Articoli di riviste sul tema "Future life (Greco-Roman religion)"

Of all the extant sources, Suetonius' Life of Augustus contains the fullest, and certainly the most systematic, treatment of the supernatural indications of the future Augustus' greatness. Suetonius deploys the full range of divinatory techniques – both those administered by the institutions of the Roman state religion (augurs and haruspices) and those excluded from its ambit (astrology and dreams) – to underline divine approval for the dominance of Augustus. Scholars have readily explained the appearance of this unparalleled congeries of supernatural support by adducing the personal belief in supernatural phenomena of Suetonius and Dio, the two principal mediators of this material.

The impact of Christianity on the functioning of the later Roman empire has been examined by historians ever since Gibbon published his Decline and Fall. Had the Christians hastened the decline and fall of Rome? Outlining some themes of his projected work, Gibbon suggested before 1774 that indeed they had. In 1776, when publishing the first volume of his history, he touched on this same issue with considerable circumspection; but five years later, his earlier opinion appeared in print under the heading of “General Observations on the Decline of the Empire in the West” by way of concluding the third volume of the work. Here, Gibbon stated:As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear, without surprise or scandal, that the introduction, or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society were discouraged: and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister; a large portion of public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and the soldiers' pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes, who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity.

The article discusses the origins of the identity of Andrey Sheptytsky (secular name Roman), which have significant scientific relevance for a better understanding of the activities of this notable figure of the Greek Catholic Church in the national and confessional spheres. We will examine the Sheptytsky family, their family traditions, political views, social status, attitude towards religion, the hierarch parents’ national self-awareness, and their surroundings. The essence of the formation of gente Rutheni – natione Poloni, to which the metropolitan’s father belonged, is described. Information is provided about Andrey Sheptytsky’s mother, Zofia, the daughter of the famous Polish playwright A. Fredro. Priority attention is given to the period of Roman Sheptytsky’s secular education, both secondary and higher. The political and religious atmosphere of Krakow is analyzed, including the educational institutions in which the future metropolitan studied. The article reveals the motives for Sheptytsky’s choice of the path of monasticism, focuses on the influence of people whose authority influenced this decision of a young man. The conclusion is drawn that a whole range of factors (the complex national and confessional history of the Sheptytsky family, the presence of carriers of ultramontanism and paternalistic conservatism around the young Sheptytsky, acquainted with the spirit of the era of modernization and able to provide answers to its challenges) influenced the formation of the future metropolitan’s identity and his choice of his life path.

A good story, that is what citizens need to be able to (continue to) sustain the 'together' of 'Only together do we get corona under control'. In this article, I would first like to explore the significance of the focus on infection rates. Using Anne-Mei The's research on communication between lung cancer patients and their physicians, I interpret this focus as a collusion based on a technical approach that narrows time to the short term. The long term - i.e., the story of meanings, values and quality of life but equally of failure, loss and tragedy - is le.ft out of the picture. That long term story is about how we live together, near and far, now and in the future. It is about responsibility for each other, but also about failure. With Roman Krznaric, I introduce the question of whether we are good ancestors, whether we include this question in that broader story. Memories are very important. Without a past no future. It turns out that religion is in principle a powerful human phenomenon that can offer a transcendent story and stimulate broad solidarity. The Christian concept of original sin that acknowledges failure, simultaneously opens the view of human responsibility for every other living being and for the world as a whole. In this framework, the uncertainty tolerance can grow, so that the narrowing of gaze and consciousness to the short term, to mere technical measures, can be avoided. The purpose of this contribution is not to offer concrete policy alternatives for dealing with the corona crisis, nor to outline that broader perspective and narrative. Its purpose is to use various conceptual frameworks to answer the question: Why is it that both government and citizens are so focused on the infection rates and curves, what can help to break through this limited perspective, and to what extent can religion play a role in this? So how can government and citizens think more broadly in the pandemic?

Abstract Readers of Romans debate how to understand Paul’s language related to sin and death. Are sin and death ontological powers that operate in the human realm? Does Paul use figurative language to describe abstract concepts? Rarely do scholars consider material evidence and popular ideas as sources for addressing such questions. This essay considers archaeological findings from Pompeii as an additional voice in the conversation for understanding life in a first-century Roman context and Paul’s framing of sin and death in Romans. The essay first considers philosophical critiques of popular practices and then turns to material remains to demonstrate that many thought suprahuman forces to be at work in the world. With the Vesuvian evidence in view, understanding sin and death among powers that can influence human life emerges as a plausible interpretation. Paul’s personal language thus resonates with popular beliefs in the Greco-Roman context and reframes them in significant ways.

This paper addresses John M. Cooper’s critique, and related critiques, of Pierre Hadot’s conception of philosophy as a way of life for collapsing the distinction between philosophy and religion, via the category of “spiritual exercises”. The paper has two parts. Part 1, a pars destruens, will show how Hadot presents three cogent rebuttals of these charges, with which he was familiar as early as the 1980s, following the publication of the first edition of his 1981 collection, Exercises spirituels et philosophie antique. In part 2, a pars construens, putting aside the vexed category of “religion”, we will examine how Hadot reconsiders the place of the sacred in ancient philosophy, positioning the latter as not the attempt to rationally dispel any sense of the sacred in the world, but to relocate it from within the sanctioned cultic places and temples of traditional Greco-Roman religion to within the inner life of the godlike sage.

The first section of this article focuses on the use of the term and theme of ἀρετή in the argument that the Jewish religion can be seen as a most worthy philosophy. The second section shows how 4 Maccabees can be seen as a Jewish version of a philosophical work in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition: it raises the practical question of the noble way of life and shows us inspiring examples of persons who embodied this way by the manner in which they faced their death. The third section explores how a reading of 4 Maccabees can be seen as one of the “spiritual exercises” in the philosophical tradition (Pierre Hadot). The fourth section touches briefly on the issue of the Hellenization of the Jewish religion, of which 4 Maccabees is a strong example.

The Hellenization of Christianity is a long-standing and notoriously contentious historiographical construct in early Christian studies. While it has been deployed in surprisingly fluid ways, most scholars associate the thesis with Adolf von Harnack, for whom it acquired a decidedly critical valence. The “Hellenic spirit”—a concept Harnack usually left undefined—constituted a threat to the undogmatic gospel of Jesus. Whenever this adversarial Hellenic spirit triumphed, as it inevitably did, it corroded an authentic living Christianity into an institutionalized, dogmatic religion. For many others, both before and after Harnack, the Hellenization of Christianity has signaled a similar narrative of decline. The teachings and way of life that marked an authentic Christianity often stood in a disjunctive relationship with Greco-Roman culture, especially its philosophies. The influence of the latter precipitated a debasement of Christianity, the ossification of its teachings, or more seriously, the infiltration of heresy.

Many times History was used to legitimate the Power, speaking about the past means speaking about the present. The past was re-constructed and reinterpreted as to support the policy and the propaganda of the rulers, also by building official monuments. But sometimes the monuments were used by the subsequent political regimes to legitimate themselves. The triumphal monument Tropaeum Traiani was erected in 109 to celebrate the victory of the Romans against the local inhabitants. In the vicinity was founded the roman town with the same name. First excavations were made by Grigore Tocilescu beginning with 1882, shortly after Romania wins the state independence. During a period when the national states appear this monument became an important support for the origins of the Romanians. The idea to reconstruct it on a central square from Bucharest seems natural. The original pieces were brought to Bucharest but the monument was never reconstructed. Till the 60’s they were exposed in different places in the city (museum and park) and then were brought back to Adamclisi. During the communist regime the idea of the reconstruction of the monument was again brought to life in connection with the celebration of a century since the wining of the state independence. In May 1977 Nicolae Ceauşescu featured the opening ceremony of the recently restored monument. The main newspapers on the first pages presented the event as the final moment of a so-called “working visit” in Constanţa county. The press presents almost the same photos and commentaries, reflecting the official propaganda, even “Pontica” the publication of the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Constanţa, published three articles concerning the restoration of the monument and also the future development of the village into a “model village” (rather a “communist” town, with blocks, factories nearby and a modern agriculture). According to the propaganda Tropaeum Traiani was “a true chronicle engraved in stone, telling of the bloody confrontations of the 101-106 A.D. period”. The manifestation from Adamclisi is specific for the communist propaganda and manipulation: a historical event is turned into an occasion to demonstrate the unity of the nation all around the Party and to express love for the unique leader of the Party and Country. The propaganda was based on a very complex system of rituals which were supposed to be more powerful then the religion, forbidden in the communist countries. In 1992 the local authorities organized a new anniversary – 1890 years from the Romans’ victory against the Dacians. The ritual is the same like before and for the people participating it is not so difficult to remember the past, in their mind the clichés are still alive. But this time a group of orthodox priests participate at the celebration. This was a double abuse! In 2007 during the electoral campaign for a referendum for the president Traian Băsescu the posters in the village puts the accent on the name of the president (the same with the Roman Emperor) and on the fact that he has to come back to make History!

In the majority of her poems, Louise Glück fixes a great deal of her attention on traumatized female characters that are taken from different historical periods mainly by relying on Greco-Roman myths. Peculiar to her poetry, the common ground that linked, links, and will link female figures through time is the unchanging fact of being traumatized. Glück's personal experience, which is deeply interwoven with these characters as she attempts to express not only her own trauma but the trauma of women in her time, will be explored and highlighted. In the selected poems, typically through two main recurring and excessively utilized mediums of expression namely religion and mythology, the presence of evidently traumatized female characters dominates the stage of her dramatized poetic setting. The present study sheds light on PTSD theory pioneered by Cathy Caruth and will give a brief account of Louise Glück's life, her works, and style. It will analyze selected poems from Glück's poetry collection Poems 1962-2012 in the light of trauma theory. The showcased poems reveal how heavily Glück draws on mythology and religion as sources of her poetic output. These poems are Abishag, Persephone the Wonderer, Myth of Devotion, and Gretel in Darkness.

The Fourth Book of Maccabees (4 Macc) in the description of Eleazar's prayer, before he suffered a martyr’s death (6:29) as well as the martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother who suffered for the nation (17:21), the term ἀντίψυχος (which means “given in exchange for life”) is used twice. This adjective appears only twice in the Septuagint (LXX), to be precise, in 4 Macc The context of both passages suggests a broader meaning of the term, translated with reference to a sacrifice of life having a propitiatory, expiatory, vicarious and voluntary character, and even atonement for the sins of the Jewish people. In this article, the subject of expiatory martyrdom in 4 Macc will be taken in the context of the biblical, apocryphal and other ancient texts, with reference to the flow of ideas and terminology of Greco-Roman religion, poetry and philosophy. In addition, possible translations of the term ἀντίψυχος will be analyzed, included in the broader context of Greek and other terminologies, so as to show possible connections between the idea of ​​expiatory martyrdom and the ideas described in the New Testament.

The Christian faith continues to enter different cultures and finds its clothing in the new land it enters. This has resulted in what is known as Jewish Christianity, Greco-Roman Christianity, and European Christianity. It does so by re-interpreting and transforming the culture and traditions of the new environment in the light of the Christian faith towards a “home-grown” Christianity. However, it is observed that African Christianity is yet to critically engage with the culture and traditional values of the African environment in order to develop an indigenous African Christianity. This could be due to the fact that Christianity was introduced into Africa by Western missionaries, who perceived African religion and traditional practices as demonic. Consequently, Christianity in Africa presents Christ as a European rather than an African, thereby creating Christianity in Africa, instead of developing an African Christianity. Using historical studies approaches, the paper posits that Africans could develop an indigenous Africa Christianity when the gospel critically engages and transforms the traditional beliefs, myths, stories, idioms and cultural life of the African people.

We know that there are many studies, many interpretations of the coronavirus, many scientists and politicians who are studying the coronavirus and its consequences in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Holy See has also set up a task force dedicated to this study: “To embrace hope, to embrace the human family.” On 20th March, 2020, Pope Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DSSUI) to create a Commission, in collaboration with other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and other institutions, to express the Church's concern and love for the entire human family in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially through the analysis and reflection on the socio-economic and cultural challenges of the future and the proposal of guidelines to address them. In 2020 Anne Case, the Professor of Economics and Publics Affairs at Princeton University, and Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, the Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, have published their highly important book Death of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Death of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism are rising dramatically in the Western European countries and in the United States of America. In 2018, there were 158,000 deaths of despair in the US, the same number as in 2017. Deaths of despair is called by Anne Case and Angus Deaton the despair epidemic. Long before the arrival of COVID-19, the lives of European and Americans had been disintegrating with deaths from suicide, drug overdose and alcoholic liver disease rising year on year. The despair epidemic and the COVID epidemic make a challenge for American and European capitalism. “COVID is a worldwide pandemic, affecting rich and poor countries, while deaths of despair, although not exclusively American, are much more serious in the US than in other rich countries.” Why is capitalism failing so many? What’s the economy got to do with it? Could the reason for this phenomenon be hidden in a fragmented approach to the human person? Could it be that Capitalism does not pay attention to the true reality of the human person, who is at once, in his or her existence a unity of physiological (material), mental, and spiritual reality not fragmented? The human person whom an economy and indeed any business seeks to serve, is not only the exteriority but also the interiority at once. The person remains the subject of both experiences given from interior and from exterior. A concentration on both kinds of experience which in fact constitute the integral experience of the human person is called for. The same discernment is given by economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton in their statement that “capitalism is an immensely powerful force for progress and for good, but it needs to serve people and not have people serve it.” The world is experiencing a catastrophe, thus according to Prof. Case and Prof. Deaton capitalism needs to be better monitored and regulated. Why is lack of religiosity and the decline in churchgoing a problem? One answer is that, over long enough periods of time, religiosity responses to the social and economic environment. In poor countries around the world, especially in Asia and Africa, almost everyone identifies as very religious, but religiosity is lower in richer industrialized countries, particularly in Western Europe. The argument ̶ the secularization hypothesis ̶ is that as education spreads, as incomes rise, and as the state takes over many functions of the church, people turn away from religion. Put crudely, people need religion more in more hostile environments. This would fit the American states, where those with lower incomes and less supportive state governments have a higher fraction of religious people. It would also explain why it is true that, while more religious people do better than less religious people on many outcomes ̶ they are happier, less likely to commit crimes, less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and less likely to smoke ̶ more religious places ̶ including US states ̶ do worse on the same outcomes. Religion helps people do better, and they espouse religion in part because their local environment is difficult. When religiosity falls over time, it is the people side of this story that applies, and people lose the benefits that religion brings. The mission families are grateful to Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández for the Neocatechumenal Way they have brought, which is an inestimable gift. According to the iniciators of the Way true communion goes further than any notion of time, place and danger. The mission families experienced this communion with power during this time of pandemic isolation. The growing apostolic faith is the concrete answer to the problems of our life in this time of Covid-19. The prophetic words of Pope Paul VI are realized particularly in the mission of the Catholic Church in times of Covid-19 within the Neocatechumenal Way. Saint Paul VI, in the audience to the Neocatechumenal Communities on 8th May, 1974, said: “We greet the group of priests and lay people who represent the movement of the Neocatechumenal Communities - here we see post-conciliar fruits! - gathered in Rome from many dioceses throughout Italy and other countries. […] How great is the joy, how great is the hope, which you give us with your presence and with your activity! […] To live and foster this re-awakening is what you call a kind of ‘post baptism’, which can renew in our contemporary Christian communities the effects of maturity and depth which were achieved in the early Church during the period of preparation for Baptism. You do this afterwards. `Before' or `after' is secondary, I would say. The fact is that you aim at the authenticity, fullness, coherence and sincerity of Christian life. And this is a very great merit which, I repeat, consoles us enormously.”

Background and Study Aim. The physical training of young athletes is the basis for future success in competitions. Its effectiveness depends on many factors, among which safe conditions for life support stand out. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are significant restrictions on the training of young athletes. The aim of the study is the physical training of young Greco-Roman wrestlers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods. The study involved young athletes (boys, n=20, age 5-7 years (Kharkiv, Ukraine). The experimental group of initial training (n=10) consisted of young athletes of the first year of study (children's sports school). The control group (n=10) consisted of children in the first year of primary school education. The study was conducted for 12 weeks. At the beginning and at the end of the study, a final testing of the level of physical fitness of boys was carried out. Tests were used to determine strength abilities, speed-strength abilities, coordination readiness and flexibility development. The study included all students whose parents agreed to participate in the study. This study was conducted by the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of University. Results. Positive changes in the experimental group were observed in tests characterizing the level of development of coordination abilities. During repeated testing, the experimental group was much better oriented in space when performing three rolls. This was manifested in a reduction in the time of their implementation (t=4.091; р˂0.001) and a longer balance in static conditions (t=4.11; р˂0.01). In tests for the manifestation of strength and coordination abilities, there is a tendency to positive changes. However, there was no confirmation of a likely difference between pre-test and post-test (p>0.05). In tests for flexibility, the result remained almost unchanged and even deteriorated slightly. There were very slight positive changes in other studied indicators. Conclusions. For the formation of basic physical fitness, it is effective to provide a greater variety of training means and to maximize the focus on the game method of training. The process of training wrestlers of this age should be directed mainly to the development of coordination abilities.

The article discusses the expansion of women’s rights in Egypt. The author notes that Egypt, concerning the status of women in society, has traditions that differ from those in other countries where Islam is the predominant religion. This is because the state has experienced various periods throughout its history, including the Pharaonic era, the Greco-Roman period, the era of Islamic dominance, and periods of revolutionary reformers. The author pays much attention to the fact that Egypt has strong class divisions and property stratification. People in different areas of the country live differently. What concerns educated urban feminists in Cairo and Alexandria is often alien to poor women in the rural regions of Upper Egypt. The definitions of “women’s equality” and “feminism” themselves in a country with nationalist and Muslim traditions often have different meanings than in Western countries. On the one hand, Egyptian women have historically been considered the heads of their households as wives and mothers, and many women have consented to this role. A small percentage of Egyptian women worked outside the home, and their involvement in political life was limited. However, “state feminism” became the policy of all successive authoritarian regimes. The author also highlights the “Islamic feminism” as an interesting recent phenomenon.

The 1920 Lambeth Conference viewed the Anglican Communion’s confederated structure among autonomous churches as a model for the future organic reunion that its famous Appeal proposed. This article examines the Conference’s discussion of this model, as well as an influential early critique of the model, written by Yves Congar in 1937. More recent conflicts within the Anglican Communion, as well as analyses of these conflicts, have confirmed some of the practical aspects of Congar’s critique, even while Roman Catholic self-reflection has moved beyond his own early alternatives. In conjunction with Roman Catholic rethinking of the nature of oversight, the Appeal’s challenge, after 100 years, now appears to lie in the direction of a more radical restructuring of Anglican ecclesial life than its authors originally anticipated.

This paper employs theories of spectrality and haunting to read the Gospel of Mark alongside textual and archaeological materials representing the Roman emperor. I argue that the relationships between the figures of Jesus and the emperor are both more subtle and complex than is typically seen by empire-critical scholarship. I show how both the Roman emperor and the Gospel of Mark’s Jesus are constructed in undecidable negotiations of life and death, absence and presence, and past, present, and future. Scenes like Jesus walking on water, the transfiguration, and the empty tomb display the spectrality of Jesus in Mark’s gospel. Ghost stories and the globalizing logic of the imperial cult do the same for the emperor. The common spectrality of the emperors and Jesus in Mark’s Gospel signals how they are both haunted by the systemic violence of Rome’s empire.

Divination and mantics play a decisive role in ancient as well as modern religiosity. Although the subjects are not an integral part of the current curriculums for theology and the study of religion, they are pivotal for understanding religion and religious practices, especially of the ancient world. In this paper, which is the first part of a larger research project on divination and mantics of early Christianity and ancient Judaism, I explore one particular form of mantics: rhapsodomantics, i.e. divination by means of Sacred Books that are either randomly opened or used in order to provide ‘slips’ upon which verses from the Books in question are written. The randomly chosen textual passage is secondarily interpreted and explained in terms of a divinely inspired guidance. In this manner the lot oracle provides access to the understanding of the divine world. The ritual consultance of lot oracles is simultaneously a way of domesticising the contingency and arbitrariness of life. By means of a ritually staged display of arbitrariness (the random drawing of lots), arbitrariness is mastered. First – based on recent insights from the field of cognitive science (primarily Whitehouse and Boyer), semiotics, the tradition of sociology of knowledge and ritual studies – I discuss imagistic thought in contrast to doctrinaire modes of religiosity. Second, I scrutinize the ritual raison d’être for divination and mantics.The second part of the paper presents an analysis of numerous texts exemplifying rhapsodomantics. In a recent book by the Swedish novelist P.O. Enquist Lewis Rejse, narrating the founding of the Pentecostal Church of Sweden, the ritual practice of using ‘Thumble verses’ and ‘Manna seeds’ plays a decisive role in the founding of the community. As a point of departure relevant excerpts from this book are discussed in order to travel back to the Märchenland of the ancient world. Numerous Greco-Roman, Jewish and Early Christian examples of rhapsodomantics are discussed and related to recent analyses by van der Horst and Potter.

