Abstrak: Dalam tulisan ini penulis berusaha mencermati karya-karya dari almarhum Pater Robertus Hardawiryana, SJ (1926-2009), salah satu teolog Indonesia yang terkemuka segera seusai Konsili Vatikan II. Berdasarkan karya-karya beliau terakhir yang sudah diterbitkan, yakni Pentalogi, tetapi juga memanfaatkan beberapa manuskrip yang belum diterbitkan, penulis memusatkan diri pada pandangan Hardawiryana tentang metode berteologi sejauh tercermin dalam tulisan-tulisannya. Pada umumnya, pandangan Hardawiryana tentang metode bisa dilihat pada awal karangan-karangannya, di mana tampak bahwa dia sangat sadar akan pentingnya metode dalam berteologi. Dalam hal (...) ini Hardawiryana sejalan dengan arah-arah baru yang dibuka oleh Federasi Konferensi-konferensi Uskup Asia dalam pelbagai dokumennya. Meskipun demikian, sulit diharapkan suatu paparan teoretis yang menyeluruh dan sistematis tentang metode berteologi dari teolog ini, mengingat bahwa minat utamanya lebih tertuju pada pengupayaan suatu arah pastoral yang kuat pada tulisan-tulisan teologi, dan sebaliknya juga, pada pemberian dasar teologis yang kuat pada kebijakan-kebijakan pastoral. Selain itu, penulis juga memandang perlu untuk menilik sejenak pembentukan intelektual Hardawiryana agar lebih menolong untuk memahami kecenderungan-kecenderungannya kelak dalam berteologi. Kata-kata Kunci: Teologi, metode berteologi, pembinaan teologi, orientasi pastoral, inkulturasi, FABC. Abstract: In this essay the author attempts to explore the works of the late Fr. Robert Hardawiryana, S.J., (1926-2009), one of prominent Indonesian theologians in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Based on this theologian’s latest published works, the Pentalogi, but also making use of some yet unpublished manuscripts, the author focuses on Hardawiryana’s view of theological method as reflected in his writings. In most cases, his view on method can be seen from the introduction he provides at the beginning of his articles, as he is highly aware of the importance of method in doing theology. In this way he concurs with the new trends opened up by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference in its various documents. However, one can hardly expect a thorough and systematic theoretical exposition on theological method from this theologian, as his main interest lies elsewhere, namely, to bring a truly responsible pastoral thrust to theological writings, and vice versa, to provide sound theological foundation to pastoral policies. The author also considers that a glimpse at his intellectual formation would be of considerable help to understand Hardawiryana’s future leanings in theology. Keywords: Theology, method of theology, theological formation, pastoral orientation, inculturation, FABC. (shrink)

Nursing claims a significant history of engaging philosophical inquiry. To better understand the rationale for this engagement, and what nursing understands itself to achieve through philosophical inquiry, we conducted an interpretive synthesis of the recent nursing literature to identify what nurses are doing when they say they are doing philosophy. The overarching finding was that while vanishingly few articles articulated any definition of philosophy, the synthesis showed how nursing considers philosophical engagement a generative mode for asking and answering questions in/for (...) nursing. Whatever aspects of nursing were focused on in these articles, and they were myriad, philosophy was invoked as an appropriate modality to work through that aspect rigorously, critically, and with an expectation that something “knowledgeable” would result from the effort. Based on the synthesis, we conclude that nursing philosophy could be considered a specific modality of nursing practice by which nursing is both done and delineated, a discursive practice in which we continually assess and explore and adapt and advance our understanding of the discipline in service to advancing our unique efficacy. This definition of “nursing philosophy” provides an opening for further inquiry helping to illuminate its functionalities and potentialities for outputs that can facilitate rigorous practice, education, and scholarship. (shrink)

