On Becoming a Non-Jewish Holocaust Writer: Yann Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil

To appraise Martel’s non-Jewish perspective of Holocaust thematic, it is important to assess it in the context of the Jewish relations with the Holocaust. Even though the Jewish claim to the uniqueness of the Holocaust has been disputed since the end of the war especially in Eastern Europe, the Jewish response determined to a large extent the reception of the disaster on the global scene. On a family level, the children of survivors have identified themselves as the legitimate heirs of the unknowable experience of their parents. On a collective level, the decree of Jewish annihilation constructed a Jewish identity that imposed an obligation to keep the Holocaust memory in the consciousness of the world. Martel proposes to supersede the history of the Holocaust with a story which would downplay the Jewish filiation with the Holocaust, elicit an affiliative response to the event of the non-Jewish writer and consequently integrate it into the memory of humanity at large. However, the Holocaust theme of Beatrice and Virgil refuses to assimilate within the general memory of humanity; rather, the consciousness of the event, which pervades the post-Holocaust world, insists on its constant presence. The omnipresence of the Holocaust blurs the distinctions between the filiative (Jewish) and affiliative (non-Jewish) attitudes toward the Jewish tragedy, gripping the writer in its transcendent horror. Disregarding his ethnic or religious origins, the Holocaust takes over the writer’s personal life and determines his story.

Catholicism and the Concept of ‘the State’ in the Irish (1937) Constitution

The concept of the State is expressed more frequently and in more ways in the Irish (1937) constitution than in most European constitutions. The previous 1922 constitution had hardly mentioned the concept at all. Using the tools of conceptual history this article shows how a combination of Catholicism and nationalism led to the inflation of the State in 1937. The article also considers what this inflation of the State tells us about the controversy over the religious origins of the constitution. Rejecting the possibility that it was ‘contaminated’ by the values of the 1930s, the language of statehood is seen rather as an example of how a constitution could harmonize religious with secular values without ‘contaminating’ the secular meaning of the State.

History of medicine of Ukraine in ancient times: socio-religious origins of Upper Paleolithic medicine

The article presents historical origins and aspects of development of empirical medicineon the basis of multifactor analysis and comparison of historical events, results of archeological, climatic-geographical, paleobotanical, paleozoological, paleopathological and ethnographic researches, socio-economic activity of primitive man, his religious phenomena and beliefs. The results of archeological excavations of the Upper Paleolithic period on the territory of Ukraine are presented, which testify to the presence of “Paleolithic bath” buildings, where the treatment of wounds of hunters and diseases of members of the community was carried out. Data on the role and influence of totemmagical beliefs on the life and worldview of primitive man are presented.

Fiction

The most lasting Christmas fiction tends to use Christmas as a setting not as the main subject and to draw from the warmth and sensory onslaught of the holidays and on friends and families gathering, not on the specific religious origins of the holiday. Yet religious themes persist in Christmas fiction right up to the present day, even when the stories take place in fantasy worlds, such as in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories and C. S. Lewis’ Narnia. This chapter is not comprehensive in its coverage but instead focuses on those works that seem to have had the greatest cultural impact, including those of Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hans Christian Andersen, and Louisa May Alcott.

Ethical Considerations on Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapeutic Interventions

This chapter examines ethical issues arising from the widespread trend, originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, toward using mindfulness-based practices, such as meditation, for relief of psychological symptoms, such as anxiety and depression. These techniques are adapted from Buddhist practices and are prescribed for quite different ends—such as enlightenment—in that context. Further, psychotherapeutic mindfulness clients are often not informed of the religious provenance of the techniques. These circumstances give rise to psychotherapeutic ethical considerations, such as whether psychotherapeutic mindfulness practices are problematically appropriative from Buddhism, and whether the religious provenance of the practices should be disclosed to clients. The author argues that while the practices are not problematically appropriative from Buddhists, the failure to disclose the religious origins of the practices violates informed consent obligations owed to clients.

Religious Origins and Modern Legal Norms: A Dialectical Account

A significant amount of scholarship in the field of law and religion involves tracing the sources of contemporary legal and political norms to historical religious traditions. But the relationship between historical religious traditions and modern legal norms is often implicit and undertheorized. This article examines three examples of leading scholars who trace the influence of religious ideas to legal norms in strikingly different ways. Highlighting the work of Martha Nussbaum, Jeremy Waldron, and Samuel Moyn helps bring to rational articulation the normative decisions that are made in attempts to trace historical religious traditions to the contemporary norms that shape modern legal systems.