ABSTRACTFor more than twenty years the subject of authority has been in the forefront of discussions in the Anglican Communion and in ecumenical conversations. Authority in the Church was treated by the first Anglican Roman Catholic Commission. Both Communions recognized convergence in the Commission's reports but asked for further work. The most recent report, The Gift of Authority, is still being studied. It contains sharp challenges to both churches about their own exercise of authority. It is one thing to agree ideal statements about authority. It is quite another to move into visible unity with another church whose exercise of authority appears at odds with the ideal. If the two Communions can respond to these challenges then the suspicions that each has of the other will be alleviated and the move to visible unity made more possible. This article examines the content of the ARCIC reports and the challenges put to both Communions, arguing that there is much at stake in this conversation both for the internal life of the two Communions as well as for a life of communion in the future.

. إسلامية المعرفة عند السيد محمد باقر الصدر. حسن أحمد سالم العمري. بيروت: دار الهادي للنشر، 2003م، 176 ص. علم الكلام الجديد: نشأته وتطوره. إبراهيم بدوي، بيروت: دار العلم، 2002، سلسلة عالم الفلسفة والعرفان، 190 ص. الرؤية الكونية من المادية إلى العرفان. تأليف شادي فقيه، سلسلة عالم الفلسفة والعرفان رقم 9، بيروت: دار العلم، 2003، 232 ص. السلطة والمعارضة في الاسلام: بحث في إشكالية الفكرية والاجتماعية (11-132ﻫ)، زهير هواري، بيروت: المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر، الطبعة الأولى، 2003، الحجم 612 صفحة. المدخل العلمي والمعرفي لفهم القرآن الكريم: نظرات في التجديد المنهجي. تأليف عمران سميح نزال، دمشق: دار قتيبة، وعمان: دار القراء، 2003، 270ص. عولمة الإسلام، أوليفيه روا، ترجمة لارا معلوف، بيروت: دار الساقي، 2003، 222ص. العرب والغرب. تحرير عبد الواحد لؤلؤة وآخرين، جرش، الأردن: جامعة فيلادفيا. 2003، 600 صفحة. عودة الاستعمار والحملة الأميركية على العرب. الفضل شلق. بيروت: دار النفائس، 2003، 303 ص. الدين في القرار الأمريكي. محمد السمّاك، بيروت: دار النفائس، 2003، 110 ص. التربية المتكاملة للطفل المسلم في البيت والمدرسة. عبد السلام عبد الله الجقندي، دمشق: دار قتيبة، 2003، 431 ص. المثقف والتغيير: قراءات في المشهد الثقافي المعاصر. تأليف د. صلاح جرار، بيروت: المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر، وعمان: دار الفارس للنشر والتوزيع، 2003م. سادة العالم الجدد: العولمة - النهابون - المرتزقة – الغجر. جان بلغر. ترجمة محمد زكريا إسماعيل، بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية، 2003، 304 ص. ما بعد الجهاد: أمريكا والبحث عن ديمقراطية إسلامية. تأليف نوح فلدمان وترجمة الناشر، عمّان: مركز جنين للدراسات الاستراتيجية، 2003. محنة أمة. د. مصطفي الفقي. القاهرة: دار الشروق، ط1، 2003م، عدد الصفحات: 450 ص. دفاع عن الإنسان دراسات نظرية وتطبيقية في النماذج المركبة. د. عبد الوهاب المسيري، القاهرة:دار الشروق، القاهرة، ط1، 2003م، 367 ص. في الخطاب والمصطلح الصهيوني دراسة نظرية وتطبيقية. د. عبد الوهاب المسيري، القاهرة:دار الشروق، ط1، 2003م، عدد الصفحات: 283 ص. العرب في أمريكا: صراع الغربة والاندماج. إعداد عدد من الباحثين، وتحرير ميخائيل وديع سليمان. بيروت: مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية، 2003م، 506 ص. Le Choc de l'Islam : XVIIIe-XXIe siècle. Marc Ferro. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2003, 247 pp. Antisémitisme: L’intolérable Chantage. Israél-palestine, une affaire française? Etienne Balibar et al. Paris : La Découverte, 2003, 144 p. Les penseurs libres dans l'Islam classique. L'interrogation sur la religion chez les penseurs arabes indépendants. Dominique Urvoy. Flammarion, 2003, 261 pp. Tensions and Transitions in the Muslim World. Loay Safi, New York: University Press of America, 2004, 230 pp. Globalization of the Other Underdevelopment: Third World Cultural Identities. By Mahmoud Thawadi. Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen, 2002, 161 pp. The Future of Political Islam. Graham E. Fuller. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003, 227 pp. Arab Human Development Report: Building the Knowledge Society in the Arab Countries. New York: United Nations, 2003, 202 pp. Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East. Joyce M. Davis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 224 pp. Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West. Robert Spencer, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., Inc., 2003, 352 pp. Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America. Kenneth R. Timmerman, New York: Crown Forum, 2003, 370 pp. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Theda Skocpol. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003, 384 pp. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans are doing Wrong to Get Ahead, Orlando, FL: David Callahan, 2004, 353 pp. Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance. Noam Chomsky, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003, 278 pp. Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich and Cheat Everybody Else. David Cay Johnston, New York: Portfolio, 2003, 338pp. The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War. Elisabeth Sifton. New York: W. W. Norton, 203, 288 pp. A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America. Peter Steinfels. New York: Simon & Shuster, 2003, 416 pp. A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth. Wilfred Beckerman. Oakland: Independent Institute, 2002, 130 pp. The Crisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam. Mohmoud Ayoub. Oxford, UK: OneWorld, 2003, 179 pp. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Tariq Ramadan, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 272 pp. Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception. David Corn. Crown Publishing Group. Sept. 2003. 352 pp. Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn’t Tell You. Paul Waldman. Sourcebooks Inc., Jan. 2004, 336 pp. The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America’s Retirement Account. Allen W. Smith. Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., November 2003, 233pp. Junk Politics. Benjamin De Mott. Thunder’s Mouth Press, December 2003, 304 pp. Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back. James Carville. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, December 2003, 306 pp. The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power. George Soros. Public Affairs, December 2003, 224pp. Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith. Michael Wolfe (ed.), Rodale Inc., 2002, 240 pp. The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terro. Bernard Lewis, London: Weidenfeld & Nicloson, 2003, 144 pp. What Went Wrong? The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. Bernard Lewis. Harper Collins Publisher, Jan. 2003, 186 pp. The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism. AbdulAziz Sachedina. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 175 pp. للحصول على كامل المقالة مجانا يرجى النّقر على ملف ال PDF في اعلى يمين الصفحة.

AbstractModern scholarship often attributes to Eusebius of Caesarea (d. circa 340 AD) the view that God's heavenly kingdom had become manifest in the Roman Empire of Constantine the Great. Consequently, Eusebius is deemed significant in the development of Christian eschatological thought as the supposed formulator of a new “realized eschatology” for the Christian Roman Empire. Similarly, he is considered the originator of so-called “Byzantine imperial eschatology”—that is, eschatology designed to justify the existing imperial order under the emperors in Constantinople. Scholars advancing these claims most frequently cite a line from Eusebius's Tricennial Oration in which he identified the accession of the sons of Constantine with the prophesied kingdom of the saints in the Book of Daniel. Further supposed evidence has been adduced in his other writings, especially his Life of Constantine. This article argues that this common interpretation of Eusebius's eschatology is mistaken and has resulted from treating a few passages in isolation while overlooking their rhetorical context. It demonstrates instead that Eusebius adhered to a conventional Christian eschatology centered on the future kingdom of heaven that would accompany the second coming of Christ and further suggests that the concept of “Byzantine imperial eschatology” should be reconsidered.

Abstract This essay focuses on Francis Xavier (1506–1552), the first saint of the Society of Jesus, canonised with its founder Ignatius of Loyola in 1622, and three differing perceptions of his sanctity, both within his own religious order and outside it. The work of Alessandro Valignano gives a first introduction soon after Xavier’s death, with complaints about how most of the testimonies of the future saint were exaggerated and not particularly edifying (1580s). The second text is the manuscript Relatio Rotae (1619), commissioned by Pope Paul V for Xavier’s canonisation, which contains many pages testifying to the same miracles and prophecies Valignano criticised. The final and main source is the treatise Asia by Daniello Bartoli (1653). The Ferrarese Jesuit dedicated the first half of it to Xavier’s life and death, and drew from multiple sources, always proud of his historical detachment, sobriety, and discretion. The examination of these sources highlights all of the negotiations involved in sanctity, especially in such an important period for the Roman Catholic Church in general, and for the Society of Jesus in particular.

Few topics are more germane to this journal than the writing of ecclesiastical history, and no figure has had greater influence on the development of this genre than the bishop and scholar, Eusebius of Caesarea. In his masterful study of Eusebius and his readers from the late ancient to the modern era, Michael Hollerich has done a great service to all historians of Christianity. A work of reception history, the book begins with a chapter on Eusebius's life and work, focusing on his Ecclesiastical History and its relation to his Chronicle as well as other historical and non-historical genres with which he engaged. Subsequent chapters examine the reception of his work in the Christian Roman Empire of late antiquity, the non-Greek East, the medieval Latin West, and Byzantium, before turning to the rediscovery of Eusebius in diverse early modern contexts and his reception in modern scholarship including the implications of his historiographical work for future historians. The essays that comprise this roundtable, followed by the author's response, continue this important conversation about Eusebius and his legacy.

The author analyzes the ideological views of a group of Russian migrants of the fi rst wave, known as Eurasianists, including N.S. Trubetskoy, P.N. Savitsky, N.N. Alekseeva, L.N. Karsavina and others. The author discusses fundamental elements of the classical Eurasianist program, such as the role of the Orthodox Church and the state in the life of Russia and its society, their attitude to Roman Catholic culture, and their place in dialogue with other religions. In addition, other important elements of Eurasianism noted here are the ideas of pan-Eurasian nationalism, ideocracy, the spatial borders of Russia-Eurasia, the symphonic personality, a guarantee state. These issues are associated directly with the authors of these concepts and with Eurasianism in general. The author demonstrates the continuity with the teachings of the Slavophiles and highlights the special attention that the Eurasians paid to the traditional cultures of Russia. Also noted is the interest in Eurasianism of church circles in exile in Europe. At the same time, the Eurasianists’ critical vies on the “Petersburg period” in the history of the Russian church are highlighted, which are also implicit in Eurasianism as an independent ideological and philosophical line of thought of Russian emigration in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. An attempt is made to show how, through conservative thought, Eurasians tried to form a new type of political identity. This ideological direction with an emphasis on spirituality and special institutions was considered by Eurasians as a prototype of the future statehood of Russia as opposed to the Soviet-Marxist system. In the context of the contemporary Eurasian integration (EAEU), of the current role of the Russian Orthodox Church and external political manipulations around the role of the Moscow Patriarchate, the theoretical views of the Eurasians take on a new dimension.

Suicide is a complex phenomenon that has attracted attention throughout the times of humanity. Since ancient times, its history has been approached in a general way. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations already considered it the product of a melancholic state of mind. Virtually all religions agree in their rejection as a means of ending life. The common basis for this rejection is that it is God who gives life and He is the only one capable of taking it away. Most writers agree when considering it as the result of an act resulting from a distressing situation. Carrying out this study is justified since it is a topic that draws attention worldwide, due to the increase in the registration of cases, becoming a Public Health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020, 1.53 million people will die from suicide, one death every twenty seconds, and the number of attempts will be between ten and twenty times higher. Due to its seriousness, it requires our attention, although unfortunately, the large number of psychoeducational programs that exist for its prevention and control is not an easy task. With this work, we intend to understand its current reach in the young population and make known to what extent Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Neurocommunication with appropriate content on social networks could be applied to the management of Public Relations, to help alleviate, to a large extent, the envisaged attempts on the population concerned. Artificial Intelligence can be used to take advantage of real-time data to help us make more optimized and informed decisions. The advances made today in the field of advanced analytical techniques and statistical algorithms, to identify and obtain a better evaluation of what may happen in the future, processing data to identify patterns of behavior, managing with the media of communication, the issues derived from strategic consulting, academic research, can bring in various ways, great benefits in their application to Public Relations. This will increase the capacities that add value and can be considered as a prevention tool. New ways of acting that increase the efficiency between the sender and the receiver are necessary, through the contributions of neuroscience and the techniques of Public Relations so that their actions are more effective when the messages are directed towards reward systems of the brain. The new discipline of Neurocommunication as a meeting point between neurosciences and communication, tries to know the brain processes to carry out better strategies, in this case, of Public Relations, that allow decision-making in the adoption behaviour in various situations. In-depth knowledge of the processes of the human brain as a decision system in which individuals interpret their realities, depends on the way each subject decodes it, since there is a connection between how we act and the brain system. All this makes us foresee that its application in the field of Public Relations will be essential to mitigate the reality, in this case studied, in the affected groups.

The main practice of the ancient Mediterranean religion was the sacrifice of animals, including the slaughter and the gifting of one or more animals. Traditional blood offerings were part of a life and death cycle that should thrive both animals and humans. Throughout the Empire Christians and pagans alike rejected such sacrifices. This article discusses the pagan and Christian critiques of Greco-Roman blood sacrifices. Authority was founded on the cultural killing of animals and the distribution and eating of their flesh in an old sacrificial discourse. In the new soteriological discourse, power was founded on a symbolic capital of moral and physical pureness and intellectual insights, and the goals of spiritual perfection and redemption. Some of the religions that participated in the new conversation, although Christianity banned it, continued to practice animal sacrifice. Direct human body screening for medicine and future study, as well as electronic medical data, are both useful in minimizing biomedical research sacrifice for animals. These techniques and strategies of research may be more economical and applied to a range of human health issues.

Throughout most facets of American life, there has been a renewed interest in and expression of spirituality. Religiosity and spirituality have been at the center of recent international events (e.g., September 11th) and political discussions (e.g., continuing debates about school prayer and the role of religion in the political process). As a consequence, campus communities are striving to make sense of spirituality and religious tolerance as well as their roles in helping American students understand themselves as part of a diverse democracy. This phenomenological study addresses these issues by asking eight students representing eight different worldviews (i.e., Agnosticism, Atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Muslim, Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism) about what spirituality means to them. Photo elicitation and semistructured interviewing are used as the primary means for collecting data. Results show that common to all eight perspectives is the idea that spirituality is the human attempt to make meaning of the self in connection to and with the external world. Implications for student development practice and future research are discussed.

In the 4th century, Christianity was officially acknowledged as the state religion of the Roman Empire, and it started to gain prominence worldwide without facing persecution. However, some individuals believed that this newfound religious glory contradicted the teachings of Christ. As a result, they willingly embraced asceticism and withdrew to deserts like Egypt to lead a devout and spiritual existence. The individuals in question are commonly referred to as the Desert Fathers. They sustained themselves by toiling under the scorching heat during the day and enduring the frigid desert temperatures in the early morning and at night. They devoted their time to reciting the Bible and tending to the well-being of their fellow monks, who resided in solitary huts nearby. In doing so, they fostered a sense of spirituality in their desert community. This paper aims to analyze the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and apply the valuable insights it offers to contemporary life. By dividing it into the facets of fruitfulness, humility, obedience, love, forgiveness, humor, poverty, solitude, and community, their spirituality can be better understood. This study will only analyze the first four areas, while the remaining five areas will be addressed in a future paper.

Abstract The Roman father and son of the same name, P. Decius Mus, became paragon heroes by deliberately giving their lives in battle that Rome might win over a fierce enemy. Both engaged in a special ritual called devotio (from which our word “devotion” derives) to offer themselves to the gods of the Underworld, with whom regular people have very little interaction and to whom they rarely sacrifice. While the Mus family is the most famous for this act, it turns out the willingness to sacrifice oneself for Rome frequently occurs within stories of great patriots, including the story of Horatius Cocles, Mettius Curtius, Atilius Regulus, and even the traitors Coriolanus and Tarpeia. Romans regarded self-sacrifice as a very high, noble endeavor, whereas they loathed and persecuted practitioners of human sacrifice. It is therefore quite amazing to read that the Romans thrice engaged in state-sponsored human sacrifice, a fact they rarely mention and generally forget. The most famous enemy practitioners of human sacrifice were the Druids, whom the Romans massacred on Mona Island on Midsummer Night's Eve, but the Carthaginians, the Germans, the Celts, and the Thracians all infamously practiced human sacrifice. To Romans, the act of human sacrifice falls just short of cannibalism in the spectrum of forbidden practices, and was an accusation occasionally thrown against an enemy to claim they are totally barbaric. On the other hand, Romans recognized their own who committed acts of self-sacrifice for the good of the society, as heroes. There can be no better patriot than he who gives his life to save his country. Often the stories of their heroism have been exaggerated or sanitized. These acts of heroism often turn out to be acts of human sacrifice, supposedly a crime. It turns out that Romans have a strong legacy of practicing human sacrifice that lasts into the historic era, despite their alleged opposition to it. Numerous sources relate one story each. Collecting them all makes it impossible to deny the longevity of human sacrifice in Rome, although most Romans under the emperors were probably unaware of it. The paradox of condemning but still practicing human sacrifice demonstrates the nature of Roman religion, where do ut des plays a crucial role in standard sacrifice as well as in unpleasant acts like human sacrifice. Devotio was an inverted form of sacrifice, precisely because it was an offering to the gods of the Underworld, rather than to Jupiter or the Parcae. Romans may have forsaken devotio, but they continued to practice human sacrifice far longer than most of us have suspected, if one widens the current narrow definition of human sacrifice to include events where a life is taken in order to bring about a better future for the commonwealth, appease the gods, or ensure a Roman victory in battle.

This article discusses the philosophical premises of the Epicurean School against the existence of ghosts. According to the traditional Greco-Roman religion and other philosophical doctrines, such as the Pythagorean, the Platonic, and the Stoic, ghosts do exist and serve as medium between the living world and the afterlife. Against this widespread belief, Lucretius argues that ghosts are not the dead who return from beyond, but physical and material emissions (simulacra). This interpretation fits into the broader context of his philosophical system, which aims at delivering men from fear of the gods, of death and of the after-life, with the eudemonistic purpose of achieving emotional peace.

Abstract In his seminal work After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, Willie Jennings defines a concept he calls ‘whiteness’ and states that this plays the role of the ‘Paterfamilias’, a term born within the Greco-Roman period, which refers to the social system of rule and governance that was centred around the father-master archetype. During slavery, Jennings states that it was on the plantation that the life, logic, and social order of whiteness transpired. The more I engaged with Jennings’ work, the more I began to realize the extent to which the religious education curriculum, and by extension the English education system curriculum, further perpetuated whiteness. Inspired by the works of Jennings and the activism of Black Lives Matter (BLM) following the murder of George Floyd, I was motivated to create and teach a unit in the religious education (RE) curriculum, ‘Black Religion and Protest’. As well as examining the teaching and reception of this unit, this paper seeks to unpack the ways in which Britain’s colonial legacy maintains epistemological inequity and hierarchical knowledge.