Some simulationists have argued that the information obtained during the perceptual process of facial expression (the geometric features) is sufficient for recognition of the emotion intended by that expression. Drawing on evidence from cross-cultural studies, with particular attention to conceptual act theories, I show that both emotion expression and recognition are top-down modulated by expressivity norms, observer-specific internal representations, and expectations. I thus conclude that direct simulation, or a purely bottom-up approach, is not sufficient for emotion recognition. Next, I will (...) consider the generate and test strategy as an alternative to direct simulation. This is a highly promising approach in that top-down and bottom-up processes work in parallel, according to the presence, or not, of additional information. For this reason, it avoids the difficulties of direct simulation. I will argue, however, that it is based on a misconception of emotions, specifically on how emotions are represented in the brain. To improve the model, I distinguish between two different categorical approaches to emotions, then argue that only one of which is viable in a simulational account of emotion recognition. (shrink)

This paper examines the role of simulational mindreading in pragmatic interpretation (conceived of in a Gricean manner). There are two parts to this paper. In part one, I argue that mirroring, in the form of direct or indirect simulation, underdetermines pragmatic interpretation. Nevertheless, to deliver a unique interpretation, mirroring can contribute either by reducing the number of salient interpretations or to be accompanied by theoretical considerations. This results in a hybrid view in which theory and simulation cooperate. The second part (...) of the paper examines the imaginative or perspective-taking sense of simulation. Drawing on evidence from several clinical populations, I will show that subjects with difficulty in pragmatic interpretation often show little or no difficulty in perspective taking, and subjects with difficulty in perspective taking do not always show difficulty in pragmatic interpretation. This, I conclude, suggests that simulation in the sense of perspective taking is not necessary or plays no significant role in pragmatic interpretation. (shrink)

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders and many people in the world suffer from this disorder. Every year, thousands of suicides occur because of depression. Whilst anxiety is considered a common phenomenon of our era, it has existed throughout human history. Nevertheless, there have always been signs of religion and religious beliefs in the study of human communities and the history of civilisations. Despite rapid advancements made in solving the physical problems of human beings, the science of (...) medicine has not taken an effective step toward solving humans' psychological issues, although they play a considerable role in the emergence of physical diseases. Religion can affect the mental health of individuals and society through various mechanisms. In general, the role of religion and religious beliefs on the health of the individual and society is very important. A great deal of peace of mind can be achieved based on faith and moral beliefs and practices. People with religious beliefs have an optimistic viewpoint towards life, and their religious beliefs turn a dark life into a bright one even when all hopes are lost in the battle of life. Given the importance of this issue, the present study aimed to evaluate the role of Islamic religious beliefs of Muslim students on depression during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Malaysia. A field study was performed on 3500 Muslim students of Kuala Lumpur in 2021 by simple random sampling method. Data were collected using standardised questionnaires, and data analysis was performed in SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). According to the results, people with a higher level of religious beliefs suffered less from depression, which confirmed the negative and significant relationship between Islamic religious beliefs and depression. According to the results of multiple regression analysis related to the components of the independent variable in SPSS, all components of Islamic beliefs had a significant role in reducing COVID-19-induced depression. Meanwhile, action required (t-value: 2.30; beta: 0.55) and religious activities (t-value: 2.24; beta: 0.54) had the most effect on reducing depression induced by COVID-19 disease. CONTRIBUTION: The findings of this study could be used to treat people's depression during the COVID-19 pandemic by taking their Islamic religious beliefs into account. (shrink)

Recently, a number of experimental philosophers have converged on the position that the ordinary concept of weakness of will does not solely consist in “judgment” or “intention” violation but is more like a cluster concept in which each factor plays contributory roles in the application of the concept. This, however, raises the question as to which factor is more central or plays a more significant role in folk’s understanding of the concept. I contend that the ordinary concept of weakness of (...) will is primarily constituted by the “executive commitment” rather than the “evaluative commitment” practices. Drawing on extensive evidence from developmental psychology, I will argue that the executive commitment, which, as I will show, involve intention recognition and metarepresentation, is developmentally prior and more fundamental in our exercise and intuitive understanding of the concept. (shrink)

