“I Am Still With You”: Dementia and the Christian Wayfarer

Persons with dementia suffer not only from neuropathology but also from cultural norms that exalt agency, privilege rationality, equate worth with capacity, and discourage disability and dependence. In Christian theological context, however, these are faulty assumptions that harm people with dementia. Christian tradition affirms, rather, that humans are integrated, whole-person, embodied souls on a journey to God; dependent on others and on God; and endowed by God with intrinsic worth that is unrelated to capacities. Four theological parameters—creation, participation, lament, and song—enable resistance to prevalent toxic social norms and promote faithful Christian re-membering of people with dementia.     

Indigenous Peoples of Indo-Myanmar

Drawing from the Indigenous Christian communities of the Indo-Myanmar region of India, this article discusses the theme of reconciliation as a mission paradigm. Sketching some cultural contours of communities to illustrate the role of the historical encounter and experience of Christian mission in consolidating modern ethnic identity, the paper points out some vestiges of the culture. Despite the embrace of Christianity and the immense changes to the communities initiated, observation reveals practices of contradictions, latent tensions, resistance to the “other,” and sporadic conflicts. The paper therefore argues that the historical experience of reconciliation among the different Indigenous groups needs to continue in constructing an inclusive society of Indigenous Christians. The article discusses including women and other excluded members, overcoming cultural practices, and transforming resistance to the “other” as markers of inclusive community. In developing the argument from a local context, it reiterates the centrality of reconciliation and inclusive community in the experience of Christian mission. To be disciples of Christ is to belong together, and belonging together requires “mutual enfolding” to a new social kinship – the kingdom of God. In conclusion, some recommendations for a mission of reconciliation from Indigenous Christian communities are listed in the hope that reconciliation as mission is sustained by a vision of a healed and just world.     

Mission and Reconciliation in the Orthodox Church

This article examines the Orthodox view on reconciliation as reflected in the famous patriarchal and synodical encyclicals early in the last century and in more recent official documents: the Messages of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, the approved documents of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s official statements. These are looked at in reference to (i) the mission statement of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, Together towards Life, and (ii) the papal encyclicals Unitatis redintegratio and Ut unum sint. The article further examines the need for a common Christian witness and the reactions within the Orthodox world from a tiny but vocal anti-ecumenical minority. It underlines the importance of a Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities along with the existing Universal Declaration of Human Rights to address the ecological problem and inequities of the current world economic system, based on the interrelatedness of economy and ecology and the consolidation of the interfaith dialogue for a wider reconciliation. The article also underlines the highest priority of the theological dialogues at all levels and by all bodies of the Orthodox ecclesial reality as a necessary step to promote reconciliation. Finally, the article assesses (i) the dialogue aiming to achieve the visible unity of the church; (ii) dialogues generally focusing on Christian unity, or even unity with other faithful; (iii) dialogues aiming as much as possible at common Christian witness; and (iv) dialogues focusing on the church’s responsibility toward society and the integrity of creation.     

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Gun Ownership

This question on how religious beliefs shape attitudes about guns has received little attention in the literature. We use the religious concept of supernatural evil, or beliefs about Satan, Hell, Armageddon, and demons, to provide context for ideas about gun ownership and the development of attitudes toward gun policy. While this has been explored quantitatively using national survey data, we argue that an in-depth qualitative approach provides necessary nuance. As part of an ongoing ethnography in Northeastern Kansas, we conducted interviews with 55 women and 7 men who own and shoot guns. For this paper, we report on a religion module subsample that probes religiosity, spirituality, and gun ownership. Based on the rich contextual information from the interviews, we illuminate a package of beliefs that come together as an ethic, a set of moral principles guiding gun ownership for a subset of gun owners. We suggest the spirit of gun ownership is a bundle of duties that guide individual gun owners to stress the need to protect, be diligent, and defend. Moreover, belief in supernatural evil is bound up in policy attitudes that protect or expand gun rights.     

Demographic, Clinical, and Functional Characteristics of Youth Enrolled in Six California Systems of Care

We describe the demographic, functional, and clinical status of children served across six California counties implementing a longstanding integrated system of care approach called the California System of Care Model. The children enrolled in the care systems are an ethnically diverse group of predominantly pre-adolescent and adolescent males. The level of functional impairment and degree of symptomatology is high. Seventy to 80% of the youth were in the clinical or borderline clinical ranges as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist. Scores on the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale, provided by the treating clinician, indicated that up to 94% of the youth were in the moderate to severe levels of impairment. Children and adolescents rated themselves on the Youth Self Report as having lower levels of impairment than did parents. Caregivers and youth ratings emphasized externalizing rather than internalizing problems. Clinician ratings as captured by the CAFAS and the clinical diagnoses, presented a mix between internalizing and externalizing diagnoses and functional impairment areas. The six counties are serving children who have levels of impairment, similar to, or higher than, youth enrolled in other systems of care nationwide.     

The Little Mermaid: Hans Christian Andersen's Feminine Identification

While verbally transmitted fairy tales express universal human concerns, the literary fairy tale, the written creation of an individual author, permits a psychodynamic understanding of the writer. The little mermaid's willingness to undergo the pain and mutilation involved in the loss of both her tail and was voice in order to become a mortal and marry a prince has been regarded as illustrating problems in female sexual development. However, a review of Hans Christian Andersen's biographical data indicates that the story also represents his unconscious homosexual conflicts and supports Freud's concept of the role of castration anxiety in the negative Oedipus complex.     

THEOLOGY IN AN EVOLUTIONARY MODE

Abstract. Evolution has become the standard way of understanding the world process. Theology has to express traditional faith in the context of the contemporary world. Since the common world view has profoundly changed, from a static world of being into a dynamic world of becoming, theology needs to change its language and its understanding of the universe as God's creation. This understanding of an evolving world is to be used as a theological source. Such a change of perspective necessitates a fundamental reconstructing of theology; for theology, such reconstructing means a renewed understanding of the Creator and of the Incarnation.     

Physician-assisted death: doctrinal develoment vs. Christian tradition.

Physician-assisted suicide offers a moral and theological Rorschach test. Foundational commitments regarding morality and theology are disclosed by how the issue is perceived and by what moral problems it is seen to present. One of the cardinal differences disclosed is that between Western and Orthodox Christian approaches to theology in general, and the theology of dying and suicide in particular. Confrontation with the issue of suicide is likely to bring further doctrinal development in many of the Western Christian religions, so as to be able to accept physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.     

Assisted death and martyrdom.

Against the backdrop of ancient, mediaeval and modern Catholic teaching prohibiting killing (the rule against killing), the question of assisted suicide and euthanasia is examined. In the past the Church has modified its initial repugnance for killing by developing specific guidelines for permitting killing under strict conditions. This took place with respect to capital punishment and a just war, for example. One wonders why in the least objectionable instance, when a person is already dying, suffering, and repeatedly requesting assistance in dying, there is still such widespread condemnation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a Gedankexperiment, I suggest that certain stories of martyrdom in the history of the Christian Church shed some light on the role of taking one's life, or putting one's life in danger out of love. I further suggest that requesting assisted suicide and/or euthanasia from the motive of love of one's family or care givers might possibly qualify as one instance of justifiable euthanasia, although I acknowledge that the Church will not be making changes in its stance any time soon.