Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) contributed important wisdom to Christian spirituality on discernment, yet her own discernment regarding her engagement in papal politics has not been studied. From the ...perspective of Christian spirituality studies, this article examines the critical text of her letters in relationship with historical events to offer a description of the instances where Catherine's discernment differed from that of others committed to a spiritual journey and to seeking the good of the church. Catherine's view of God's will regarding the papal interdict of Florence controverted that of several ecclesial leaders more likely to be right. Catherine's advocacy for the crusade differed from the advice Birgitta of Sweden gave Gregory XI, advice corroborated by history. Two of Catherine's spiritual mentors made decisions they discerned to be right regarding missions on which they were sent by the pope, whereas Catherine reproached them for these choices. Furthermore, Catherine was certain that the election of Urban VI had been blessed by God, whereas another saint considered Clement VII to be the true pope. The above analysis is followed by an examination of influences on Catherine's experience of seeking and implementing God's will, seeking to account for the divergence between her discernment and that of others. In conclusion, while Catherine was confident in her union with God and, therefore, God's guidance, she was also influenced by her unbending beliefs about truth and by the manner these beliefs were conditioned by her personality and sociocultural context. Contribution This article contributes to scholarship in Christian spirituality on the spirituality of Catherine of Siena and on discernment, studying Catherine of Siena's discernment regarding papal politics where she differed from others whose discernment can be interpreted as more likely to be congruent with God's will. The reasons for her controversial discernment are explored.
Can spiritual practice encourage transformative learning? In this article, we unpack how spiritual practices from the Buddhist tradition—mindfulness—and the Quaker tradition—discernment—encourage the ...attainment of moral reflexivity and the capacity to transform self in individual and relational organizational contexts, respectively. We also show how moral reflexivity and self-transformation are mutually reinforcing and promote a transformational cycle of management learning. We propose that “mindful reflexivity”, a foundational model of spiritually informed moral reflexivity, can contribute to new ways of management learning through its context sensitivity and ethical orientation to foster the kinds of reflexivity needed for responsible management. Our article concludes with implications for management learning theory and practice, and we offer pathways for future research.
It is not always easy when first approaching a troubled person to know the source of their distress. For instance, how does one differentiate between demonic possession and demonic oppression? Is ...there a difference? This article contends that there is a difference, and an explanation of this will be presented in this chapter. The article will probe the differences between demonic influence and psychological disorders because they can present with similar symptoms. It will also highlight the importance of considering the possibility of prior occultic involvement by seemingly mentally ill persons during counselling. In this article, attention will be given to the central and indispensable role of the Holy Spirit in discerning the presence of demonic activity in any given situation. Certain key occultic terms and practices will be unpacked to inform and empower helpers in their bid to facilitate the deliverance of occult dabblers from bondage, with special consideration given to witchcraft due to its unfortunate prevalence in the African context. In this article, a literature review methodology is employed.
Misinformation represents one of the greatest challenges for the functioning of societies in the information age. Drawing on a signal-detection framework, the current research investigated two ...distinct aspects of misinformation susceptibility: truth sensitivity, conceptualized as accurate discrimination between true and false information, and partisan bias, conceptualized as lower acceptance threshold for ideology-congruent information compared to ideology-incongruent information. Four preregistered experiments (n = 2,423) examined (a) truth sensitivity and partisan bias in veracity judgments and decisions to share information and (b) determinants and correlates of truth sensitivity and partisan bias in responses to misinformation. Although participants were able to distinguish between true and false information to a considerable extent, sharing decisions were largely unaffected by actual information veracity. A strong partisan bias emerged for both veracity judgments and sharing decisions, with partisan bias being unrelated to the overall degree of truth sensitivity. While truth sensitivity increased as a function of cognitive reflection during encoding, partisan bias increased as a function of subjective confidence. Truth sensitivity and partisan bias were both associated with misinformation susceptibility, but partisan bias was a stronger and more reliable predictor of misinformation susceptibility than truth sensitivity. Implications and open questions for future research are discussed.
Public Significance Statement
This research investigated two distinct aspects of misinformation susceptibility: (a) the ability to accurately distinguish between true and false information (truth sensitivity) and (b) the tendency to accept information that is congruent with one's ideological beliefs and dismiss information that is incongruent with one's ideological beliefs (partisan bias). The findings suggest that interventions to reduce misinformation susceptibility should adopt a multi-faceted approach targeting both factors.
The question of the term “Eucharistic Sharing” being a barrier or a bridge to ecume nism calls for a wider review, as it is only one of several terms used to speak of eucharist across denominational ...lines. It is important to delineate between them, to determine which is more appropriate, and in what context. This paper presents the question through the hermeneutic of interchurch families, where the question of eucharistic sharing impacts Sunday by Sunday. The term itself, while valuable as a touchstone, demonstrates its full value only insofar as the hard work of discerning appropriate terminology takes place, by the couple together with their churches. It is that work, at once challenging and rewarding, which will build the bridge across ecumenical estrangements.
•A new test of creativity evaluation skills is presented.•More creative people evaluate the creativity of others’ ideas more accurately.•People tend to underestimate the creativity of ...ideas.•Openness, intelligence and language competence predict lower underestimation.
An accurate judgement of the creativity of ideas is seen as an important component underlying creative performance, and also seems relevant to effectively support the creativity of others. In this article we describe the development of a novel test for the assessment of creativity evaluation skills, which was designed to be part of an admission test for teacher education. The final test presents 72 ideas that have to be judged as being common, inappropriate, or creative. Two studies examined the psychometric quality of the test, and explored relationships of creativity evaluation skills with cognitive ability and personality. In the first study, we observed that creativity evaluation skills are positively correlated with divergent thinking creativity and creative achievement, which suggests that evaluation skills are relevant for creative ideation as well as creative accomplishment. Across both studies, people tended to underestimate the creativity of ideas. Openness, intelligence and language competence predicted higher creativity evaluation skills, and this effect was partly mediated by a less negative evaluation bias. These findings contribute to our understanding of why people sometimes fail to recognize the creativity in others.
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