Recently, a number of experimental philosophers have converged on the position that the ordinary concept of weakness of will does not solely consist in “judgment” or “intention” violation but is more like a cluster concept in which each factor plays contributory roles in the application of the concept. This, however, raises the question as to which factor is more central or plays a more significant role in folk’s understanding of the concept. I contend that the ordinary concept of weakness of (...) will is primarily constituted by the “executive commitment” rather than the “evaluative commitment” practices. Drawing on extensive evidence from developmental psychology, I will argue that the executive commitment, which, as I will show, involve intention recognition and metarepresentation, is developmentally prior and more fundamental in our exercise and intuitive understanding of the concept. (shrink)

Leadership skills is very important for leader to take the organization toward accomplishing it goals. To be a leader with adequate skills, people need some important personal characteristics. One of them is positive self - esteem. This study aims to know whether there is any positive correlation between self-esteem and leadership skills. The method of this research is quantitative approach with correlational design. The sampling method is purposive sampling and there were 44 adolecscents and adults for the subjects of this (...) research. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation obtain r: 0,301 with p: 0,024 (p<0,05). The result shows there is a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and leadership skills.  . (shrink)

This research note is meant to introduce into philosophical discussion the preliminary results of an empirical study on the state of blacks in philosophy, which is a joint effort of the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers (APA CSBP) and the Society of Young Black Philosophers (SYBP). The study is intended to settle factual issues in furtherance of contributing to dialogues surrounding at least two philosophical questions: What, if anything, is the philosophical value of demographic diversity (...) in professional philosophy? And what is philosophy? The empirical goals of the study are (1) to identify and enumerate U.S. blacks in philosophy, (2) to determine the distribution of blacks in philosophy across career stages, (3) to determine correlates to the success of blacks in philosophy at different career stages, and (4) to compare and contrast results internally and externally to explain any career stage gaps and determine any other disparities. (shrink)

L’intérêt que la revue Clio. Femmes, histoire, sociétés porte à l’histoire de l’éducation des filles justifie à lui seul la lecture du numéro spécial d’Histoire de l’éducation qui lui est consacré. L’hommage à l’historienne Françoise Mayeur qui ouvre le recueil est le fil d’Ariane des textes rassemblés. Après cet avant-propos et l’inventaire des travaux sur le sujet, les coordonnateurs du numéro ont opté pour un classement chronologique des thèmes étudiés. On recommandera d’abord à tout cherc...

L'analyse des statistiques du baccalauréat de l'académie de Rennes pour la période 1931-1939 atteste la progression constante des candidates dans l'entre deux guerres, alors qu'a été décrétée en 1925 l'identité des programmes et du baccalauréat pour les enseignements secondaires féminin et masculin. Mais la ventilation entre les sections est significative des écarts de scolarisation qui subsistent entre garçons et filles. En effet, si, chez quelques rares professeurs, l'idée affleure que les différences de sexe sont socialement construites, les préjugés les plus (...) vivaces sur la nature féminine continuent de prévaloir, même parmi ceux et celles pour qui le baccalauréat féminin est une conquête. Dans le contexte de crise de la fin des années 30, le thème du nécessaire retour des femmes instruites au foyer en est l'expression la plus banale. (shrink)

