Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices

Abstract

This article draws on research from the major collaborative research project Hearing the Voice, based at Durham University, to reconsider and foreground Margery Kempe’s inner voices, and hence, to return to an emphasis on inner, spiritual experience as shaping her Book. The richness of Margery’s multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offering a powerful alternative perspective to often reductive bio-medical understandings. Contemporary cognitive frameworks, particularly scientific accounts of inner speech, are in turn employed to open out Margery’s inner voices and to offer insights into the psychology of spiritual meditation.

The moderating role of spirituality and gender in Canadian and Iranian emerging adolescents’ theory of mind and prosocial behavior

“…The findings support gender-role socialization theory that suggests gender-role stereotypes encourage girls to demonstrate more nurturing and caring behaviors with others, and thus may be the reason for their higher scores in social–emotional factors such as understanding others’ thoughts and emotions ( Eisenberg and Fabes, 1998 ; Bosacki, 2000 ; Charman et al, 2002 ; Leaper and Farkas, 2015 ; Białecka-Pikul et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). Similarly, the present results support past studies that show compared to males, females were more likely to reflect higher levels of religious spirituality – particularly the dimensions of omnipresence and duality which focus on external development and their social relationships and relationships with God ( Spilka et al, 2003 ; Saunders and Fernyhough, 2016 ; Vittengl, 2018 ).…”

“…In contrast, this interaction between gender and culture failed to have an influence on prosocial behavior, comfort, omnipresence, and duality. Past studies show that compared to boys, girls generally score higher in ToM ability ( Spilka et al, 2003 ; Saunders and Fernyhough, 2016 ; Vittengl, 2018 ), and spiritual beliefs regarding omnipresence and duality ( Bosacki et al, 2018 ). However our findings on omnipresence support past studies that show no significant differences in omnipresence between girls and boys ( Bosacki et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Religious spirituality can measure either individual relationships with God or social relationships. In contrast, existential spirituality is not necessarily related to social relationships, it can be considered a mental state shaped by social influences ( Saunders and Fernyhough, 2016 ).…”