Social cognition is critical for successfully navigating social relationships. Current evidence suggests that older adults exhibit poorer performance in several core social-cognitive domains compared to younger adults. Neurocognitive decline is commonly discussed as one of the key arbiters of age-related decline in social-cognitive abilities. While evidence supports this notion, age effects are likely attributable to multiple factors. This paper aims to recontextualize past evidence by focusing issues of motivation, task design, and representative samples. In light of these issues, we identify (...) directions for future research to aide our understanding of social-cognitive aging. (shrink)

Clinical Ethics, Ahead of Print. This paper is a response to a recent BMJ Blog: ‘The duty to treat: where do the limits lie?’ Members of the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Service Clinical Ethics Group reflected on arguments in the Blog in relation to resuscitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.Clinicians have had to contend with ever-changing and conflicting guidance from the Resuscitation Council UK and Public Health England regarding personal protective equipment requirements in resuscitation situations. St John Ambulance had different guidance (...) for first responders.The situation regarding resuscitation led the CEG to consider ethical aspects of health care professionals’ responses to the need for resuscitation during COVID-19. Members agreed that professionals should, ideally, have the level of PPE required for an aerosol generating procedure. However, there was no consensus regarding professionals’ duty to care when this is not available. On the one hand, it was agreed that the casualty/patient’s interests regarding resuscitation should be prioritised due to professionals’ contract with the public and professional privilege. On the other hand, risk thresholds were considered relevant to individual decision-making and professionals’ duty to care. All agreed that decision-making should not be influenced by rewards or reprimands. It was agreed also that decisions to resuscitate should not be considered as moral heroism or supererogatory - regardless of PPE availability - but rather as ‘minimally decent’. We agreed that it may be acceptable for professionals, with good reasons, to opt out of resuscitation attempts and these should be reflected on and discussed before the event. (shrink)

Digital communication between a patient and their clinician offers the potential for improved patient care, particularly for young people with long term conditions who are at risk of service disengagement. However, its use raises a number of ethical questions which have not been explored in empirical studies. The objective of this study was to examine, from the patient and clinician perspective, the ethical implications of the use of digital clinical communication in the context of young people living with long-term conditions. (...) A total of 129 semi-structured interviews, 59 with young people and 70 with healthcare professionals, from 20 United Kingdom -based specialist clinics were conducted as part of the LYNC study. Transcripts from five sites were read by a core team to identify explicit and implicit ethical issues and develop descriptive ethical codes. Our subsequent thematic analysis was developed iteratively with reference to professional and ethical norms. Clinician participants saw digital clinical communication as potentially increasing patient empowerment and autonomy; improving trust between patient and healthcare professional; and reducing harm because of rapid access to clinical advice. However, they also described ethical challenges, including: difficulty with defining and maintaining boundaries of confidentiality; uncertainty regarding the level of consent required; and blurring of the limits of a clinician’s duty of care when unlimited access is possible. Paradoxically, the use of digital clinical communication can create dependence rather than promote autonomy in some patients. Patient participants varied in their understanding of, and concern about, confidentiality in the context of digital communication. An overarching theme emerging from the data was a shifting of the boundaries of the patient-clinician relationship and the professional duty of care in the context of use of clinical digital communication. The ethical implications of clinical digital communication are complex and go beyond concerns about confidentiality and consent. Any development of this form of communication should consider its impact on the patient-clinician-relationship, and include appropriate safeguards to ensure that professional ethical obligations are adhered to. (shrink)

Each contributor to this book has used personal experience as the basis from which to frame his individual sociological perspectives. Because they have personalized their work, their accounts are real, and recognizable as having come from 'real' persons, about 'real' experiences. There are no objectively-distanced disembodied third person entities in these accounts. These writers are actual people whose stories will make you laugh, cry, think, and want to know more.