Tourism, as an industry, has become one of the most dynamic sectors of the world economy these days and has specific features that are different from other industries. In the tourism industry, production and consumption points occur spatially at the same time. In addition, the tourism industry contributes to the economic growth of developed regions and can simultaneously distribute the wealth created geographically. It is notable that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused many challenges in the tourism industry (...) regarding the presence of tourists in tourism centres and the closing of all tourism service chains, including food, entertainment, transportation and travel services worldwide. Tourism-related businesses, which are considered as invisible export and one of the engines of development and occupation, have been rendered obsolete. In other words, the businesses, as well as multiple units and activities in the related chain, have been damaged and employees of this industry have lost their jobs. This has led to the recession and regressive course of the developing and large industry of tourism in the world. It is worth noting that the tourism industry includes various sections, the most important of which is religious tourism. All religions in the world have different religious places, works, traditions and customs, which have become amongst the most important tourist attractions. Meanwhile, Muslims and the religion of Islam play a significant role in this branch of tourism. The Hajj, pilgrimage to holy places and the existence of mourning ceremonies or religious celebrations of Muslims are amongst the largest religious tourism events in the world. Given the importance of this issue, the present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious tourism in Iraq in 2021. This field study was conducted on 4500 Muslim managers and staff of restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, clothing stores and souvenir shops around the holy shrines of imams and religious places in Karbala, Najaf, Kufa, Samarra and Kazemi. According to the results, the tourism of Iraq, which is mainly limited to Muslim religious sites in several major Iraqi cities, has also seen a decline in the number of religious tourists. The negative effects of COVID-19 on religious tourism have also been proved statistically by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), as µ ≥ 3 has been counted in all indices.Contribution: Our findings offered new insights into the impact of COVID-19 on tourism, based on statistical analysis. In this study, the authors showed how COVID-19 affects various aspects of religious tourism, which has not been addressed in previous researches. (shrink)

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge and to determine effect of demographic variables (Gender, year of study) on their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data from 104 pre-service teachers. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to examine pre-service teachers’ perceived knowledge of teaching strategies, mathematical language and symbols, misconceptions, curriculum, and their perceived knowledge of learners. Results show that in general, (...) majority pre-service teachers have strong perceptions of their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge. They consider lesson planning, purpose of the mathematics curriculum and assessment tools used in a mathematics classroom as important aspects of their perceived knowledge of the curriculum. It was also revealed that their perceived knowledge of misconception would enable them to know and anticipate their learners’ misconceptions. However, results also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in pre-service teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content knowledge based on gender and year of study. Study implications are also discussed. (shrink)

As emphasised in Islamic sources, justice is one of the most important issues covered in the religion of Islam. In fact, justice is a central theme in Islam and has a special value in this regard. Conversation about justice and its nature, as well as its realisation in human communities, has been thus far a necessity in human life. Actually, the establishment and implementation of justice in all areas are crucial for the utopia. Given the importance of this subject, the (...) present study aims to determine and explain the components of the justice-oriented Islamic community based on the teachings of Nahj al-Balaghah. Therefore, the components that introduce justice orientation in the Islamic community are extracted from the sermons, letters and wise sayings (viz. narrations) of Nahj al-Balaghah. Afterward, the extracted components are classified based on the similarity of the themes and concepts. In the end, five classifications are introduced, including distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice, social justice and fairness.Contribution: Based on the determined indices, the model of justice-oriented Islamic community is developed. It is thus recommended to pay more attention to the realisation of a justice-oriented Islamic community by researchers and leaders. This is mainly because of the fact that the opposite of a justice-oriented community is one with injustice, where oppression and disrespect for the rights of others occur, divine blessings change, divine wrath and anger are provoked and destruction approaches. (shrink)

Ethical principles are among the topics that are widely emphasised in the Islamic society. Ethics is a set of values, do's and don'ts that can play an important role in the effective management of organisations. If employees of organisations, especially medical staff, are working in the atmosphere of Islamic ethics, they show functional behaviours in line with the goals and missions of organisation. Due to the direct relationship and treatment of nurses with recipients of medical services, nurses' behaviours have significant (...) impact on the quality of services provided by medical centres. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Islamic ethics and commitment of 1100 Muslim nurses in Indonesia in 2021. This study was performed by descriptive-analytical correlational method. Data were collected using Islamic ethics and organisational commitment questionnaires and measured by Pearson correlation coefficient in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and structural equation modelling analysis (SEM) in linear structural relationships (LISREL). The results indicate that Islamic ethics have significant and positive relationship with nurses' commitment as p = 0.542 and t = 5.63. CONTRIBUTION: According to the research findings, it can be concluded that commitment of nurses can be improved by applying Islamic ethics in medical centres. (shrink)

