Aggravated Murder and Capital Punishment

ABSTRACT It is possible to defend the death penalty for aggravated murder in more than one way, and not every defence is equally compelling. The paper takes up arguments put forward by two very distinguished advocates of the death penalty, Mill and Kant. After reviewing Mill's argument and some weaknesses in it, I shall sketch another line of reasoning that combines his conclusion with premisses to be found in Kant. The hybrid argument provides at least the basis for a sound defence of execution for the most serious murders.     

Resolutions of Aloneliness

“Aloneliness” is the author's term for the phenomenon that has given rise to such states-of-being as aloneness, loneliness, solitude, alienation, isolation, and aloneliness anxiety. Most studies into this phenomenon have focused on the theoretical dimensions, with little or no attention given to resolution strategies. This article develops such resolution strategies and offers guidelines for counselors.     

The Vanishing Protestant Majority

Since colonial times, the United States has been a majority Protestant nation. But the proportion Protestant in the population has been falling for over a decade, and Protestants are poised to lose their majority status. This decline results from a decline in the intergenerational retention rate for Protestants and from the attrition of Protestants among the youngest cohorts. Shifts in immigration also contribute to the Protestant decline. We also consider the role of an increasing share of people identifying as generic Christians and as inter- or nondenominational.     

An Object-Relations Approach to Psychotherapy with Marital Couples,Families, and Children

AN APPROACH to object relations is presented here that conceptualizes the dynamics of interpersonal relationships. Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a thorough review of the object-relations school of thought, the concepts introduced here have direct clinical implications for understanding and influencing the dynamics of the patient-therapist dyad, of the marital pair, and of the family unit. Included are the following concepts: (a) Couples in conflict are viewed as more similar than dissimilar despite apparent differences; (b) The therapist's countertransference reactions are seen as not irrational but a valid reflection of the patient's struggle; (c) The adult or child who is the identified patient is often a carrier or container of the split-off, unacceptable impulses of the other(s); (d) The individual is perceived as part of a unit in which even the more obvious pathological traits have an inherent healthy reparative function.     

Religionless Christianity and the Political Implications of Theological Speech: What Bonhoeffer's Theology Yields to a World of Fundamentalisms

This article seeks to utilize Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity in a formative and constructive way to aid theological speech in the complexly secular and multi-faith setting of the twenty-first century. It will begin by seeking to highlight trends in unhelpful contemporary theo-politics, and to locate these in the interconnection of secular and religious forms of fundamentalism. It will then consider how a theological interpretation of Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity might assist in undermining such fundamentalisms. A further section identifies a threefold positive benefit that Bonhoeffer's thought offers in the contemporary situation: a distinction between God and religion; a genuine understanding of the sovereignty of God; and an inability to separate secular–religious concerns from inter-faith concerns.     

The Sociology of Complex Systems: An Overview of Actor-System-Dynamics Theory

This article illustrates the important scientific role that a systems approach might play within the social sciences and humanities, above all through its contribution to a common language, shared conceptualizations, and theoretical integration in the face of the extreme (and growing) fragmentation among the social sciences (and between the social sciences and the natural sciences). The article outlines a systems theoretic approach, actor-system-dynamics (ASD), whose authors have strived to re-establish systems theorizing in the social sciences (after a period of marginalization since the late 1960s). This is done, in part, by showing how key social science concepts are readily incorporated and applied in social system analysis.     

Longitudinal Effects of Television on Children's Leisure-Time Reading A Test of Three Explanatory Models

Using a sample of 1,050 Dutch elementary schoolchildren who were in Grades 2 and 4 at the outset of the research, this study investigated (a) the longitudinal effects of television viewing on the frequency with which children read books and comic books at home, and (b) the causal mechanisms that underlie television's effects on leisure-time reading. The children were surveyed three times, at 1-year intervals. Structural equations analysis suggested that television viewing reduced children's comic book reading only in the period from Year 2 to Year 3. Book reading, however, was found to be reduced by television viewing over both measurement periods. The data suggest that two causal mechanisms underlie television's reductive effect on children's book reading: (a) a television-induced deterioration of attitudes toward book reading, and (b) a television-induced deterioration of children's ability to concentrate on reading.