Figure emblématique de l’art de l’installation, Ann Hamilton crée depuis près de quarante ans des environnements immersifs complexes et poétiques, constitués d’objets et de matériaux divers convoquant tous les sens du spectateur et dont les surprenantes associations, ou leur importante accumulation, provoquent chez ce dernier de multiples réponses affectives et cognitives, bien souvent difficiles à décrire ou à restituer par le simple langage. Absorbé par la présence physique et sensible de ce qui l’entoure, le spectateur est invité à s’abandonner (...) aussi longtemps que possible dans ce qu’il éprouve, à se mettre à l’écoute de la situation et du savoir intuitif que lui livre son corps en interaction avec le lieu. L’expérience de l’œuvre, pour Ann Hamilton, est en effet avant tout un « acte d’attention ». Cette notion d’attention est particulièrement importante, à une époque où la surenchère de stimuli, l’immédiateté et l’accélération qui caractérisent les rythmes de nos vies de plus en plus désincarnées ne nous permettent plus de percevoir et de donner sens à ce que nous ressentons, ni à ce qui nous entoure. Phénomène singulier d’ouverture à soi, aux autres et au monde, l’expérience des installations d’Ann Hamilton engage un certain mode d’être, une « qualité de présence » dont dépendent nos capacités de mémoire, de pensée, d’imagination et d’action. À partir de l’analyse de quelques grandes installations, de tropos à the event of the thread, il s’agira d’établir plus précisément les processus phénoménologiques et cognitifs mis en œuvre chez le spectateur par le dispositif immersif, et d’en éclairer les enjeux. For nearly forty years, Ann Hamilton, an iconic figure in the art of installation, has been creating complex and poetic immersive environments, made up of objects and various materials which summon all the viewer’s senses. The astonishing associations and significant accumulation trigger multiple emotional and cognitive responses, often difficult to put simply into words. Absorbed by the physical and sensitive presence of what surrounds them, the viewers are invited to abandon themselves as long as possible in what they are experiencing as well as pay attention to the situation and the intuitive knowledge they receive from their own physical interaction with the space. For Ann Hamilton, experiencing the art is above all an “act of attention”. The notion of attention is particularly important at a time when continuous stimuli, immediacy and acceleration, which characterize the rhythms of our evermore fragmented lives, no longer allow us to perceive and give meaning to what we feel, or what surrounds us. Ann Hamilton’s installations call for an openness to oneself, to others and to the world. They involve a certain mode of being, a “quality of presence” upon which our ability to remember, think, imagine and act depends. Based on the observation of several large installations, we will explore and analyze the phenomenological and cognitive processes which occur as the viewer is immersed in her works. (shrink)

For decades now, researchers in the social sciences and humanities have been expressing a deep dissatisfaction with the process of research-ethics review in academia. Continuing the ongoing critique of ethics review begun in Will C. van den Hoonard's Walking the Tightrope and The Seduction of Ethics, The Ethics Rupture offers both an account of the system's failings and a series of proposals on how to ensure that social research is ethical, rather than merely compliant with institutional requirements. Containing twenty-five essays (...) written by leading experts from around the world in various disciplines, The Ethics Rupture is a landmark study of the problems caused by our current research-ethics system and the ways in which scholars are seeking solutions. (shrink)

Philosophical Investigations, Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 381-384, July 2022.

Diverse possibilities for using Group Spiritual Direction, as taught by Rose Mary Dougherty at Shalem Institute, illustrate ways in which advanced spiritual practices can be introduced to spiritual seekers at many different levels. Group Spiritual Direction can be a core growth process for spiritual directors, clergy, and seekers of deep spiritual community. However, in somewhat modified format, this gem of a spiritual process can offer depth community to church groups, enhance retreats, connect leadership groups in community, provide a depth-formation (...) process for mentor groups, and even be used in family settings with young and old. (shrink)

Animal and human studies suggest that parenting style is transmitted from one generation to the next. The hypotheses of this study were that a mother’s rearing experiences would predict her own parenting resources and current maternal mood, motivation to care for her offspring, and relationship with her parents would underlie this association. In a subsample of 201 first-time mothers participating in the longitudinal Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment project, we assessed a mother’s own childhood maltreatment and rearing experiences using the (...) Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Instrument. At 6 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires on parenting stress, symptoms of depression, maternal motivation, and current relationship with their own parents. The sample consisted of mostly high socioeconomic status mothers recruited from Montréal or Hamilton, Canada, with an age range from 18 to 43 years. More severe maltreatment and less supportive rearing by the mother’s parents predicted increased parenting stress at 6 months. These associations were mediated through distinct psychosocial pathways: maltreatment on parenting stress through symptoms of depression ; maternal rearing on parenting stress through maternal motivation and symptoms of depression ; and paternal rearing on parenting stress through current relationship with the father. Maternal rearing experiences predict a mother’s own parenting resources though distinct psychosocial pathways, including depressed mood, maternal motivation, and social support. (shrink)