Organisations are increasingly involved in what they call ‘ethical dilemmas’, that is, the conditions under which wrongdoing and righteous deeds must be defined once again because the line between right and wrong has blurred more than ever. In general, human beings have special moral characteristics in the individual and personality dimension that shape their thoughts, speech and behaviour. It is possible that the same people in the same position and organisation could be affected differently, and their ideas, speech and behaviour (...) affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. Ethics can have positive or negative consequences at each organisational level. One of the effective factors on the occurrence of employees’ ethical behaviours is the role of spirituality in the work environment and humility of leaders. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of humility of Muslim leaders on the moral behaviours of followers and spirituality at work in Islamic society. The statistical population of the study was 370 Muslim employees of International Islamic University Malaysia. After distributing the questionnaires among the statistical population, 352 questionnaires were returned. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by the content validity method, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. In this research, the structural equation modeling approach and Amos software were used to analyse the data. All hypotheses were confirmed at a 95% significance level. The results showed that the humility of leaders has a positive and significant effect on spirituality in the workplace and work ethic of followers. Spirituality in the workplace has also a positive effect on employees’ work ethic.Contribution: It is recommended that the officials of organisations should pay attention to spirituality in the workplace and the humility of managers and supervisors towards employees in order to promote work ethics. Further, it can be concluded that organisations can increase the ethical behaviours of employees by promoting the components of organisational spirituality. (shrink)

This study aims to investigate the role of self-construal in sharpening reputation judgment on earnings management cases. This study involves a personality variable that can provide sharper insights into individual assessments, namely self-construal. The study uses an experimental case with involved participants to judge the ethics of earnings management done by other managers (the target managers). Participants of this study consist of 109 master’s degree students majoring in accounting and management who acts as fellow managers. Participants provide ethical judgment and (...) reputation judgment of the target managers. This study indicates that ethical judgment on earnings management behavior differs depending on the target managers’ self-construal. In addition, ethical judgment has a positive and significant effect on reputation judgment. The following analysis showed that ethical judgment mediates the effect of earnings management behavior that self-construal moderates on reputation judgment. Studies that highlight the impact of managers’ reputation engaging in earnings management are still limited. This study used a behavioral approach, especially involving self-construal, to scrutinize the behavior of individuals within the organization, which is previous studies have not yet involved that personality factor. This research’s results imply that a manager’s response to peer’s behavior is helpful to design an appropriate management control system for organizations. This study only used earnings management scenarios in order to increase earnings. Earnings management can be in the form of actions to increase or decrease earnings. (shrink)

Ethical behaviour, in its simplest terms, means knowing and doing what is right. Nevertheless, the main difficulty is how to define the word 'right'. For this purpose, various individuals, cultures and religions have thus far portrayed it in different ways. The present study reflected on the Islamic society, wherein ethical leadership has been one of the most effective factors in its continuation of life and success, with a vital role in its growth, development and progress. Accordingly, the relationship between ethical (...) leadership and the voice of Muslim employees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2021, as the statistical population (n = 2500) was analysed. For this purpose, a standard questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data, whose validity was confirmed by the construct validity in the Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) software and its reliability was checked via the Cronbach's alpha in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Besides, path analysis was utilised to test the research hypothesis. Confirmatory factor analysis was correspondingly implemented to examine the data. Ultimately, the study results revealed a significant positive relationship between ethical leadership and the voice of Malaysian Muslim employees (p = 0.80; t = 5.02). CONTRIBUTION: Based on the literature review and the results of this study, ethical leadership can motivate Muslim citizens to participate in decision-making processes and even allows them to express their creative ideas in organisations and society. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a framework for searching information through both the WWW and a human group. Though information retrieval using a searc engine in the WWW is very useful, we can not acquire local information owned by persons and not explicitly described in text. A user knows neither where target information is in the WWW nor who knows in a human group. Thus we integrate the information retrieval in the WWW with that in a human group, develop a (...) heterogeneous information search system HERIS as a multi-agent system. We develop this framework as multi-agent system consisting of user agents and search engine agents, and use contract net protocol to communication among the agents. A user agent and a search engine agent are assigned to a user and a search engine. Each of the agents maintains a user profile and a search engine profile. When a user gives a query to a system, it selectively searches information resources consisting the WWW and user group. Finally a user acquires integrated results of a hit list from the WWW and a audio/video connection to a user who can answer the query. It was found through experimental evaluation that information retrieval using a human group as an information resource is valid and a search with HERIS has a different character from conventional search engines. (shrink)