Previous studies contend that Philippines is still a ‘collectivist’ society (Cf. Hofstede Center; Cukur et al. 2004:613-634). In this collectivist or community-oriented society, individualism is not something that is highly valued. Being ‘individualistic’ is often associated to being narcissistic, loner, asocial, selfish, etc. However, one may ask whether the youth in the Philippines are not spared from this insidious culture of individualism, notwithstanding the seemingly dominant collective and communitarian character of the society. Although the overwhelming poverty is still the main problem in the Philippines, where according to Wostyn (2010:26) “only the wonderland of movies gives some respite to their consciousness of suffering and oppression”, the Filipino youth of today are also exposed to the consumeristic values of the ‘city’ and are not spared from the contradictions and insecurities posed by the pluralistic society. They are citizens of an increasing social and cultural pluralism characteristic of many liberal societies. Is it possible that individualism may also exist within this culture, especially among the younger generation? Is individualism slowly creeping in as caused by their exposure and easy access to modern technology, to higher education, mobility, interactions with other cultures, etc. Would this individualistic tendency have any influence on their religious beliefs, especially their belief on salvation? What would be the implications and challenges of these findings to the families in the Philippines? These are the questions we wish to answer in this study. This paper is structured in four parts: first, we will discuss the theoretical framework of individualism and salvation; second, we will examine the empirical attitudes on individualism and salvation; third, we will explore the relationship between individualism and salvation; and finally, we will draw some pastoral implication especially in relation to the document “Lineamenta - The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the church and Contemporary Word” (henceforth, Lineamenta). References Atkins, P. (2004). Memory and Liturgy. The Place of Memory in the Composition and Practice of Liturgy. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. Bauman, Z. (1993). Postmodern Ethics. Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Beck, U. (1992). Risk society. London: Sage Publications. Bellah, R. N. , Madsen, R., Sullivan, W., Swidler, A., Tipton, S. (1985). Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press. Berger, P. (1970). A Rumour of Angels: Modern Society and Rediscovery of the Supernatural. New York: Doubleday.Berger, Peter L. (1967). The Sacred Canopy. New York: Anchor Books. Bosch, D. (1995). Believing in the Future. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International. Billiet, J.B. (1995). Church Involvement, individualism, and ethnic prejudice among Flemish Roman Catholics: New evidence of a moderating effect. Journal for the Scientifica Study of Religion, 34, 224-233. Brazal, A. (2004). Reinventing Pakikipagkapwa: An Exploration of Its potential for Promoting Respect for Plurality and Difference. In D. Gonzalez (Ed.), Fundamentalism and Pluralism. Manila: DAKATEO, 50-70. Burnett, G. (2001). Paul and the Salvation of the Individual. Leiden: Brill. Capucao, D. (2010). Religion and Ethnocentrism. Leiden/New York: Brill. Carter, A. (1990). On Individualism, Collectivism and Interrelationism. Heythrop Journal, 23-38. Chaves, Mark. (1994). Secularization as Declining Religious Authority. Social Forces 72, 749-774. Cukur, C. S., De Guzman, Maria Rosario T., and Carlo, Gustavo. (2004). Religiosity, Values, and Horizontal and Vertical Individualism – Collectivism: A Study of Turkey, the United States, and the Philippines. The Journal of Social Psychology, 144(6). Washington, DC: Heldref Publications, Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, 613-634. Curran, Mary Bernard. (2013). Expressive Individualism: A Change in the Idea of the Good and of Happiness. Heythrop Journal. LIV, 978-991. Davie, Grace. (2002). Europe: The Exceptional Case: Parameters of Faith in the Modern World. London: Dartman, Longman, and Todd. De Mesa, J. (1987). In Solidarity with the Culture. : Studies in Theological Re-rooting. Quezon City: Maryhill School of Theology. De Vellis, R.F. (1991). Scale Development: Theory and applications. Newbury, Ca: Sage. Dobbelaere, K. (2001). Individualisation: A Multi-Dimensional Process?. In A. Harskamp & A. Musschenga (Eds.), The Many Faces of Individualism. Leuven: Peeters, 47-61. Doorman, M. (2004): The Romantic Imperative. Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bert Bakker. Dupuis, J. (1999). The Truth Will set you Free. Louvain Studies, 24, 211-263. Duriez, B., Luyten, P. Snauwaert, B., and Hutsebaut, D. (2002). The relative importance of religiosity and value orientations in predicting political attitudes: Empirical evidence for the continuing importance of religiosity in Flanders (Belgium). Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 5, 35-54. Durkheim, Emile. (2009). Sociology and Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. ISBN ISBN 978-0-415-55770-2. Accessed May 8, 2015. Edwards, D.L. (1997). Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years. New York: Orbis books. Ester, P., Halman, L. & De Moor, R. (Eds.). (1994). The Individualizing Society. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press. Federation of Asian Bishop’s Conferences (FABC). Office of the Laity and Family-Youth Desk.(2009). Asian Youth and the Eucharist. A Regional survey 2008. Taytay, Rizal: FABC-OLF-Youth Desk. Fiske, A. (2002). Using Individualism and Collectivism to Compare Cultures – A Critique of the Validity of Measurement of the Constructs: Comment on Oyserman et al. (2002). Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 128, No. 1, 78-88. Froese, Paul D. (2009). The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization. Berkeley: University of California Press. Furnham, A. (1990). A content, correlational and factor analysis study of seven questionnaire measures of the Protestant work ethic. Human Relations, 43, 383-399. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press Giddens, A., Beck, U., and Lash, S. (1994). Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press. Goffman, E. (1971). Relations in Public. London: Allen Lane. Gonzalez, D. (Eds.). (2004). Fundamentalism and Pluralism in the Church. Manila: DAKATEO. Gorospe, V. (1988). Filipino Values Revisited. Manila: National bookstore. Gorski, Philip & Altinordu, A. (2008). After Secularization. Annual Review of Sociology 34:55-85. Gorski, Philip. (2005). The Return of the Repressed: Religion and the Political Unconscious of Historical Sociology. In J. Adams, E. Clemens, and A.Orloff. (Eds.). Remaking Modernity. Durham: Duke University Press. Goizueta, Roberto S. (1991). Democratic Capitalism and the Spirit of Individualism: An Analysis of Thought of Michael Novak. Voices from the Third World: Journal of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, Volume 14, 147-69. Halman, Loek. (2001). Individualism in Contemporary Europe. In A. Harskamp & A. W. Musschenga. (Eds.). The Many Faces of Individualism. Leuven: Peeters, . 25-45. Harskamp, A.V. & Musschenga, A. (2001). The Many Faces of Individualism. Leuven: Peeters. Heitmeyer, W. (2001). Lack of Recognition: The Socially Destructive Consequences of New Capitalis. In A. V. Harskamp, A.V. & Musschenga, A. (Eds.), The Many Faces of Individualism. Leuven: Peeters. Hellemans, S. (2001). From ‘Cathokicism Against Modernity’ to the Problematic ‘Modernity of Catholicism. Ethical Perspectives 8, 2, 117-127. Hellemans, S. & Wissink, J. (Eds). (2012). Towards a New Catholic Church in Advanced Modernity. Transformations, Visions, Tensions. Zúrich/Múnster: LIT Verlag. Hofstede Center. Philippines. http://geert-hofstede.com/philippines.html. Accessed May 2, 2015. Huismans, S. (1994). The impact of differences in religion on the relation between religiosity and values. In A. Bouvy, F.J.R. van de Vijver, P. Boski, and P. Schmitz (Eds.), Journeys into cross-cultural psychology. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 255-268. Ikalwese. (2013). Family, For real? Ppeople and friends,Philippine society,thoughts, Thoughts - Philippines. Blog Entry posted October 24, 2013. Accessed from: https://whenthenailsticksout.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/philippines-japan-collectivism-and-i/. Inglehart, R. & W. Baker (2000). Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of Traditional Values. American Sociological Review, Vol. 65, no. 1, 2000, 81–82. Inglehart, R. (1990). Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Countries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Iyengar, Sheena. (2010). The Art of Choosing. New York: Hachette Book Group, 34-35. Jeurissen, R. (1993). Peace & Religion. Kamken Kok Pharos Publishing House. Jocano, F. L. (1992). Issues and Challenges in Filipino Value Formation. Punlad Research Paper No. 1. Series on Filipino Values. Quezon City: Punlad Research House. Jocano, F. L. (1992a). Notion of Value in Filipino Culture. The concept of Pamantayan. Punlad Research Paper No. 2 . Series on Filipino Values. Quezon City: Punlad Research House. Kagitcibasi, C. (1997). Individualism and Collectivism. In J. W. Berry, M.H. Segall, and C. Kagitcibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology Vol. 3. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1-5. Kerkhofs, J. (1998). Some European Reflections about Individualism. Ethical Perspectives 5, 2, 102-108. Lambert, Y. (2004). A Turning Point in Religious Evolution in Europe. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 19, no. 1, 29–45. Lane, D. (2011). Stepping stones to other religions: a Christian Theology of Inter-religious Dialogue. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books Luckmann, Th. (1979). Persönliche Identität, Soziale Rolle und Rollendistanz. In O. Marquardt (Ed.), Identität. München: Fink, 293-313. Luhmann, N. (1989). Individuum, Individualität, Individualismus. Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik. Studien zur Wissensoziologie, Bd. 3, Frankfurt a.M.:Suhrkamp, 149-259. Mangahas, M & Labucay, I. (2013). “9% of Catholics Sometimes Think of Leaving the Church”, SWS Special Report, 7 April 2013. http://www.sws.org.ph/pr20130407.htm, Accessed: 30 April 2013. Martin, David. (1991). The Secularization Issue: Prospect and Retrospect. British Journal of Sociology 42 (3), 465-74. Menamparampil, T. (2012). Between secularization and Fundamentalism. Omnis Terra. n. 425, XLVI, 143- 155. Miranda, D. (1989). Loob: The Filipino Within. Manila: Divine word Publications. Musschenga, A. (2001). “Introduction. The Many Faces of Individualism,” In Harskamp, A.V. & Musschenga, A. The Many Faces of Individualism. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 3-23. Norris, P. & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Oyserman, D., Coon H.M., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluationof theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 3-73. Ponce, R. (2005). Spirituality and quality of Life. An Empirical-Theological Exploration among Filipino Migrants in the Netherlands. Quezon City: Institute of Spirituality in Asia. Pope, Stephen. Expressive Individualism and True Self-Love: A Thomistic Perspective. Journal of Religion, 383-399. Research Hub. “Secularization”. http://wiki.thearda.com/tcm/theories/secularization/. Accessed: 28 May 2015. Rokeach, M. (1973). The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press. Sampson, E.E. (2000). Reinterpreting individualism and collectivism. Their religious roots and monologic versus dialogic person-other relationship. American Psychologist 55, 1425-1432. Schreiter, R. (1997). The New Catholicity. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis. Schroeder, R. (1992). Max Weber and the sociology of culture. Newbury park, London: Sage. Sevilla, C.G., Ochave, J.A., Punsalan, T.G., Regala, B.P., Uriarte, G.G. (1992). Research Methods. Rev. ed. Manila: Rex Bookstore. Singelis, T.M., Triandis, H.C., Bhawuk, D.S., & Gelfand, M. (1995). Horizontal and Vertical dimensions of individualism and Collectivism: A Theoretical and measurement refinement. Cross Cultural Research, 29. Smith, Christian. (2003). The Secular Revolution. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 240-275. Sinha, D. & Tripathi, R.C. (1994). Individualism in a collective culture: A case of coexistence of opposites. Theoretical and methodological approaches to study of collectivism and individualism. In U. Kim, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. Choi, and G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and application. London: Sage, 123-137. Stark, Rodney. (1999). Secularization, R.I.P. Sociology of Religion, vol. 60, no. 3, 249–73. Schwartz, S.H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. Schwartz, S.H. (1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values: Theoretical and Methodological approaches to study of collectivism and invidualism. In U. Kim, H.c. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. Choi, and G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism. Theory, method, and application . London: Sage, 85-123. Stark, R. and Bainbridge, W.S. (1985). The future of Religion. Secularization, Revival, and Cult formation. Berkeley. Stark, R. and Bainbridge, W.S. (1987). A Theory of Religion. New York Taylor, Charles. (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge/London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Taylor, Charles. (1975). Hegel. London/New York: Cambridge University Press. Tschannen, Oliver. (1991). The Secularization Paradigm: A Systematization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30, 395-415. Triandis, H.C. (1994). Theoretical and methodological approaches to study of collectivism and individualism. In U. Kin, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. Choi, and G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, method, and application. London: Sage, 19-41. Triandis, H.C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview. Triandis, H.C. (1996). The Psychological measurement of cultural syndromes. American Psychologist, 51, 407-415. Triandis, H.C., & Gelfand, M.J. (1998). Converging measurements of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 275-289. Van der Loo, H. & W. Van Reijen. (1993). Paradoxen van modernisering. Muiderberg: Coutinho. Van der Ven, J. (1993). Practical Theology. Kampen: Kok Pharos. Van der Ven, J. (1998). Education for Reflective Ministry. Louvain: Peeters. Veenhoeven, R. (1996). Leefbaarheid van landen. Utrecht: Research Papers Onderzoekschool Arbeid, Welzijn en Sociaal Beleid, nr. 7. Volf, M. (2006). The End of Memory. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans. Walzer, M. (1984). Liberalism and the Art of Separation. Political Theory 12, 315-333. Wostyn, L. (2010). In Search of A Human Jesus. n.p. Ziebertz, H-G. & Kay, W. K. (eds.). (2005). Youth in Europe 1. An International empirical study about Life Perspectives. Münster: LIT.

Religion-faith, art and science has dominated much of human existence since the early days of Homo Sapiens-Sapiens walking the earth. The intent of this two-part paper is to provide a wider understanding of the evolution of the colour ‘Red’ from its early beginnings, it also analyses the diverse characteristics of insects and plants-based colour of different Red’s such a cochineal, Vermillion-Cinnabar, Chinese red, red lead-minium and the relationship with pre-Columbian Peruvian funerary rituals. The first part touches on the historical aspect, its discovery, fabrication, commercialization of the colour ‘Red’. Even though blue or black may be the favourite colour in today’s Western accounts, ‘Red’ has always placed special meaning in our everyday life events, from Greco-Roman antiquity through to the Middle Ages, it has remained the most remarkably strong colour, full of richness in poetics and symbolic possibilities. The second part of this paper, focuses on providing evidence of the practise of the usages of the colour ‘red’ in the textiles of pre-Columbian Peruvian funerary rituals of the Andean civilizations such as Moche, Chimu, Nasca, Paracas, and subsequently the Incas as a means of symbolic connection with the afterlife. Finally, this paper concludes with a brief examination that the color “Red” acquires a dimension with a meaning which is based on the cultural context of the ‘Taki Onkoy’ or ‘Mal de Canto’ expression, historical and its psychological effects. It is a journey that captivates the fantasies of every generation across different continents.