Much attention in philosophy of religion has been devoted to the question of whether faith is epistemically rational. But is it morally and practically permissible? This paper explores a response to a family of arguments that Christian faith is morally impermissible or practically irrational, even if epistemically justified. After articulating the arguments, I consider how they would fare if they took seriously the traditional notion that genuine faith is always accompanied by Christian hope. I show how the norms of hope (...) regulate Christian faith in such a way that it does not involve, and certainly does not entail, the morally and practically problematic attitudes and behaviors with which it is associated. (shrink)

Bioethical consensus promotes a shared decision making model, which requires healthcare professionals to partner their knowledge with that of their patients—who, at a minimum, contribute their valu...

This book is a collection of chapters on contemporary philosophy of religion by a wide range of authors: Beverley Clack; John Manoussakis; Nick Trakakis; Trent Dougherty; Logan Paul Gage; Genia Schonbaumsfeld; Harriet Harris; Karyn Lai; Imran Aijaz; Monima Chadha; John Bishop; Jerome Gellman; Mark Wynn; Bryan Frances; Ed Feser; Michael Scott; Roger M. White; David Bartholomew; Kevin Hart; Victoria Harrison; Marci Hamilton; Medhi Aminrazavi; Daniel McKaughan; Michael Smith; David Oderberg; Neil Levy; Michael Levine; Christopher Toner; Rob Koons; Todd (...) Tremlin; and Neil Manson. (shrink)

Principle-based formulations of bioethical theory have recently come under increasing scrutiny, particularly insofar as they give prominence to personal autonomy. This essay critiques the dominant conceptualization of autonomy and urges an alternative formulation freed from the individualistic assumptions that pervade the prevailing framework. Drawing on feminist perspectives, I discuss the need for a vision of patient autonomy that joins relational experiences to individuality and acknowledges the influence of patterns of power and authority on the exercise of patient agency. Deficiencies in (...) the current models of science and social relations guiding medical practice are analyzed, particularly (1) the tendency to disregard the patients self-knowledge and (2) failure to recognize limitations on the generalizability of medical knowledge. Models of social relations such as mothering and friendship are explored to advance a conception of autonomy better suited to the practical activities of medicine. In conclusion, I consider how acknowledgement of the specificity and complexity of social relations can contribute to reconfiguration of other principles comprising the standard framework of bioethics, particularly beneficence, justice, and equality. (shrink)

Perceived behavioral integrity involves the employee’s perception of the alignment of the manager’s words and deeds. This meta-analysis examined the relationship between perceived behavioral integrity of managers and the employee attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, satisfaction with the leader and affect toward the organization. Results indicate a strong positive relationship overall (average r = 0.48, p<0.01). With only 12 studies included, exploration of moderators was limited, but preliminary analysis suggested that the gender of the employees and the number of (...) levels between the employee and the manager are potential moderators of the relationship. In the current sample of studies, country where the research was conducted did not seem to have any moderating effects. In addition to suggesting further investigation of potential moderators, we call for research that examines the relationship between behavioral integrity and outcomes that include individual behavior and organizational performance. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to show that in Merleau-Ponty’s lesser known works, one can find a path leading toward a phenomenology of the body that would not risk the “ambiguity of the flesh,” as The Visible and the Invisible is often charged with, but instead would sustain the ontology of nature that one finds in the “Working Notes” added to Merleau-Ponty’s last writings. Analyzing first his concept of nature, as it was developed in his courses at the Collège (...) de France, the proposed aim of this text is to question anthropological difference by focusing on Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of the contemporary sciences, whereby the Ineinander between the physical, living, and human orders is re-founded by a new, negative concept of nature. By deconstructing classical ontology and its understanding of space, time, and objectivity, and by returning to the domain of perception, this new concept offers a novel way to reveal the advent of life in nature, its institution, and the emergence of a new corporeity in life itself. The model of Merleau-Ponty’s essential concept of institution becomes birth, and therefore the human body will no longer be interpreted as “one’s own body,” but rather will be understood, in a radically a-subjective way, as from, and based on, the participation of our perception with animality. Thereby, the concept of “ownness” becomes secondary; however, the notion of institution, established against the lexicon of consciousness and subjectivity, opens another sense of anthropological difference, one that is based only on the experiences of corporeity. (shrink)

