The Myth of Child Protection captures the harsh ironic reality of the harm that arises when well-intentioned systems are broken. This book serves as a guide for persons who want to create change for the better in the system.

It is an apology to all those children and youth whom the system has failed. At the same time, it is a pledge to do better by those still present and others yet to come. In those instances where intervention did more good than harm, it is a recognition of this good.

This ...

The growing use of prescription drugs is a global health concern. A “pill-popping culture”, where many life issues are seen as problems that can be treated with medication, is becoming more common worldwide. Simultaneously, there are increasing concerns about the nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) such as sedatives, opi-oid-based pain relief medication and prescription stimu-lants. Nevertheless, this trend has received limited attention in scientific research in Belgium, and in ...

Thinking about responsible behaviour in the professional and business world (but also as a citizen) in its current form may only be ‘fashionable’ recently, it is of all times. And it apparently belongs to everyone: everyone thinks they can form an opinion about everything and also thinks that their opinion is well-founded. We risk falling into ethical relativism: everything is possible, because ultimately all opinions seem equally correct/incorrect. Facts-free opinions, alternative facts ...

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection man is one species among many. This provokes in a self-evident way comparison of anatomical and physiological characteristics. Less common is the idea that the same approach can be put forward with regard to cognition. On a particular moment in evolution the cognitive abilities of the branch which would eventually result in the human species must have been of the same type as these from other species evolving into different kind...

This book presents the various Churches and ecclesial communities in the Middle East, focusing on the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox and the Oriental Catholic Churches, the spiritual heritage of the Coptic, Syriac and Armenian traditions. The Christians in the Middle East can be called a Church of martyrs.

Listening to witnesses of faith in the first centuries, as well as to the martyrs of our time, this book reveals the cruel reality of the ‘forgotten genocides’ at th...

Five years since the apostolic exhortation on love in the family – Amoris Laetitia – first appeared, it has lost none of its relevance and urgency. For Pope Francis this anniversary offers “an opportunity to focus more closely on the contents of the document”.

In an open and frank dialogue, the authors of this book accept the challenge to explore and develop insights and paths for theological ethics, pastoral theology and ministry, counseling, education and spirituality as drawn out i...

“What when we have grown up?” dives into Marieke Vandecasteele’s doctoral research trajectory in a space between art and science. From her own position as a family mem­ber, the researcher starts to collect experiences of families of people with a label and makes trips to others who made visual or auditory creations about their sibling with a label.

This book is a patchwork consisting of ‘patches’ rather than ‘chapters’, where different studies are stitched together. These patch...

This book marks the 20th anniversary of the Department of Criminology of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC). On the occasion of this anniversary, a series of research seminars were organised, during which NICC researchers, practitioners and international experts engaged in a dialogue on several key research themes. They discussed the future of the Department of Criminology and put the work of the NICC into perspective, both nationally and internationally. The resu...

Augustine has put an important mark on later Christian thinking. Moreover, he composed a lot of writings: more than eight hundred sermons, some three hundred letters, and a hundred works in which he unfolds his theological vision.

This book presents some basic thoughts on the spirituality of this great church father. In different ways the author clarifies in which sense the spirituality of Augustine can be a breath of fresh air for our times. The conversion experience that Augustine went thro...

This doctoral study focuses on a relational approach to recovery as an addition to the dominant individualized interpretations of addiction recovery. It explores the (enabling or disabling) role of social networks and broader societal contexts in which recovery processes are embedded, without disregarding the deeply personal nature of addiction recovery in terms of building a meaningful life.

This dissertation is based on the Recovery Pathways (REC-PATH) research project, a longitudinal and m...