IntroductionThe common origin of the adjective “corporeal” and the noun “corpse” in the Latin root corpus points to the value of mortuary practices for investigating how the human body is objectified. In post-mortem rituals, the body—formerly the manipulator of objects—becomes itself the object that is manipulated. Thus, these funerary rituals provide a type of double reflexivity, where the object and subject of manipulation can be used to reciprocally illuminate one another. To this extent, any consideration of corporeality can only benefit from a discussion of how the body is objectified through mortuary practices. This paper offers just such a discussion with respect to a selection of two contrasting mortuary practices, in the context of the prehistoric past and the Classical Era respectively. At the most general level, we are motivated by the same intellectual impulse that has stimulated expositions on corporeality, materiality, and incarnation in areas like phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 77–234), Marxism (Adorno 112–119), gender studies (Grosz vii–xvi), history (Laqueur 193–244), and theology (Henry 33–53). That is to say, our goal is to show that the body, far from being a transparent frame through which we encounter the world, is in fact a locus where historical, social, cultural, and psychological forces intersect. On this view, “the body vanishes as a biological entity and becomes an infinitely malleable and highly unstable culturally constructed product” (Shilling 78). However, for all that the cited paradigms offer culturally situated appreciations of corporeality; our particular intellectual framework will be provided by cognitive science. Two reasons impel us towards this methodological choice.In the first instance, the study of ritual has, after several decades of stagnation, been rewarded—even revolutionised—by the application of insights from the new sciences of the mind (Whitehouse 1–12; McCauley and Lawson 1–37). Thus, there are good reasons to think that ritual treatments of the body will refract historical and social forces through empirically attested tendencies in human cognition. In the present connection, this means that knowledge of these tendencies will reward any attempt to theorise the objectification of the body in mortuary rituals.In the second instance, because beliefs concerning the afterlife can never be definitively judged to be true or false, they give free expression to tendencies in cognition that are otherwise constrained by the need to reflect external realities accurately. To this extent, they grant direct access to the intuitive ideas and biases that shape how we think about the world. Already, this idea has been exploited to good effect in areas like the cognitive anthropology of religion, which explores how counterfactual beings like ghosts, spirits, and gods conform to (and deviate from) pre-reflective cognitive patterns (Atran 83–112; Barrett and Keil 219–224; Barrett and Reed 252–255; Boyer 876–886). Necessarily, this implies that targeting post-mortem treatments of the body will offer unmediated access to some of the conceptual schemes that inform thinking about human corporeality.At a more detailed level, the specific methodology we propose to use will be provided by conceptual blending theory—a framework developed by Gilles Fauconnier, Mark Turner, and others to describe how structures from different areas of experience are creatively blended to form a new conceptual frame. In this system, a generic space provides the ground for coordinating two or more input spaces into a blended space that synthesises them into a single output. Here this would entail using natural or technological processes to structure mortuary practices in a way that satisfies various psychological needs.Take, for instance, W.B. Yeats’s famous claim that “Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart” (“Easter 1916” in Yeats 57-8). Here, the poet exploits a generic space—that of everyday objects and the effort involved in manipulating them—to coordinate an organic input from that taxonomy (the heart) with an inorganic input (a stone) to create the blended idea that too energetic a pursuit of an abstract ideal turns a person into an unfeeling object (the heart-as-stone). Although this particular example corresponds to a familiar rhetorical figure (the metaphor), the value of conceptual blending theory is that it cuts across distinctions of genre, media, language, and discourse level to provide a versatile framework for expressing how one area of human experience is related to another.As indicated, we will exploit this versatility to investigate two ways of objectifying the body through the examination of two contrasting mortuary practices—cremation and inhumation—against different cultural horizons. The first of these is the conceptualisation of the body as an object of a technical process, where the post-mortem cremation of the corpse is analogically correlated with the metallurgical refining of ore into base metal. Our area of focus here will be Bronze Age cremation practices. The second conceptual scheme we will investigate focuses on treatments of the body as a vegetable object; here, the relevant analogy likens the inhumation of the corpse to the planting of a seed in the soil from which future growth will come. This discussion will centre on the Classical Era. Burning: The Body as Manufactured ObjectThe Early and Middle Bronze Age in Western Europe (2500-1200 BCE) represented a period of change in funerary practices relative to the preceding Neolithic, exemplified by a move away from the use of Megalithic monuments, a proliferation of grave goods, and an increase in the use of cremation (Barrett 38-9; Cooney and Grogan 105-121; Brück, Material Metaphors 308; Waddell, Bronze Age 141-149). Moreover, the Western European Bronze Age is characterised by a shift away from communal burial towards single interment (Barrett 32; Bradley 158-168). Equally, the Bronze Age in Western Europe provides us with evidence of an increased use of cist and pit cremation burials concentrated in low-lying areas (Woodman 254; Waddell, Prehistoric 16; Cooney and Grogan 105-121; Bettencourt 103). This greater preference for lower-lying location appears to reflect a distinctive change in comparison to the distribution patterns of the Neolithic burials; these are often located on prominent, visible aspects of a landscape (Cooney and Grogan 53-61). These new Bronze Age burial practices appear to reflect a distancing in relation to the territories of the “old ancestors” typified by Megalithic monuments (Bettencourt 101-103). Crucially, the Bronze Age archaeological record provides us with evidence that indicates that cremation was becoming the dominant form of deposition of human remains throughout Central and Western Europe (Sørensen and Rebay 59-60).The activities associated with Bronze Age cremations such as the burning of the body and the fragmentation of the remains have often been considered as corporeal equivalents (or expressions) of the activities involved in metal (bronze) production (Brück, Death 84-86; Sørensen and Rebay 60–1; Rebay-Salisbury, Cremations 66-67). There are unequivocal similarities between the practices of cremation and contemporary bronze production technologies—particularly as both processes involve the transformation of material through the application of fire at temperatures between 700 ºC to 1000 ºC (Musgrove 272-276; Walker et al. 132; de Becdelievre et al. 222-223).We assert that the technologies that define the European Bronze Age—those involved in alloying copper and tin to produce bronze—offered a new conceptual frame that enabled the body to be objectified in new ways. The fundamental idea explored here is that the displacement of inhumation by cremation in the European Bronze Age was motivated by a cognitive shift, where new smelting technologies provided novel conceptual metaphors for thinking about age-old problems concerning human mortality and post-mortem survival. The increased use of cremation in the European Bronze Age contrasts with the archaeological record of the Near Eastern—where, despite the earlier emergence of metallurgy (3300–3000 BCE), we do not see a notable proliferation in the use of cremation in this region. Thus, mortuary practices (i.e. cremation) provide us with an insight into how Western European Bronze Age cultures mediated the body through changes in technological objects and processes.In the terminology of conceptual blending, the generic space in question centres on the technical manipulation of the material world. The first input space is associated with the anxiety attending mortality—specifically, the cessation of personal identity and the extinction of interpersonal relationships. The second input space represents the technical knowledge associated with bronze production; in particular, the extraction of ore from source material and its mixing with other metals to form an alloy. The blended space coordinates these inputs to objectify the human body as an object that is ritually transformed into a new but more durable substance via the cremation process. In this contention we use the archaeological record to draw a conceptual parallel between the emergence of bronze production technology—centring on transition of naturally occurring material to a new subsistence (bronze)—and the transitional nature of the cremation process.In this theoretical framework, treating the body as a mixture of substances that can be reduced to its constituents and transformed through technologies of cremation enabled Western European Bronze Age society to intervene in the natural process of putrefaction and transform the organic matter into something more permanent. This transformative aspect of the cremation is seen in the evidence we have for secondary burial practices involving the curation and circulation of cremated bones of deceased members of a group (Brück, Death 87-93). This evidence allows us to assert that cremated human remains and objects were considered products of the same transformation into a more permanent state via burning, fragmentation, dispersal, and curation. Sofaer (62-69) states that the living body is regarded as a person, but as soon as the transition to death is made, the body becomes an object; this is an “ontological shift in the perception of the body that assumes a sudden change in its qualities” (62).Moreover, some authors have proposed that the exchange of fragmented human remains was central to mortuary practices and was central in establishing and maintaining social relations (Brück, Death 76-88). It is suggested that in the Early Bronze Age the perceptions of the human body mirrored the perceptions of objects associated with the arrival of the new bronze technology (Brück, Death 88-92). This idea is more pronounced if we consider the emergence of bronze technology as the beginning of a period of capital intensification of natural resources. Through this connection, the Bronze Age can be regarded as the point at which a particular natural resource—in this case, copper—went through myriad intensive manufacturing stages, which are still present today (intensive extraction, production/manufacturing, and distribution). Unlike stone tool production, bronze production had the addition of fire as the explicit method of transformation (Brück, Death 88-92). Thus, such views maintain that the transition achieved by cremation—i.e. reducing the human remains to objects or tokens that could be exchanged and curated relatively soon after the death of the individual—is equivalent to the framework of commodification connected with bronze production.A sample of cremated remains from Castlehyde in County Cork, Ireland, provides us with an example of a Bronze Age cremation burial in a Western European context (McCarthy). This is chosen because it is a typical example of a Bronze Age cremation burial in the context of Western Europe; also, one of the authors (MG) has first-hand experience in the analysis of its associated remains. The Castlehyde cremation burial consisted of a rectangular, stone-lined cist (McCarthy). The cist contained cremated, calcined human remains, with the fragments generally ranging from a greyish white to white in colour; this indicates that the bones were subject to a temperature range of 700-900ºC. The organic content of bone was destroyed during the cremation process, leaving only the inorganic matrix (brittle bone which is, often, described as metallic in consistency—e.g. Gejvall 470-475). There is evidence that remains may have been circulated in a manner akin to valuable metal objects. First of all, the absence of long bones indicates that there may have been a practice of removing salient remains as curatable records of ancestral ties. Secondly, remains show traces of metal staining from objects that are no longer extant, which suggests that graves were subject to secondary burial practices involving the removal of metal objects and/or human bone. To this extent, we can discern that human remains were being processed, curated, and circulated in a similar manner to metal objects.Thus, there are remarkable similarities between the treatment of the human body in cremation and bronze metal production technologies in the European Bronze Age. On the one hand, the parallel between smelting and cremation allowed death to be understood as a process of transformation in which the individual was removed from processes of organic decay. On the other hand, the circulation of the transformed remains conferred a type of post-mortem survival on the deceased. In this way, cremation practices may have enabled Bronze Age society to symbolically overcome the existential anxiety concerning the loss of personhood and the breaking of human relationships through death. In relation to the former point, the resurgence of cremation in nineteenth century Europe provides us with an example of how the disposal of a human body can be contextualised in relation to socio-technological advancements. The (re)emergence of cremation in this period reflects the post-Enlightenment shift from an understanding of the world through religious beliefs to the use of rational, scientific approaches to examine the natural world, including the human body (and death). The controlled use of fire in the cremation process, as well as the architecture of crematories, reflected the industrial context of the period (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 16).With respect to the circulation of cremated remains, Smith suggests that Early Medieval Christian relics of individual bones or bone fragments reflect a reconceptualised continuation of pre-Christian practices (beginning in Christian areas of the Roman Empire). In this context, it is claimed, firstly, that the curation of bone relics and the use of mobile bone relics of important, saintly individuals provided an embodied connection between the sacred sphere and the earthly world; and secondly, that the use of individual bones or fragments of bone made the Christian message something portable, which could be used to reinforce individual or collective adherence to Christianity (Smith 143-167). Using the example of the Christian bone relics, we can thus propose that the curation and circulation of Bronze Age cremated material may have served a role similar to tools for focusing religiously oriented cognition. Burying: The Body as a Vegetable ObjectGiven that the designation “the Classical Era” nominates the entirety of the Graeco-Roman world (including the Near East and North Africa) from about 800 BCE to 600 CE, there were obviously no mortuary practices common to all cultures. Nevertheless, in both classical Greece and Rome, we have examples of periods when either cremation or inhumation was the principal funerary custom (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 19-21).For instance, the ancient Homeric texts inform us that the ancient Greeks believed that “the spirit of the departed was sentient and still in the world of the living as long as the flesh was in existence […] and would rather have the body devoured by purifying fire than by dogs or worms” (Mylonas 484). However, the primary sources and archaeological record indicate that cremation practices declined in Athens circa 400 BCE (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 20). With respect to the Roman Empire, scholarly opinion argues that inhumation was the dominant funerary rite in the eastern part of the Empire (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 17-21; Morris 52). Complementing this, the archaeological and historical record indicates that inhumation became the primary rite throughout the Roman Empire in the first century CE. Inhumation was considered to be an essential rite in the context of an emerging belief that a peaceful afterlife was reflected by a peaceful burial in which bodily integrity was maintained (Rebay-Salisbury, Inhumation 19-21; Morris 52; Toynbee 41). The question that this poses is how these beliefs were framed in the broader discourses of Classical culture.In this regard, our claim is that the growth in inhumation was driven (at least in part) by the spread of a conceptual scheme, implicit in Greek fertility myths that objectify the body as a seed. The conceptual logic here is that the post-mortem continuation of personal identity is (symbolically) achieved by objectifying the body as a vegetable object that will re-grow from its own physical remains. Although the dominant metaphor here is vegetable, there is no doubt that the motivating concern of this mythological fabulation is human mortality. As Jon Davies notes, “the myths of Hades, Persephone and Demeter, of Orpheus and Eurydice, of Adonis and Aphrodite, of Selene and Endymion, of Herakles and Dionysus, are myths of death and rebirth, of journeys into and out of the underworld, of transactions and transformations between gods and humans” (128). Thus, such myths reveal important patterns in how the post-mortem fate of the body was conceptualised.In the terminology of mental mapping, the generic space relevant to inhumation contains knowledge pertaining to folk biology—specifically, pre-theoretical ideas concerning regeneration, survival, and mortality. The first input space attaches to human mortality; it departs from the anxiety associated with the seeming cessation of personal identity and dissolution of kin relationships subsequent to death. The second input space is the subset of knowledge concerning vegetable life, and how the immersion of seeds in the soil produces a new generation of plants with the passage of time. The blended space combines the two input spaces by way of the funerary script, which involves depositing the body in the soil with a view to securing its eventual rebirth by analogy with the sprouting of a planted seed.As indicated, the most important illustration of this conceptual pattern can be found in the fertility myths of ancient Greece. The Homeric Hymns, in particular, provide a number of narratives that trace out correspondences between vegetation cycles, human mortality, and inhumation, which inform ritual practice (Frazer 223–404; Carney 355–65; Sowa 121–44). The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, for instance, charts how Persephone is abducted by Hades, god of the dead, and taken to his underground kingdom. While searching for her missing daughter, Demeter, goddess of fertility, neglects the earth, causing widespread devastation. Matters are resolved when Zeus intervenes to restore Persephone to Demeter. However, having ingested part of Hades’s kingdom (a pomegranate seed), Persephone is obliged to spend half the year below ground with her captor and the other half above ground with her mother.The objectification of Persephone as both a seed and a corpse in this narrative is clearly signalled by her seasonal inhumation in Hades’ chthonic realm, which is at once both the soil and the grave. And, just as the planting of seeds in autumn ensures rebirth in spring, Persephone’s seasonal passage from the Kingdom of the Dead nominates the individual human life as just one season in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. A further signifying element is added by the ingestion of the pomegranate seed. This is evocative of her being inseminated by Hades; thus, the coordination of vegetation cycles with life and death is correlated with secondary transition—that from childhood to adulthood (Kerényi 119–183).In the examples given, we can see how the Homeric Hymn objectifies both the mortal and sexual destiny of the body in terms of thresholds derived from the vegetable world. Moreover, this mapping is not merely an intellectual exercise. Its emotional and social appeal is visible in the fact that the Eleusinian mysteries—which offered the ritual homologue to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter—persisted from the Mycenaean period to 396 CE, one of the longest recorded durations for any ritual (Ferguson 254–9; Cosmopoulos 1–24). In sum, then, classical myth provided a precedent for treating the body as a vegetable object—most often, a seed—that would, in turn, have driven the move towards inhumation as an important mortuary practice. The result is to create a ritual form that makes key aspects of human experience intelligible by connecting them with cyclical processes like the seasons of the year, the harvesting of crops, and the intergenerational oscillation between the roles of parent and child. Indeed, this pattern remains visible in the germination metaphors and burial practices of contemporary religions such as Christianity, which draw heavily on the symbolism associated with mystery cults like that at Eleusis (Nock 177–213).ConclusionWe acknowledge that our examples offer a limited reflection of the ethnographic and archaeological data, and that they need to be expanded to a much greater degree if they are to be more than merely suggestive. Nevertheless, suggestiveness has its value, too, and we submit that the speculations explored here may well offer a useful starting point for a larger survey. In particular, they showcase how a recurring existential anxiety concerning death—involving the fear of loss of personal identity and kinship relations—is addressed by different ways of objectifying the body. Given that the body is not reducible to the objects with which it is identified, these objectifications can never be entirely successful in negotiating the boundary between life and death. In the words of Jon Davies, “there is simply no let-up in the efforts by human beings to transcend this boundary, no matter how poignantly each failure seemed to reinforce it” (128). For this reason, we can expect that the record will be replete with conceptual and cognitive schemes that mediate the experience of death.At a more general level, it should also be clear that our understanding of human corporeality is rewarded by the study of mortuary practices. No less than having a body is coextensive with being human, so too is dying, with the consequence that investigating the intersection of both areas is likely to reveal insights into issues of universal cultural concern. For this reason, we advocate the study of mortuary practices as an evolving record of how various cultures understand human corporeality by way of external objects.ReferencesAdorno, Theodor W. Metaphysics: Concept and Problems. Trans. Rolf Tiedemann. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002.Atran, Scott. In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.Barrett, John C. “The Living, the Dead and the Ancestors: Neolithic and Bronze Age Mortuary Practices.” The Archaeology of Context in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Recent Trends. Eds. John. C. Barrett and Ian. A. Kinnes. University of Sheffield: Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, 1988. 30-41.Barrett, Justin, and Frank Keil. “Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts.” Cognitive Psychology 31.3 (1996): 219–47.Barrett, Justin, and Emily Reed. “The Cognitive Science of Religion.” The Psychologist 24.4 (2011): 252–255.Bettencourt, Ana. “Life and Death in the Bronze Age of the NW of the Iberian Peninsula.” The Materiality of Death: Bodies, Burials, Beliefs. Eds. Fredrik Fahlanderand and Terje Osstedaard. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2008. 99-105.Boyer, Pascal. “Cognitive Tracks of Cultural Inheritance: How Evolved Intuitive Ontology Governs Cultural Transmission.” American Anthropologist 100.4 (1999): 876–889.Bradley, Richard. The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.Brück, Joanna. “Material Metaphors: The Relational Construction of Identity in Bronze Age Burials in Ireland and Britain” Journal of Social Archaeology 4(3) (2004): 307-333.———. “Death, Exchange and Reproduction in the British Bronze Age.” European Journal of Archaeology 9.1 (2006): 73–101.Carney, James. “Narrative and Ontology in Hesiod’s Homeric Hymn to Demeter: A Catastrophist Approach.” Semiotica 167.1 (2007): 337–368.Cooney, Gabriel, and Eoin Grogan. Irish Prehistory: A Social Perspective. Dublin: Wordwell, 1999.Cosmopoulos, Michael B. “Mycenean Religion at Eleusis: The Architecture and Stratigraphy of Megaron B.” Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults. Ed. Michael B. Cosmopoulos. London: Routledge, 2003. 1–24.Davies, Jon. Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity. London: Psychology Press, 1999.De Becdelievre, Camille, Sandrine Thiol, and Frédéric Santos. “From Fire-Induced Alterations on Human Bones to the Original Circumstances of the Fire: An Integrated Approach of Human Remains Drawn from a Neolithic Collective Burial”. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4 (2015) 210–225.Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books, 2002.Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003.Frazer, James. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.Gejvall, Nils. "Cremations." Science and Archaeology: A Survey of Progress and Research. Eds. Don Brothwell and Eric Higgs. London: Thames and Hudson, 1969. 468-479.Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994.Henry, Michel. I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity. Trans. Susan Emanuel. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003.Kerényi, Karl. “Kore.” The Science of Mythology. Trans. Richard F.C. Hull. London: Routledge, 1985. 119–183.Laqueur, Thomas. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1990.McCarthy, Margaret. “2003:0195 - Castlehyde, Co. Cork.” Excavations.ie. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, 4 July 2003. 12 Jan. 2016 <http://www.excavations.ie/report/2003/Cork/0009503/>.McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans: Colin Smith. London: Routledge, 2002.Morris, Ian. Death Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.Musgrove, Jonathan. “Dust and Damn'd Oblivion: A Study of Cremation in Ancient Greece.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 85 (1990), 271-299.Mylonas, George. “Burial Customs.” A Companion to Homer. Eds. Alan Wace and Frank. H. Stubbings. London: Macmillan, 1962. 478-488.Nock, Arthur. D. “Hellenistic Mysteries and Christian Sacraments.” Mnemosyne 1 (1952): 177–213.Rebay-Salisbury, Katherina. "Cremations: Fragmented Bodies in the Bronze and Iron Ages." Body Parts and Bodies Whole: Changing Relations and Meanings. Eds. Katherina Rebay-Salisbury, Marie. L. S. Sørensen, and Jessica Hughes. Oxford: Oxbow, 2010. 64-71.———. “Inhumation and Cremation: How Burial Practices Are Linked to Beliefs.” Embodied Knowledge: Historical Perspectives on Technology and Belief. Eds Marie. L.S. Sørensen and Katherina Rebay-Salisbury. Oxford: Oxbow, 2012. 15-26.Shilling, Chris. The Body and Social Theory. Nottingham: SAGE, 2012.Smith, Julia M.H. “Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c.700–1200).” Proceedings of the British Academy 181 (2012): 143–167.Sofaer, Joanna R. The Body as Material Culture: A Theoretical Osteoarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.Sørensen, Marie L.S., and Katharina Rebay-Salisbury. “From Substantial Bodies to the Substance of Bodies: Analysis of the Transition from Inhumation to Cremation during the Middle Bronze Age in Europe.” Past Bodies: Body-Centered Research in Archaeology. Eds. Dušan Broić and John Robb. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2008. 59–68.Sowa, Cora Angier. Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1984.Toynbee, Jocelyn M.C. Death and Burial in the Roman World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.Waddell, John. The Bronze Age Burials of Ireland. Galway: Galway UP, 1990.———. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway: Galway UP, 2005.Walker, Philip L., Kevin W.P. Miller, and Rebecca Richman. “Time, Temperature, and Oxygen Availability: An Experimental Study of the Effects of Environmental Conditions on the Colour and Organic Content of Cremated Bone.” The Analysis of Burned Human Remains. Eds. Christopher W. Schmidt and Steven A. Symes. London: Academic Press, 2008. 129–135.Whitehouse, Harvey. Arguments and Icons: Divergent Modes of Religiosity. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.Woodman Peter. “Prehistoric Settlements and Environment.” The Quaternary History of Ireland. Eds. Kevin J. Edwards and William P. Warren. London: Academic Press, 1985. 251-278.Yeats, William Butler. “Easter 1916.” W.B. Yeats: The Major Works. Ed. Edward Larrissey. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. 85–87.

Photo by Ferenc Horvath on Unsplash ABSTRACT Malta is a small, predominantly Catholic island-nation in the Mediterranean ocean where there is a complete ban on abortion – there are no exemptions for rape, incest, fetal anomalies, or to save a pregnant woman’s life. Both medical and surgical abortions are illegal. Those who choose to end pregnancies have often sought abortion care outside of Malta, traveling abroad at great personal cost. Medical care in Malta is otherwise free at the point of care. Options for pregnancy termination within Malta are essentially non-existent as there is great public support for the Maltese abortion ban. As the government of Malta imposed travel restrictions in the interest of containing the spread of SARS-CoV2, women faced further limitations in their ability to access safe, effective abortion care in other countries. Many women have ordered medications online and have self-managed their abortion care. Women who have had abortions or people who facilitate abortions in Malta face criminal charges. Women who seek medical management of complications of self-managed abortions do so with the possibility of facing legal charges. Denying women access to safe and private abortion care can cause significant physical, psychological, and social effects and unfairly harms those experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Given the global COVID pandemic and in the event of future pandemics wherein lockdowns may be indicated to maintain public health and safety, the Maltese government has a responsibility to ensure access to safe abortion care whether abroad or self-managed and such care should be decriminalized. INTRODUCTION The official and predominant religion of Malta is Roman Catholicism. This is recognized in Article 2 of the Constitution of Malta; the Constitution gives the church the duty and right to “teach which principles are right and which are wrong,” and religious education is compulsory.[1] The Constitution does afford Maltese citizens freedom of religious choice though most citizens in Malta are Catholic. The Maltese Criminal Code is clear regarding abortion: 241. (1) Whosoever, by any food, drink, medicine, or by violence, or by any other means whatsoever, shall cause the miscarriage of any woman with child, whether the woman be consenting or not, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from eighteen months to three years. (2) The same punishment shall be awarded against any woman who shall procure her own miscarriage, or who shall have consented to the use of the means by which the miscarriage is procured. 242. If the means used shall cause the death of the woman, or shall cause a serious injury to her person, whether the miscarriage has taken place or not, the offender shall, on conviction, be liable to the punishment applicable to willful homicide or willful bodily harm, diminished by one to three degrees. 243. Any physician, surgeon, obstetrician, or apothecary, who shall have knowingly prescribed or administered the means whereby the miscarriage is procured, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from eighteen months to four years, and to perpetual interdiction from the exercise of his profession.[2] The language used in the Constitution reflects the persistence of Catholic values through time and excludes all methods of and exemptions for pregnancy terminations. The prohibitions above apply to cases of rape, incest, and where the pregnant woman's life is in jeopardy – the only other country in the European Union with equally restrictive laws is the Vatican. However, a key difference between Malta and the Vatican is that someone living in the Vatican wanting an abortion would have easy access to medical services in Rome. Malta is isolated in comparison. The coronavirus placed additional stress on those seeking abortion care when infection control measures were implemented.[3] As Malta is an island, travel outside of the country requires travel by boat or plane, both prohibited as part of government-imposed infection control measures. Those who did return to Malta following international travel were required to quarantine for two weeks and risked fines of up to €10,000.[4] While someone in the first trimester of an unwanted pregnancy may have previously been able to plan a quick trip abroad without raising suspicion that they were traveling for abortion care, with travel restrictions in place, such trips were not easily executed. When pregnant women cannot access abortions, whether medical or surgical, they must self-manage their abortion care. l. The Harms of a Lack of Access to Care As the pandemic is a time of significant mental, spiritual, and existential distress, the added stress of an unwanted pregnancy can cause great harm to an individual. Some may argue that the societal benefits of restricting travel, thus limiting disease spread to individuals and their communities, can outweigh the rights of the individual. But even during a public health emergency, such as a pandemic, it is important that medical care continue where possible to ensure robust baseline health of the community. Abortion care is essential medical care,[5] and in the case of a global infectious pandemic, it would ideally be available locally so as not to harm the community through needless travel abroad. Given the significant implications and downstream effects caused by the continuation of an unwanted pregnancy, those seeking abortion care are likely to pursue the options available to them even if there is the potential risk to the individual or their community. Underlying the increased challenges regarding access to abortion care is the existing legislation that does not have provisions for emergency care. The potential harms to pregnant women in criminalizing access to abortion care, especially given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, are significant. The current legislation does not provide exemptions for abortions that would save the woman’s life. Rather, the woman and her health care team are at risk of criminal consequences if they implement this lifesaving care. If a woman remains in Malta and is unable to self-manage abortion care, or if self-managed care is not medically appropriate or safe, she faces the possibility of dying because of pregnancy continuation. Alternately, the woman can leave the country to pursue the appropriate care, though there is the potential for social and financial repercussions, and pandemic travel restrictions severely limit this option.[6] ll. Injustice Malta’s criminalization of all abortions is a significant violation of the bioethical principle of justice. The Maltese Criminal Code legislates no other medical procedures.[7] The burden that results from these restrictions weighs most heavily on Maltese women. Pregnant women seeking an abortion must either determine a strategy to get such care (potentially violating the criminal code) or continue a dangerous or unwanted pregnancy. Although those who seek to support and help women may also face criminal consequences, the criminal code essentially targets women with unwanted or unsafe pregnancies. Furthermore, as their request for abortion puts doctors or other facilitators at risk, the potential criminal liability of healthcare professionals is a deterrent to their seeking abortion care. Thus, the criminal code undervalues women and creates a crime that categorically applies to women only. Restrictive reproductive care policies in Malta also create significant socio-economic injustice, which was amplified by stay-at-home orders and travel bans. Those who can afford to leave the island to seek medical care abroad are also those who are most likely to have the financial flexibility for a post-travel two-week quarantine. The financial stress associated with seeking medical care abroad or self-managed abortion care disproportionately affects women of low socioeconomic standing. There are non-profit organizations outside of Malta that may be able to facilitate access to medically supervised abortion care outside of the country. However, COVID-19 travel restrictions likely limited their ability to help women. lll. Autonomy and Healthcare Decisions Ultimately, allowing pregnant women access to the reproductive care they require is important for the preservation of individual autonomy. Ideally, women would have the assistance of healthcare providers to inform reproductive decisions with accurate, evidence-based information that is free from bias. Certainly, where a provider is at risk of criminal charges, a patient is denied the information necessary to make an autonomous choice regarding the appropriateness of such care. The provision of comprehensive and exhaustive information is also essential to the preservation of trust between the medical care team and the patient. Abortion care is acceptable in many jurisdictions, and information around this care should be included as part of comprehensive family planning discussions whether the provider is willing to facilitate the care or not. lV. Denying the Consequences of a Local Ban on Abortion There is a perception among those supporting the complete abortion ban that those wanting abortion care, even in pregnancies resulting from rape, can easily travel to other countries to do so. As discussed above, this perception does not consider financial inequities and the burdens on those with limited financial resources.[8] People holding this “not in my backyard” stance on abortion may be using the perceived easy international access to abortions as an excuse to avoid considering the consequences of a total ban (for example, the death of pregnant women from pregnancy complications, a woman forced to continue a pregnancy despite severe fetal abnormality that is not compatible with survival upon delivery). Because international travel for abortion can no longer be presumed, ban supporters can no longer use it as a shield to avoid grappling with difficult problems. Issues like the ethics of permitting a woman to die or forcing a birth resulting from rape or incest would be addressed head-on if the legislators did not dismiss the issues using the assumption women can travel for care. Exploration of an ethical justification for a complete ban is sidelined by the perception of the ability to access care elsewhere. CONCLUSION It is an oversimplification to consider the legality of abortion the sole barrier to accessing this care, especially in a country driven by culture and religion. Yet abortion and reproductive care are essential to the wellbeing of pregnant individuals and should be part of every health system. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant public health concern and has highlighted some of the consequences of not having any abortion care available within Malta. Illegal self-managed abortions remain one of the few options for many pregnant women in the country. It can be challenging to navigate abortion care, particularly in a country where the prohibition of such care is widely accepted, and it is important to allow for provisions that support safe reproductive care. Research and examination of the pandemic’s effect on access to abortion care would provide much-needed data. Protections and immunity in place for those who sought or delivered such care during the pandemic would be a just response to the restrictive policies. The pandemic has successfully highlighted significant inequities in care, and access to safe and effective abortions for those who wish to have them should be facilitated – whether it be in Malta or abroad. - [1] “Constitution of Malta,” 1964., 7. [2] Malta Criminal Code, CAP. 9, Book First, Part II, Title VIII, Sub-title VII, Articles 241-243, available at Refworld, accessed April 24, 2021, https://www.refworld.org/docid/5d36fc847.html. [3] Different countries in Europe responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways. Hungary, for example, stopped all non-life-threatening surgeries in state hospitals, while in the Netherlands, those who had or lived with someone with COVID-19 symptoms were restricted from accessing abortion care. Caroline Moreau et al., “Abortion Regulation in Europe in the Era of COVID-19: A Spectrum of Policy Responses,” BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, October 22, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsrh-2020-200724. [4] “COVID-19: Confirmed Patients Who Ignore Isolation Orders to Be Fined €10,000,” Times of Malta, accessed April 24, 2021, https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/covid-19-fines-may-be-increased-up-to-10000.780452. [5] Elizabeth Janiak and Alisa B. Goldberg, ‘Eliminating the Phrase “Elective Abortion”: Why Language Matters’, Contraception, 93.2 (2016), 89–92, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2015.10.008. [6] Of course, It is also important to consider the well-being of women who have unwanted pregnancies and are choosing abortion care. The abortion argument is often framed solely in the context of pregnancies where a woman’s health and/or life are in jeopardy or in cases of incest and rape – this neglects the needs of the women who have unwanted pregnancies outside of those circumstances. The continuation of such pregnancies can have significant social and financial consequences for an individual – ensuring that appropriate and safe care can be pursued is essential to the minimization of harm to that individual. Legislation that denies any individual the opportunity to seek such care, and that goes so far as to criminalize it, can cause significant emotional and physical harms to pregnant individuals. This can happen regardless of the motivation for pursuing abortion care and the argument is most appropriately framed in general terms to preserve the right to seek abortion care for all pregnant women. [7] Malta Criminal Code, CAP. 9, amendments up until 2018, available at Refworld, accessed April 24, 2021, https://www.refworld.org/docid/5d36fc847.html. [8] “Abortion Debate: Between Progress, Catholic Morality and Patriarchy,” MaltaToday.com.mt, accessed April 8, 2021, http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/100419/abortion_debate_between_progress_catholic_morality_and_patriarchy.

