although no formal diagnosis had been made. He had suffered the trauma of a life-threatening illness requiring major medical interventions at the age of 5 months and again at 18 months, which may have been the precipitating factor for his disturbance. He is from an intact family with an older sister and a younger brother and no apparent significant family pathology. During the course of his treatment - which has now been on-going for nearly three years - he has acquired a capacity for play and has become very talkative. Using extensive clinical material, the paper will explore the factors which may have contributed to his improvement, especially the modifications in technique introduced by the therapist in order to make contact with this little boy. Special attention will be given to the role of playfulness, as introduced by the therapist, with particular reference to the way in which this may facilitate the emergence and expression of aggressive feelings and phantasies. The links with the development of the capacity for speech will be explored.     

MUHAMMAD IQBAL'S REPRESENTATIONS OF RAM AND NANAK

This article examines Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu elegies to Rama and Nanak as a way of problematizing his legacy as either a nationalistic or pan-Islamist poet. Textual analysis reveals that Iqbal drew upon themes common to Urdu and Persian literatures in order to construct his narratives. The symbolic value of Rama and Nanak within the religious and literary histories of South Asia is also considered. Iqbal's compositions predate social trends which led to a reification of the boundaries separating Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam, suggesting that poets before the mid-twentieth century drew upon a wider range of cultural resources that may seem paradoxical to contemporary audiences.     

The Therapeutic Advantage to the Family Therapist of Intervening in the Family-Clinician System

Attempting family therapy in the context of a family-clinician system poses extreme difficulties for the therapist. He cannot be effective if he diagnoses only the family system. He must broaden his analysis to include other clinicians' transactions with the family. Once he accomplishes this perceptual leap, he can intervene in the family-clinician system most effectively with paradoxical methods. He may find that a change in his own contribution to the system solves the family's problem.