Yong Lu

From an integrative approach of parable interpretation that combines ethical, evolutionary, historical, and psychological perspectives, the current research empirically examined the purely theorized assumption elucidating the behaviors of the priest, Levite, and Samaritan in the good Samaritan parable (Luke 10:25-37) by the regulatory focus theory. In one experiment conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak, 93 Polish participants were randomly assigned to a simulated vignette of the good Samaritan parable where either the prevention or promotion regulatory focus was manipulated. The results confirmed a certain favorable tendency to offer quasi-realistic help in both the regulatory focus conditions. The finding highlights a dynamic association in goal pursuit motivation and prosocial behavior in a pandemic context regarding the good Samaritan parable. The current study is among rare empirical research which reflects a challenge people respond to offer help in simulated scenarios as original as the good Samaritan parable.

Genesis 40 tells of the Joseph’s interpretation of the dream of Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer. The scope of this article offers a novel argument against Philo of Alexandria for his negative hermeneutics of the chief cupbearer’s dream and allegorical implications, as he replaces linguistic terms in the Hebrew and/or Greek text, “cupbearer” with “eunuch”. The allegorical method which might account for similarities of dream interpretations between Philo and the Freudian and Jungian school is discussed.

This article attempts to preliminarily elucidate the role of the Holy Spirit from the specific eyes of the Lucian Gospel through the following three aspects: (1) the reasons why the messages of the Holy Spirit in Luke among the Synoptic Gospels are significant and unique, (2) Lucan and Pauline perspectives on the Holy Spirit, and (3) Jesus’ ministry in the light of the moving of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the article highlights the implications of the Holy Spirit in our modern time.

This article attempts to explore the effects of memory retention, phantom recollection, and recollection rejection on the quest for the Apostle Peter’s denials (Mt. 26:31-35, 69-75; Mk. 14:27-31, 66-72; Lk. 22:31-34, 54-62; Jn. 13:37-38, 18:15-18, 25-27). Phantom recollection refers that sometimes gist-based false memories at high levels are strong enough to elicit falsely recalled experiences. While individuals retrieve true recognition of their instantiating studied scenarios rather than false-but-gist-consistent lures by detecting relevant signal via a memory-editing operation called recollection rejection. This article examines the extent to which Peter’s memory retention sustains and moreover presumes that phantom recollection leads Peter to override his own promise, but with the assistance of detecting the crucial signals (i.e., the rooster crows, Mt. 26:74b, Mk. 14:72a, Lk. 22:60b, Jn. 18:27b; Jesus straightforwardly looks at him, Lk. 22:61a) that evokes the recollection rejection process, he retrieves his true memories. For the first time, if any, the attempt to interpret the pericope of Peter’s denials through the lens of the false memory theory could elucidate our hermeneutical understandings from the nature of humankind perspective.

The intriguing study of dreams related to mystical symbols has attracted not only such conventional fields as comparative religions and philosophy, but also psychoanalyses. In this report, first, the author briefly introduces, from the perspectives of Freud and Jung, the importance of energetic desire (libido), symbolism, and unconsciousness in interpreting dreams. Then, the author presents two case studies focusing on demonic dreams, which have been rarely investigated in scholarly research. The dreams are discussed in terms of their significance in the dreamers’ experience and their implications for the use of dreams in psychoanalysis. The findings suggest that demonic symbols in dreaming could result unconsciously from dreamers’ daily residues, fulfillment of will, or inferiority complex. The report discusses at the end Chinese folklore in interpreting demonic dreams.

The former residence of Dr. Herman C. E. Liu (1898-1938), is located at the campus of the University of Shanghai (now University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, USST). This eclectic foreign-style house possesses a significant humanistic and historic preservation value in the history of the USST. In the past over 90 years' of use of the building, the north side of its pitched roof was restructured to a flat roof, external surface of the brick wall was destructively plastered, part piers between adjacent two windows were added, and doors and windows and indoor wall space were altered. By means of surveying and comparing previous renovation documents and the history photos as well as according to the reminiscence of Dr. Liu's descendant, this paper delineates the transformations of the house in the history. Furthermore, this paper introduces the work carried out during 2013-2014 which examined the quality, structural safety, and aseismatic capability of the house and protectively renovated the house. Through this latest renovation, the house can continuously extend its historical architecture styles, increase its service life, and be used to exhibit life story of Dr. Liu, receive alumnus and alumna, and promote educative contributions and patriotic deeds of Dr. Liu to the University of Shanghai.