A few years ago in the town where I lived a man predicted the end of the world. He had a time and date in October that year when Jesus was going to come back and end history. He put leaflets on people's cars to warn us all to be ready. The day after the big date one of the local clergy went around to chat with him about the follies of prophecy. The guy's response? He did his sums again, concluded that he was out by exactly one year and told us all that the world would end at the same time, same date, one year later... As we head for the year 2000 I see two kinds of expectations. Some people are getting ready for the 'party of the millennium' or booking seats at the spots with the best view of 1 January 2000. Others have started getting ready for the Y2K disaster. In the church we have a bit of experience with the 'get ready for disaster' crowd and I want to write about that here. I have been listening to people like that guy predict the end of it all for nearly twenty years now. Sooner or later maybe one of them is accidentally going to be right. In the church the 'get ready for disaster people' are both provoked and constrained by Scripture. Apocalyptic1 texts like Matthew 24 promise the return of the Christ and describe the signs that can be expected to precede that return; the desecration and then destruction of the holy place and disorder in the cosmos. This text claims that the intractable chaos of the world as we know it ('wars and rumours of wars') is a 'sign' that the world is temporary, that it will be started again by Christ. The text instructs the reader to 'read' these signs but also warns that the final event is unpredictable ('of that day and hour no one knows'). In the church the 'get ready for disaster people' are both provoked and constrained by Scripture. Apocalyptic1 texts like Matthew 24 promise the return of the Christ and describe the signs that can be expected to precede that return; the desecration and then destruction of the holy place and disorder in the cosmos. This text claims that the intractable chaos of the world as we know it ('wars and rumours of wars') is a 'sign' that the world is temporary, that it will be started again by Christ. The text instructs the reader to 'read' these signs but also warns that the final event is unpredictable ('of that day and hour no one knows'). People have been constrained by texts like this, because Jesus is quoted as saying "of that day and hour no one knows" which I would read as saying that no-one knows when the end of the world will come. The Late Great Planet Earth actually had a time-line of expected events before the end based upon reading the 'signs'. That author was wrong. Most of us have taken Jesus's word for it and not said anything falsifiable. People have found hope in texts like this because it is the intractably chaotic things in life (wars, disasters and betrayals) that turn out to be the signs of hope (they are called "the beginnings of birth pangs"). When faced with problems like environmental damage, violence in East Timor or increasing state incursions upon personal liberty we have a couple of options. Most people ignore them most of the time. When they do pay attention they want someone to fix them, that's what we pay taxes for, so that stuff can be fixed. A few people actually work on solutions themselves. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the list of stuff that needs fixing getting any shorter. The apocalyptic tradition says that the intractability of this stuff is the sign of hope for the world to be reborn. The apocalyptic tradition is not the only way the church has faced 'the end of the world'. Implicit in it is the view that the world is so broken that the only solution is the final solution. Others within the churches have been more positive2. Friends of mine believe that they can live the life of Christ in unresolved tension with the needs of modern life (so for example believing in an ethic of compassion but still maybe sacking a non-performing employee). Others believe they can see signs of Christ's presence in the renewal of society (South American Liberation theologians of the 70s and 80s often believed they could see renewal happening despite the brutality of their regimes). This reading of Matthew 24 then has not produced something called "the church's belief about the end of the world", just one strand which those of us who are involved in church have to take into account, live with and learn from. What can be learned from this way of looking at the world about getting on with the 'get ready for disaster' approach to Y2K? I think there is a realism in the acknowledgment that all our attempts at 'solutions' fail to deliver the final answers. Some things can be improved, but the list of stuff to fix will just go on growing. It's OK to be humble about the real value of the solutions we work on. The apocalyptic tradition says there is a way to live in hope anyway. We can learn to hold in tension different models of reality and different expectations for the future. In my religious view of the world the key to holding it all together is God. We can learn to live with focus now. If the apocalyptic view is right in hoping for a future beyond the end of it all then our personal future depends on being on task now. A secular take on this might be the old advice to 'live each day as if it could be your last'. The world probably won't end on 31 December but if it does... Live with dignity. Footnotes Apocalyptic is one of the forms Judeo-Christian prophesy took in the Greco-Roman period. Often apocalyptic texts use vivid imagery to describe the presence and defeat of evil. The symbols used usually had a reference to the author's situation but can be read to refer to the reader's situation (Rowland, C. "Apocalyptic." A Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. Eds. R.J. Coggins and J.L. Houlden. London: SCM Press, 1990. 34-6). The classic statement of the different stances thinking Christians take towards the modern world is H.R. Niebuhr. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. If culture is the symbols a society constructs to make sense of itself, express its values and encourage members to behave then people can respond to that in various ways. In the terms Niebuhr uses -- Christ against Culture, The Christ of Culture, Christ above Culture, Christ and Culture in Paradox, or Christ the Transformer of Culture -- the different stances towards the ordinary realities of life produce different hopes for the future. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Geoff Hoyte. "Why 2000?" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php>. Chicago style: Geoff Hoyte, "Why 2000?," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Geoff Hoyte. (1999) Why 2000? M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php> ([your date of access]).

OPENING Welcome to this special feature of Approaches, which was inspired by the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting. Organised by the Giovanni Ferrari Music Therapy School of Padua, with the support of the Italian Association of Professional Music Therapists (AIM) and the Italian Confederation of Associations and Music Therapy Schools (CONFIAM), this event took place on 22nd September 2018 in Padua, Italy. Reflecting the theme of this meeting, Dialogue on Music Therapy Interventions for Dementia and End-of-Life Care: Voices from Beyond the Sea, this special feature aims to raise awareness and promote dialogue around music therapy in the Mediterranean region with a focus on dementia and end-of-life care settings. The special feature contains brief country reports. Although reports vary in writing style and depth of information, each report has a two-fold overall focus: to outline briefly the current state of music therapy within each country and to describe particular applications of music therapy within dementia and end-of-life care contexts. Additionally, this special feature contains a Preface by Melissa Brotons, who was the keynote speaker at the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting, as well as a conference report outlining key aspects of this meeting. THE SEA AROUND US: A NOTE ON THE MEDITERRANEAN The name of the Mediterranean Sea originates from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning “middle of the earth”. This name was first used by the Romans reflecting their perception of the sea as the middle or the centre of the earth. Interestingly, while perceived as a middle point, the Mediterranean was also experienced as something that surrounded people. Thus, both the Ancient Greeks and the Romans called the Mediterranean “our sea” or “the sea around us” (mare nostrum in Latin, orἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ’ἡμᾶς [hē thálassa hē kath’hēmâs] in Greek). The Mediterranean Sea is linked to the Atlantic Ocean. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Asia Minor, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by Western Asia. Since antiquity the Mediterranean has been a vital waterway for merchants and travellers, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between peoples of the region. The Mediterranean region has been the birthplace of influential civilizations on its shores, and the history of the region is crucial to understanding the origins and evolvement of the modern Western world. Throughout its history the region has been dramatically affected by conflict, war and occupation. The Roman Empire and the Arab Empire are past examples with lasting footprints in the region; while ongoing conflicts in Syria, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are contemporary examples, some of which have led to a refugee crisis in the region. As such, the history of the region has been accompanied by endeavours and struggles to define and redefine national identities, territories and borders. Interestingly, Cyprus is one of just two nations, and the first one in the world, to include its map on its flag (the second is Kosovo – a Balkan country close to the Mediterranean region). The sea touches three continents, and today the Mediterranean region can be understood, framed and divided differently based on varying geopolitical and other perspectives (see, for example, the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization [WHO, 2020]). For the purposes of this special feature, we understand the Mediterranean region as including 12 countries in Europe, five in Asia and five in Africa. These countries, in clockwise order, are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Despite its relatively small geographical area, the Mediterranean region is characterised by the richness of cultures, religions and musical traditions. Likewise, there is a dramatic diversity in terms of political and socio-economic situations. This diversity is equally reflected in the development of dementia and end-of-life care in these countries. Regarding dementia care, in 2016, the Monegasque Association for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease, published the Alzheimer and the Mediterranean Report where is underlined that “[in] many Mediterranean countries, there is still little knowledge about the problems surrounding Alzheimer’s disease, which remains under-estimated and insufficiently documented” (AMPA, 2016, p.7). The report identified a concerning rise in the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in the Mediterranean area, but little biomedical, fundamental and clinical research, unequal and unspecialised access to home care services, and also a general lack of training among professionals and a lack of status recognition for family carers. In terms of end-of-life care, in 2017 the first systematic attempt to map and assess the development of palliative care in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region was published (Osman et al., 2017). Results demonstrate that palliative care development in Eastern Mediterranean countries is scarce. Most countries are at the very initial stages of palliative care development, with only a small fraction of patients needing palliative care being able to access it. This situation also applies to the integration and provision of palliative care within care homes and nursing homes offering long-term care for older people (Froggatt et al., 2017). Recent reviews also demonstrate that palliative care is variable and inconsistent across the region, while various barriers exist to the development of palliative care delivery. Examples of such barriers include the lack of relevant national policies, limited palliative care training for professionals and volunteers, as well as weak public awareness around death and dying (Fadhil et al., 2017). Similar barriers around legislation, training and public awareness are met in the development of music therapy in many Mediterranean countries. Music therapy, as a contemporary profession and discipline, and indeed its applications in dementia and end-of-life care, are equally limited and characterised by diversity across the region. As such, this special feature is a modest attempt to bring together perspectives and present initial information for areas of work which are not widely developed, explored or documented so far in most Mediterranean countries. Hopefully this publication will raise further awareness and inform the future development of music therapy with specific reference to its potential applications to dementia and end-of-life care in each country. This becomes even more relevant considering the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, in the region (Fadhil et al., 2017). BEHIND THE SCENES Inviting authors Although the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting included speakers only from a few Mediterranean countries, this special feature attempted to include authors from every single Mediterranean country. In addition to inviting the speakers from the meeting to contribute to this special feature, we invited authors from each of the other Mediterranean countries. After listing all the countries, we tried to identify music therapists in each of them. We drew on our own professional networks, as well as information available on the websites of the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC) and the World Federation for Music Therapy (WFMT), along with relevant publications in the open access journals Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy and Voices: A World Forum of Music Therapy. In countries where we could not identify a music therapist (with or without direct experience of working in dementia and end-of-life care), we attempted to identify and invite other relevant professionals with an explicit interest in music therapy. When this second option was impossible, no authors were invited. There were also cases where potential authors who met the above criteria did not respond to the invitation. As such, this special feature does not include a report from every Mediterranean country. The absence of reports from some countries, however, does not necessarily reflect the lack of music therapy work in these countries. Some of the contributing authors are members or representatives of professional associations and some are not. In either case, their contribution to this special feature aims to represent their views and experiences as individuals without claiming to represent national or other professional bodies. Depending on the position of each individual author, different aspects of music therapy may be explored, prioritised, silenced or challenged in each country report. We want to be clear: these reports are not about absolute ‘truths’ and do not provide comprehensive accounts of music therapy and of its applications in dementia and end-of-life care in each country. Instead of being a ‘full stop’, we see these reports as an opening; as invitations for dialogue, debate, critique and mutual growth. We encourage readers to engage with the contents of this special feature critically; being informed by their own experiences and practices, as well as by related literature and historical trajectories in the field (e.g. De Backer et al., 2013; Dileo-Maranto, 1993; Hesser & Heinemann, 2015; Ridder & Tsiris, 2015a; Schmid, 2014; Stegemann et al., 2016). The challenge of the review process All reports were peer-reviewed. Although we strived to ensure a ‘blind’ review process, this was difficult to achieve in certain cases due to the nature of the reports and the small size of the music therapy communities in certain countries. We invited music therapists living and working in Mediterranean countries to serve as reviewers. We also invited some music therapists living in other parts of the world, given their experience and role within international music therapy bodies and initiatives. Reviewers were requested to evaluate not only the accuracy of the information provided in each report but also the reflexive stance of the authors. This comes with acknowledging that in some instances authors and reviewers came from diverse professional and disciplinary spheres, where music therapy can be understood and practised differently. This was particularly relevant to country reports where we could not identify reviewers with ‘inland’ knowledge of the music therapy field and of its relevance to local dementia and end-of-life care contexts. Towards hospitality Professionalisation issues – which seem to be a common denominator across the reports of this special feature – are often an area of controversy and conflict, where alliances and oppositions have emerged over the history of the music therapy profession within and beyond the Mediterranean region. Writing a country report, and indeed reviewing and editing a collection of such reports, can be a ‘hot potato’! Although it is impossible to remain apolitical, we argue (and we have actively tried to promote this through our editorial and reviewing work) that a constructive dialogue needs to be characterised by reflexivity. It needs to be underpinned by openness and transparency regarding our own values and assumptions, our pre-understanding, our standpoint, as well as our invested interests. Professionalisation conflicts within some Mediterranean countries have led to the development of multiple and, at times, antagonistic associations and professional bodies. In Spain, for example, there are over 40 associations (Mercadal-Brotons et al., 2015), whereas in Italy there are four main associations (Scarlata, 2015). In other countries, such as Greece (Tsiris, 2011), there are communication challenges and conflicting situations between professional association, training programmes and governmental departments. Although such challenges tend to remain unarticulated and ‘hidden’ from the professional literature and discourse, they have real implications for the development of the profession within each context and for the morale of each music therapy community. Overall, this special feature aims to promote a spirit of open dialogue and mutual respect. It is underpinned by a commitment to remain in ongoing dialogue while accepting that we can agree to disagree. As editors we tried to remain true to this commitment, and this became particularly evident in cases where reported practices and concepts were at odds with our own perspectives and understandings of music therapy and its development as a contemporary profession and discipline in Western countries. Indeed, the perspectives presented in some of the reports may sit on the edge or even outside the ‘professional canon’ of music therapy as developed in many contemporary Western countries. In line with the vision of Approaches, this special feature opens up a space where local-global tensions can be voiced (Ridder & Tsiris, 2015b), allowing multiple translations, transitions and borders to be explored. What becomes evident is that definitions of music therapy are inextricably linked to cultural, including spiritual and political, meanings and practices of music, health and illness. Mediterranean people are known for their hospitality but also for their passionate temperament. We hope that this special feature creates a hospitable and welcoming environment for professional and intercultural exchange where passion can fuel creative action and collaboration instead of conflict. We invite the readers to engage with each report in this spirit of openness and reflexivity. This special feature will hopefully be only the start of future dialogue, debate and constructive critique. To this end, we also invite people to add their voices and perspectives regarding music therapy in the Mediterranean region in relation to dementia and end-of-life care. Music therapists, palliative care practitioners and other professionals are welcome to submit their own papers in the form of articles, reports or letters to the editor. References AMPA (2016). Alzheimer and the Mediterranean Report 2016: Overview – challenges – perspectives. Retrieved from https://ampa-monaco.com/files/MAA_Rapport_GB_web_sml.pdf De Backer, J., Nöcker Ribaupierre, M., & Sutton, J. (2013). Music therapy in Europe: The identity and professionalisation of European music therapy, with an overview and history of the European Music Therapy Confederation. In J. De Backer & J. Sutton (Eds.), The music in music therapy: Psychodynamic music therapy in Europe: Clinical, theoretical and research approaches (pp. 24-36). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Dileo-Maranto, C. (Ed.). (1993). Music therapy: International perspectives. Saint Louis, MI: MMB Music, Inc. Fadhil, I., Lyons, G., & Payne, S. (2017). Barriers to, and opportunities for, palliative care development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The Lancet Oncology, 18(3), e176-e184. Froggatt, K., Payne, S., Morbey, H., Edwards, M., Finne-Soveri, H., Gambassi, G., Pasman, H. R., Szczerbinska, K., & Van den Block, L. (2017). Palliative care development in European care homes and nursing homes: Application of a typology of implementation. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 18(6), 550.e7-550.e14. Hesser, B., & Heinemann, H. (Eds.). (2015). Music as a global resource: Solutions for social and economic issues (4th ed.). New York, NY: United Nations Headquarters. Mercadal-Brotons, M., Sabbatella, P. L., & Del Moral Marcos, M. T. (2017). Music therapy as a profession in Spain: Past, present and future. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 9(1), 111-119. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/mercadal-brotons-a20150509 Osman, H., Rihan, A., Garralda, E., Rhee, J.Y., Pons, J.J., de Lima, L., Tfayli, A., & Centeno, C. (2017). Atlas of palliative care in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Houston: IAHPC Press. Retrieved from https://dadun.unav.edu/handle/10171/43303 Ridder, H. M., & Tsiris, G. (Eds.). (2015a). Special issue on ‘Music therapy in Europe: Paths of professional development’. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1). Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015/ Ridder, H. M., & Tsiris, G. (2015b). ‘Thinking globally, acting locally’: Music therapy in Europe. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1), 3-9. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015/ Scarlata, E. (2015). Italy. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1), 161-162. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015 Schmid, J. (2014). Music therapy training courses in Europe. Thesis at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria. Stegemann, T., Schmidt, H. U., Fitzthum, E., & Timmermann, T. (Eds.). (2016). Music therapy training programmes in Europe: Theme and variations. Reichert Verlag. Tsiris, G. (2011). Music therapy in Greece. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved from https://voices.no/community/?q=country-of-the-month/2011-music-therapy-greece World Health Organization (WHO) (2020). Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Countries. Retrieved from: http://www.emro.who.int/countries.html

