Psychotherapy and counseling in professions other than the ministry

Conclusion My own chief impression and conclusion about this conference could not be better stated than has been done already by Lawrence K. Frank, Co-Chairman of the conference and member of our Editorial Advisory Board. He wrote:... the conference that was held is significant of a pervasive, may I say almost revolutionary, change in the climate of opinion. This change is characterized by a new awareness, a new set of assumptions, a new set of expectations, a particularly different way of thinking about ourselves ... Individuals suffering from early stunting and distortion can be helped to grow and mature, their strengths and potentialities can be evoked by various processes so that they can develop more nearly in terms of their capabilities.It is significant that every profession represented in these pages has declared itself a social agent, feeling itself to be a responsible agent dedicated ... to making operational our cherished beliefs in the worth of individual personality. Each group is working in its own way to recognize and conserve the human dignity of man, woman, and child.... each group here has acknowledged that no single profession is competent to undertake this difficult task of psychotherapy and counseling without further training and clinical experience that goes beyond the M. D., Ph.D., D.D., or whatever the degrees or titles may be ... No one person, merely because he has professional training and a degree, can claim that he is competent to undertake this difficult process.We may be approaching the time ... when we may see more agreement on scientific concepts, so that we can have an orchestration of professional skills and knowledge. I like the term orchestration because it gets away from ancillary and other terms of subordination and superordination. In an orchestra we recognize the unique place, function, and range of every instrument, but we realize that the instruments have to be played with coordination if they are going to be really productive of any theme played in unison.We may indeed hope that Lawrence Frank is right. And that we of the clergy may make a continuing contribution to such an end.     

What is Evagrian ΓΝΩΣΙΣ?

Abstract: Evagrius famously characterises divine nature as γνῶσις οὐσιώδης, ‘substantial knowledge’. In the Alexandrian, Cappadocian, and other intellectual contexts informed by Platonic, Aristotelian, and Philonic thought, characterisations of God as a noetic or intellectual being are fairly common. However, these traditions concur in using the term νοῦς rather than γνῶσις. How can we explain that Evagrius deviates from the metaphysical mainstream? In this paper, I review this question from an historical and systematic point of view. I propose to examine ancient theories of Mind about the function and structure of the νοῦς, compare them to the Evagrian theory, and identify a possible explanation for the substitution of γνῶσις to the νοῦς. Since God is the key element in Evagrius's metaphysics, a clearer vision of the divine essence will help us appreciate the whole system more fully.     

Community engagement,greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets

Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community-level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects of community-engaged vacant lot greening compared to vacant lots that received either professional mowing or no treatment, on the density of violent crime around study lots. Using mixed effects regression models, we analyzed trends in violent crime density over the summer months from 2016 to 2018 at 2102 street segments in Youngstown, OH. These street segments fell within 150 meters of an intervention parcel that was classified as one of three conditions: community-engaged maintenance, professional mowing, or no treatment (control). We found that street segments in areas receiving community-engaged maintenance or professional mowing experienced greater declines in violent crime density than street segments in areas receiving no treatment, and more decline occurred in the community-engaged condition compared to the professional mow condition. Our findings support BST and suggest that community-engaged greening of vacant lots in postindustrial cities with a concentrated vacancy can reduce crime and violence.