bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Gothic Romance
Authors: Hagen Ross
Published: March 2020

This chapter explores a particular manifestation of heavy metal medievalism through the echoes of fin’amor and courtly love poetry in the music of doom metal and Gothic metal bands like My Dying Bride and Cradle of Filth. Fin’amor poetry and literature, developed primarily by French troubadours in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, typically involves the objectification of a married aristocratic or royal lady as a quasi-deified figure before which the male troubadour performs a kind of worshipful self-debasement. The fin’amor dynamic is also considered from the opposite side, through female-fronted Gothic metal bands like Within Temptation, Nightwish, and Theatre of Tragedy. Bands of this nature often present the female singer as an ethereal and spiritually powerful force, effectively embodying the deified aristocratic lady of the fin’amor tradition. These singers typically employ a powerful operatic vocal style and are often juxtaposed with male death metal singers in a twin lead vocal pairing referred to as beauty and the beast, a term that not only describes the vocal tones but also hints at the gendered roles these singers enact. These echoes of fin’amor in metal exemplify the genre’s enduring fascination with the Middle Ages and illustrate the genre’s deep connections to other medievalist cultural forms and to its cultural environment more generally.
The Distant Past as Mirror and Metaphor
Authors: Hallman Diana R.
Published: March 2020

Historical settings—especially those from the medieval and early modern periods—were central to the aesthetic of grand operas of the 1830s and 1840s. This historical aesthetic is clearly evident in the four works that are the subject of this chapter: La Reine de Chypre, Charles VI, La Juive and Les Huguenots. The enormous popularity of these historical settings reflected a more general fascination with the distant past among early nineteenth-century Europeans, a fascination that was also manifest in genres such as the historical novel. But the music and drama of grand opera also mirrored contemporary events, reflecting the tensions that were shaping the rapidly changing social and political dynamics of the present.
From Knight Errant to Family Man
Authors: Sumner Lott Marie
Published: March 2020

Like his contemporaries and predecessors, Brahms frequently engaged the Middle Ages to comment on modern cultural life in a way that would be accessible and meaningful to his audiences. This essay will explore his “Magelone Romances” (the song cycle, op. 33), which present the idealized, fantastical love story of Peter of Provence and the Fair Magelone in Ludwig Tieck’s 1797 retelling of the fifteenth-century romance. In essence, the cycle develops a simplistic fantasy of extraordinary heroism into the comforting reality of middle-class domesticity. In this way, Brahms appropriates medieval tropes that emerged in the early decades of literary and musical romanticism, but uses them to express a later generation’s artistic and social ideals.
Word Classes
Authors: Hollmann Willem B.
Published: March 2020

This overview of (theoretical approaches to) English word classes is built around widely accepted criticisms of ‘traditionalist’ definitions of word classes, which have been characterized—mainly by structuralists, going back to Bloomfield (1933)—as purely notional and overly simplistic. Bloomfield and his followers argue that these definitions must be replaced by distributional ones. Following careful analysis of the arguments of both traditional grammarians and structuralist linguists, the chapter presents a more nuanced picture. Traditional grammarians did not rely only on notional criteria, and where they used them, they sometimes did so in a seemingly rather sophisticated manner. Furthermore, structuralists rely less on pure distributionalism than they claim they do. Finally, there are other current theoretical approaches beyond structuralism, including generative, cognitive, functional-typological, and psycholinguistic accounts. The chapter argues that there are strengths and weaknesses in each, and points to some recent work in which insights from different approaches are beginning to come together.
Functional Approaches
Authors: Mackenzie J. Lachlan
Published: March 2020

All functional approaches share the conviction that the structure of languages and their historical development are strongly impacted by the cognitive properties of language users, the social relations between them, and the spatio-temporal and socio-cultural contexts in which they operate. This chapter describes how functionalism has impinged on the study of English grammar and covers the interrelations of discourse and grammar, various corpus- and usage-based approaches, the influence of processing considerations, the hierarchical organization of the clause, information structure, the noun phrase, and the contributions of language typology. The grammatical analysis of English has been enriched by the insight that its structures are bound up with our ability to participate in dialogues, to construct written texts, to surmize the state of mind of our conversational partner, to modulate our formulations to maximize politeness, and to use different registers or dialects in different social contexts.
Grammar and Lexis
Authors: Schönefeld Doris
Published: March 2020