The article analyzes the main directions and cases of research and reception of the creative heri- tage of Hrygorii Skovoroda in Germany. Even though Dmytro Chyzhevskyi introduced German scientists to Skovoroda’s work back in the 1930s, its actual reception, according to the author, began only in the 1980s. The article analyzes the research of three authors who carry out such a reception today. First, Elizabeth von Erdmann examines Skovoroda’s work in the context of philosophia perennis. Instead, Roland Pietsch began (...) his study of Skovoroda’s work by translating his works into German and later focused on demonstrating the unity of mysticism and metaphysics in Skovoroda’s phi- losophy, according to how this unity was ensured in his doctrine of self-knowledge. Pietsch demonstrated this unity in his interpretation of the Narcissus dialogue. Another essential aspect of Skovoroda’s work, explored by Pietsch, is the philosopher’s symbolic metaphysics. Pietsch’s latest works are devoted to another important issue — establishing Skovoroda’s place in European intel- lectual history, in particular, based on a comparative analysis of the concepts of Hrygorii Skovo- roda, Johann Georg Hamann, and Franz von Baader. Another German researcher who studies Skovoroda’s work today is Slavologist and theologian Günter Kollert, who has been engaged in the philosophy of Skovoroda and Pamfil Yurkevich for several years and has translated the works of Skovoroda and Mykhailo Kovalynskyi into German. The author of the article concludes that new interesting independent studies of Skovoroda’s work will appear in Germany, which will make it possible to more accurately define Skovoroda’s place in the historical-philosophical process, to think more profoundly and describe this process, as well as to pave the way to possible abandonings and comparisons of Ukrainian works thinker with other famous figures in the history of philosophical thought. (shrink)