Does science have a moral component? Today, as well as in the past, the perspectives of scientists diverge. Some scientists join political groups and work for them. They only care about financial benefits and waiving moral and ethical rules. Others take an alienated stance, arguing that science only has scientific objectives that must be addressed. They lack concern for ethical aspects and stand by the motto “science for the sake of science.” Others say it is important to have ethical rules in science and that we cannot preserve humankind and its movement towards the future without ethical and moral principles. Considering that the world is currently in the second decade of the 21st century, it is evident that it has been divided into two distinct axes: the first being democracy, with its significance to every human life, and the second being dictatorship and tyranny, where human life is deemed worthless in pursuit of a particular objective. Ukraine has become the first outpost of this division and an example for humankind, where moral and ethical rules serve as the foundation of its statehood, which it has been defending in the cruel war with the Moscow nuclear empire since 2014. Ukraine, through its centuries-old sacrifices and historical experience, has enlightened humanity with the authentic foundations of morality: the heroism of its defenders, the fervent patriotism of its people, spiritual principles, empathy, saving people and animals, aiding the needy, the volunteer movement, the humane treatment of prisoners of war, and adherence to international legal principles. Our main goal is to protect our personal freedom, which is vital for every scientist to be self-fulfilled. What is the distinction in morality/ethics between homo sovieticus and a doctor? The Hippocratic Oath has been a moral compass for all doctors for several millennia. Its essence has not changed. The Soviet government abolished the Hippocratic Oath in 1917 because it prevented their political objective of enslaving the population [1]. The Bolsheviks imposed a new healthcare system through a decree: they legalized abortions in 1920 and active euthanasia (by medical professionals) in 1922 [1,2]. The Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada reinstated the Hippocratic Oath in 1971. Called “The Oath of the Soviet Doctor,” it was meant to raise the doctor’s prestige and emphasize their duty before the Soviet state [3]. The decline of medical ethics in the Russian Federation also saw the abandonment of ancient traditions focused on the patient in the principles of medical practitioners’ activities and the continued functioning as a tool of the ruling government [4]. The oath of Russian physicians, with its patronizing and sexist language, completely disregards the rights of the patient and the physician’s responsibility to take preventive measures and fulfill their duties before society. The expert in medical ethics, Pellegrino, observed, “It’s hard to imagine a more devastating mutilation of the body of medical ethics.” The re-emergence of pre-existing medical behavior patterns, which were rooted in the Ukrainian environment and influenced by Greek-Catholic customs prior to the Soviet era, was observed with the declaration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Professor Bohdan Nadraha was a strong supporter of the creation of updated medical ethics [5]. As one of the initiators of the revival of the Ukrainian Medical Society in Lviv and as the head of the Court of Medical Honor from 1992 to 1996, he firmly advocated for the reinstatement of bioethical principles among physicians and their practice in accordance with the principles of Hippocrates. Professor Ihor Herych created a document called “The Hippocratic Oath of the Doctor”, and Lviv Regional Medical Administration officially accepted it in 2007 [6]. Article 81 describes the ethical behavior of a doctor, including the doctor’s attitude towards the patient, the quality of medical care, confidentiality, the doctor’s role in end-of-life care, transplantation issues, conducting clinical trials, patient’s informed consent, and responsibility of doctors before the society. During a meeting with members of the Medical Commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Medical Society in Lviv, His Beatitude Liubomyr Husar addressed the physicians regarding the observance of the Hippocratic Oath, “In my opinion, it is imperative to comprehend that medicine is not merely a profession, but a calling, regardless of the form of oath.” He further stated that “understanding the significance of one’s profession and performing it with the utmost diligence is essential” [7]. The doctor has a calling that obliges them to do everything possible for the patient’s benefit. His important advice on de-communization was, “Corruption is part of the Soviet legacy. In my perspective, it is imperative that the authorities, scientists, historians, and every member of society analyze the legacy of the Soviet era and the remaining negative elements and swiftly eradicate these undesirable elements” [8]. Ukrainian scientists have a lot to be proud of because they started the foundations back in the 19th century when they founded the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv in 1873 with support from philanthropists from Naddniprianshchyna. The Ukrainian intelligentsia and academics united and forged a solid foundation for the ethical values they pursued, embracing the ideals of liberty and tolerance being stuck among the two empires – the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the oppressive autocratic Russian Empire. This Society experienced significant development under the leadership of academician Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. The medical commission was established and supervised by Yevhen Ozarkevych, a prominent public figure, scientist, and physician, in 1898. As a global Ukrainian multidisciplinary academy of sciences, the medical commission has given impetus to the development of various directions of Ukrainian science, culture, and language and became the intellectual foundation of the Ukrainian state in 1918. The Shevchenko Scientific Society operated in Poland until 1939 and was destroyed by the Soviet authorities. In 1989, the Ukrainian diaspora recommenced its operations in Ukraine. The active intellectual diaspora, with its centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, has been operational for 50 years (working outside Ukraine). So, we have a story about moral scientists who lived and worked for their country and the world [9]. Doctors and scientists who were forced to emigrate continued the traditions of the Lviv Ukrainian Medical Society and the Shevchenko Scientific Society during the 46 years of communist rule in western Ukraine. They started the Ukrainian Medical Society of North America in 1950 and published their works in the world’s only medical journal, “Medical Herald” (1954). Roman Osinchuk, who graduated from Lviv University and emigrated to New York in 1947, was its Editor-in-Chief. The basis of their activities were moral and ethical principles. Pavlo Dzhul, who edited the “Medical Herald” from 1967 to 2003, said it was better to follow the rules of medical ethics and follow the Hippocratic Oath instead of making a new code of ethics. “Hippocrates, in his oath, called for the honest fulfillment of duties according to one’s abilities and knowledge... a physician should alleviate the suffering of the sick and preserve human life... should lead a pure and blameless life, be committed to their profession to the fullest, and stay far from all that is malicious, unjust, and harmful. The aforementioned adage “primum non nocere” ought to remain relevant throughout time. A doctor who adheres to these principles will be able to fulfill their duties with a clear conscience, even during times of great revolutionary breakthroughs in medicine. Therefore, there is no need to draft a new code of medical ethics, but rather to reaffirm the ideals of our forefathers” [10]. In modern times, Ukraine is again fighting for the eternal principles of morality against the essence of the Russian Federation distorted by Soviet narratives and other dictatorial regimes. The democratic world underestimated the threats of dictatorial and terrorist regimes. Aggressors use economic and informational methods to manipulate people with a false ideology. They shape their supporters into “biomass” and instill in them a hidden “dark” morality also involving their religions. This is the second year that Ukraine is experiencing war particularly painfully, and this was also demonstrated during the attack on Israel. How methodically and uniformly the dictator-terrorist regimes operate! What a treachery, deceit, and cruelty! Someone teaches well, and executors learn quickly! The world must arrive at lucid and expeditious conclusions, as this poses a serious threat to the democratic principles of humanity. Joe Biden spoke about it in his special address from the White House on October 19, 2023: “We’re facing an inflection point in history... those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future... History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction... making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security... global democracy” [11]. Everyone should reflect on these words, especially the intellectual elite. Scientists worldwide need to know which direction they are moving in by using their knowledge, abilities, and work. The everyday work and moral decisions made by scientists represent the symbolic placement of weights on various platforms of the historical scales: either for democracy or for dictatorship. They are two components of the real world today. What prevails now will be our future! This is a challenging question for scientists living in dictatorial states. They either have to leave them or refrain from supporting the development of these societies by speaking at international congresses or publishing articles about their developments in scientific journals. It is imperative that they wait for better times, refrain from supporting and sustaining the dictatorship, and refrain from contributing to its perpetuation. Living in a country that routinely commits mass genocide against other nations, commits humanitarian and ecological crimes, kills children and prisoners of war, and demolishes churches, museums, hospitals, educational institutions, and cemeteries was not a lucky break for them. Hence, scientists in democratic societies must clearly define their objectives: are they engaged in genuine scientific research with a moral component and generating a perspective for humanity, or are they focusing on the financial aspect and inviting scientists from dictatorial regimes to international conferences and publishing their articles in reputable journals in exchange for financial support? Scientists from the Russian Federation are not victims, and the world must refrain from using the term “good” Russians. They are the representatives of a terrorist state, and they must be isolated during the war to enable their minds and conscience to comprehend the significance of human life [9]. The ethical oversight of scientific endeavors, viewed as a vital necessity, is a crucial prerequisite for the advancement of research and the existence of humankind in its entirety. Every scientist should be aware of their responsibility for the fate of humanity. True science must have a moral face! The war is a test to see how well the Ukrainian people believe in morals and science. Ukrainian scientists have taken a stand to defend their state, democracy, and freedom despite the circumstances of war by establishing an intellectual front [10]. Some scientists volunteered and sacrificed their lives for the democratic future of Ukraine and humankind. More than 80 scientists died in 2022-2023. Some scientists help the Armed Forces of Ukraine with their developments [11], and others save wounded Heroes [12]. We thank the scientists of Europe, America, Canada, and Australia who have supported and continue to support Ukraine [13,14], who do not create a platform for the propaganda of Russian science, and who do not invite Russian scientists to their professional congresses and conferences. Ferenc Krausz, the Hungarian Nobel Prize laureate in physics, donated his prize money to help Ukraine, which, contrary to the official policy of the Hungarian government in the international arena, has become an example of morality. Yet many scholars advocate the principle of neutrality and the grey zone. Many scientific conferences and professional gatherings don’t mention the war in Europe, they allow scientists from the Russian Federation to speak and moderate, and they don’t commemorate peaceful researchers who perished because of the war. This is what happened at an international conference organized by the European Society for Primary Immunodeficiency in Gothenburg on April 16-18, 2022. The professional community did not honor the memory of Oksana Leontiieva, a scientist and hematologist from Kyiv who was supposed to talk at this conference about her developments in transplanting primary immunodeficiency on October 17. On October 10, 2022, seven days before the scheduled speech, she was killed by a Russian bomb while en route to work. At that time, Russian scientists were actively delivering their speeches at the conference. Haven’t scientists around the world had enough of the horrible things happening in Europe, like Russian bombings of hospitals, schools, libraries, theaters, homes, cafés, and funerals? Aren’t they equated to the high crimes of war, genocide, and terrorism? Several independent organizations cited in the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights report for May 2022 established this. The report also concludes that “states have a legal obligation to prevent genocide beyond their borders when they become aware of a serious risk of genocide”. The threshold established by this report has been reached, and states are no longer allowed to deny it. For the past two years, there have been discussions about whether Western publications should refuse to publish scientific papers from Russian institutions. Only the Journal of Molecular Structure has issued a clear statement based on the humanitarian crisis arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ceasing the acceptance of manuscripts from scientists working in institutions of the Russian Federation [15]. Several journals declined to endorse a boycott for the sake of “universal science” (The British Medical Journal) [16] or to prevent “dividing the global research community and inhibiting the exchange of scientific knowledge” (Nature) [17]. Science has also decided not to boycott Russian submissions [18]. The “Journal of Hematopathology” has emerged as a prominent publication among Springer Nature’s journals, expressing its condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while retaining a proactive approach towards evaluating manuscripts from Russian authors [19]. The war in Ukraine is condemned in several publications [20-21]. This is an example of outrage without real action. Russians are not even denied electronic access to scientific publications. Did these publications accept manuscripts from the Nazi regime during World War II or the Soviet regime during the Cold War era? When asked if American universities should have boycotted German/Nazi universities during World War II, they answered, “...when the Nazis criminalized higher education, they ceased to be universities” [22]. The united comprehensive approach of the civilized world, scientists in the first place, was able to defeat fascism and collapse the Soviet Union. Scientists all over the world are now deeply concerned about the Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine. You learn nothing from history! Scientists from the Russian Federation supported the war with Ukraine during its early days, and many of them continue supporting it. The Russian Federation has criminalized its own research institutes and universities through its stringent regulations that suppress free speech and, consequently, academic freedom. Research institutions operate for the war machine in three shifts. Russian scientists are essential supporters of government policy. For example, about one million Russian scientists left the country in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Those who stayed don’t have enough important lab supplies from the West because of sanctions or reduced national funding for science [23]. But now is not the time for them to create the conditions for the development of science. Supporting them is a threat of the third world war! The manuscripts of Russian scientists with Homo sovieticus origins deserve to be boycotted by Western scientific publications until the war ends, with the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the reparations for the killed population, registered justice and convicted war crimes, restoration of the destroyed infrastructure; mitigating the environmental catastrophe in the Ukrainian territory due to widespread mining, dam explosion, etc. During wartime, international sanctions in the realm of science should be imposed, much like those for economic, sporting, and cultural spheres. For humankind to have perspective, isolation of the aggressor must function in the scientific field. Scientists should make a conscious decision regarding the purpose for which they live, work, think, and create. Think before the nuclear monster destroys the planet!!!

Parity between the sexes, harmony between the religions, balance between the cultural differences: these principles all hinge upon the idealistic concept of all things in our human society being equal. In this issue of M/C Journal the notion of ‘equal’ is reviewed and discussed in terms of both its discourse and its application in real life. Beyond the concept of equal itself, uniting each author’s contribution is acknowledgement of the competing objectives which can promote bias and prejudice. Indeed, it is that prejudice, concomitant to the absence of equal treatment by and for all peoples, which is always of concern for the pursuit of social justice. Although it has been reduced to a brand-name of low calorie sugar substitute in the Australian supermarket and cafe set, the philosophical values and objectives behind the concept of equal underpin some of the most highly prized and esteemed ideals of western liberal democracy and its ideas on justice. To be equal in the modern sense means to be empowered, to enjoy the same entitlements as others and to have the same rights. At the same time, the privileges associated with being equal also come with responsibilities and it these that we continue to struggle with in our supposed enlightened age. The ideals we associate with equal are far from new, since they have informed ideas about citizenship and justice at least from the times of Ancient Greece and perhaps more problematically, the Principate period of the Roman Empire. It was out of the Principate that the notion primus inter pares (‘first among equals’) was implemented under Augustus in an effort to reconcile his role as Emperor within the Republic of Rome. This oxymoron highlights how very early in the history of Western thought inevitable compromises arose between the pursuit of equal treatment and its realisation. After all, Rome is as renowned for its Empire and Senate as it is for the way lions were fed Christians for entertainment. In the modern and postmodern world, the values around the concept of equal have become synonymous with the issue of equality, equal being a kind of applied action that has mobilised and enacted its ideals. With equality we are able to see more clearly the dialectic challenging the thesis of equal, the antitheses of unequal, and inequality. What these antitheses of equal accentuate is that anything to do with equality entails struggle and hard won gains. In culture, as in nature, things are rarely equal from the outset. As Richard Dawkins outlined in The Selfish Gene, “sperms and eggs … contribute equal number of genes, but eggs contribute far more in the way of food reserves … . Female exploitation begins here” (153). Disparities that promote certain advantages and disadvantages seem hard-wired into our chemistry, biology and subsequent natural and cultural environments. So to strive for the values around an ideal of equal means overcoming some major biological and social determinants. In other words, equality is not a pursuit for the uncommitted. Disparity, injustice, disempowerment, subjugations, winners and losers, victors and victims, oppressors and oppressed: these are the polarities that have been the hallmarks of human civilization. Traditionally, societies are slow to recognise contemporary contradictions and discriminations that deny the ideals and values that would otherwise promote a basis of equality. Given the right institutional apparatus, appropriate cultural logic and individual rationales, that which is unequal and unjust is easily absorbed and subscribed to by the most ardent defender of liberty and equality. Yet we do not have to search far afield in either time or geography to find evidence of institutionalised cultural barbarity that was predicated on logics of inequality. In the post-renaissance West, slavery is the most prominent example of a system that was highly rationalised, institutionalised, adhered to, and supported and exploited by none other than the children of the Enlightenment. The man who happened to be the principle author of one of the most renowned and influential documents ever written, the Declaration of Independence (1776), which proclaimed, “all men are created equal”, was Thomas Jefferson. He also owned 200 slaves. In the accompanying Constitution of the United States, twelve other amendments managed to take precedence over the abolition of slavery, meaning America was far from the ‘Land of the Free’ until 1865. Equal treatment of people in the modern world still requires lengthy and arduous battle. Equal rights and equal status continues to only come about after enormous sacrifices followed by relentless and incremental processes of jurisprudence. One of the most protracted struggles for equal standing throughout history and which has accompanied industrial modernity is, of course, that of class struggle. As a mass movement it represents one of the most sustained challenges to the many barriers preventing the distribution of basic universal human rights amongst the global population. Representing an epic movement of colossal proportions, the struggle for class equality, begun in the fiery cauldron of the 19th century and the industrial revolution, continued to define much of the twentieth century and has left a legacy of emancipation perhaps unrivalled on scale by any other movement at any other time in history. Overcoming capitalism’s inherent powers of oppression, the multitude of rights delivered by class struggle to once voiceless and downtrodden masses, including humane working conditions, fair wages and the distribution of wealth based on ideals of equal shares, represent the core of some of its many gains. But if anyone thought the central issues around class struggle and workers rights has been reconciled, particularly in Australia, one need only look back at the 2007 Federal election. The backlash against the Howard Government’s industrial relations legislation, branded ‘Work Choices’, should serve as a potent reminder of what the community deems fair and equitable when it comes to labor relations even amidst new economy rhetoric. Despite the epic scale and the enormous depth and breadth of class struggle across the twentieth century, in the West, the fight began to be overtaken both in profile and energy by the urgencies in equality addressed through the civil rights movement regarding race and feminism. In the 1960s the civil rights and women’s liberation movements pitted their numbers against the great bulwarks of white, male, institutional power that had up until then normalised and naturalised discrimination. Unlike class struggle, these movements rarely pursued outright revolution with its attendant social and political upheavals, and subsequent disappointments and failures. Like class struggle, however, the civil rights and feminist movements come out of a long history of slow and methodical resistance in the face of explicit suppression and willful neglect. These activists have been chipping away patiently at the monolithic racial and sexist hegemony ever since. The enormous achievements and progress made by both movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s represent a series of climaxes that came from a steady progression of resolute determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. As the class, feminist and civil rights movements infiltrated the inner workings of Western democracies in the latter half of the twentieth century they promoted equal rights through advocacy and legislative and legal frameworks resulting in a transformation of the system from within. The emancipations delivered through these struggles for equal treatment have now gone on to be the near-universal model upon which contemporary equality is both based and sought in the developed and developing world. As the quest for equal status and treatment continues to advance, feminism and civil rights have since been supplanted as radical social movements by the rise of a new identity politics. Gathering momentum in the 1980s, the demand for equal treatment across all racial, sexual and other lines of identity shifted out of a mass movement mode and into one that reflects the demands coming from a more liberalised yet ultimately atomised society. Today, the legal frameworks that support equal treatment and prevents discrimination based on racial and sexual lines are sought by groups and individuals marginalised by the State and often corporate sector through their identification with specific sexual, religious, physical or intellectual attributes. At the same time that equality and rights are being pursued on these individual levels, there is the growing urgency of displaced peoples. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate globally there are presently 8.4 million refugees and 23.7 million uprooted domestic civilians (5). Fleeing from war, persecution or natural disasters, refugee numbers are sure to grow in a future de-stabilised by Climate Change, natural resource scarcity and food price inflation. The rights and protections of refugees entitled under international frameworks and United Nations guidelines must be respected and even championed by the foreign States they journey to. Future challenges need to address the present imbalance that promotes unjust and unequal treatment of refugees stemming from recent western initiatives like Fortress Europe, offshore holding sites like Naru and Christmas Island and the entire detention centre framework. The dissemination and continued fight for equal rights amongst individuals across so many boundaries has no real precedent in human history and represents one of the greatest challenges and potential benefits of the new millennium. At the same time Globalisation and Climate Change have rewritten the rule book in terms of what is at stake across human society and now, probably for the first time in humanity’s history, the Earth’s biosphere at large. In an age where equal measures and equal shares comes in the form of an environmental carbon footprint, more than ever we need solutions that address global inequities and can deliver just and sustainable equal outcomes. The choice is a stark one; a universal, sustainable and green future, where less equals more; or an unsustainable one where more is more but where Earth ends up equaling desolate Mars. While we seek a pathway to a sustainable future, developed nations will have to reconcile a period where things are asymmetrical and positively unequal. The developed world has to carry the heavy and expensive burden required to reduce CO2 emissions while making the necessary sacrifices to stop the equation where one Westerner equals five Indians when it comes to the consumption of natural resources. In an effort to assist and maintain the momentum that has been gained in the quest for equal rights and equal treatment for all, this issue of M/C Journal puts the ideal of ‘equal’ up for scrutiny and discussion. Although there are unquestioned basic principles that have gone beyond debate with regards to ideas around equal, problematic currents within the discourses surrounding concepts based on equality, equivalence and the principles that come out of things being equal remain. Critiquing the notion of equal also means identifying areas where seeking certain equivalences are not necessarily in the public interest. Our feature article examines the challenge of finding an equal footing for Australians of different faiths. Following their paper on the right to free speech published recently in the ‘citizen’ issue of M/C Journal, Anne Aly and Lelia Green discuss the equal treatment of religious belief in secular Australia by identifying the disparities that undermine ideals of religious pluralism. In their essay entitled “Less than Equal: Secularism, Religious Pluralism and Privilege”, they identify one of the central problems facing Islamic belief systems is Western secularism’s categorisation of religious belief as private practice. While Christian based faiths have been able to negotiate the bifurcation between public life and private faith, compartmentalising religious beliefs in this manner can run contrary to Islamic practice. The authors discuss how the separation of Church and State aspires to see all religions ignored equally, but support for a moderate Islam that sees it divorced from the public sphere is secularism’s way of constructing a less than equal Islam. Debra Mayrhofer analyses the unequal treatment received by young males in mainstream media representations in her paper entitled “Mad about the Boy”. By examining TV, radio and newspaper coverage of an ‘out-of-control teenage party’ in suburban Melbourne, Mayrhofer discusses the media’s treatment of the 16-year-old boy deemed to be at the centre of it all. Not only do the many reports evidence non-compliance with the media industry’s own code of ethics but Mayrhofer argues they represent examples of blatant exploitation of the boy. As this issue of M/C Journal goes online, news is now circulating about the boy’s forthcoming appearance in the Big Brother house and the release of a cover of the Beastie Boys’ 1986 hit “Fight for Your Right (to Party)” (see News.com.au). Media reportage of this calibre, noticeable for occurring beyond the confines of tabloid outlets, is seen to perpetuate myths associated with teenage males and inciting moral panics around the behaviour and attitudes expressed by adolescent male youth.Ligia Toutant charts the contentious borders between high, low and popular culture in her paper “Can Stage Directors Make Opera and Popular Culture ‘Equal’?” Referring to recent developments in the staging of opera, Toutant discusses the impacts of phenomena like broadcasts and simulcasts of opera and contemporary settings over period settings, as well as the role played by ticket prices and the introduction of stage directors who have been drawn from film and television. Issues of equal access to high and popular culture are explored by Toutant through the paradox that sees directors of popular feature films that can cost around US$72M with ticket prices under US$10 given the task of directing a US$2M opera with ticket prices that can range upward of US$200. Much has been written about newly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Australians whereas Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson’s Apology has been somewhat overlooked. Brooke Collins-Gearing redresses this imbalance with her paper entitled “Not All Sorrys Are Created Equal: Some Are More Equal than ‘Others.’” Collins-Gearing responds to Nelson’s speech from the stance of an Indigenous woman and criticises Nelson for ignoring Aboriginal concepts of time and perpetuating the attitudes and discourses that led to the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families in the first place. Less media related and more science oriented is John Paull’s discussion on the implications behind the concept of ‘Substantial Equivalence’ being applied to genetically modified organisms (GMO) in “Beyond Equal: From Same But Different to the Doctrine of Substantial Equivalence”. Embraced by manufacturers of genetically modified foods, the principle of substantial equivalence is argued by Paull to provide the bioengineering industry with a best of both worlds scenario. On the one hand, being treated the ‘same’ as elements from unmodified foods GMO products escape the rigours of safety testing and labelling that differentiates them from unmodified foods. On the other hand, by also being defined as ‘different’ they enjoy patent protection laws and are free to pursue monopoly rights on specific foods and technologies. It is easy to envisage an environment arising in which the consumer runs the risk of eating untested foodstuffs while the corporations that have ‘invented’ these new life forms effectively prevent competition in the marketplace. This issue of M/C Journal has been a pleasure to compile. We believe the contributions are remarkable for the broad range of issues they cover and for their great timeliness, dealing as they do with recent events that are still fresh, we hope, in the reader’s mind. We also hope you enjoy reading these papers as much as we enjoyed working with their authors and encourage you to click on the ‘Respond to this Article’ function next to each paper’s heading, aware that there is the possibility for your opinions to gain equal footing with those of the contributors if your response is published. References Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1976.News.com.au. “Oh, Brother, So It’s Confirmed – Corey Set for House.” 1 May 2008. 3 May 2008 < http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,23627561-10229,00.html >.UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency. The World’s Stateless People. 2006. 2 May 2008 < http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/452611862.pdf >.