This article delineates a novel argument for interpreting the actions of the priest, Levite, and Samaritan in the good Samaritan parable (Lk. 10:25-37) from social-scientific ideas relating to regulatory focus theory and from the perspective of behavioral decision making under uncertainty. Based on an exegesis on their actions, the paper encompasses particularistic perspectives from history, theology, and psychology to cast doubt on the reasons why the priest and Levite do not help the wounded stranger, but the Samaritan helps him.

This article delineates a ground work for shaping Christian leadership characters by examining the book of Ruth, a narrative of cooperation. First, we introduce the general Biblical wisdom, guidance, and religious precepts on leadership characters from the Bible per se. Second, we depict a synopsis and connotation of the Ruth Narrative combined with the historical background of the late Judges time when Naomi, Elimelech, Ruth and Boaz lived and the social and religious background of Moab where the family of Elimelech dwelt in for ten years. Third, based on those background analyses, the main figures' dialogues, and their actions, we illustrate their positive servant and mentor leadership characters that include a combination of their distinguished traits and cognitive

The intriguing study of dreams in the Bible has cut across not only some traditional fields such as biblical textual criticisms, comparative religions, philosophy, and genre writing analyses, but also psychoanalyses. However, psychological interpretation is still not underscored in Christian tradition. In this paper, first, hermeneutical exegeses on the biblical dreams and especially Pharaoh's chief cupbearer's (or butler's) and chief bakers' dream narratives (Gen. 40: 5-13, 16-18) are investigated. Second, the general meanings of dreams are defined and explained from some ancient Hellenistic philosophers', i.e.  Aristotle, Cicero, Eusebius, Heraclitus, Herodotus, Philo of Alexandria, and Plato, understandings. Furthermore, special attention is given to Philo of Alexandria's hermeneutics on the two dream narratives. Third, it is the thesis of this paper that the two dream narratives are exceptions and can be also interpreted in the light of modern dream interpretation, especially Freudian, Jungian, and other psychoanalysis, as well as a cognitive judgment approach called the equate-to-differentiate model. Seeing them through the lens of psychology and for the first time through the baker's cognitive perspective can aid us in our understanding of human nature while enhancing the study of both traditional theology and psychology.

In terms of prediction by Epstein's integrative theory of personality, cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), those people with experiential-intuitive cognitive style are more inclined to induce errors than the other people with analytical-rational cognitive style in the conjunction fallacy (two events that can occur together are seen as more likely than at least one of the two events). We tested this prediction in a revised Linda problem. The results revealed that rational and experiential cognitive styles do not statistically influence the propensity for committing the conjunction fallacy, which is contrary to the CEST's predictions. Based on the assumption that the rational vs. experiential processing is a personality trait with comparatively stabile specialities, these findings preliminarily indicate that those people who are characterized by " rational thinking " are not more inclined to use Bayes' deduction than the other people who are labeled by " intuitive thinking " or by " poor thinking. "

We propose the use of the equate-to-differentiate model (Li, S. (2004), Equate-to-differentiate approach, Central European Journal of Operations Research, 12) to explain the occurrence of both the conjunction and disjunction fallacies. To test this model, we asked participants to judge the likelihood of two multi-statements and their four constituents in two modified versions of the Linda problem in two experiments. The overall results underpin this pragmatic model’s inference and also reveal that (1) single conjunction and disjunction fallacies are most prevalent, (2) the incidence of the conjunction fallacy is proportional to the distance between the constituent probabilities, and (3) some participants misinterpreted A∧ B either as ¬ A ∧B or A∨B. The findings were generally consistent with the configural weighted average model (Nilsson, H., Winman, A., Juslin, P., & Hansson, G.(2009),Linda is not a bearded lady, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138) and the potential surprise conceptual framework (Fisk, J. E. (2002), Judgments under uncertainty, British Journal of Psychology, 93).

The majority rule and the equate-to-differentiate rule are two contradictory, albeit similarly structured judgmental heuristics. The present paper proposed the fol- lowing theoretical deduction on the moderation role of self-construals, regulatory focus, and culture differences which affects decision makers to use the alternative rules when choosing between weak dominant pairwise options: Increasing the ac- cessibility of the interdependent self-construal or of the information with a preven- tion focus or of intra-national culture identification causes individuals to be likely to use the majority rule, whereas increasing the accessibility of the independent self-construal or of the information with a promotion focus or of inter-national cul- ture identification causes individuals to be likely to use the equate-to-differentiate rule.

