I welcome all of you to the latest issue of Silliman Journal, one that is as diverse as it could possibly get, with contributions from theology and the humanities, social and natural sciences, and literature and the arts. The cover art entitled “Egghead” is by Paul Benzi Sebastian Florendo who is currently with the Creative Design Department of Foundation University in Dumaguete City, Philippines. Aptly, our first article is entitled "Identity As Not–[Im]Possibilities of an Interreligious Dialogue from the Fringes” by one of Silliman University’s visiting researchers/lecturers Giovanni Maltese from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Gio sets his thesis on a backdrop of ideas by the philosopher Giorgio Agamben as applied to interreligious dialogue, but concludes that his “essay does not claim to have any original solutions, but wishes to be an essay in its most literal sense: an attempt to operationalize different instruments which may allow a fresh naming of the new old problems and which may help us to describe them, guessing that this might inspire us to “pagtuo, paglaom ug gugma” [faith, hope, and love]. Maltese’s paper is followed by “Dynamics of Battered Filipino Women” where psychologists Alicia Estrellado and Rose Marie Clemeña attempt a validation of an “abuse model” developed in a previous study published in the Philippine Journal of Psychology in 2009. The qualitative study of twenty women shows that the model can be useful for understanding the concerns of women survivors of abuse. Third, psychologist Emmanuel Hernani describes therapeutic adventure programming as utilized with a mixed clientele of 302 participants in Cebu City, central Philippines. The program included, among others, risks excercises with debriefing, Gestalt therapy, focused group discussion, and interviews. The full-length articles are rounded up by three studies from the natural sciences. First, Racquel Chua describes the “Antioxidant
Potential of Selected Indigenous Fruits Using In Vitro Lipid Peroxidation Assay.” Kel studied indigenous fruits grown in the Cordillera region such as ayosep, bitungol, kalamondin, marble tomato, native lacatan,
native passion fruit, pinit, rattan, tamarillo, and tumok. All the fruits exhibited greater antioxidant potential than Vitamin E with native passion fruit and rattan exhibiting the greatest antioxidant potential.
Finally, Abner Bucol and colleagues report on two researches done at the Gigantes and Sicogon Islands of Iloilo Province, central Philippines---- the first is a study on vertebrate biodiversity , the other on the areas’ forest resources.