Religion,reason and non-directive teaching: a reply to Trevor Cooling

In other work I have argued that decisions about what to teach directively and what non-directively should be governed by an epistemic criterion. Trevor Cooling has recently advanced some objections to my defence and application of the epistemic criterion and proposed an alternative to it. Here I reply to his objections and comment on his proposed alternative.     

Religio‐Spiritual Participation in Two American Indian Populations

Following a previous investigation of religio‐spiritual beliefs in American Indians, this article examined prevalence and correlates of religio‐spiritual participation in two tribes in the Southwest and Northern Plains (N = 3,084). Analysis suggested a “religious profile” characterized by strong participation across three traditions: aboriginal, Christian, and Native American Church. However, sociodemographic variables that have reliably predicted participation in the general American population, notably gender and age, frequently failed to achieve significance in multivariate analyses for each tradition. Religio‐spiritual participation was strongly and significantly related to belief salience for all traditions. Findings suggest that correlates of religious participation may be unique among American Indians, consistent with their distinctive religious profile. Results promise to inform researchers’ efforts to understand and theorize about religio‐spiritual behavior. They also provide tribal communities with practical information that might assist them in harnessing social networks to confront collective challenges through community‐based participatory research collaborations.     

NATURALIZED SACREDNESS? A REALIST,PANENTHEIST, AND PERENNIALIST ALTERNATIVE TO KAUFFMAN'S CONSTRUCTIVISM

In his recent book Reinventing the Sacred, renowned biologist and systems theorist Stuart Kauffman offers an avenue for the revival of the sacred and for reconciling sacredness with a robust scientific outlook. According to Kauffman, God is a human cultural invention, and he urges us to reinvent the sacred as the ceaseless creativity in nature. I argue that Kauffman's proposal suffers from a major shortcoming, namely, being at odds with the nature, and content, of authentic experiences of the sacred, experiences which point invariably in the direction of a reality which transcends human imagination and capacity for cultural innovation. Correspondingly, I point in the direction of an alternative approach to the revival of the sacred rooted in what I call the path of direct spiritual awareness. I argue that, while being in better accord with the phenomenology of religious experience, this realist alternative to Kauffman's constructivism also avoids the unpleasant symptoms which often accompany traditional theism, namely, dogmatism, irrationalism, and incompatibility with a scientifically minded metaphysics.     

Effect of a spiritual retreat on perceived stress of Nigerian Catholic immigrant sisters in the United States

Stress among immigrants may be due to loss of familiar environment and experience of discrimination. Spiritual retreats may be one way to manage stressful life situations. The present study examined whether participation in a six-day spiritual retreat results in changes in perceived stress and whether changes in perceived stress depend on participant’s demographic characteristics. A total of 88 Nigerian Catholic immigrant sisters completed the Perceived Stress questionnaire pre-retreat, day three, and immediately after a spiritual retreat. Friedman Two-way ANOVA by rank was used to determine if there are mean changes in perceived stress over the three-time period, while Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA was used to determine if there were demographic differences in perceived stress. There were no differences in perceived stress at baseline, but there was a significant reduction in perceived stress at Time 2 and 3. There were no differences in perceived stress for the demographic variables except age.     

The role of attachment to God and spiritual self-awareness in predicting evangelical Christians’ appraisals of suffering

The present study examined how attachment to God and spiritual self-awareness are related to evangelical Christians’ appraisals of suffering. Specifically, we were interested in whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance with God were related to the appraised meaning of stressful life experiences as transformational and whether spiritual self-awareness mediated this relationship. A national sample (N?=?988) of students from Christian institutions completed an online survey. The results indicated that individuals with high levels of attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance with God were less likely to view suffering as a means of spiritual growth and connection with God. Mediation analyses also showed that higher levels of avoidant attachment to God were related to lower levels of spiritual self-awareness, which in turn were related to reduced ability to appraise suffering as transformational. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

社会困境下政治信任对公众态度和合作行为的影响

现代社会面临的重要问题是如何有效地促进人们之间的相互合作,达到社会公共利益的最大化。因此,有关社会困境(social dilemma)的研究成为社会心理学领域的热点。随着群体理论的发展,研究者的研究视角逐渐从个体(individual)转向群体(collective),关注层级结构的群体(hierarchical groups)中,管理者或管理机构(权威)的特征和行为对个体合作行为的影响。其中,权威信任(trust in authority)和公正感(fairness)是影响个体态度和合作行为的重要变量。政治信任(political trust)也可以看作权威信任的一种,即在社会背景下,公众对社会管理权威(政府机构)的信任。未来研究应尝试在实验室里对政治信任的作用和机制进行探究,并进一步探究公正感在政治信任对态度及合作行为关系中的中介作用。     

Recovering Early Modern Women Writers

Feminist work in the history of philosophy has been going on for several decades. Some scholars have focused on the ways philosophical concepts are themselves gendered. Others have recovered women writers who were well known in their own time but forgotten in ours, while still others have firmly placed into a philosophical context the works of women writers long celebrated within other disciplines in the humanities. The recovery of women writers has challenged the myth that there are no women in the history of philosophy, but it has not eradicated it. What, we may ask, is impeding our progress? This paper argues that so often we treat early modern women philosophers’ texts in ways that are different from, or inconsistent with, the explicit commitments of the analytic tradition, and in so doing, we may be triggering our audiences to reject these women as philosophers, and their texts as philosophical. Moreover, this is the case despite our intention to achieve precisely the opposite effect.     

The Mediating Effects of Spiritual Bypass on Depression,Anxiety, and Stress

Spiritual bypass is a defensive psychological posture that prevents people from feeling the pain of difficult emotions or experiences through 2 primary pathways: (a) Psychological Avoidance and (b) Spiritualizing. The authors collected a sample (783 participants) from the general population and tested a parallel mediation model in which 2 factors of spiritual bypass mediated the effect of spirituality on depression, anxiety, and stress. The results demonstrated that Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing partially mediated the effect of spirituality on depression and anxiety, whereas they completely mediated the effect of spirituality on stress. The findings are presented in the context of the study's limitations, and implications for clinical practice and research are provided.     

政德——政权兴亡的生命线

中国自古就存在政治伦理 ,即“政德”。汉初的思想家们更加重视“政德” ,将其视为一切政权的生命线。     

6岁儿童面子谎及其熟悉度与权威效应初探

本实验以 85名大班 6岁儿童为被试 ,其中实验组 45人 ,采用 2× 2设计 (即熟悉度 (熟悉 ,陌生 )×权威性 (老师 ,同伴 ) ) ,以 7点量表评画为任务 ,考察了儿童在当事人是否在场情况下的评分改变问题。研究发现 :(1 ) 6岁儿童在 4位不同身份的人士面前均出现较高的说面子谎率。 (2 ) 6岁儿童在说面子谎上无性别差异。 (3) 6岁儿童在说面子谎上更倾向于给熟悉的人面子 ,而权威性则对儿童的说面子谎行为无显著影响。