This chapter is concerned with lexis and grammar and discusses the relationship between them from the perspective of a selected number of specific, formal and functional, linguistic theories. The assumptions held can basically be associated with two positions. One considers the two phenomena as distinct parts of language (dual-system theories, representative of formalist frameworks), and the other suggests that lexicon and grammar are gradient phenomena sitting on a continuum (single-system models, representative of functional approaches). Both positions are elaborated and evaluated as to how well observations from language use fit into them. The existence of lexical and grammatical units (having different properties) as well as many ‘mixed’ units containing lexical and grammatical elements (exhibiting properties of both) suggest no clear dividing line between lexis and grammar. Instead, their relation can be understood in terms of Aarts’ (2007a: 163) ‘intersective gradience’, as intersecting sets of properties rather than intersecting categories.
Grammar and the Use of Data
Authors: Sprouse Jon , Schütze Carson
Published: March 2020

This chapter is intended to serve as a jumping-off point for thinking about the use of data in grammatical theories, for both linguists and non-linguists. Five types of linguistic data are discussed—corpus data, acceptability judgements, reading time measures (eye-tracking and self-paced reading), electrophysiological data (EEG and MEG), and haemodynamic data (specifically, fMRI)—with a particular focus on the logic necessary to link each data type to predictions made by grammatical theories (linking hypotheses). The chapter also covers the empirical and logical challenges facing each data type, in an attempt to encourage closer ties among researchers using each of the data types.
Conceptualizations of Grammar in the History of English Grammaticology
Authors: Thomas Margaret
Published: March 2020

As one way to survey the long and diversified history of the study of English grammar, Chapter 1 presents five case studies of scholars’ different conceptualizations of a fundamental matter on which any grammar-writer must take a stand. That matter is the question of what language material a grammar must account for, and what a legitimate source of that material is. The case studies span two hundred years of analysis of English, from Lindley Murray through Henry Sweet, Otto Jespersen, and Randolph Quirk to Noam Chomsky—each of whom established a distinctive grammaticological stance, designed to satisfy a distinctive understanding of the identity and provenance of the data a grammarian works with. The chapter compares treatment of one particular construction, the English ‘double negative’, as a microcosm of differences across the five case studies.
In Ancient Rome
Authors: Howley Joseph
Published: March 2020

The history of reading in antiquity is wholly dependent on literary sources that must be read with care; one misinterpreted passage can enable an entire misguided history. This is the case with Augustine’s account of Ambrose reading silently, and the tenacious misapprehension that such reading was impossible in antiquity. Another reading of the passage points not to reading’s physical mechanics but to its psychological unknowability, and the distance that reading creates between subjects whether in the same room or at a historical distance. This should prompt us to consider other unknowable or invisible aspects of ancient Roman reading, like its dependence on enslaved labor, ubiquitous but almost never described. The unknowability of ancient reading invites us to consider its cultural idiosyncrasy; that idiosyncrasy, in turn, provides exciting new points of contact with our current age of digital reading.
Enumerative
Authors: Piper Andrew
Published: March 2020

Enumerative reading is the attempt to account for quantity when we read. It entails a wide variety of practices that can range from accounting for the significance of numbers within texts, the number of texts themselves, to the numbers of words, or entities that populate texts. It activates three primary dispositions that each have significant genealogies within the humanities that I outline here. The first is self-reflexivity: enumeration makes us aware of the elements upon which our judgments and attachments to texts are made. Second, enumerative reading is translational in nature. It orients us to the movement between different sign systems. Finally, enumerative reading is synoptic. It aims to generalize and in so doing be active in the world. By way of illustration, I undertake an enumerative reading of the semantics of reading in a collection of ca. 6,500 novels published since the nineteenth century.
Neuroscience
Authors: Armstrong Paul B.
Published: March 2020

The claims that literary critics and theorists make about language, reading, emotions, and the social powers of literature are based on assumptions about cognition that can and should be tested against the relevant science. The findings of contemporary neuroscience will not settle all disputes about such matters, but the acceptance of some empirically tested postulates about the workings of the brain may at least rule some mistaken views out of bounds. The current scientific consensus is that language is a “bio-cultural hybrid” that develops through the interaction of inherited functions and anatomical structures in the brain with culturally variable experiences of communication and education. Any claims for cognitive or linguistic universality need to square with our bio-cultural hybridity. Brain-based, embodied cognitive processes constrain our experiences with literature, but they do not completely prescribe our responses or predetermine the effects of reading on our lives.
Mindreading and Social Status
Authors: Zunshine Lisa
Published: March 2020