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the governance of LA maintained schools, single academy trusts (SATs) and schools that are part of multi-academy trusts (MATs). The research involved analysing legislative provision, policy documents, and documents addressing the governance arrangements of a sample (...) of 23 secondary schools. Our findings reveal a fragmented state-funded secondary school system as regards overall governance, school admissions, the curriculum, and the use of funding. Significantly schools in MATs, which are governed by the trust board, lack the autonomy of either SATs or maintained schools and are instead under the ultimate control of the trust board. The paper argues that there is a need for greater consistency regarding the governance of state-funded schools. (shrink)

Increasingly, nurses conduct scientific inquiry into complex health‐care problems by collaborating on teams with researchers from other highly specialized fields. As cross‐disciplinary research proliferates and becomes institutionalized globally, researchers will increasingly encounter the need to integrate their particular research perspectives within inquiries without sacrificing the potential contributions of their discipline‐specific expertise. The work of the philosopher Bernard Lonergan (1904–1984) offers the necessary philosophical grounding. Here, I defend a role for philosophy in cross‐disciplinary research and present selected ideas in Lonergan's work. (...) These include: (1) a dynamic, normative pattern that each inquirer operates uniquely also forms the common core, or unity, in knowing; (2) the possibility of cross‐disciplinary knowledge development is dependent on each researcher's consciousness of her or his attentiveness, intelligence, reasonableness, and responsibleness; and (3) shifts in researchers' viewpoints, or horizons, facilitate their collaborative inquiry and their grasp of the unity in knowing. The desire to know, shared by team members, drives their inquiry. Lonergan's stance is consistent with nursing values because it respects, but does not unconditionally privilege, any researcher or discipline. Arguments support a claim that Lonergan's perspective is well suited to guide nurse researchers participating on cross‐disciplinary health research teams. (shrink)

This provocative book examines the teachings of political theorist Leo Strauss and the ways in which they have been appropriated, or misappropriated, by senior policymakers.

This paper is concerned with aspects of responsibility in Norwegian public health nursing. Public health nursing is an expansive profession with diffuse boundaries. The Norwegian public health nurse does not perform ‘hands on’ nursing, but focuses on the prevention of illness, injury, or disability, and the promotion of health. What is the essence of ethical responsibility in public health nursing? The aim of this article is to explore the phenomenon based on the ethics of responsibility as reflected upon by the (...) philosopher Emanuel Levinas (1906–1995). From an ethical point of view, responsibility is about our duty towards the Other, a duty we have not always chosen, are prepared for, or can fully explain; but it is nevertheless a demand we have to live with. Interviews with five experienced Norwegian nurses provide the empirical base for reflection and interpretation. The nurses share stories from their practice. In interpreting the nurses’ stories, the following themes emerge: personal responsibility; boundaries; temporality; worry, fear, and uncertainty; and a sense of satisfaction. As the themes are developed further, it becomes apparent that, despite their diversity, they are all interrelated aspects of ethical responsibility. Responsibility for the Other cannot be avoided, ignored, or transferred. The nurses’ responsibility is personal and infinite. Levinasian ethics can help nurses understand the importance of accepting that being a responsive carer can involve not only contentment in the predictable, but also the fear, worry, and uncertainty of the unpredictable. (shrink)

Social media platforms have been vested with hope for their potential to enable ‘ordinary citizens’ to make their judgments public and contribute to pluralized discussions about organizations and their perceived legitimacy :60–97, 2018). This raises questions about how ordinary citizens make judgements and voice them in online spaces. This paper addresses these questions by examining how Western citizens ascribe responsibility and action in relation to corporate misconduct. Empirically, it focuses on modern slavery and analyses online debates in Denmark on child (...) slavery in the cocoa industry. Conceptually, it introduces the notion of cosmopolitanism as a general disposition of care and responsibility towards distant others, conceived as a prerequisite for the critical evaluation of corporate responsibility in the Global South. The analysis of online debates shows that citizens debate child slavery in terms of individual consumer responsibility rather than corporate responsibility. Corporations are not considered potential agents of change. As a consequence, online citizen debates did not reflect a legitimacy crisis for the cocoa industry, as debates over responsibility were overwhelmingly concerned with the agency of the Western individual, the individual agency of the speakers themselves. Participants in debates understood their agency strictly as consumer agency. (shrink)

