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Voluntourism has been increasingly researched in tourism studies. However, the need remains to better understand what drives memorable experiences in such a context. This research applied mindfulness theory in the setting of voluntourism. The influence of mindfulness among voluntourists was studied along with dimensions of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs, i.e., hedonism, involvement, meaningfulness, knowledge, novelty, and local culture) and revisit intention among voluntourists. A structural model was employed with twelve hypotheses pertaining to data collected from 342 Chinese residents who had prior voluntourism experience before data collection in March 2020. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test relationships between variables. Data analysis demonstrated that mindfulness significantly influenced all six dimensions of MTEs in this study. Four of the dimensions of MTE (i.e., hedonism, involvement, meaningfulness, and local culture) significantly influenced revisit intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When persons with disabilities enter a room, they frequently elicit strong emotional reactions from their non‐disabled peers. These reactions are well known in disability studies and often they are blamed for the difficulty of integrating persons with disabilities into communities. Theologians have interpreted this emotional shock as proof that persons with disabilities are revelatory of God's grace because they shatter our idolatrous anthropologies and socio‐political constructs. What has been discussed less is why everybody does not recognize this presence of grace in persons with disabilities, nor how those who experience negative feelings such as anger or disgust could overcome them. This article addresses these questions by appealing to the Eastern Orthodox ascetic tradition, where the grace of God becomes visible for those who learn to control their emotions and purify their sight from self‐interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Lear, Meyer and Vasiliou who have engaged with three central chapters of PMP deeply. Topics include considered that PMP argues that the refutation of the Many account of akrasia reveals the explanatory poverty of the psychology of competing forces assumed by the Many and Protagoras, and psychological hedonism/eudaemonism is a new psychological principle that might replace the discredited psychology.

This article reviews a set of papers in a special issue of The Ecumenical Review on "Theological Exchanges: The Ecumenical Reception of Orthodoxy," which examines the reception of Orthodoxy by other theological traditions through the mediation of ecumenical dialogue. The papers display a wide variety of approaches, many introducing, although in different ways, the nature of engagement with the Orthodox by the different Christian bodies represented. Others looked more directly at theological conversations between the Orthodox and other Christian bodies, and especially the doctrine of theosis (deification). The remaining papers offer an insight into specific moments of Orthodoxy's involvement with other Christian traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monastic movement originated among laity who recognized within themselves the potential to embody the Christian gospel. That a practice so central to early Christians and their Scriptural understanding would undergo such a decline contemporarily gives pause for reconsideration. This article posits that the kind of asceticism at the core of Christian monasticism maintains relevance as a transformative Christian practice in the contemporary world, as well. The argument draws on a tripartite model of spirituality in accord with Gregory of Nyssa's notion of epektasis. This suggests asceticism's contemporary appropriation as an ethic of Christian spiritual development oriented toward perpetual ascent. Asceticism will be analyzed as a form of spiritual struggle; that is, physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual exertion aiming to progress in knowledge, similitude, and intimacy with Jesus Christ, for God and for others. The three stages of this ethic of Christian spiritual growth – 1) detachment from fleshly passions, 2) strengthening of the soul, and 3) union with God – find parallels in the three themes at the core of asceticism: sexuality, angelification, and divine indwelling. Situating asceticism within a framework of spiritual struggle creates an opportunity to recover and re‐envision a well‐established Christian practice in a contemporary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this essay is to give hope to those who are in the middle of struggles relating to personal experiences associated with sexual/gendered harassment. In it, Kanako W. Ide inquires into the moral conditions around speaking out publicly about such incidents through critical analysis of the social norms of gender and economy. Jane Roland Martin's gender‐sensitive theory supports a discussion of how contemporary discourses against sexual/gendered harassment are embedded in the norms of a gender‐blind market economy. In seeking an alternative, gender‐sensitive discussion, the gift paradigm is addressed and critically examined. Ide applies the conceptual distinction between "labor" and "work" that informs gift theory to argue for the invisible spirit of the gift as an essence of feminine moral values. The Buddhist idea of altruism as asceticism is offered as a means of developing the concept of "labor" as a gift, and also as a way to conclude the essay by explaining negative incidents in an affirmative gift theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of "spiritual theology" is a bit neglected these days or, perhaps, it is still alive and well but goes under the name of "spirituality". Nichols begins by establishing the centrality of the Word of God, both as the revelation of God to his people in the Sacred Scriptures but also as the incarnate Son of God, that is, Jesus the Word. [Extracted from the article]

