A space to “eat,trance, and sleep”: the healing power of Mahanubhav temples in Maharashtra (India)

This paper explores the effectiveness of religious healing by focusing on one important factor that has been much neglected – the stay within the shrine. Drawing on qualitative research in Mahanubhav temples in India, this paper emphasises that the central part of religious healing is the process of being in the temple and becoming familiar with shrine culture. At the same time, I argue that the social space of the shrine is important not only for the benefits of a soothing environment or support system. It is argued that temporary residence within the shrine enables individuals to develop long-term associations with the religious community and sect. Through discussion of indicative cases, this paper elaborates on the process of “becoming a Mahanubhav pilgrim” that is at the heart of temple healing practices in India.     

易学与中华民族创新精神

中华民族是一个富于创新精神的民族,而这种创新精神又与易学有着深深的不解之缘,二者形成了广泛的互动关系。易学中的忧患意识、自强不息精神、包容态度,科学思想及和谐理念等等,都对中华民族创新精神产生了巨大影响,成为中华民族生生不息的动力之源,成为我们建设创新型国家的重要历史资鉴。     

In the Name of the Spirits -- A Reading of Solov'ëv's Justification of the Good

In this contribution, the author analyzes Vladimir Solov'ëv's intention to study the idea of the Good as something relatively independent from religion and metaphysics. Some implications of Solov'ëv's definition of moral philosophy in The Justification of the Good are investigated, and illustrated with his applied ethics of war in chapter 18 of this book. It appears that Solov'ëv's moral philosophy and his account of war must be understood in connection with the central place of the cult of ancestors in his ethics. The idea of the Good and the idea of God spring from a religious origin and appear in our efforts to conjure up and exorcize the spirits of our forefathers. The author explains this ethics by referring to Solov'ëv's article China and Europe. There, Solov'ëv assumes that the Christian mind is treatened by the danger of a cultural order in which the cult of ancestors is most purely preserved. In the future war against China, however, Christian civilization must show itself superior to its enemy without betraying its loyalty to its own ancestors. The author concludes that in Solov'ëv's ethics, the moral subject is divided between the confirmation of its own autonomy and its being haunted by the spirits of its forefathers, a haunt which results in relentless wars against others     

Book reviews

Shamdasani, Sonu. Cult Fictions: C. G. Jung and the Founding of Analytical Psychology
Shamdasani, Sonu. Cult Fictions: C.G. Jung and the Founding of Analytical Psychology
Sandner, Donald F. & Wong, Steven H. (eds.). The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology
Bion, W. R. War Memoirs 1917–1919
Mitrani, Theodore, Mitrani, Judith et al. (eds.). Encounters with Autistic States
Spensley, Sheila. Frances Tustin
Symington, Neville. The Making of a Psychotherapist.
Killick, Katherine & Schaverien, Joy (eds.). Art, Psychotherapy and Psychosis.     

论儒家知识分子的精神

两千多年的儒家思想凝炼出历代知识分子孜孜以求的三种精神,即修身精神、仁义精神和批判精神。在新时期继承和发扬儒家知识分子的精神对于当代知识分子的精神和思想重塑具有重要的现实意义和实践价值。