One of the most distinct places the politics of affect have played out in Australia of late has been in the struggles around the mandatory detention of undocumented migrants; specifically, in arguments about the amount of compassion border control practices should or do entail. Indeed, in 1990 the newly established Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM) published its first report, Illegal Entrants in Australia: Balancing Control and Compassion. Contemporaneous, thought not specifically concerned, with the establishment of mandatory detention for asylum seekers, this report helped shape the context in which detention policy developed. As the Bureau of Immigration and Population Research put it in their summary of the report, “the Committee endorsed a tough stance regarding all future illegal entrants but a more compassionate stance regarding those now in Australia” (24). It would be easy now to frame this report in a narrative of decline. Under a Labor government the JSCM had at least some compassion to offer; since the 1996 conservative Coalition victory any such compassion has been in increasingly short supply, if not an outright political liability. This is a popular narrative for those clinging to the belief that Labor is still, in some residual sense, a social-democratic party. I am more interested in the ways the report’s subtitle effectively predicted the framework in which debates about detention have since been constructed: control vs. compassion, with balance as the appropriate mediating term. Control and compassion are presented as the poles of a single governmental project insofar as they can be properly calibrated; but at the same time, compassion is presented as an external balance to the governmental project (control), an extra-political restriction of the political sphere. This is a very formal way to put it, but it reflects a simple, vernacular theory that circulates widely among refugee activists. It is expressed with concision in Peter Mares’ groundbreaking book on detention centres, Borderlines, in the chapter title “Compassion as a vice”. Compassion remains one of the major themes and demands of Australian refugee advocates. They thematise compassion not only for the obvious reasons that mandatory detention involves a devastating lack thereof, and that its critics are frequently driven by intense emotional connections both to particular detainees and TPV holders and, more generally, to all who suffer the effects of Australian border control. There is also a historical or conjunctural element: as Ghassan Hage has written, for the last ten years or so many forms of political opposition in Australia have organised their criticisms in terms of “things like compassion or hospitality rather than in the name of a left/right political divide” (7). This tendency is not limited to any one group; it ranges across the spectrum from Liberal Party wets to anarchist collectives, via dozens of organised groups and individuals varying greatly in their political beliefs and intentions. In this context, it would be tendentious to offer any particular example(s) of compassionate activism, so let me instead cite a complaint. In November 2002, the conservative journal Quadrant worried that morality and compassion “have been appropriated as if by right by those who are opposed to the government’s policies” on border protection (“False Refugees” 2). Thus, the right was forced to begin to speak the language of compassion as well. The Department of Immigration, often considered the epitome of the lack of compassion in Australian politics, use the phrase “Australia is a compassionate country, but…” so often they might as well inscribe it on their letterhead. Of course this is hypocritical, but it is not enough to say the right are deforming the true meaning of the term. The point is that compassion is a contested term in Australian political discourse; its meanings are not fixed, but constructed and struggled over by competing political interests. This should not be particularly surprising. Stuart Hall, following Ernesto Laclau and others, famously argued that no political term has an intrinsic meaning. Meanings are produced – articulated, and de- or re-articulated – through a dynamic and partisan “suturing together of elements that have no necessary or eternal belongingness” (10). Compassion has many possible political meanings; it can be articulated to diverse social (and antisocial) ends. If I was writing on the politics of compassion in the US, for example, I would be talking about George W. Bush’s slogan of “compassionate conservatism”, and whatever Hannah Arendt meant when she argued that “the passion of compassion has haunted and driven the best men [sic] of all revolutions” (65), I think she meant something very different by the term than do, say, Rural Australians for Refugees. As Lauren Berlant has written, “politicized feeling is a kind of thinking that too often assumes the obviousness of the thought it has” (48). Hage has also opened this assumed obviousness to question, writing that “small-‘l’ liberals often translate the social conditions that allow them to hold certain superior ethical views into a kind of innate moral superiority. They see ethics as a matter of will” (8-9). These social conditions are complex – it isn’t just that, as some on the right like to assert, compassion is a product of middle class comfort. The actual relations are more dynamic and open. Connections between class and occupational categories on the one hand, and social attitudes and values on the other, are not given but constructed, articulated and struggled over. As Hall put it, the way class functions in the distribution of ideologies is “not as the permanent class-colonization of a discourse, but as the work entailed in articulating these discourses to different political class practices” (139). The point here is to emphasise that the politics of compassion are not straightforward, and that we can recognise and affirm feelings of compassion while questioning the politics that seem to emanate from those feelings. For example, a politics that takes compassion as its basis seems ill-suited to think through issues it can’t put a human face to – that is, the systematic and structural conditions for mandatory detention and border control. Compassion’s political investments accrue to specifiable individuals and groups, and to the harms done to them. This is not, as such, a bad thing, particularly if you happen to be a specifiable individual to whom a substantive harm has been done. But compassion, going one by one, group by group, doesn’t cope well with situations where the form of the one, or the form of the disadvantaged minority, constitutes not only a basis for aid or emancipation, but also violently imposes particular ideas of modern western subjectivity. How does this violence work? I want to answer by way of the story of an Iranian man who applied for asylum in Australia in 2004. In the available documents he is referred to as “the Applicant”. The Applicant claimed asylum based on his homosexuality, and his fear of persecution should he return to Iran. His asylum application was rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal because the Tribunal did not believe he was really gay. In their decision they write that “the Tribunal was surprised to observe such a comprehensive inability on the Applicant’s part to identify any kind of emotion-stirring or dignity-arousing phenomena in the world around him”. The phenomena the Tribunal suggest might have been emotion-stirring for a gay Iranian include Oscar Wilde, Alexander the Great, Andre Gide, Greco-Roman wrestling, Bette Midler, and Madonna. I can personally think of much worse bases for immigration decisions than Madonna fandom, but there is obviously something more at stake here. (All quotes from the hearing are taken from the High Court transcript “WAAG v MIMIA”. I have been unable to locate a transcript of the original RRT decision, and so far as I know it remains unavailable. Thanks to Mark Pendleton for drawing my attention to this case, and for help with references.) Justice Kirby, one of the presiding Justices at the Applicant’s High Court appeal, responded to this with the obvious point, “Madonna, Bette Midler and so on are phenomena of the Western culture. In Iran, where there is death for some people who are homosexuals, these are not in the forefront of the mind”. Indeed, the High Court is repeatedly critical and even scornful of the Tribunal decision. When Mr Bennett, who is appearing for the Minister for Immigration in the appeal begins his case, he says, “your Honour, the primary attack which seems to be made on the decision of the –”, he is cut off by Justice Gummow, who says, “Well, in lay terms, the primary attack is that it was botched in the Tribunal, Mr Solicitor”. But Mr Bennett replies by saying no, “it was not botched. If one reads the whole of the Tribunal judgement, one sees a consistent line of reasoning and a conclusion being reached”. In a sense this is true; the deep tragicomic weirdness of the Tribunal decision is based very much in the unfolding of a particular form of homophobic rationality specific to border control and refugee determination. There have been hundreds of applications for protection specifically from homophobic persecution since 1994, when the first such application was made in Australia. As of 2002, only 22% of those applications had been successful, with the odds stacked heavily against lesbians – only 7% of lesbian applicants were successful, against a shocking enough 26% of gay men (Millbank, Imagining Otherness 148). There are a number of reasons for this. The Tribunal has routinely decided that even if persecution had occurred on the basis of homosexuality, the Applicant would be able to avoid such persecution if she or he acted ‘discreetly’, that is, hid their sexuality. The High Court ruled out this argument in 2003, but the Tribunal maintains an array of effective techniques of homophobic exclusion. For example, the Tribunal often uses the Spartacus International Gay Guide to find out about local conditions of lesbian and gay life even though it is a tourist guide book aimed at Western gay men with plenty of disposable income (Dauvergne and Millbank 178-9). And even in cases which have found in favour of particular lesbian and gay asylum seekers, the Tribunal has often gone out of its way to assert that lesbians and gay men are, nevertheless, not the subjects of human rights. States, that is, violate no rights when they legislate against lesbian and gay identities and practices, and the victims of such legislation have no rights to protection (Millbank, Fear 252-3). To go back to Madonna. Bennett’s basic point with respect to the references to the Material Girl et al is that the Tribunal specifically rules them as irrelevant. Mr Bennett: The criticism which is being made concerns a question which the Tribunal asked and what is very much treated in the Tribunal’s judgement as a passing reference. If one looks, for example, at page 34 – Kirby J: This is where Oscar, Alexander and Bette as well as Madonna turn up? Mr Bennett: Yes. The very paragraph my learned friend relies on, if one reads the sentence, what the Tribunal is saying is, “I am not looking for these things”. Gummow J: Well, why mention it? What sort of training do these people get in decision making before they are appointed to this body, Mr Solicitor? Mr Bennett: I cannot assist your Honour on that. Gummow J: No. Well, whatever it is, what happened here does not speak highly of the results of it. To gloss this, Bennett argues that the High Court are making too much of an irrelevant minor point in the decision. Mr Bennett: One would think [based on the High Court’s questions] that the only things in this judgement were the throwaway references saying, “I wasn’t looking for an understanding of Oscar Wilde”, et cetera. That is simply, when one reads the judgement as a whole, not something which goes to the centre at all… There is a small part of the judgement which could be criticized and which is put, in the judgement itself, as a subsidiary element and prefaced with the word “not”. Kirby J: But the “not” is a bit undone by what follows when I think Marilyn [Monroe] is thrown in. Mr Bennett: Well, your Honour, I am not sure why she is thrown in. Kirby J: Well, that is exactly the point. Mr Bennett holds that, as per Wayne’s World, the word “not” negates any clause to which it is attached. Justice Kirby, on the other hand, feels that this “not” comes undone, and that this undoing – and the uncertainty that accrues to it – is exactly the point. But the Tribunal won’t be tied down on this, and makes use of its “not” to hold gay stereotypes at arm’s length – which is still, of course, to hold them, at a remove that will insulate homophobia against its own illegitimacy. The Tribunal defends itself against accusations of homophobia by announcing specifically and repeatedly, in terms that consciously evoke culturally specific gay stereotypes, that it is not interested in those stereotypes. This unconvincing alibi works to prevent any inconvenient accusations of bias from butting in on the routine business of heteronormativity. Paul Morrison has noted that not many people will refuse to believe you’re gay: “Claims to normativity are characteristically met with scepticism. Only parents doubt confessions of deviance” (5). In this case, it is not a parent but a paternalistic state apparatus. The reasons the Tribunal did not believe the applicant [were] (a) because of “inconsistencies about the first sexual experience”, (b) “the uniformity of relationships”, (c) the “absence of a “gay” circle of friends”, (d) “lack of contact with the “gay” underground” and [(e)] “lack of other forms of identification”. Of these the most telling, I think, are the last three: a lack of gay friends, of contact with the gay underground, or of unspecified other forms of identification. What we can see here is that even if the Tribunal isn’t looking for the stereotypical icons of Western gay culture, it is looking for the characteristic forms of Western gay identity which, as we know, are far from universal. The assumptions about the continuities between sex acts and identities that we codify with names like lesbian, gay, homosexual and so on, often very poorly translate the ways in which non-Western populations understand and describe themselves, if they translate them at all. Gayatri Gopinath, for example, uses the term “queer diaspor[a]... in contradistinction to the globalization of “gay” identity that replicates a colonial narrative of development and progress that judges all other sexual cultures, communities, and practices against a model of Euro-American sexual identity” (11). I can’t assess the accuracy of the Tribunal’s claims regarding the Applicant’s social life, although I am inclined to scepticism. But if the Applicant in this case indeed had no gay friends, no contact with the gay underground and no other forms of identification with the big bad world of gaydom, he may obviously, nevertheless, have been a Man Who Has Sex With Men, as they sometimes say in AIDS prevention work. But this would not, either in the terms of Australian law or the UN Convention, qualify him as a refugee. You can only achieve refugee status under the terms of the Convention based on membership of a ‘specific social group’. Lesbians and gay men are held to constitute such groups, but what this means is that there’s a certain forcing of Western identity norms onto the identity and onto the body of the sexual other. This shouldn’t read simply as a moral point about how we should respect diversity. There’s a real sense that our own lives as political and sexual beings are radically impoverished to the extent we fail to foster and affirm non-Western non-heterosexualities. There’s a sustaining enrichment that we miss out on, of course, in addition to the much more serious forms of violence others will be subject to. And these are kinds of violence as well as forms of enrichment that compassionate politics, organised around the good refugee, just does not apprehend. In an essay on “The politics of bad feeling”, Sara Ahmed makes a related argument about national shame and mourning. “Words cannot be separated from bodies, or other signs of life. So the word ‘mourns’ might get attached to some subjects (some more than others represent the nation in mourning), and it might get attached to some objects (some losses more than others may count as losses for this nation)” (73). At one level, these points are often made with regard to compassion, especially as it is racialised in Australian politics; for example, that there would be a public outcry were we to detain hypothetical white boat people. But Ahmed’s point stretches further – in the necessary relation between words and bodies, she asks not only which bodies do the describing and which are described, but which are permitted a relation to language at all? If “words cannot be separated from bodies”, what happens to those bodies words fail? The queer diasporic body, so reductively captured in that phrase, is a case in point. How do we honour its singularity, as well as its sociality? How do we understand the systematicity of the forces that degrade and subjugate it? What do the politics of compassion have to offer here? It’s easy for the critic or the cynic to sneer at such politics – so liberal, so sentimental, so wet – or to deconstruct them, expose “the violence of sentimentality” (Berlant 62), show “how compassion towards the other’s suffering might sustain the violence of appropriation” (Ahmed 74). These are not moves I want to make. A guiding assumption of this essay is that there is never a unilinear trajectory between feelings and politics. Any particular affect or set of affects may be progressive, reactionary, apolitical, or a combination thereof, in a given situation; compassionate politics are no more necessarily bad than they are necessarily good. On the other hand, “not necessarily bad” is a weak basis for a political movement, especially one that needs to understand and negotiate the ways the enclosures and borders of late capitalism mass-produce bodies we can’t put names to, people outside familiar and recognisable forms of identity and subjectivity. As Etienne Balibar has put it, “in utter disregard of certain borders – or, in certain cases, under covers of such borders – indefinable and impossible identities emerge in various places, identities which are, as a consequence, regarded as non-identities. However, their existence is, none the less, a life-and-death question for large numbers of human beings” (77). Any answer to that question starts with our compassion – and our rage – at an unacceptable situation. But it doesn’t end there. References Ahmed, Sara. “The Politics of Bad Feeling.” Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association Journal 1.1 (2005): 72-85. Arendt, Hannah. On Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. Balibar, Etienne. We, the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship. Trans. James Swenson. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2004. Berlant, Lauren. “The Subject of True Feeling: Pain, Privacy and Politics.” Cultural Studies and Political Theory. Ed. Jodi Dean. Ithaca and Cornell: Cornell UP, 2000. 42-62. Bureau of Immigration and Population Research. Illegal Entrants in Australia: An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994. Dauvergne, Catherine and Jenni Millbank. “Cruisingforsex.com: An Empirical Critique of the Evidentiary Practices of the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal.” Alternative Law Journal 28 (2003): 176-81. “False Refugees and Misplaced Compassion” Editorial. Quadrant 390 (2002): 2-4. Hage, Ghassan. Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society. Annandale: Pluto, 2003. Hall, Stuart. The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left. London: Verso, 1988. Joint Standing Committee on Migration. Illegal Entrants in Australia: Balancing Control and Compassion. Canberra: The Committee, 1990. Mares, Peter. Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001. Millbank, Jenni. “Imagining Otherness: Refugee Claims on the Basis of Sexuality in Canada and Australia.” Melbourne University Law Review 26 (2002): 144-77. ———. “Fear of Persecution or Just a Queer Feeling? Refugee Status and Sexual orientation in Australia.” Alternative Law Journal 20 (1995): 261-65, 299. Morrison, Paul. The Explanation for Everything: Essays on Sexual Subjectivity. New York: New York UP, 2001. Pendleton, Mark. “Borderline.” Bite 2 (2004): 3-4. “WAAG v MIMIA [2004]. HCATrans 475 (19 Nov. 2004)” High Court of Australia Transcripts. 2005. 17 Oct. 2005 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2004/475.html>. Citation reference for this article MLA Style McGrath, Shane. "Compassionate Refugee Politics?." M/C Journal 8.6 (2005). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/02-mcgrath.php>. APA Style McGrath, S. (Dec. 2005) "Compassionate Refugee Politics?," M/C Journal, 8(6). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/02-mcgrath.php>.