ABSTRACT A key approach to development aid in Japan has been hitozukuri (making persons), which refers not only to the transfer of skills but also to the holistic cultivation of people. The Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA), which emerged from a Shinto-based religious group, has been one of the leading NGOs in hitozukuri aid, training people in sustainable agriculture around the Asia-Pacific region. A central aspect of OISCA's activities consists of imitative practices such as 'leading by example.' Aid workers' efforts to become and adapt 'good models' show how modeling practices are not standardizing but can, rather, be a lens through which to understand development work as a process of learning and making ethical subjects, a process that transforms both aid workers and aid recipients. [ development, learning, ethical subject-making, modeling, NGOs, Japan, Myanmar] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the question of the establishment of a Catholic monastic tradition, shaped by its Western creation and subsequent exportation to an Asian society. In 1954 the French Benedictine Congregation of St. Bathilde of Vanves founded a monastery in Central Vietnam. The circumstances of the Vietnam war, coupled with a holistic implementation plan instigated by the nuns, enabled the establishment of a small, but sedentary and durable, community, organised within Benedictine structures involving a girls' hostel, plantation agriculture and catechism instruction. Choosing a life of self-denial alongside the indigenous people, they eventually formed a 'Benedictine community village', implementing a non-monastic but austere and disciplined life. However, these Benedictine nuns continuously self-transformed and re-defined themselves vis-à-vis their 'spiritual tradition'. The pursuit of a life of interiority produced a form of rupture with older forms of evangelisation and with established clergy, reflecting the way in which these nuns conceived their alternative role in the Benedictine tradition. I interrogate here the Benedictine ascetic form and the place given by the Order to new alternative subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Saul Newman, political theology is not an investigation of how theological claims influence political ideas and ethics. Connecting these pastoral, confessional practices to political theology which sacralizes power relations, Newman, following Foucault, prefers to undermine these power relations through the "self-care" of "political spirituality". By drawing on these spiritual resources, Newman argues that political philosophy can escape the trap that the secularization of political theology has created for it, unbinding it from the sacralization of power. [Extracted from the article]

Aims/Introduction Elevation of 2-h plasma glucose ( 2-h PG) levels keeps step with fasting plasma glucose ( FPG) levels elevation, but some individuals show dominant elevation of 2-h PG and others FPG. We analyzed dependent and independent relationships between 2-h PG and FPG, and investigated the factors regulating 2-h PG and FPG. Materials and Methods In 1,657 Japanese participants who underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at the initial examination for a medical check-up, we carried out simple linear regression analysis between 2-h PG and FPG levels on the three patterns of independent variables. We divided the participants into two subgroups: the 2-h PG-side group and the FPG-side from the regression line, and examined the relationships between 2-h PG- FPG and factors responsible for elevation of plasma glucose levels. Results There was a significant positive correlation between 2-h PG and FPG levels. The regression line of both 2-h PG and FPG as independent variables was in accordance with the regression line of 2-h PG as an independent variable and FPG as a dependent variable. In 2-h PG-side group, age was the independent factor affecting 2-h PG in addition to insulinogenic index and insulin sensitivity index (ISI composite). In the FPG-side group, triglyceride was the independent factor affecting FPG in addition to insulinogenic index and ISI composite. Conclusions Two-hour PG was an independent predictor of FPG. In addition to the importance of decreased insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity, age was the strong factor to elevate 2-h PG levels in the 2-h PG-side group and triglyceride was the strong factor to elevate FPG levels in the FPG-side group in the early stage of development of type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse phenomena in sociocultural life are analyzed with recourse to Peirce's concept of the dicent interpretant. Attention to the semiotic role of the interpretant, itself a sign that articulates with connected signs in the generative process of semiosis, contributes to expanded understanding of ritual and attendant anthropological objects. I discuss how semiotic ideology makes possible, and makes real, a particular transformation of potentials of form expressed as likenesses into actual existents represented as contiguities. I develop an indexical treatment of such transformations that I label dicentization. Indexicality and iconicity have become central to linguistic anthropology and dicentization offers an account of how they work together beyond language in cultural semiosis. The article generalizes and applies the resulting explanatory model to a range of social phenomena