The “Emerging Church” Conversation

As the contemporary discussion on the “Emerging Church” (ECC) conversation shows, there is a shift in the understanding of Christian religion. (In its historical context, this is strongly related to Evangelism.) On closer examination, the ECC actually boils down to a transformation of Christian religion – a version of an experienced‐based, postmodern religiosity. The engine of this transformation is the clarification of the religious identity. The ECC can be described as a movement that serves as a transition for the protagonists in order to shape their individual processes of resistance as well as the processes of disentanglement in regards to their own religious orientation. Therefore, the discussion represents an “alternative space,” which is best seen in five motifs: the change of religious alignment; the significance of community; specific theological themes and strategies; dealing with different “contexts” in the conversation; and the emphasis of values, attitudes, and practices. On the one hand, the conversation can be described as a “biotope of innovation.” On the other hand, protagonists handle intellectual doubt, their lack of religious experience, the lack of moral authority of their previous religious community, and theological uncertainties with courage and a certain nonchalance, which must be addressed critically.     

Brandom and the Second Person

Brandom is one of the main advocators of the idea that meaning is instituted within basic linguistic practices through mutual exchanges. The aim of this paper is to show that such framework cannot do the required job if the dynamics of mutual exchanges is understood in interpretational terms. After arguing that the interpretational framework does not work, the paper presents an alternative second-personal conversational model capable of meeting the challenge.     

The effects of conversation on attention and peripheral detection: Is talking with a passenger and talking on the cell phone different?

In this study conversation with a remote person (hands-free phone), an in-vehicle person (passenger), and a no conversation (baseline) condition were compared on measures of attention and peripheral detection. We held conversation pace constant so that any difference found in attention or peripheral detection could be attributed to the distinctive feature of the type of conversation (remote, in-vehicle). The difficulty level of the verbal task was included as a second independent variable. Forty-eight undergraduate students participated in all conditions of a within-subjects design. The results revealed that conversation resulted in slower reactions and fewer correct responses on both attention and Peripheral Detection tasks compared to no conversation, while conversation type (remote/in-person) did not make a significant difference. Difficulty of the verbal task affected performance on the Peripheral Detection task but not on the attention task. These findings imply that conversation has a negative effect on attention and peripheral detection which are important components of driving. This effect may be greater with difficult conversations.     

Making sense of male rape: constructions of gender,sexuality and experience of rape victims

This study reports a preliminary investigation into accounting practices for male rape in conversation. Thirty men and women, in dyads, were asked to discuss an incident of male rape presented to them in a vignette. The findings showed that two main issues were discussed: the experience of the rape act and societal responses to male victims. In addition, participants established a ‘hierarchy of suffering’, where rape was judged to be worse for ‘heterosexual’ men than it is for ‘women’ or ‘gay’ men. Hegemonic, phallocentric representations of heterosexuality were mobilized to argue that acts of rape and consensual intercourse are the same for ‘gay’ men and ‘women’ and therefore less traumatic than for ‘heterosexual’ men. This obscures the violence of rape for gay men and women and exonerates perpetrators by minimizing injury sustained. Participants also argued that heterosexual victims are likely to experience ridicule for having departed from hegemonic masculinity. Arguments were constructed to avoid charges of being dismissive towards women and gay men and of victim blaming in relation to heterosexual men. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

术前谈话与患者的知情同意权

告知说明义务是医师的法定义务,知情同意权是患者的法定权利,术前谈话是外科医师履行告知说明义务和手术患者实现知情同意权的共同方式。外科医师应深入理解患者的知情同意权,合理履行告知说明义务,临床实践中做到告知说明内容充分,变更手术重新告知说明,避免使用穷尽式列举,确定签字人身份合法且具有完全民事行为能力。     

From Speechlessness to Presence

Spiritual direction, or the directed art of inner conversation, emerges from a psychological inflection in which we learn that radical inner otherness is the fuel of spirit. Spirit, manifesting between self and other incarnates through and in the subject, as well as through the other encountered as authentic subject. One individuates, then, by relating to the Self as a desiring subject. Moving in the direction of spirit, we push back dimension by dimension to get to one dimension. Eventually, we may encounter a numinous silence, an emptiness that is full.     

Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Conversation: Some Comments on the Project of Comparative Philosophy

This paper seeks to highlight the East-West asymmetry in philosophical exchanges. It draws attention to the absence of Eastern thought in the curriculum of philosophy in the West and suggests that cliches and stereotypes about cultures in general and thought-traditions in particular are perpetuated in this manner. The aim of the paper is to encourage 'cross-cultural conversation' among philosophers. A critical review of the project of 'comparative philosophy' is made to disclose the fact that despite the difficulties of such an endeavor, it is an attempt to bring thought-traditions together and is thereby useful for promoting intercultural understanding.     

A conversation analysis of therapist repeats in open dialogue network meetings

Writings on Open Dialogue approaches to working with families experiencing mental distress emphasize the importance of the therapist repeating the family's words back to them verbatim. Repeats are theorized to display the therapist's listening and to encourage elaboration without imposing the therapist's own interpretations or conclusions on the family. These recommendations have not been subjected to rigorous interactional investigation. In this study, we used conversation analysis to analyze 160 examples of therapists repeating the prior talk of the family from 14 h of video-recorded Open Dialogue sessions. We found that these repeats had similar functions to those previously described in conversation analysis research such as initiating repair, marking receipt, and requesting elaboration as well as examples of therapist repeats occurring in overlap with the talk of the client. Open Dialogue writings thus present an oversimplified account of how repeats are utilized in clinical Open Dialogue sessions. Consistent with dialogical writings, repeats can elicit elaboration with limited input from the therapist, however repeats reflect selectivity and function to direct and guide the conversation to some extent. So, while therapist authority can be mitigated by repeating clients' words, when a therapist chooses to employ a repeat actively shapes the direction of the interaction.