Preference reversal (PR) reveals that preferences over risky bets can be reversed between choices and willingness-to-accept or -pay. The present research extended limited previous studies on magnitude effects of gains on PR by examining this effect with both gains and losses. Experiment 1: Magnitude effects in PR progressively manipulated the payoff variations in bet pairs to measure the effect of ratio scales on risk preferences and PR. Undergraduates (N = 137) were asked to choose a bet they prefer from a list of bet pairs, and then to evaluate the bets indicating how much they were willing to pay for a chance to participate in each of the bets. We observed a robust dichotomous pattern of choice behavior: The majority of choices are consistent with risk aversion or risk-seeking behavior when loss ratios between bet pairs are no more than -2.5 or no less than -8.0, respectively. Moreover, different patterns of PR can be elicited with these loss stakes. Experiment 2: Binary choices in PR examined the predictions of three decision-making heuristics, namely a novel simplified approach called the loss-averse rule, the majority rule, and the equate-to-differentiate rule, as well as cumulative prospect theory that individuals may use in binary choice. Participants (N = 113) were asked to choose a bet from a list of bet pairs. We found that when the loss ratio is more than -3.0 at the level of the data, proportions of choices were in the direction predicted by cumulative prospect theory and the loss-averse rule of decision rather than by the other two rules, at both the conditional and aggregate levels. These results suggest that when loss risk reaches a level of threshold, risk behavior for binary choices on lotteries is ubiquitously influenced by loss aversion rather than by the process of value maximization. To date, neither has literature in gambling situations paid attention to whether the expected value difference between bet pairs affects the likelihood of PR, almost nor has empirical research shed light on whether episodic memory is involved in PR. In a laboratory-based study, Experiment 3: Episodic memory in PR varied bet pairs in expected value in a market-like scenario. Undergraduates (N = 64) first completed classic dual-procedure PR tasks and then performed a memory test for previous choices. Consistent with past work, participants exhibited non-negligible and systematic rates of PR between choices and valuations. The results suggest a tendency that the larger the expected value difference between bet pairs, the larger the predicted PR rate, and provide the first evidence that correct retrievals of initial choices can ameliorate PR. In a subsequent Experiment 4: Episodic memory in attraction effect PR, participants (N = 86) were incentivized to complete choice and price PR tasks and a memory test on purely risky bets in a pictorial form. We found equivocal evidence of the effect of expected value difference within bet pairs on attraction effect PR, no effect of expected value difference or level on correct recollections, and again substantial evidence that correct retrievals of initial choices can ameliorate PR. Despite the voluminous evidence in support of the paradoxical finding that PR rates can disappear, the question of whether and when small and large loss or gain ratios influence choice between safe and risky bets and impede PR remains open. In three meta-analyses of 12 experiments or treatments reported by 7 prior and current studies (N = 884), we showed that neither low nor high loss or gain ratios are more powerful---a finding counter to the data reported in Experiment 1: Magnitude effects in PR and Experiment 3: Episodic memory in PR. We also identified no indications that the PR design (gain-zero or gain-loss) or the evaluation mode (separate or join) influences safe bet choice and PR sizes. As the first meta-analytic research on this phenomenon, we reasoned possible factors that may cause those conflicting results. Overall, these results (1) reaffirm the existence of the traditional and contextual PR phenomenon, (2) indicate the fragile, context-dependent nature of PR phenomenon, (3) provide evidence about how memory retrieval operates as individuals perform binary choice and pricing tasks, and (4) may have implications for eliciting risk preferences by the specific construction of payoffs and EVs in gambling and decision making. A number of limitations in terms of materials and methods are addressed along with future research that may test other evidence of magnitude and context effects in PR.

Confucianism has been notable for its preoccupation and firm belief in such as the perfectibility of Humanity (ren or jen 仁) and conforming to Righteousness (yi 義) and Propriety (li 禮) in order to achieve harmony in a social relation. The movement of Christian personalism (1) believes that the person as subject cannot and should not be reduced to any impersonal existence at all, (2) draws attention to disinterested humanity, and (3) argues convincingly for the crucial position of finite persons (individuals in the world) as in immanent relation to the infinite Person (God). The present paper delineates a global comparison in terms of the notions of humanity and relation between Confucianism as the par excellence natural revelation and Christian personalism as the par excellence supernatural revelation, arguing that the two notions are partially coexisted and compatible in the Confucian and Christian personalist traditions. Nonetheless, the limitations of Confucianism are also elucidated for its failure of fully recognizing (1) the importance of the person as a whole existence rather than as a self-cultivation of virtues and (2) the relation of the salvation of Heaven (T’ien 天)/God to human persons rather than a relation under restrictions of various Confucian standards of justice. The paper discusses at the end the place of personalism in exploring the idea of person in the contemporary China and in constructing Chinese personalism.