described in the literature, including Aboriginal Australian iconography, Medieval Japanese asceticism, Homeric and Freudian psychologies of rage, and traps and primitivism in African and modern art. The analysis contributes to a semiotic realist conception of the continuity of representation and reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Protestant ethic has been depicted as declining in America between 1870 and 1930, due to new consumer durables and less rewarding work. This study finds that the Protestant ethic did not so much decline as become transformed. The work ethic remained in force, while frugality weakened. This transformation is traced to three dynamic social forces: degradation in the quality of work due to industrialization, the decline of community with urbanization, and a dramatic increase in inequality. Consequently, social respect and social standing came increasingly to be sought through consumption, which became a proxy for hard work, entailing a weakening of asceticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The peak-end rule is used to explain how people make retrospective hedonic evaluations. This study advances our understanding of its mechanism by identifying the different effects of the rule on such evaluations over short and long retention intervals. The results of two experiments show that (i) respondents constructed their retrospective hedonic evaluations on the basis of the peak and end affects only over a short retention interval, not over a long one; and (ii) respondents relied on episodic information to construct their evaluations over a short retention interval, whereas they relied on both semantic and episodic information to construct their evaluations over a long retention interval. Our study also suggests that the 'watershed' between short and long retention intervals is likely to lie between 3 and 7 weeks. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several hypotheses regarding the relationship between religiosity and deviance are examined using data from the geocoded General Social Survey. An inverse relationship between religiosity and several forms of deviance was documented; however the moral community hypothesis, which would predict that the interaction between group-level religiosity and individual-level religiosity would be inversely related to deviance, was not supported for any of the forms of deviant behavior examined. Additionally, the antiasceticism hypothesis, which argues that religiosity is more effective at deterring minor rather than serious forms of deviance, is only partially supported by the results of the analysis. The theoretical implications of this line of research, as well as suggestions for future avenues of research, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian emerald trade has traditionally been controlled by members of the Jain religious community. Jain emerald traders are deeply pious and ascetic. The emerald business as it is practiced outside of India is rife with violence, lying, cheating, sexual exuberance, and a deep attachment to shiny green stones. There seemed to be a contradiction between the model of personal piety envisioned by Jainism and their participation in such an impious economy. Jain traders and philosophers explained that there was no contradiction at all. Hindus and Muslims join their Jain counterparts in Jaipur's Johari Bazaar, or Jewelers' Market. Together, these three religious communities have created a moment of peaceful, profitable, and predictable exchange in the global gemstone economy. Photography has long been an integral part of the gemstone business. Rarely, however, do we catch a glimpse into the lives of the men who mine, manufacture, and distribute these stones around the world. This photo essay locates these people in their social, economic, and especially religious contexts. The emerald trade follows the contours of religious communities. While it is not possible to convey the content of a religious ethic in a photograph, it is possible to show people living out those ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ascetic ideals initially established by Confucius are moderate and rational. Yet, virtuoso asceticism became a social phenomenon when the state desired to institute a more powerful channel to disseminate Confucian values in the broader populace beyond the literati. The reason that the cult of the virtuoso particularly served this purpose was that the enshrinement of virtuoso generated social power within community. That social power, somewhat equivalent to charisma, derived from the enshrined spirit's connection with transcendence having official and public offerings from community. The social process in the formation of the ascetic virtuoso and its social function in the Confucian tradition follow a pattern similar to that laid out by Martin Riesebrodt: denial of the physical self, restructuring of social relations, and spiritual transformation. Ascetic virtuosos stemming from the tradition of 'inner-worldly' asceticism closed a gap between a rationalized system of behavior-regulating practices and interventionist practice with reference to transcendence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exiting the fossil-fuel interlude of human history means a long, hard transition, not only for energy sources, uses, and policies, but for religious values as well. How do religious values account with integrity for the primal elements upon which all life depends and by which all energy is conveyed-earth, air, fire, water, light? What challenges do energy policies pose to religious values so that the latter might be judged to be truly Earth-oriented and Earth-honoring? Reciprocally, how do shared cross-cultural, interfaith religious values challenge present