Religion and Public Health

The paper begins by acknowledging several ways in which religious beliefs and behavior have had a negative impact on people's physical and mental health; fanatical violence, mortifying asceticism, and oppressive traditionalism (e.g., sexism) are mentioned. Three areas of positive influence are explored: 1) the role of religious practices in personal health; 2) the impact of social ministries on community health, and 3) the complementarity of religious ideas of salvation with medical conceptions of health in contemporary conceptions of human well-being. That religion mediates between the social and individual dimensions of well-being is a unifying theme of the paper.Philosopher of religion who taught for many years at     

公共卫生实践中诸主体的道德责任

公共卫生伦理的实质是维护公共健康的道德责任,明确其实践诸主体的具体道德责任,即政府应当尽力提供与公正分配公共卫生资源,公众应当追求公共善基础上的合法权利,卫生职业者应当献身职业,进而为维护和促进公共健康利益、减少和预防疾病、降低和最小化风险与伤害提供伦理支撑,也将为公共卫生实践主体提供正确的价值引导.     

Family Therapy in Trouble: Psychoeducation as Solution and as Problem

The authors cite clinical literature attesting to the importance of recognizing the family, rather than the individual, as the proper locus of conceptualizing, diagnosing, and treating mental illnesses. Specifically with regard to severe psychiatric illnesses, in particular schizophrenia, family dysfunction contributes to the emergence of the illness, significantly affects its course, and strongly influences the achievement and maintenance of treatment gains. Currently, a movement is afoot to limit sharply the amount and kind of treatment offered to schizophrenic patients and their families. Rooted in a “medical model” or “biogenic” view of the etiology of schizophrenia, this school of thought prescribes psychoeducation as the family treatment of choice. The present article looks at some misconceptions regarding treatment that prompted a widespread turning away from psychoanalytically oriented family psychotherapy for schizophrenic patients and their families, examines the reductionism (biological and behavioral) inhering in the exclusive use of psychoeducation, and looks at the clinical dangers of such reductionism. Finally, it proposes that family psycho-therapists should not abandon a concern with the inner lives of severely ill patients and their families in the face of spuriously generalized claims made by reductionist researchers.     

A Paraconsistent Solution to the Problem of Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

Moral dilemmas - situations in which an agent has a moral requirement to do each of two acts but cannot do both - seem to suggest some kind of inconsistency. I argue that the inconsistency felt intuitively is actually a logical inconsistency, and then go on to show that we can neither deny the existence of moral dilemmas nor give up the deontic principles involved in the deduction of a contradiction, as both our moral judgements and the deontic principles depend on intuitions that form the basis of our morality. Rather than rejecting our intuitions and thus undermining morality, I suggest regarding moral dilemmas as situations in which a contradiction is not only false, but at the same time true. Finally, the view that moral dilemmas are an example of true contradictions - so-called dialetheias - leads to the application of paraconsistent logic to moral judgements.     

全球伦理与道德宗教

1993年9月,6500名来自世界各地的不同宗教信仰的人士和一些非宗教组织的代表,在美国芝加哥举行的“世界宗教议会”上通过了一份《全球伦理宣言》。《宣言》认为,各种宗教之间已经有一种共同之处,它可以成为一种全球伦理的基础;这种“全球伦理”, “指的是对一些有约束性的价值观、一些不可取消的标准和人格态度的一种基本共识”; 《宣言》指出:“没有新的全球伦理,便没有新的全球秩序”。     

Religion,Health, and the Psychology of Religion: How the Research on Religion and Health Helps Us Understand Religion

An increasing replication of studies find a correlation between religious belief and practice and mental and physical health and longevity. This paper discusses some of the implications of this research for the ways in which religion might understood psychologically. Most interpretations of this data focus on the presence of one or more mediating variables. This paper argues that the presence of these mediating factors helps us understand more precisely some of the ways in which religion actually does impact on human life and in what the psychological uniqueness of religion actually consists.     

Indigenous Psychotherapies and Religion: Moral Vision and Embodied Communities

Over the past century, the dominant model for addressing mental illness has been the treatment of individuals, largely by individual therapists who assume the availability of individual psychological resources. That form of therapy is a scarce commodity in capitalist societies, and social models of healing have been largely marginalized and forgotten. From the point of view of an indigenous psychology of religion, this essay (1) reports on local cultural and community models of healing that honor the common good, draw on local, communal narratives, and involve a given community in the process of healing. However, because it is not simply community in itself that is therapeutic, the authors argue (2) that healing cultures have communities that are guided by their moral vision and are committed to justice, moral integrity, and the sharing of resources. They draw on intergenerational studies that detail the effects in Inuit communities where a moral vision and a sense of community was present but then was eroded. Therapists whose interventions draw on the moral resources of the community may facilitate healing, as demonstrated by the use of allocentric imaging in more communal traditions. Finally, it is not simply communities with moral ideals that are therapeutic but (3) indigenous communities whose structures and whose role models embody their ethic that is critical for healing. The authors examine ecological communities in China committed to Confucian values and protection of the earth. The L’Arche communities begun in France by Jean Vanier and Alcoholics Anonymous groups around the world serve as examples of embodied moral communities.     

Epistemological and Moral Conflict Between Religion and Science

Debates about religion and educational attainment often assume that members of certain religious groups do not seek out knowledge of science because they are opposed to the use of the scientific method. Using the science module of the 2006 General Social Survey, the analysis indicates that no religious group differs from the nonreligious comparison group in its propensity to seek out scientific knowledge. A more subtle epistemological conflict may arise when scientists make claims that explicitly contradict theological accounts. Findings indicate that Protestants and Catholics differ from the comparison group only on the very few issues where religion and science make competing claims. A third possible source of conflict may not be epistemological, but rather derives from opposition to what is understood as the public moral agenda of scientists. Findings indicate that conservative Protestants are opposed to scientific influence in public affairs due to opposition to the scientists’ moral agenda.     

基于宗教、哲学和传统的创造

文明之间的对话总是源于压力和挑战,但机遇也随之而来。机遇在于,能否在对其他文明的学习、理解和观照中重新找到自信。没有这种自信,文明之间的对话将没有意义,也不可能真正发生。自信意味着在新的时空坐标中不断地对自己传统之宗教信仰、哲学理念和生命意识的重新反思、批判和再造。通过对话,重新理解、发现、再造并坚持自己,这是犹太哲学发展史所带来的重要启示。再造自己的传统和文明,不是回归,而是复兴,是基于新的时空可能性创造新的传统。     

A Public Religion and Biomedical Ethics

This article describes the exclusion of public expressions of religion from the history of bioethics during recent decades. It offers a proposal to include public religion for the purpose of gaining donations of vital organs for transplantation, more appreciation for the gift of aging, and more concern for universal access to health care. I also include a brief discussion of theological support and practical suggestions for such a program.