From Raw to Cooked: Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” through a Lévi-Straussian Lens

In Fish Cheeks a scant 500 words short story, Amy Tan serves up a coming of age story about an Asian American teenage girl. Tan’s setting of Christmas for a traditional Chinese dinner, shared with the American boy on whom the protagonist, Amy, has a crush, emphasizes the girl’s dual identity as an Asian American, a reality she is confronting head on. Forced to see her family traditions through the eyes of a white, Christian boy, she finds those traditions distasteful. Rather than delighting in the dishes her mother has lovingly prepared, she is revolted by them, fixated instead on the raw components of the meal she observes in her mother’s kitchen. The repeated references to bizarre ingredients are meant to do more however than elicit disgust. Tan’s emphasis on the uncooked nature of the food can be read as symbolic of Amy’s own rawness and immaturity, recalling anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theories on the categories of the raw and the cooked

The Correlation Between Ecclesial Communion and the Recognition of Ministry

Recognition of an imperfect communion between churches, the recognition of ecclesial communities as churches, and the mutual recognition of ministry are treated as separate and discrete topics in ecumenical conversations. Nevertheless, an ecclesiology of communion suggests that ecclesial recognition and recognition of ministry within a relationship of imperfect communion should be correlated with each other in such a way that an imperfect ecclesial communion contributes to an incremental recognition of ministry in ecumenical relationships. This essay explores this question with specific references to the concept of communion in Chapter II, part D and E of the World Council of Churches document, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (2013)

The Shifting Ecumenical Landscape at the 2017 Reformation Centenary

The 2017 Reformation Centenary is the first commemoration to take place during the ecumenical age and marks fifty years of Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue. The current ecumenical landscape is a tale of two cities, one of ecclesial fragmentation that exists simultaneously with new relationships of communion and ecumenical progress. The way forward requires the discernment of deeper commonalities among ecclesial tradition, a correlation of doctrines, a “pastoral ecumenism,” and a hierarchy of virtues in addition to a hierarchy of truths

What is a Fair Reponse to Juvenile Crime?

The question of how to deal fairly and effectively with the problem of juvenile crime has long perplexed the public and policy makers. The current juvenile justice system in New York State reflects this uncertainty -- as it simultaneously employs two completely different models for the adjudication of juveniles accused of unlawful acts. The first model emphasizes the provision of rehabilitative services for delinquent youth through noncriminal proceedings in the Family Court. The second model stresses the use of punitive sanctions in the adult criminal courts for more serious juvenile offenders. To begin to sort through these models, this Essay first examines the development of the current juvenile justice system in New York State. It then examines the assumptions and values underlying these two models. This Essay then contends that increased prosecution of juveniles would by unlikely to improve the current situation. The Essay then concludes by noting factors that have limited the fairness and effectiveness of the Family Court\u27s rehabilitative model

Baptism

This chapter surveys commonalities and divergences with regard to the theology and practice of baptism that are reflected in the World Council of Churches convergence document on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, and considers in particular the Anabaptist, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox, Quaker, and Reformed traditions. Major topics treated include: the role of faith with regard to baptism, interconnections between baptism, faith, and justification; the relationship between baptism and patterns of initiation in various traditions; and elements of the ancient catechumenate in contemporary rites. The chapter argues that in the expansive theology of baptism in the catechumenal tradition baptism is understood to be transformative and regenerative, eucharistic in orientation and meaning, eschatological in orientation, and ecclesial in context. The chapter finally summarizes the achievements of ecumenical dialogue and identifies remaining issues