and prospective energy policies? How might value orientations, such as asceticism, sacramentalism, mysticism, prophetic and liberative practices, together with wisdom traditions, influence energy practices and policies? The intention of this essay is to surface these two-way challenges in present debates on energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technical language and specific images that we adopt when we speak about preservation of the natural environment depend on values and images that we promote and even presume in our daily behaviour and lifestyle. In Orthodox Christian spirituality, such language and images certainly play a crucial role. This presentation considers the central importance of: 1) the world of icons as the way we view and perceive creation; 2) the beauty of liturgy as the way we celebrate and respond to creation; and 3) asceticism in the lives of the saints as the way we respect and treat creation. It draws on classic Orthodox Christian texts as well as contemporary literature to provide fundamental spiritual insights into the way we comprehend God's creation and the way we should confront its exploitation in modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asceticism seems an “invisible” Protestant work ethic (PWE) dimension that has largely been ignored in research. This study, building directly on existing knowledge, investigated the possibility that deference to authority was central to asceticism and the possible ethical implications of this. In 3 samples of employed persons, results demonstrated that highly ascetic individuals were highly authoritarian, were low in advanced moral reasoning, and regarded ethically questionable activities benefiting organizations (but not individuals) as relatively acceptable. However, “hard workers,” another PWE dimension, regarded all ethically questionable activities as inappropriate, regardless of the beneficiary, and were less clearly authoritarian. Significant relationships involving the PWE may sometimes be undetectable when combining distinct dimensions, and asceticism merits attention as a distinct PWE component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eating Disorder Inventory, Version 2 (EDI-2) is a questionnaire used clinically and in research all over the world. EDI-2 is cross-culturally valid, yet normative values may depend on culture. Norms and reliability of the Danish version have to date been lacking, and will be presented in this article, comparing patients (N = 575) and controls (N = 881). Also, internal reliability of scales is tested for both groups. Differences between norms of the Danish and the North American version of EDI were small but significant for all scales except asceticism (eating disorder patients) and ineffectiveness, interpersonal distrust and maturity fears (normal controls). For both groups the internal consistency was >0.70 for all subscales except asceticism. Although differences across the eating disorder diagnostic groups were dubious, the EDI-2 is useful to screen for eating problems in the general population as well as to rate progress and outcome among eating disorder patients. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging involves a gradual increase in disorder of the systems that sustain living. Although stress is a major driver of this process, one stressor, caloric restriction (CR), is the only intervention proven to extend life span in multiple species as well as extend the persistence of those characteristics that are associated with youth. CR has been used since ancient times to enhance many of those characteristics: principally, increased activity levels and heightened levels of mental acuity. Religious ascetics, often living in monastic communities, have provided long-term opportunities to observe the effects of CR, or fasting, in humans. Tibetan medicine has made use of observations, which include that of enhanced immune function, in its dietary prescriptions. In the hopes of reaping these benefits for the general population, scientists focusing their research on the aging process have sought mimetics that will deliver the benefits of CR without requiring the discipline of fasting. The search begins with discovering the processes that make CR work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Theodor Adorno's view of pleasure in general and his account of the pleasures of modernist art in particular. At first sight, this hardly seems a promising topic for study, given Adorno's consistently stated antipathy to the false pleasures of the culture industry. While some consideration of Adorno's critique of pleasure is important to this essay, its central aim is to demonstrate that Adorno's aesthetics does not reject pleasure outright. In particular, it will be shown that Adorno's contention that ‘[d]er Bürger wünscht die Kunst üppig und das Leben asketisch; umgekehrt wäre es besser’ does not involve an unqualified advocacy of modernist art as ascetic pure and simple, just as voluptuous life itself could hardly be initiated by an act of will. Rather, voluptuousness and asceticism are to be conceived dialectically, for Adorno, both in aesthetic theory and, indeed, in philosophy and social theory. Specific examples of Adorno's conception of the relation of pleasure to its apparent renunciation will be given from his reading of Charles Baudelaire and from his critique of developments in music allegedly in the wake of Schönberg's innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Somatic Styles’ examines how classical modes of gender played significant roles in carving out competitive arenas between clerical and lay elites, c.600–900 CE. The paper explores the hermeneutical obstacles standing between the contemporary theorist of gender and the complex