Early Muslim Scholarship in Religionwissenchaft: A Study of Muhammad ‘Abd Al-Karīm Al-Shahrastānī's On the Concept of the People of a Dubious Book (Ahl Shubhat Kitāb)

The issue of the People of the Book has long been of central significance to Islam and later to the study of comparative religion. Many Muslim and European scholars have hence taken close heed of the People of the Book and their role as the holders of sacred books. The question of the People of the Book becomes more crucial when Muhammad ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī (d.548/1153) develops another category identified as “Man Lahu Shubhat Kitāb,” (those who possess doubtful sacred scrolls) or “Ahl Shubhat Kitāb” (the People of a Dubious Book), the term that may be considered similar to that of al-Shahrastānī. The question of the People of a Dubious Book remains vague or confusing for many people. This confusion occurs not only among lay Muslims, but also among the Jews and Christians. In effect, the condition of these groups has not yet been systematized properly, although they have been treated in several major works of theology as well as in Qur’ānic commentary. The present analysis is an attempt to evaluate the nature of the People of a Dubious Book as exclusively developed by al-Shahrastānī. Considering the fact that some of the Muslim scholars have considered these groups as belonging either to People of the Book or Polytheists, a critical study shall be attempted to investigate why al-Shahrastānī exclusively expands this concept in Islamic Religious Tradition. It is hoped that the study will provide a preliminary yet clear understanding of the People of a Dubious Book, which hopefully can inspire further investigation leading to a critical study on these groups of peoples.     

大学生对个人未来的规划和态度及其与抑郁的关系

采用青少年未来取向问卷(中文版)、Beck抑郁量表-Ⅱ对723名大学牛进行调查,考察大学生对未来的规划和态度及其与抑郁的关系.结果发现:大学生对个人未来教育、职业和婚姻/家庭的探索和投入水平处于中等程度以上,并对未来持积极乐观的态度;大学一年级处于对未来发展进行探索和投入的过渡阶段;男大学生对未来婚姻/家庭的投入更多、态度更乐观;大学生对未来主要发展任务的积极规划和乐观态度能够负向预测抑郁.     

Changes in students’ goal pursuits and motivational regulations toward healthy behaviors during the pandemic: A Self-Determination Theory perspective

ObjectivesIn this study, we examined how students’ perceptions of teachers and parents’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors, related to their intrinsic and extrinsic goal pursuits, and in turn their motivational regulations toward physical activity in virtual physical education lessons over a semester during the Sars-COV2 pandemic.DesignShort-term longitudinal study.MethodsStudents (M_age = 14.43, SD = 0.99) completed the targeted questionnaires at the beginning (T1, N = 295) and the end (T2, N = 194) of a virtual semester.ResultsThe results of the autoregressive model indicated that all measures were relatively stable from T1 to T2. Neither teachers nor parents’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors at T1 predicted students’ intrinsic goal pursuits at T2, except for teachers’ need-supportive behaviors at T1 negatively marginally predicted students’ extrinsic goal pursuits at T2. The results also showed that intrinsic goal pursuits at T2 positively and negatively related to autonomous motivation and amotivation at T2, respectively. Extrinsic goal at T2 positively related to controlled motivation and amotivation at T2.ConclusionsFindings suggested that teachers need-supportive behaviors are important for decreasing students’ extrinsic goal pursuits, while parents’ need-thwarting behaviors relate to students’ amotivation over time during the lockdown periods. Also, students’ intrinsic goal pursuits would contribute positively to autonomous motivation and negatively to amotivation over time.     

Response: How Do We Know What We Know About the Amish and Other Minorities?

The appraisal by Cory Anderson, Joseph Donnermeyer, Jeffrey Longhofer, and Steven Reschly (hereafter, appraisers) highlights a methodological divide that is important to the study of the Amish and other ethnic or religious minorities. In my reply, I discuss how my work is rooted in a cultural analytic paradigm that differs from the appraisers’ methodological orientation. My reply includes a deconstruction of the appraisal and a discussion of its “shortcomings.” I conclude by showing how the discourse surrounding this appraisal raises important epistemological questions of how we understand human societies.     