This paper takes a novel approach to studying the existence and stability of Nash equilibria in N-firm Cournot–Bertrand oligopolies. First, we show that such games can be monotonically embedded into a game of strategic heterogeneity, so that each firm best responds to the choices of all other firms in a monotonic way. We then show that this monotonicity can be exploited to derive conditions which guarantee the existence of a unique, dominance solvable Nash equilibrium which is stable under all adaptive (...) dynamics. These conditions constitute a strict improvement over existing results in the literature. Finally, we examine the effect on these conditions resulting from additional firms entering the market. (shrink)

This paper interprets the British legislative process that initiated the first comprehensive national regulation of embryo research and fertility services and examines subsequent efforts to restrain the assisted reproduction industry. After describing and evaluating British regulatory measures, I consider successive failures to control the assisted reproduction industry in the US. I discuss disparities between UK and US regulatory initiatives and their bearing on regulation in other countries. Then I turn to the political and social structures in which the assisted reproduction (...) industry is embedded. I argue that regulatory bodies are seldom neutral arbiters. They tend to respond most readily to special interests and neglect strategies that could more effectively meet the health needs of the people they represent. Neither national nor international bodies have aggressively pursued policies to harness the industry, reduce infertility rates, or meet the needs of people whose fertility is threatened by substandard healthcare and environmental neglect. In conclusion, I consider recent initiatives by activist groups to mount an alternative response to the industry's current practices and build a transnational reproductive justice movement. (shrink)

Pourquoi faut-il que nous nous interrogions sans relâche? Qu'un seul veille et le monde est sans repos, libre à nouveau de toute réponse, comme si ni l'histoire ni la mémoire n'avaient tracé les signes, multiples et réitérés au long des siècles, de nos balbutiements devant l'énigme de l'être. D'aussi loin que les textes nous parviennent, la philosophie s'est érigée contre la superstition, la croyance vaine, l'opinion. Elle a fait œuvre de discernement en direction de la question de l'être, du monde, (...) du sujet. Pourquoi alors défendre l'idée d'une vocation prophétique de la philosophie? Parce qu'il y aurait à répondre de, avant même que la réflexion philosophique puisse, comme telle, être légitime. La vocation serait l'espace de toute réponse possible. Et la philosophie, dès lors, s'inscrirait à partir de ce lieu où la réponse est toujours différée, parce qu'elle est cette ouverture radicale sur l'absolument autre qui empêche le discours de se clore sur lui-même. Quels penseurs ont anticipé notre présente détresse? A moins que la détresse ne soit elle-même qu'un état transitoire dont il ne faudrait pas s'affliger puisque nos démocraties sont, à tout prendre, les moins barbares des sociétés de droit. Les penseurs prophétiques frayent un chemin de veille, non pour perpétuer une trace, un enseignement, mais pour risquer plus loin la question de l'humanité de l'homme. (shrink)

Le pape François se retrouve à la tête d’une Eglise confrontée à de grandes difficultés. Il a lancé et poursuivi des chantiers que son prédécesseur a eu du mal à faire avancer. Il a su se placer au centre des discussions essentielles de notre époque : la richesse et la pauvreté, l'équité et la justice, la transparence, la modernité, la mondialisation, le rôle de la femme, l’ouverture de la prêtrise aux femmes, la nature du mariage, l’accueil des divorcés remariés, les (...) tentations du pouvoir, les _relations avec l'islam, la lutte contre la pédophilie, les finances du Saint-Siège, _l’abolition du célibat ecclésiastique, _la gouvernance de l'Eglise, la redynamisation de la foi en Europe. Même si nous n’allons pas aborder tous ces thèmes, le pape pour sa part _n’a guère d’autres solutions que de poursuivre dans la route déjà empruntée pour une Église à géométrie variable. Au-delà de sa personne, il s’agit de l’Eglise et, surtout de l’accueille du Christ par notre société contemporaine dans sa diversité culturelle. Ce qui est frappant c’est de voir comment le Pape François catalyseur, conçoit son ministère à travers l’écoute des pasteurs qui ont eux-mêmes écouté le peuple. Il insiste souvent sur l’enjeu de la liberté de parole et de débat. D’où la place que nous avons à la riche culture africaine. (shrink)