nature of the early medieval texts under scrutiny. The analysis reconstructs classicising techniques of gender deployed by early medieval churchmen, and it does so in a way that both challenges the stranglehold of the ‘one-sex’ model on pre-modern understandings of gender and heals the ‘rupture’ between the ‘Ancient’ and the ‘Dark Age’. Finally, the essay maps early medieval somatic and gendered styles onto an architectural space where lay and consecrated bodies met – a ninth-century monastic basilica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) To compare levels of selflessness (the tendency to ignore one's own needs and serve others') and asceticism of parents and daughters, in anorexic and control families. (2) To investigate the relationship between parents' depression and daughters' selflessness. Twenty-eight anorexic daughters and their 28 mothers and 23 fathers were compared to 29 control daughters and their 29 mothers and 28 fathers, participants were administered the Beck Depression Inventory, the Selflessness Scale, the asceticism scale of the Eating Disorder Inventory and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Anorexics' mothers showed significantly lower levels of selflessness and asceticism compared to control mothers; anorexic daughters showed significantly higher levels of selflessness and asceticism compared to control daughters. Depressive tendencies in anorexics' mothers were associated positively and significantly with their daughters' selflessness. The results support the clinical literature that depicts the anorexic daughters' readiness to sacrifice themselves for the family's needs. Clinical implications are drawn. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the recurrent iconography of the black body under the whip, and its ambivalent reception among British evangelical Christians during the colonial era. Flogging images have often been mixed signs, generating variously sympathetic, antipathetic, and even voyeuristic responses toward those pictured as being in pain. They are linked to a wider world of images of pain used variously, both publicly and privately, as an accusation and as a source of shameful pleasure. The specific case explored is the novel use of photography of flogging and other atrocities in the historic campaign to expose and end abuses in the Congo during the first decade of the 20th century. I describe how pictures of atrocities served as marks of painful contact between Africa and Europe, and salvation and shame. This is followed by a discussion of the ethics of reenactment and representation of the pain of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the writings of ideologist Nil Sorskii in Russia. He argues that the writings of Sorskii had missed 25 percent to translate in English version and its standard paradigm. He further discusses that training with obedience as well as asceticism can establish an absolute prerequisite for achieving stillness in the writings of all the venerable monastic masters found in the manuscripts of Slavia Orthodoxa.

The Mutazilite thinkers are most often defined as rationalist, individualist, liberal and eccentric figures. To the above qualities, one should add ascetic and devotional aspects. Among the Mutazilite famous ascetics are Abū Mūsā al-Murdar and his followers, Jaʿfar b. Harb, Jaʿfar b. Mubashshir and ʿĪsā b. al-Haytham. The accounts about these figures vigorously reflect the Mutazilite outlook of the ascetic life and practices. As a matter of fact, one can see the ascetic propensities in all the sects and schools of the early Islamic period. In view of their emphasis upon the love for God, they placed piety and austerity at the center of the relationship between the servant and God. In this context, this article attempts to provide insights into the pietistic dimension of the Mutazilite tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the usefulness of a self-report questionnaire in the assessment of cue reactivity among women treated for bulimia nervosa. Method: Subjects were women participating in a randomized clinical trial evaluating the additive efficacy of exposure- and non-exposure-based behavioral treatment to a core of cognitive behavior therapy, with follow-up at 6 months post treatment. Complete data were available for 82 women. Cue reactivity was assessed using an adaptation of the Situational Appetite Measure (SAM). Results: Improvements in cue reactivity occurred over time for the sample as a whole, with greater improvements being associated with favorable treatment outcome and treatment modality (exposure based treatments associated with greater improvements). The best single predictor of abstinence at 6 months was abstinence at posttreatment. Conclusion: A self-report questionnaire (adapted SAM) provided useful information regarding cue reactivity among women treated for bulimia nervosa, without the difficulties associated with in vivo assessment. © 2006 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2006; 39:694–699 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative studies of world religions have been a distinctive part of Western thought. Hegel's contribution to the philosophy of history is most clearly seen where he introduces a theory of historical development based on the secularisation of Christian cosmology. With Hegel, the Spirit ( Geist), previously theologically understood, gradually becomes the embodiment of historical development. In the Hegelian vocabulary, the phenomenology of religion is formulated along with the theory of historical progress. In this article, I will argue that the question of historical development has been continuously elaborated in a culturalist fashion in works of Friedrich Hegel, Max Weber and Samuel Huntington as those