Written on the body? Individual differences between British adults who do and do not obtain a first tattoo

Swami, V. (2012). Written on the body? Individual differences between British adults who do and do not obtain a first tattoo. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 407–412. This study compared individual psychological differences of individuals who do and not obtain their first tattoo. A total of 136 British residents visiting a tattoo parlour completed measures of the Big Five personality factors, Sensation Seeking, Need for Uniqueness, distinctive appearance investment, attitudes to authority, and sociosexual orientation. As compared to individuals who did not subsequently obtain a tattoo, individuals that did were significantly less conscientious, more extraverted, more willing to engage in sexual relations in the absence of commitment, and had higher scores on sensation seeking, Need for Uniqueness, and distinctive appearance investment. The effect sizes of uncovered differences were small‐to‐moderate (η_p² = .07–.14). These results are discussed in relation to the mainstreaming of tattoos in contemporary, post‐industrialised societies.     

Aggressive behavioral characteristics,hormones, and sexual orientation in men and women

Aggressive behavioral characteristics were assessed in groups of men and women by a self-report instrument, the Aggression Inventory, in which adult males reported more physical and verbal aggression than did females. Furthermore, males had higher scores on measures of impulsiveness and lack of frustration tolerance than did females, while women were more likely to avoid confrontation. In a second study, groups of male and female homosexuals and heterosexuals completed this Aggression Inventory after having blood samples taken to assay resting levels of testosterone (T) and estradiol (E). Groups of subjects within each gender were closely matched in terms of age, education, and vocational interests. Women were matched for the same time in their menstrual cycle (early follicular phase). Among men, homosexuals were indistinguishable from heterosexuals on all measures of aggression. Lesbians did not differ from heterosexual women on any aggression subscale except physical aggression, in which the homosexual women had lower scores. T and E were positively correlated with several indices of aggressive behavioral characteristics in men but were negatively correlated with those same measures in women.     

当代农民价值取向现状的调查研究

本研究测量了来自江苏、福建、山东、辽宁、内蒙古和陕西 6个省份的586名农民的价值取向 ,并对其在年龄、教育水平、省份和婚姻状况等方面的特点进行了分析 ,结果表明 :(1 )中国农民的价值取向总体上是积极向上的 ,他们在重视正义公理、公共利益和法律规范的同时 ,也重视学习工作的重要价值 ;(2 )不同亚群体农民的价值取向之间存在一定的差异。     

小学生喜好的外在奖赏及其运用

采用问卷调查法 ,以杭州市三所小学 3 1 8名小学生为被试 ,考察了他们对目前学校常用的 2 0种奖项的喜好特点。目的在于揭示这些奖项对小学生的潜在意义 ,为教师运用外在奖赏激励学生学习提供依据。结果表明 :(1 )小学生最喜欢社会认同类 ,其次是特权类 ,最后是学校奖项与零食类奖赏。他们最喜欢的前五种奖赏是 :书、奖状、好分数、玩电脑、去图书馆看书。 (2 )小学生在喜好的奖赏及其结构特点上均存在年级与性别差异。     

A Study of the Benefit of Social and Religious Support on Church Members During Times of Crisis

A majority of Americans participate in religious services and identify themselves as members of a faith community. Understanding the role that religion plays in people's lives is essential to developing a comprehensive model of social support during times of crisis. The purpose of the current study was to identify the resources of social support that are helpful for church members during times of crisis. Although research on the impact of social support has identified several types of support—and the function of such support—to people undergoing difficult times, researchers have not looked at the impact of religious beliefs and participation in religious communities on social support to any significant extent. The current study collected questionnaire data from 23 members of one congregation who experienced a personal crisis. Analysis of the data shows that religious beliefs and the support provided by the religious community were seen as extremely helpful in times of crisis. Implications for incorporating people's religious beliefs and participation in religious communities into future investigations of social support are discussed.     

Neural correlates of subliminally presented visual sexual stimuli

In the context of forensic psychiatry, it is crucial that diagnoses of deviant sexual interests are resistant to manipulation. In a first attempt to promote the development of such tools, the current fMRI study focusses on the examination of hemodynamic responses to preferred, in contrast to non-preferred, sexual stimuli with and without explicit sexual features in 24 healthy heterosexual subjects. The subliminal stimulus presentation of sexual stimuli could be a new approach to reduce vulnerability to manipulation. Meaningful images and scrambled images were applied as masks. Recognition performance was low, but interestingly, sexual preference and explicitness modulated stimulus visibility, suggesting interactions between networks of sexual arousal and consciousness. With scrambled masks, higher activations for sexually preferred images and for explicit images were found in areas associated with sexual arousal (Stoleru, Fonteille, Cornelis, Joyal, & Moulier, 2012). We conclude that masked sexual stimuli can evoke activations in areas associated with supraliminal induced sexual arousal.