Particular concern about academic ethics in higher education and research institutions in Lithuania was addressed in 2009 by the national decision to establish an Office of Ombudsman for Academic Ethics and Procedures. The decision was taken during the approval of the revised Law on Higher Education and Research by the Parliament of Lithuania. Following two failed attempts to appoint an ombudsman, the Office began to function in 2014. Since then, the ombudsman, alongside other state institutions, has been empowered to implement (...) national higher education and research policy. At the outset of the Office activity it is important to consider how public HERIs institutionalise academic integrity, i.e. how they create an ethical environment within the academic community and what means are used to support it further. Collecting data from codes of ethics, regulations of academic integrity committees and interviews, data analysis shows that academic values manifest unevenly in teaching/learning and research. Most efforts concern the behaviour of students rather than the behaviour of academic staff. Moreover, ethics infrastructure gives a misleading image, as it lacks harmony and compatibility, despite the fact that there is a myriad of means to foster ethical behaviour. Universities should make greater effort to connect academic values with operations in teaching/learning and research. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:“Listening Dangerously”: Dialogue Training as Contemplative PedagogyJudith Simmer-BrownContemplative pedagogies in higher-education classrooms employ methods adapted from meditative practices in great religious traditions in order to enhance student learning and to fulfill the historic purpose of a liberal arts education: to discover the nature of human life. Our Western education systems were originally derived from religious settings in which questions about what it means to be human were paramount. Over (...) the centuries, through the influences of the European Enlightenment, modern science, and postmodernism, questions about personal identity and the meaning of life increasingly have been removed from our classrooms and deemed inappropriate for the university. Now, in a rebalancing of priorities in higher education, the pendulum is swinging the other direction, largely driven by the insistence of our students, who indicate the centrality of religion and spirituality in their expectations of college curricular and cocurricular offerings. The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California Los Angeles conducted a seven-year study that surveyed more than one hundred thousand college students, matriculating freshmen attending 236 diverse colleges and universities across the country, and reported this:The study reveals that today’s college students have very high levels of spiritual interest and involvement. Many are actively engaged in a spiritual quest and in exploring the meaning and purpose of life. They are also very engaged and involved in religion, reporting considerable commitment to their religious beliefs and practices. As they begin college, freshmen have high expectations for the role their institutions will play in their emotional and spiritual development. They place great value on their college enhancing their self-understanding, helping them develop personal values, and encouraging their expression of spirituality.1The HERI report goes on to say that three-fourths of college freshmen say they are searching for meaning or purpose in their lives; nearly half of the students surveyed say that they consider it “essential” or “very important” to seek opportunities to help [End Page 33] them grow spiritually. Two-thirds reported that they derive strength, support and guidance from their spiritual or religious beliefs.2 Now our students are asking us to return higher education to the meaningful journey that it was intended to be.However, it is not sufficient to assume that we have fulfilled our responsibility merely by making minor adjustments to the contents of our courses. Certainly, students are asking for information, but they are particularly asking for mentorship and methods of study that require introspection, silence, and aids to inner transformation. Methods like these were customary at the foundations of liberal education, where religious reading, memorization, contemplation, and debate were central to learning.3 In higher education classrooms throughout the country, similar methods are finding their way back into learning strategies, enriching the lives of our students.Of course, this does not mean that our students are asking for religious instruction, conversion, or proselytizing. We have been through all of that over the last forty years, and finally religious studies as an academic field has secured methodologies that bring critical perspectives to the study of religion. However, we have often stripped the classroom of exploration of the Big Questions and of equipping students for the journey of self-knowledge that is so essential in contemplating these questions. Given our history as a discipline, it is important to distinguish between religious or spiritual practice and educational pedagogy in the methods we are bringing into our classrooms. We must skillfully develop precise and appropriate approaches that remove any prerequisite of religious belief from our pedagogies, and design them to serve the larger educational journeys of our students. And it is important to address the ethical issues inherent in bringing contemplative practices into our classrooms. I have addressed these issues elsewhere,4 and in this paper I will take a different tack.Buddhist-Christian Contemplative Pedagogies?I propose this question: What kind of contemplative pedagogy would be most appropriate to introduce students to the priorities of the work of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies? Especially, how could our emphasis on “study, reflection, interchange, and practice arising out of Buddhist-Christian encounters”5 be reflected, not just in the contents, but... (shrink)

For eller imod Naturen? Naturen er traditionelt blevet opfattet som noget skidt, man kunne behandle, som man ville; som noget lavt, man har kunnet udnytte; endog som noget "syndigt", man skulle undertrykke! I denne bog vil Naturen blive skrevet med stort, og heri vil man møde en tradition, der som en understrøm, eller måske rettere overstrøm, har været til stede som alternativet til den herskende naturfjendske tænkemåde. Denne tradition har man forsøgt at undertrykke på alle måder! Man har gjort (...) Platon til discipel af Sokrates i stedet for Pythagoras, man har fortiet, at Cicero, Kepler, Leibniz, Goethe og Ørsted alle var inkarnerede platonikere -- ligesom også Henrik Pontoppidan var det: 'At lovprise det skønne, gode, retfærdige; at brændemærke skurkene, narrene, hyklerne -- det er og har været og vil vedblive at være en værdig opgave også for de skønne kunster' -- sådan skrev Pontoppidan selv, og hans. 'Lykke-Per' skriver (ligesom Platon!) en bog om en 'Fremtidsstat'. Den er baseret på "grøn energi", og i stedet for kirker har den templer for platoniske ideer som Sandheden og Retfærdigheden. (shrink)