scholars, through different intellectual traditions, essentialises the spiritual backgrounds of world religions and ties the phenomenology of religion with the philosophy of history in their historical analyses. This paper will argue that these scholars, by relying on the idealised images of religions and particularly of the Occidental Spirit, subtly elaborate the historical culturalist notion of development within Western thought. By arguing for an inherent link between religion and development, these scholars implicitly institutionalize a Eurocentric understanding of Western Christianity and the Occidental path of development within mainstream social theory. Be they philosophical (Hegel), sociological ( Weber ) or political (Huntington), the historical culturalism of these approaches shape our understanding of historical change, and ironically, instead of countering the excesses of crude materialism, they lead social theory into a form of Eurocentic historical culturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critiques the way in which the discipline of anthropology has construed Christianity, arguing that too narrow and ascetic a model of Christianity has become standard and questioning the claims of the‘secular’ social sciences to have severed themselves entirely from their Christian theological underpinnings. The article is in conversation with other writers on related themes, including Jonathan Parry on Mauss'sThe gift, Talal Asad, John Millbank, and Marshall Sahlins. Here, however, established anthropological assumptions on topics including transcendence, modernity, asceticism, and genealogy are reconsidered through a fieldwork-based examination of American Mormonism, a religion which posits relationships between the mortal and the divine that are unique in Christianity. Despite their strong belief in Christ, Mormons have often been labelled as‘not really Christian’ by mainstream churches. It is argued here that such theological position-taking is echoed in the social sciences and that this reveals some of its (that is, our own) unrecognized orthodoxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the long orthodox interpretation of Kant's theory of motivation, Kant recognized only two fundamental types of motives: moral motives and egoistic, hedonistic motives. Seeking to defend Kant against the ensuing charges of psychological simplism, Andrews Reath formulated a forceful and seminal repudiation of this interpretation in his 1989 essay“Hedonism, Heteronomy and Kant's Principle of Happiness.” The current paper aims to show that Reath's popular exegetical alternative is untenable. His arguments against the traditional view miss the mark, and his revisionist interpretation of Kant's theory of motivation cannot bear the considerable weight of the countervailing evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reason, as it is proper to the task of theology, has two uses: critical and contemplative. This twofold appropriation of reason sets the stage for this article, a stage occupied in turn by Newman and by Aquinas. The critical function of theological work is expressed via the 1877 preface which Newman wrote for his Lectures on the Prophetic Office of the Church. The critical office of theology is vital not only to the practice of theology itself but to the liturgical and spiritual life of the church, and to the exercise of church leadership if that leadership is not to descend into tyranny. For the theologian, reason is not antithetical to contemplation; rather, contemplation includes a form of reasoning. Theology is ‘a schooling in the discipline of contemplating the self-revealing God’, a discipline of ‘metaphysical ascesis’ which compels both intellectual conversion and moral practice. Such an ascesis was practised well by Aquinas, and Kerr reflects on the Summa Theologiae as ‘a training in a form of metaphysical reasoning’, being schooled in the knowledge of God which strips away our ‘idolatorous inclinations’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative effectiveness of strictness theory and modernization theory in explaining congregational growth is tested using a random sample of white, Protestant churches in Middletown (N = 98). Although the former theory predicts that growth is positively related to an authoritative structure and to enforcing rules of ascetic strictness, modernization theory predicts the opposite pattern. For our sample, authoritative leadership seemed not to produce congregational growth. The main finding was that strict rules positively related to growth among working-class congregations, but negatively related to growth among middle-class congregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous religiosity-delinquency research primarily explores hellfire belief and aspects of religious social bonding. Both hellfire belief and religious social bonding have been hypothesized to reduce delinquency. Borrowing from classical deterrence theory, there are strong theoretical reasons for believing that an additional dimension of religiosity—namely, belief in “this-worldly” supernatural sanctions (i.e., belief that God rewards and punishes in this life)—may also be inversely related to adolescent delinquency. This dimension of religiosity has not been explored in past empirical research. This article addresses this lack by specifically testing whether belief in this-worldly supernatural sanctions is related to subjectively perceived future ascetic deviance and delinquency among a sample of 1,393 adolescent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the Mormons). Logistic regression results indicate that, along with religious social bonding, belief in this-worldly supernatural sanctions has an independent effect on perceived future ascetic deviance (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use) and perceived future delinquency (e.g., property and personal offenses) when controlling for relevant demographic and theoretical variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how Gregory of Nyssa sees the Solomonic books of Scripture (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs) train desire to long for God. The philosophical exercises contained in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes prepare the soul for the supreme training contained in the Song of Songs. The purpose of the Song of Songs is to lead the soul to union with God. The Trinitarian strategy of the philosophy contained in the Song of Songs exposes the soul to paradox and oxymoron, through which the soul is schooled to release its noetic–erotic grasp of concepts and is thus led to apophatic union with God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of erotic dreams, nightmares, and erotic nightmares offers a valuable opportunity to study how such dreams tested Western ideas about the self, desire, and self-control. Like Foucault, I find it more productive to analyse these dreams, and the struggles to introject them, as sites of self-making rather than of repression. Erotic dreams and nightmares have been inflected by various historical strategies of self-making, themselves produced by different regimes of knowledge such as Christian asceticism, medicine, or philosophy. Erotic nightmares still proliferate today in reports of alien abductions. A reason for this historical tenacity has been the ease with which the affective sensations of the erotic nightmare – terror and sexual arousal – have jumped between genres as various as monastic handbooks, medieval folk-tales, gothic fiction, and personal dreams. This study demonstrates the importance of historical perspective for the ability to identify and understand culturally elaborated (‘culture-bound’) syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the philosophical theory of value of higher goods. As mentioned, the existence of higher goods appears to tell against the totalistic view that is a quite natural conception of value. As mentioned, one might try to save the totalistic view by adopting some sort of principle of diminishing marginal value for the lower goods. As mentioned, the classical version of hedonism says that the basic bearers of value are experiences of pain or pleasure.

The economic achievements of medieval monasticism have evoked the paradoxical connection between religious asceticism and capitalism central to Weber's famous analysis of the 'Protestant ethic'. It will be argued, however, that focusing on the resemblances to the 'Protestant Ethic' and/or capitalism makes for a partial and distorted picture of the monastic economy and does not render the full impact of monasticism upon the economic sphere of activity in the medieval West. The first section of this paper examines Weber's own perception of the monastic economy: recognizing its achievements and relative rationality, yet also refusing to see in these any real similitude to the 'Protestant ethic' or the announcement of the capitalistic breakthrough. The second section partly confirms Weber's perception by expanding upon ideological and institutional foundations of the monastic economy which further invalidate the analogy to either capitalism and/or the 'Protestant Ethic', albeit for reasons very different from those advanced by Weber. Shifting away from the overriding concern with economic rationality characteristic of previous discussions -- and incidentally offering an altered perspective on the 'Protestant Ethic' itself -- the third section focuses on monasticism's unintended and indirect contribution to the nascent autonomization of the economic sphere of activity, through the analysis of two ideological processes essentially: depersonification on the one hand, symbolic intensification on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence for the hypothesis that the poet Franz Kafka had suffered from an atypical anorexia nervosa is presented. Kafka was slim and underweight throughout his life and showed an ascetic attitude and abjuration of any physical enjoyment and pleasure (fasting, vegetarianism, sexual abstinence, emphasis on physical fitness). Our analysis is mainly based on Kafka's own descriptions in his letters, diaries, and literary work. Kafka was achievement oriented, reported many sadomasochistic fantasies, and had an anancastic (obsessive-compulsive) depressive personality. In addition there is evidence for a disturbed psychosexual and gender identity development. Our results concerning Kafka's psychopathology do not question his genius as a poet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, Max Weber discussed anomie potential of some non-Western religious doctrines. This paper provides an analysis of Weber's writings on anomie and attempts to show relevance of Weber's work to contemporary anomie research. First, I locate Weber's treatment of anomie within his discussion of great world religions, highlighting its significance in a cross-cultural context. Second, I compare Wetter's notion of anomie with current evaluations of anomie and disc a typology of usages of the term, Finally, I explore the suggested usefulness of Weber's work on anomie for contemporary purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses William James' arguments for the significance of ascetic virtues in general and voluntary poverty, highlighting James' concern with the applicability of traditional religious virtues to the modern society. Discovery of the ways in which James is a virtue theorist; Views tha James is an important figure in the American virtue tradition; Indications of James' analysis of obedience.

