Continuing Amy's and Rick's reflections on John Allen's first trend, the World Church, one of the things that intrigued me most was something of a contradiction. On the one hand, as Amy pointed out, he characterizes attitudes toward the supernatural as "perhaps the fundamental dividing line between the religious climates of the North and the South." He says that we Christians of the North are reluctant to talk too openly about the spiritual world, citing skepticism about things like appearances of the Virgin Mary, miraculous healings, and demonic possession. In the South, in contrast, the spiritual world is "tangible, palpable, and constantly nearby -- in some ways, more real than the physical world." He speculates that a future pope from the global South might "issue an encyclical presenting Jesus Christ as the definitive answer to the 'spirits of the world' . . . A document from the Vatican along these lines would arguably stand a better chance of finding an audience at the global Catholic grassroots than virtually any other subject that Western theological elites might desire a future pope to address." (I have to confess, as a Northern Christian (1) with a great fascination for Marian apparitions, and (2) who gets REALLY creeped out by demonic possession movies like "The Exorcist" and "Paranormal Activity", I'd be among that eager audience.)
But, Allen also makes some very interesting observations about the vantage point of the global South in its dialogue with the secular world and with other faiths that seems somewhat at odds the way that characterization of the South as more 'superstitious', less sceptical. I found this one in particular absolutely fascinating -- he suggests that in the global North: "Where the main rival to Catholicism is agnostic secularism, popular caricatures of Catholicism will style it as a conservative social institution, perhaps a little hide-bound. Where the alternative [as in the global South] is Islam or Pentecostalism, however, Catholicism often appears comparatively moderate and sophisticated, arguably better able to engage modern science, politics, and economics than its competitors."
What would these two trends mean for us as Catholic legal theorists, if we ourselves really open ourselves up to these somewhat contradictory influences from the Global South? If we considered our debating partners as being NOT the agnostic, secular world of the American legal academy, but instead the Islamic or Pentacostal world, and if we were more open to the influence of the spiritual world into the physical world, could we still be credible as legal theorists?
I think I've opened this for comments.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Mary Leary at Catholic Law School has posted an article based on an excellent presentation I heard her give at a symposium on the 20th anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem: "Mulieris Dignitatem: Pornography and the Dignity of the Soul: An Exploration of Dignity in a Protected Speech Paradigm." The abstract:
This
article, part of a symposium celebrating the 20th anniversary of
Mulieris Dignitatem, reflects on Mulieris Dignitatem’s teachings, and
how they can inform the issue of pornography. Modern day pornography
has increased in both its quantity and severity of content. Mulieris
Dignitatem offers a pathway out of this reality with its focus on the
concept of dignity. The article reviews John Paul II’s emphasis on the
dignity of woman and applies it to the modern day issue of pornography.
The article suggests a paradigm shift from examining pornography solely
through a “speech and expression lens” to examining the issue through a
“dignity lens. In so doing, the article explores John Paul II’s
discussion of dignity of both men and women, as well as society as a
whole. It examines some parallels between this approach and the
previous civil rights approach of the feminist movement. Finally, the
article invokes John Paul II’s emphasis on vocation and proposes a
social movement targeting a paradigm shift to a dignity perspective
rather than relying on a legal movement.
More important than the legal solution (criminalization), Leary argues, is a change in the social norms governing pornography today in the U.S. She describes how the law "followed the dictates of the societal shift" in attitudes toward smoking, driving under the influence, and dangerous sexual practices. She argues for increased public education about findings of researchers who have identified online pornography as 'a hidden public health hazard'. She also argues for greater efforts to combat "the normalization of the sexualization of girls."
As a mother of a nine-year old girl who watches far too much Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, I say, AMEN, Mary!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The latest Law School Survey of Student Engagement is getting press for its finding that more law-school students (even those with high debt loads) are responding to the economic situation by seeking more lower-paying public interest jobs. Since the higher-paying jobs are becoming more scarce, that's hardly a surprising finding. But it's certainly something that ought to be in the forefront of our minds, as law professors, when we think about the sorts of things Rob raises concerning tuition increases, student debt loads, and the "mission" of Catholic law schools.
And some of the other findings ought to present personal challenges to all of us, whether at Catholic law schools or not, committed to living our faith commitments in our professional lives. As summarized in today's Chronicle of Higher Education":
Among the report's other findings:
- Students who
are not involved in extracurricular activities study less than their
peers and more frequently come to class unprepared.
- More
than one-third of all law students say that their legal education
places little emphasis on acting with integrity in personal and
professional settings.
- Only about half of all law
students frequently receive feedback from their professors that is
helpful to their academic development.
- One in 10 law
students say they never receive feedback from professors that
stimulates their interest in the study or practice of law.
- Male
students are more likely than female students to receive oral feedback
from professors, both during class and outside of class.
Monday, December 21, 2009
If Michael is inviting us to engage in movie ratings, I feel compelled to contribute. I have a 16-year-old son who is a somewhat rabid movie fan and we take the film awards season very, very seriously around my household. Between my older son who needs someone to drive him to & get him into R-rated art films, and my youngest daughter needs someone to drive her & sit with her through movies like the Hannah Montana 3-D Concert and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I see a LOT of movies. Plus, I love movies.
I agree with Michael that both craft and content being equally important in judging films. I just saw Avatar yesterday. That's an example of a film where the brilliance of the craft does not elevate the film to "great" status, because of lack of content. It was a visually stunning movie; the CGI and subtle 3D effects were simply dazzling. The movie transported you to another world for a couple of hours -- well worth the ticket price. BUT, the story was basically Disney's Pocahontas meets Peter Jackson's The Return of the King. I found myself wanting to leave the movie early (it's way too long) to get home & watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy again.
I also agree with Michael about The Hurt Locker and Precious being two of the best films of the year. But I'd switch the order. I agree that The Hurt Locker was masterful in both craft and content. (As an aside, it's one of the few war movies directed by a woman. It did not have a single element of conciously portraying any sort of "woman's perspective" on the war. I couldn't help but wonder, though, if that untraditional gender perspective might have given the movie some of the complexity and depth that gave the film its resonance. I'm not trying to say anything like "women are more complex and deeper than men", but rather that the different perspective on such a familiar topic might have changed the focus just enough to engage the viewer more intensely.)
But Precious beats out The Hurt Locker, for me, hands down. That film was one of the most profound artistic presentations of the complexity of the human condition that I have ever seen. The characters in that movie displayed almost every type of behavior you could imagine on the spectrum of evil. The unflinching acting behind those portrayals of evil was truly award-worthy. But the message of that movie was one of the dignity of each and every human being. The most powerful force in that story, more powerful than evil, was the power of love -- most particularly the love that a mother had for two children who came into the world under indisputably tragic circumstances. I think that a movie that can take the viewer through an emotional journal through despair at Precious' circumstances, to the horror of how evil people could be, to end up with a feeling of hope and love, is a great movie.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Check out this new article posted on SSRN:
MAOA Gene Predicts Credit Card Debt
Abstract:
Economists have long realized the importance of credit markets and borrowing behavior for household finance and economics more generally. However, none of this previous work has explored the role of biological constraints. Here we present the first evidence of a specific gene that may influence borrowing behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with a polymorphism of the MAOA gene that has lower transcriptional efficiency are significantly more likely to report having credit card debt. Having one or both MAOA alleles of the low efficiency type raises the average likelihood of having credit card debt by 7.8% and 15.9% respectively. About half of our population has one or both MAOA alleles of the low type. The results suggest that economists should integrate innate propensities into economic models and consider the welfare consequences of possible discrimination by lenders on the basis of genotype.
