Re-reading Anscombe on ‘I’

According to a ‘Straight’ reading of Elizabeth Anscombe’s (1975 Anscombe, E. 1975. “The First Person.” In her Mind and Language, edited by S. Guttenplan, 45–65. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]) ‘The First Person’, she holds a radically non-referring view of ‘I’. Specifically, ‘I’ is analogous to the expletive ‘it’ in ‘It’s raining’. I argue that this is not her conclusion. Her substantive view, rather is that if what you mean by ‘reference’ is a certain rich and recherché notion tracing to Frege, then ‘I’ is not a referring term. Her methodological point is that one shouldn’t be ‘bewitched by language’ into thinking that ‘I’, because of its syntax, must exhibit ‘reference’ in this sense.     

Exploring mystery: can Christian meditation at school nurture students’ relationships with God?

ABSTRACT

While there is growing international interest in meditation and mindfulness initiatives in schools, little research has focused on exploring the impact of such practices on students’ spirituality. This paper reports data from a mixed method study involving primary school classes engaged in the regular practice of Christian meditation between Years 4 to 6 in Catholic schools in New South Wales, Australia. Student focus group data (n = 114 students) and a student survey (n = 250 students) suggest Christian meditation offers an inclusive and ‘hospitable’ space for many students, where their spiritual well-being can be nurtured, including their connection to God. However, the findings suggest that accompanying dialogue with students around the purpose and possibilities of Christian meditation may help to better situate the practice as a ‘hospitable space’ thus enabling deeper engagement with the spiritual in contemporary Catholic classrooms.     

Transforming churches: the lived religion of religious organizations in a contemporary context

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes patterns of transformation in a specific majority religious institution, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (ELCD), through a case study of communicative actions related to new church practices. The argument is that the patterns most often identified in the study of the religion of late-modern individuals, which is an “ever-changing, multifaceted, often messy—even contradictory—amalgam of beliefs and practices” (McGuire 2008, 4), are also relevant when scholars describe changes at the level of religious organizations. Meredith McGuire’s concepts are supplemented with other discussions of the transformation of traditions in a contemporary context. Our research question is: what characterizes the communicative actions concerning the transformation of traditions within the ELCD today? The empirical material consists of communicative actions related to practices associated with Halloween and Valentine’s Day from two distinct contexts: 1) the public debate about the Church in the newspaper The Christian Daily and 2) public announcements in the official online Church calendar. This leads to a discussion of the creative agency of religious institutions as part of the complex pattern of contemporary religion. The article argues in favor of an increased focus on the development of new practices in churches as examples of lived religion at the level of institutional religion.     

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Neurological Outcomes: A Review for Practitioners

ABSTRACT

Thirty-eight million women will experience intimate partner violence (IPV) during the course of their lifetime. Many of these women will experience brain injuries as a result of IPV and may not seek medical attention. Several types of practitioners who work with IPV survivors consistently, e.g., first responders, advocates, and clinicians, may be unfamiliar with brain functioning, screening, assessment, and treatment. This article reviews the dual traumas of IPV and TBI, the impact on neurological processes and symptomatology, and short and long-term outcomes. Recommendations for screening, intervention, interprofessional collaboration, and research are outlined.     

Jewish women in intercommunal political movements in colonial Morocco

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to study Jewish participation in intercommunal – Muslim, Jewish, Christian – Moroccan women’s organizations that promoted national Moroccan socio-political aims, and to analyze their origins, effects, demise and memory. The paper focuses on a unique organization - Union des Femmes marocaines (Union of Moroccan Women) – which, for almost ten years during the colonial period, had carried out intercommunal work for shared Moroccan causes. The study reveals that during the period that intercommunal women’s associations operated (1943–1952), they were first French-oriented and dealt with issues considered, from a gendered perspective, to be within women’s domain (i.e. helping the poor and needy, doing charity, fighting for women’s education), but from 1947, they “Moroccanized” and worked towards general political Moroccan aims. The paper refers to a relatively unknown chapter in Moroccan history, and opens a new perspective of the Moroccan identity of Jews before their massive emigration from the country.     

Leone Ebreo in Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogo. Between Varchi’s legacy and philosophical autonomy

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the impact of the philosophical structure of Leone Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’amore on the construction of Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogo della infinità di amore. Analysing both the explicit references to and the indirect citations of Leone’s Dialoghi, I aim to demonstrate how the reinterpretation of some fundamental topics of this work – such as the re-evaluation of the sensual aspect of human love and the distinction between honest and vulgar love – lies at the heart of Tullia’s dialogue. The article also intends to shed light on the complex role of Benedetto Varchi in the elaboration of these issues by d’Aragona, who for the final revision of her text could have relied – as she did for her poems – on his collaboration.     

Teachers as informants: countering extremism and promoting violence

ABSTRACT

This article is a response to Muslim students reporting that they had been silenced by fear of the PREVENT Counter-Terrorism Strategy. By adopting a Critical Realist stance, real generative mechanisms of this actual phenomenon are investigated and theorised. Recognition of changing definitions of both ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ in different versions of PREVENT results in the discursive aspect of these real generative mechanisms being investigated using critical discourse analysis (CDA). This analysis identifies the emergence of a violent discourse of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ (RadEx) that it is theorised has the capacity to promote rather than prevent violence. Finally, a process by which this production of violence in the classroom might have been avoided is explored and this indicates that critique of government efforts to counter ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ is a vital aspect of pedagogy in the context of PREVENT and the War on Terror.     

Navigating the spaces of children’s spiritual experiences: influences of tradition(s), multidisciplinarity and perceptions

ABSTRACT

Children across the world report similar spiritual experiences. Empirical studies suggest that most resonate with the children’s traditions; a finding which should, in theory, afford them a safe spiritual space. However, a number of factors can situate them in a less certain place. The paper uses the metaphors of trees imbued with different shades of light, from the vivid, shimmering and opaque to the invisible, to illustrate the types of spiritual spaces in which children find themselves. Their location is shaped in part by connection or disconnection with traditions, alongside wider cultural forces. Three navigation tools are used to show how children may move between these spaces: the spiritual experience and its relationship with traditions; the influences of multidisciplinary approaches; and children’s perceptions of their experiences. The paper concludes that these metaphors and tools may be a useful way to understand the spiritual spaces in which children find themselves.     

The impact of cognitive interventions on cognitive symptoms in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

This systematic review addressed efficacy of cognitive stimulation (CS), cognitive training (CT), and cognitive rehabilitation (CR) to improve cognitive functions in Parkinson’s disease (PD) with (PD-MCI) and without mild cognitive impairment (PD-H). Five databases were searched. Twelve CT, four CS, and a combination of CT with CR were found. PD-H benefited from CT or CS compared to active or passive controls in 42.1% of cognitive tests, and in 33.3% of psychological and functional measures. PD-MCI alone, compared with controls, only improved in 6.9% of cognitive measures after CT. PD-H and PD-MCI, alone or together, somehow improved information processing speed, attention, working memory, executive functions, and visual episodic memory. PD-MCI improved better than PD-H in global cognition and planning abilities. The outcomes suggest some efficacy of cognitive interventions in PD. However, small samples, lack of information regarding standardization of interventions, and poor methodological quality limit results validity and prevent firm conclusions.