Maoism as a politico-religious form emerged in a society in the process of disintegration. It became crystallized as a response to the demands of rapid, modernization. The Maoist belief system centers around the concept ‘people,’ the ultimate sacred reality. Its ethic emphasizes ceaseless service to others, individual asceticism, and intensive practical activity as necessary to the achievement of social salvation and collective immortality. A number of ritual parallels are identified between Maoism and contemporary Christianity: the worship service and ministry, the initiation process, sin and atonement, and various initiative rituals. From an evolutionary perspective, both primitive and ultra-modern elements are identified in Maoism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the role of category membership, differential construal and selective exposure in consensus estimation concerning a relatively involving social categorization, namely religion. Christians, differing in their degree of religious involvement, and non-believers were asked to estimate the percentage of Christians in the general population. Respondents were expected to construe the general category of Christians differentially as a function of their own (religious) behaviours. These differential construals were expected to mediate respondents' estimates. Further, selective exposure, i.e. the religious behaviours of friends and relatives, was expected to affect the estimates. Results show a negative relationship between religious involvement and the estimated percentage of Christians, indicating a False Uniqueness Effect. As predicted, estimates were mediated by respondents' construal of the general category; involved Christians construed this category in more narrow terms than did the other two groups and that construal was related to lower consensus estimates. Further, selective exposure was positively related to consensus estimates. Thus, construal processes and selective exposure had opposing effects on respondents' consensus estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining the effect of modernization on the frequency of fasting, and the prevalence of various reasons for fasting, we attempted to gain insight into the nature of contemporary religious change Using data from a stratified random sample of Javanese, we found that fasting was not consistently related to all indicators of modernization. However it does seem that the frequency of fasting will increase on Java, at least in the near future. Further, we found modernization to be associated with a decline in fasting as an expression of piety and an increase in fasting for the purpose of self-control The data were interpreted in light of the history of fasting and the theoretical perspectives of Hocart and Peacock. In this paper we examine the relations between modernization and fasting and conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of our findings for the larger issue of the nature of contemporary religious change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out of a critical evaluation of Durkheim's interpretation of Aboriginal religion another model has emerged. The data show that the social solidarity of the clan (expressed in one totem) must be measured against personal identity, e.g., moiety, tribal, manhood, womanhood (expressed in other totems). The model therefore postulates a dialectical relationship between these various, independently sacralized units of social organization. One of the sacralization mechanisms (The Dreaming or, more generally, objectification, the projection of order in a beyond where it is less vulnerable to contradictions) functions as a moderator of the relations between these units. In the case of Aboriginal society this objectification is only embryonic, but the other sacralization mechanisms are well developed. The second one, commitment, (the emotional anchorage of each identity) is illustrated by the loyalties reinforced by asceticism and sacrifice. The third one, ritual, (the retracing of grooves around a specific form of order) is illustrated by the initiation ceremonies stripping puerile childhood patterns and welding a new manhood pattern. And the fourth one, myth, (the integration of the various strains in a coherent, shorthand symbolic account) is illustrated by the ubiquitous territorial myths. In Aboriginal society the latter reinforce tribal identity. They also fit well with territoriality as a pre-eminent means for primate adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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