In ihrem Buch "Inkarnation und Schöpfung" untersucht Anne Käfer das Verhältnis von Gottes Menschwerdung und seiner Schöpfung, wie es die drei einflussreichen Theologen Martin Luther, Friedrich Schleiermacher und Karl Barth beschreiben. Der Vergleich der drei Positionen macht deutlich, dass das Thema für zahlreiche theologische Fragestellungen von grundlegender Bedeutung ist. Das jeweilige Verständnis von Gottes Liebe, von seiner Treue, seiner Allmacht und seiner Freiheit ist bedingt durch das Verständnis der Inkarnation. Deren Deutung und vor allem die Weise, in der die (...) Autoren Jesus Christus als wahren Gott und wahren Menschen fassen, sind gebunden an bestimmte anthropologische Überzeugungen. Die Anthropologie und vor allem die jeweilige Sündenlehre der drei protestantischen Klassiker sind in der Interpretation von Anne Käfer entscheidend für ihre Verhältnisbestimmung von Menschwerdung und (Menschen-)Schöpfung Gottes. Insbesondere an der unterschiedlichen Beschreibung von Sünde und menschlicher Freiheit im Gegenüber zum dreieinigen Gott wird die grundsätzliche Differenz zwischen der lutherischen Position und den beiden reformierten Positionen deutlich, die das Thema Inkarnation und Schöpfung prägt. (shrink)

How should nursing knowledge advance? This exploration contextualizes its evolution past and present. In addressing how it evolved in the past, a probable historical evolution of its development draws on the perspectives of Frank & Gills's World System Theory, Kuhn's treatise on Scientific Revolutions, and Foucault's notions of Discontinuities in scientific knowledge development. By describing plausible scenarios of how nursing knowledge evolved, I create a case for why nursing knowledge developers should adopt a post‐structural stance in prioritizing their research agenda(s). (...) Further, by adopting a post‐structural stance, I create a case on how nurses can advance their disciplinary knowledge using an engaging post‐colonial strategy. Given an interrupted history caused by influence(s) constraining nursing's knowledge development by power structures external, and internal, to nursing, knowledge development can evolve in the future by drawing on post‐structural interpretation, and post‐colonial strategy. The post‐structural writings of Deleuze & Guattari's understanding of ‘Nomadology’ as a subtle means to resist being constrained by existing knowledge development structures, might be a useful stance to understanding the urgency of why nursing knowledge should advance addressing the structural influences on its development. Furthermore, Bhabha's post‐colonial elucidation of ‘Hybridity’ as an equally discreet means to change the culture of those constraining structures is an appropriate strategy to enact how nursing knowledge developers can engage with existing power structures, and simultaneously influence that engagement. Taken together, ‘post‐structural stance’ and ‘post‐colonial strategy’ can refocus nursing scholarship to learn from its past, in order to develop relevant disciplinary knowledge in its future. (shrink)

Drawing upon five years of experience with an interdisciplinary initiative, colleagues in biology, literary studies, and physics offer a framework by which to understand the nature and value of interdisciplinary work. Effective interdisciplinary exchange depends on a dynamic and mutual interplay that challenges normally unexamined disciplinary assumptions. Effective interdisciplinary exchange can not only reinvigorate the disciplines but also engage them more effectively in a common intellectual enterprise, one that in turn is able to engage more effectively with a wide range (...) of human concerns beyond the academy. (shrink)

From its origins in the twelfth century, the rosary grew to become the most popular extraliturgical prayer of the Catholic church. Why this text—of all the medieval experiments in religious exercises—succeeded so dramatically has to do with the form of the text itself and with developments in popular religious piety. Like other medieval texts, the rosary was “written” collectively, that is, by accretion, experimentation, and revision, as users adapted it to evolving spiritual and practical ends. The most significant development in (...) this process was the addition of “mysteries” to the prayer, which profoundly changed its character and created a new religious exercise uniquely suited to the needs of the lay faithful. Ultimately, the devotion shaped, and was shaped by, the demands of the laity for new, more individual and private forms of religious observance. (shrink)