Loving the World We Are: Anthropology and Relationality in Laudato si’

There is a tension between Laudato si's consistent emphasis on relationships and interconnectedness and its acceptance of anthropocentrism. While Laudato si’ does reject certain problematic forms of anthropocentrism, the encyclical does not assert an alternative to this traditional framework. This article contends that “relatiocentrism” provides the best avenue for developing the convictions expressed within Laudato si’ while moving beyond the limitations of the encyclical itself. In so doing, this essay explores the use of narrative as a means of shaping identity by mapping significant relationships and points of meaning. It examines the central anthropological claims of the encyclical and the tensions these create with anthropocentric narratives. And it examines relatiocentrism in light of the biblical creation accounts, the eschatological perspective of Laudato si’, and virtue ethics. The essay concludes by suggesting further theological and moral implications of this shift in perspective.     

Social perspective-taking skills in maltreated children and adolescents

The primary goal of this study was to assess the ability of maltreated school-age children and adolescents to understand the thoughts, feelings, and points of view of others. Level of egocentrism and social perspective-taking coordination were assessed in a group of 49 maltreated and 49 demographically matched nonmaltreated children. Twenty-six elementary and 23 high school students in each group were individually interviewed and their responses to hypothetical interpersonal situations coded for egocentricity and level of perspective-taking ability. The findings revealed that maltreated children and adolescents were more egocentric and delayed in their social perspective-taking development than their nonmaltreated peers and that they reported lower levels of global self-worth. However, differences within the group of maltreated children and adolescents emerged with regard to negotiating novel relationships, as those with fewer internalizing or externalizing symptoms exhibited better skills in this area than their peers who displayed more symptoms.     

Mourning Religion? Celebrating Transformation! From Loss to Gain,from Depression to Melancholia

The article raises some questions about issues in the recently published volume Mourning religion, edited by Parsons et al. (2008).     

When death thoughts lead to death fears: Mortality salience increases death anxiety for individuals who lack meaning in life

Research derived from terror management theory demonstrates that subtle reminders of mortality increase strivings for meaning. It is argued that such strivings reflect efforts to prevent the anxiety that death reminders may otherwise cause. However, no research has directly tested the assertions that subtle mortality primes increase death anxiety and perceptions of meaning in life moderate this effect. The current study examined these predictions. Meaning in life was measured, death cognition primed, and death anxiety assessed. A mortality prime increased death anxiety, but only for individuals who lack perceptions of meaning in life. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.     

Ritual without myth: The use of legal materials for the study of religions

This essay explores the role that Buddhist narrative literature plays in fostering the cultivation of ethically valorised emotions. The essay focuses on astonishment, as it figures in ārya ?ūra's Jātakamālā, a collection of Sanskrit narratives. The essay examines how and why ārya ?ura valorises astonishment and what this valorisation reveals about the significance of emotions in Buddhist ethical life. The key distinction implicit in ārya ?ura's work between natural and cultivated emotions is worked out.     

Methodological concerns in the psychology of religion: Continuities,losses and transforming perspectives

This article seeks solutions to what has recently been called the ‘crisis' in the psychology of religion by returning to the programs of its founding fathers. It explores some of the methodological debates that followed the translation of William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience into German. More was at stake than the commonly drawn distinction between empirical and hermeneutical approaches to religion, or between quantitative and qualitative methods. What was at stake was the need for another kind of psychology in general. This article pays special attention to Wilhelm Wundt's fundamental criticism of James and of others in the psychology of religion. Despite the problems inherent in both James' and Wundt's aborted general psychology programs, each nonetheless contains approaches that may yet serve as an impetus to contemporary research on religion. Contemporary developments in cultural psychology in particular complement current research in the psychology of religion.