In this paper we explore the rise of anti-gambling apps in the context of the massive expansion of gambling in new spheres of life (online and offline) and an acceleration in strategies of anticipatory and individualised management of harm caused by gambling. These apps, and the techniques and forms of labour they demand, are examples of and a mechanism through which a mode of governance premised on ‘self-care’ and ‘self-control’ is articulated and put into practice. To support this argument, we explore two government initiatives in the Australian context. Quit Pokies, a mobile app project between the Moreland City Council, North East Primary Care Partnership and the Victorian Local Governance Association, is an example of an emerging service paradigm of ‘self-care’ that uses online and mobile platforms with geo-location to deliver real time health and support interventions. A similar mobile app, Gambling Terminator, was launched by the NSW government in late 2012. Both apps work on the premise that interrupting a gaming session through a trigger, described by Quit Pokies’ creator as a “tap on the shoulder” provides gamblers the opportunity to take a reflexive stance and cut short their gambling practice in the course of play. We critically examine these apps as self-disciplining techniques of contemporary neo-liberalism directed towards anticipating and reducing the personal harm and social risk associated with gambling. We analyse the material and discursive elements, and new forms of user labour, through which this consumable media is framed and assembled. We argue that understanding the role of these apps, and mobile media more generally, in generating new techniques and technologies of the self, is important for identifying emerging modes of governance and their implications at a time when gambling is going through an immense period of cultural normalisation in online and offline environments. The Australian context is particularly germane for the way gambling permeates everyday spaces of sociality and leisure, and the potential of gambling interventions to interrupt and re-configure these spaces and institute a new kind of subject-state relation. Gambling in Australia Though a global phenomenon, the growth and expansion of gambling manifests distinctly in Australia because of its long cultural and historical attachment to games of chance. Australians are among the biggest betters and losers in the world (Ziolkowski), mainly on Electronic Gaming Machines (EGM) or pokies. As of 2013, according to The World Count of Gaming Machine (Ziolkowski), there were 198,150 EGMs in the country, of which 197,274 were slot machines, with the rest being electronic table games of roulette, blackjack and poker. There are 118 persons per machine in Australia. New South Wales is the jurisdiction with most EGMs (95,799), followed by Queensland (46,680) and Victoria (28,758) (Ziolkowski). Gambling is significant in Australian cultural history and average Australian households spend at least some money on different forms of gambling, from pokies to scratch cards, every year (Worthington et al.). In 1985, long-time gambling researcher Geoffrey Caldwell stated thatAustralians seem to take a pride in the belief that we are a nation of gamblers. Thus we do not appear to be ashamed of our gambling instincts, habits and practices. Gambling is regarded by most Australians as a normal, everyday practice in contrast to the view that gambling is a sinful activity which weakens the moral fibre of the individual and the community. (Caldwell 18) The omnipresence of gambling opportunities in most Australian states has been further facilitated by the availability of online and mobile gambling and gambling-like spaces. Social casino apps, for instance, are widely popular in Australia. The slots social casino app Slotomania was the most downloaded product in the iTunes store in 2012 (Metherell). In response to the high rate of different forms of gambling in Australia, a range of disparate interest groups have identified the expansion of gambling as a concerning trend. Health researchers have pointed out that online gamblers have a higher risk of experiencing problems with gambling (at 30%) compared to 15% in offline bettors (Hastings). The incidence of gambling problems is also disproportionately high in specific vulnerable demographics, including university students (Cervini), young adults prone to substance abuse problems (Hayatbakhsh et al.), migrants (Tanasornnarong et al.; Scull & Woolcock; Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka), pensioners (Hing & Breen), female players (Lee), Aboriginal communities (Young et al.; McMillen & Donnelly) and individuals experiencing homelessness (Holsworth et al.). While there is general recognition of the personal and public health impacts of gambling in Australia, there is a contradiction in the approach to gambling at a governance level. On one hand, its expansion is promoted and even encouraged by the federal and state governments, as gambling is an enormous source of revenue, as evidenced, for example, by the construction of the new Crown casino in Barangaroo in Sydney (Markham & Young). Campaigns trying to limit the use of poker machines, which are associated with concerns over problem gambling and addiction, are deemed by the gambling lobby as un-Australian. Paradoxically, efforts to restrict gambling or control gambling winnings have also been described as un-Australian, such as in the Australian Taxation Office’s campaign against MONA’s founder, David Walsh, whose immense art collection was acquired with the funds from a gambling scheme (Global Mail). On the other hand, people experiencing problems with gambling are often categorised as addicts and the ultimate blame (and responsibility) is attributed to the individual. In Australia, attitudes towards people who are arguably addicted to gambling are different than those towards individuals afflicted by alcohol or drug abuse (Jean). While “Australians tend to be sympathetic towards people with alcohol and other drug addictions who seek help,” unless it is seen as one of the more socially acceptable forms of occasional, controlled gambling (such as sports betting, gambling on the Melbourne Cup or celebrating ANZAC Day with Two-Up), gambling is framed as an individual “problem” and “moral failing” (Jean). The expansion of gambling is the backdrop to another development in health care and public health discourse, which have for some time now been devoted to the ideal of what Lupton has called the “digitally engaged patient” (Lupton). Technologies are central to the delivery of this model of health service provision that puts the patient at the centre of, and responsible for, their own health and medical care. Lupton has pointed out how this discourse, while appearing new, is in fact the latest version of the 1970s emphasis on the ‘patient as consumer’, an idea given an extra injection by the massive development and availability of digital and interactive web-based and mobile platforms, many of these directed towards the provision of health and health-related information and services. What this means for patients is that, rather than relying solely on professional medical expertise and care, the patient is encouraged to take on some of this medical/health work to conduct practices of ‘self-care’ (Lupton). The Discourse of ‘Self-Management’ and ‘Self-Care’ The model of ‘self-care’ and ‘self-management’ by ‘empowering’ digital technology has now become a dominant discourse within health and medicine, and is increasingly deployed across a range of related sectors such as welfare services. In recent research conducted on homelessness and mobile media, for example, government department staff involved in the reform of welfare services referred to ‘self-management’ as the new service paradigm that underpins their digital reform strategy. Echoing ideas and language similar to the “digitally engaged patient”, customers of Centrelink, Medicare and other ‘human services’ are being encouraged (through planned strategic initiatives aimed at shifting targeted customer groups online) to transact with government services digitally and manage their own personal profiles and health information. One departmental staff member described this in terms of an “opportunity cost”, the savings in time otherwise spent standing in long queues in service centres (Humphry). Rather than view these examples as isolated incidents taking place within or across sectors or disciplines, these are better understood as features of an emerging ‘discursive formation’ , a term Foucault used to describe the way in which particular institutions and/or the state establish a regime of truth, or an accepted social reality and which gives definition to a new historical episteme and subject: in this case that of the self-disciplined and “digitally engaged medical/health patient”. As Foucault explained, once this subject has become fully integrated into and across the social field, it is no longer easy to excavate, since it lies below the surface of articulation and is held together through everyday actions, habits and institutional routines and techniques that appear to be universal, necessary and/normal. The way in which this citizen subject becomes a universal model and norm, however, is not a straightforward or linear story and since we are in the midst of its rise, is not a story with a foretold conclusion. Nevertheless, across a range of different fields of governance: medicine; health and welfare, we can see signs of this emerging figure of the self-caring “digitally engaged patient” constituted from a range of different techniques and practices of self-governance. In Australia, this figure is at the centre of a concerted strategy of service digitisation involving a number of cross sector initiatives such as Australia’s National EHealth Strategy (2008), the National Digital Economy Strategy (2011) and the Australian Public Service Mobile Roadmap (2013). This figure of the self-caring “digitally engaged” patient, aligns well and is entirely compatible with neo-liberal formulations of the individual and the reduced role of the state as a provider of welfare and care. Berry refers to Foucault’s definition of neoliberalism as outlined in his lectures to the College de France as a “particular form of post-welfare state politics in which the state essentially outsources the responsibility of the ‘well-being' of the population” (65). In the case of gambling, the neoliberal defined state enables the wedding of two seemingly contradictory stances: promoting gambling as a major source of revenue and capitalisation on the one hand, and identifying and treating gambling addiction as an individual pursuit and potential risk on the other. Risk avoidance strategies are focused on particular groups of people who are targeted for self-treatment to avoid the harm of gambling addiction, which is similarly framed as individual rather than socially and systematically produced. What unites and makes possible this alignment of neoliberalism and the new “digitally engaged subject/patient” is first and foremost, the construction of a subject in a chronic state of ill health. This figure is positioned as terminal from the start. They are ‘sick’, a ‘patient’, an ‘addict’: in need of immediate and continuous treatment. Secondly, this neoliberal patient/addict is enabled (we could even go so far as to say ‘empowered’) by digital technology, especially smartphones and the apps available through these devices in the form of a myriad of applications for intervening and treating ones afflictions. These apps range fromself-tracking programs such as mood regulators through to social media interventions. Anti-Pokie Apps and the Neoliberal Gambler We now turn to two examples which illustrate this alignment between neoliberalism and the new “digitally engaged subject/patient” in relation to gambling. Anti-gambling apps function to both replace or ‘take the place’ of institutions and individuals actively involved in the treatment of problem gambling and re-engineer this service through the logics of ‘self-care’ and ‘self-management’. Here, we depart somewhat from Foucault’s model of disciplinary power summed up in the institution (with the prison exemplifying this disciplinary logic) and move towards Deleuze’s understanding of power as exerted by the State not through enclosures but through diffuse and rhizomatic information flows and technologies (Deleuze). At the same time, we retain Foucault’s attention to the role and agency of the user in this power-dynamic, identifiable in the technics of self-regulation and in his ideas on governmentality. We now turn to analyse these apps more closely, and explore the way in which these articulate and perform these disciplinary logics. The app Quit Pokies was a joint venture of the North East Primary Care Partnership, the Victorian Local Governance Association and the Moreland City Council, launched in early 2014. The idea of the rational, self-reflexive and agentic user is evident in the description of the app by app developer Susan Rennie who described it this way: What they need is for someone to tap them on the shoulder and tell them to get out of there… I thought the phone could be that tap on the shoulder. The “tap on the shoulder” feature uses geolocation and works by emitting a sound alert when the user enters a gaming venue. It also provides information about each user’s losses at that venue. This “tap on the shoulder” is both an alert and a reprimand from past gambling sessions. Through the Responsible Gambling Fund, the NSW government also launched an anti-pokie app in 2013, Gambling Terminator, including a similar feature. The app runs on Apple and Android smartphone platforms, and when a person is inside a gambling venue in New South Wales it: sends reminder messages that interrupt gaming-machine play and gives you a chance to re-think your choices. It also provides instant access to live phone and online counselling services which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Google Play Store) Yet an approach that tries to prevent harm by anticipating the harm that will come from gambling at the point of entering a venue, also eliminates the chance of potential negotiations and encounters a user might have during a visit to the pub and how this experience will unfold. It reduces the “tap on the shoulder”, which may involve a far wider set of interactions and affects, to a software operation and it frames the pub or the club (which under some conditions functions as hubs for socialization and community building) as dangerous places that should be avoided. This has the potential to lead to further stigmatisation of gamblers, their isolation and their exclusion from everyday spaces. Moreland Mayor, Councillor Tapinos captures the implicit framing of self-care as a private act in his explanation of the app as a method for problem gamblers to avoid being stigmatised by, for example, publicly attending group meetings. Yet, curiously, the app has the potential to create a new kind of public stigmatisation through potentially drawing other peoples’ attention to users’ gambling play (as the alarm is triggered) generating embarrassment and humiliation at being “caught out” in an act framed as aberrant and literally, “alarming”. Both Quit Pokies and Gambling Terminator require their users to perform ‘acts’ of physical and affective labour aimed at behaviour change and developing the skills of self-control. After downloading Quit Pokies on the iPhone and launching the app, the user is presented an initial request: “Before you set up this app. please write a list of the pokies venues that you regularly use because the app will ask you to identify these venues so it can send you alerts if you spend time in these locations. It will also use your set up location to identify other venues you might use so we recommend that you set up the App in the location where you spend most time. Congratulation on choosing Quit Pokies.”Self-performed processes include installation, setting up, updating the app software, programming in gambling venues to be detected by the smartphone’s inbuilt GPS, monitoring and responding to the program’s alerts and engaging in alternate “legitimate” forms of leisure such as going to the movies or the library, having coffee with a friend or browsing Facebook. These self-performed labours can be understood as ‘technologies of the self’, a term used by Foucault to describe the way in which social members are obliged to regulate and police their ‘selves’ through a range of different techniques. While Foucault traces the origins of ‘technologies of the self’ to the Greco-Roman texts with their emphasis on “care of oneself” as one of the duties of citizenry, he notes the shift to “self-knowledge” under Christianity around the 8th century, where it became bound up in ideals of self-renunciation and truth. Quit Pokies and Gambling Terminator may signal a recuperation of the ideal of self-care, over confession and disclosure. These apps institute a set of bodily activities and obligations directed to the user’s health and wellbeing, aided through activities of self-examination such as charting your recovery through a Recovery Diary and implementing a number of suggested “Strategies for Change” such as “writing a list” and “learning about ways to manage your money better”. Writing is central to the acts of self-examination. As Jeremy Prangnell, gambling counsellor from Mission Australia for Wollongong and Shellharbour regions explained the app is “like an electronic diary, which is a really common tool for people who are trying to change their behaviour” (Thompson). The labours required by users are also implicated in the functionality and performance of the platform itself suggesting the way in which ‘technologies of the self’ simultaneously function as a form of platform work: user labour that supports and sustains the operation of digital systems and is central to the performance and continuation of digital capitalism in general (Humphry, Demanding Media). In addition to the acts of labour performed on the self and platform, bodies are themselves potentially mobilised (and put into new circuits of consumption and production), as a result of triggers to nudge users away from gambling venues, towards a range of other cultural practices in alternative social spaces considered to be more legitimate.Conclusion Whether or not these technological interventions are effective or successful is yet to be tested. Indeed, the lack of recent activity in the community forums and preponderance of issues reported on installation and use suggests otherwise, pointing to a need for more empirical research into these developments. Regardless, what we’ve tried to identify is the way in which apps such as these embody a new kind of subject-state relation that emphasises self-control of gambling harm and hastens the divestment of institutional and social responsibility at a time when gambling is going through an immense period of expansion in many respects backed by and sanctioned by the state. Patterns of smartphone take up in the mainstream population and the rise of the so called ‘mobile only population’ (ACMA) provide support for this new subject and service paradigm and are often cited as the rationale for digital service reform (APSMR). Media convergence feeds into these dynamics: service delivery becomes the new frontier for the merging of previously separate media distribution systems (Dwyer). Letters, customer service centres, face-to-face meetings and web sites, are combined and in some instances replaced, with online and mobile media platforms, accessible from multiple and mobile devices. These changes are not, however, simply the migration of services to a digital medium with little effective change to the service itself. Health and medical services are re-invented through their technological re-assemblage, bringing into play new meanings, practices and negotiations among the state, industry and neoliberal subjects (in the case of problem gambling apps, a new subjectivity, the ‘neoliberal addict’). These new assemblages are as much about bringing forth a new kind of subject and mode of governance, as they are a solution to problem gambling. This figure of the self-treating “gambler addict” can be seen to be a template for, and prototype of, a more generalised and universalised self-governing citizen: one that no longer needs or makes demands on the state but who can help themselves and manage their own harm. Paradoxically, there is the potential for new risks and harms to the very same users that accompanies this shift: their outright exclusion as a result of deprivation from basic and assumed digital access and literacy, the further stigmatisation of gamblers, the elimination of opportunities for proximal support and their exclusion from everyday spaces. References Albarrán-Torres, César. “Gambling-Machines and the Automation of Desire.” Platform: Journal of Media and Communication 5.1 (2013). Australian Communications and Media Authority. “Australians Cut the Cord.” Research Snapshots. Sydney: ACMA (2013) Berry, David. Critical Theory and the Digital. Broadway, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014 Berry, David. Stunlaw: A Critical Review of Politics, Arts and Technology. 2012. ‹http://stunlaw.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/code-foucault-and-neoliberal.html›. Caldwell, G. “Some Historical and Sociological Characteristics of Australian Gambling.” Gambling in Australia. Eds. G. Caldwell, B. Haig, M. Dickerson, and L. Sylan. Sydney: Croom Helm Australia, 1985. 18-27. Cervini, E. “High Stakes for Gambling Students.” The Age 8 Nov. 2013. ‹http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/high-stakes-for-gambling-students-20131108-2x5cl.html›. Deleuze, Gilles. "Postscript on the Societies of Control." October (1992): 3-7. Foucault, Michel. “Technologies of the Self.” Eds. Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman and Patrick H. Hutton. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988 Hastings, E. “Online Gamblers More at Risk of Addiction.” Herald Sun 13 Oct. 2013. ‹http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/online-gamblers-more-at-risk-of-addiction/story-fni0fiyv-1226739184629#!›.Hayatbakhsh, Mohammad R., et al. "Young Adults' Gambling and Its Association with Mental Health and Substance Use Problems." Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 36.2 (2012): 160-166. Hing, Nerilee, and Helen Breen. "A Profile of Gaming Machine Players in Clubs in Sydney, Australia." Journal of Gambling Studies 18.2 (2002): 185-205. Holdsworth, Louise, Margaret Tiyce, and Nerilee Hing. "Exploring the Relationship between Problem Gambling and Homelessness: Becoming and Being Homeless." Gambling Research 23.2 (2012): 39. Humphry, Justine. “Demanding Media: Platform Work and the Shaping of Work and Play.” Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture, 10.2 (2013): 1-13. Humphry, Justine. “Homeless and Connected: Mobile Phones and the Internet in the Lives of Homeless Australians.” Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. Sep. 2014. ‹https://www.accan.org.au/grants/completed-grants/619-homeless-and-connected›.Lee, Timothy Jeonglyeol. "Distinctive Features of the Australian Gambling Industry and Problems Faced by Australian Women Gamblers." Tourism Analysis 14.6 (2009): 867-876. Lupton, D. “The Digitally Engaged Patient: Self-Monitoring and Self-Care in the Digital Health Era.” Social Theory & Health 11.3 (2013): 256-70. Markham, Francis, and Martin Young. “Packer’s Barangaroo Casino and the Inevitability of Pokies.” The Conversation 9 July 2013. ‹http://theconversation.com/packers-barangaroo-casino-and-the-inevitability-of-pokies-15892›. Markham, Francis, and Martin Young. “Who Wins from ‘Big Gambling’ in Australia?” The Conversation 6 Mar. 2014. ‹http://theconversation.com/who-wins-from-big-gambling-in-australia-22930›.McMillen, Jan, and Katie Donnelly. "Gambling in Australian Indigenous Communities: The State of Play." The Australian Journal of Social Issues 43.3 (2008): 397. Ohtsuka, Keis, and Thai Ohtsuka. “Vietnamese Australian Gamblers’ Views on Luck and Winning: Universal versus Culture-Specific Schemas.” Asian Journal of Gambling Issues and Public Health 1.1 (2010): 34-46. Scull, Sue, Geoffrey Woolcock. “Problem Gambling in Non-English Speaking Background Communities in Queensland, Australia: A Qualitative Exploration.” International Gambling Studies 5.1 (2005): 29-44. Tanasornnarong, Nattaporn, Alun Jackson, and Shane Thomas. “Gambling among Young Thai People in Melbourne, Australia: An Exploratory Study.” International Gambling Studies 4.2 (2004): 189-203. Thompson, Angela, “Live Gambling Odds Tipped for the Chop.” Illawarra Mercury 22 May 2013: 6. Metherell, Mark. “Virtual Pokie App a Hit - But ‘Not Gambling.’” Sydney Morning Herald 13 Jan. 2013. ‹http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/virtual-pokie-app-a-hit--but-not-gambling-20130112-2cmev.html#ixzz2QVlsCJs1›. Worthington, Andrew, et al. "Gambling Participation in Australia: Findings from the National Household Expenditure Survey." Review of Economics of the Household 5.2 (2007): 209-221. Young, Martin, et al. "The Changing Landscape of Indigenous Gambling in Northern Australia: Current Knowledge and Future Directions." International Gambling Studies 7.3 (2007): 327-343. Ziolkowski, S. “The World Count of Gaming Machines 2013.” Gaming Technologies Association, 2014. ‹http://www.gamingta.com/pdf/World_Count_2014.pdf›.