What does it mean for one fictional character to be more complex than another? One way to define complexity is to look at characters’ ability to reflect upon their own and other people’s mental states, that is, their ability to embed their own and other’s thoughts and feelings on a higher level. Taking as its starting point studies which have shown that people in weaker social positions engage in more active and perceptive attribution of mental states than people in stronger social positions, this chapter suggests that works of fiction can either follow or invert this real-life association, correlating their characters’ capacity for embedment with their relative social standing. Using case studies from English, Chinese, and Russian literary traditions, this chapter argues that cognition and ideology are bound with each other in a variety of historically specific forms, and that a cognitive-literary inquiry is thus fundamentally a historicist inquiry.
Consciousness
Authors: Kuzmičová Anežka
Published: March 2020

This chapter revisits three common ideas about how our consciousness works when we read fiction. First, the chapter contests the notion that the reading consciousness is a container of sorts, containing a circumscribed amount of textual stimulus. Second, an argument is presented against the view that readers abstract their personal concerns away in reading, and that they do so with benefit. Third, the chapter shows how the reading consciousness encompasses rather than excludes the physical situation and environment of reading. For each idea revisited, the chapter discusses practical implications for how reading could be taught, assessed, and staged in educational settings.
Interfaced
Authors: Emerson Lori
Published: March 2020

This essay discusses the flexibility of the term “interface” and argues that an approach that draws from media studies, literature, and the arts provides a unique perspective to work with and against the grain of contemporary, ubiquitous, nearly invisible interfaces to (frequently) blackboxed digital technologies; media studies and literature and the arts can reveal the ways in which these interfaces too often foreclose on our access to information, knowledge, and creativity, and they can also re-insert values such as accessibility, transparency, and configurability, if not into the design of interfaces themselves, then at least into our experience of these interfaces.
In the Custom House
Authors: Hofmeyr Isabel
Published: March 2020

In port cities, Customs and Excise fulfilled a number of literary functions. Their officials checked books to see that they were not pirated, seditious, or obscene, and they hence involved themselves in the protocols of copyright and censorship. This article examines the forms of reading associated with these activities and it argues that these modes of readings were shaped by the dockside procedures and routines that governed the work of Customs examiners. Customs officials functioned like dockside ontologists, assigning objects to categories for purposes of tariff duties. In doing so, they paid extensive attention to the nature, weight, composition, and marking of these objects, apprenticing themselves to the material properties of the commodities that passed through their jurisdiction. Their methods of reading were governed by object rather than text and were hence object-oriented.
Neuroimaged
Authors: Phillips Natalie , Mejeur Cody , Klamer Melissa , Smith Karah , Antonnuci Salvatore
Published: March 2020

Literary scholars have long known that reading can create worlds, make us feel, and even change our minds. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience reveal the regions and networks of the brain that facilitate these reading processes. Using several studies of literature, poetry, and music conducted at the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition lab at Michigan State University, this chapter demonstrates how we can bring together literary and neuroscientific understandings of reading to better grasp how we read, including how we read differently. In particular, fMRI allows us to see how our brain activity and engagement with literature while reading changes dramatically over time, and how our feelings and interpretations emerge dynamically in the moment-to-moment reading of the text. Beyond helping us understand the processes of reading better, reading in a scanner also presents an opportunity to rethink what reading is and looks like in an increasingly digital world.
Distant
Authors: Treharne Elaine
Published: March 2020

This chapter examines the phenomenal book in the medieval period to discover ways in which the medieval manuscript was conceived and understood by its producers and multiple users. Of prime significance in this study is the aspect of “distant reading”—how audiences participated in making meaning when the book to which they had access was intended to be “enjoyed” from afar, perhaps read or displayed at some distance. Even as this mode of participation must have been most common, the paper then discusses the haptic and kinaesthetic nature of the book, clearly perceived to be a major component of the manuscript judging by the dominance of images from the long medieval period in which the book is held, touched, and interacted with.
Judicial Politics
Authors: Garoupa Nuno , Magalhães Pedro C.
Published: March 2020

In this chapter, we discuss the judicial politics within the Spanish Constitutional Court from three main points of view. First, we discuss the origins and institutional design of the Court from a comparative perspective. Second, by making use of the standard approaches (attitudinal, strategic and legalist models of judicial behaviour), we examine the extent to which and the different ways in which political actors and other agents have engaged with the Court and what this has meant for its role in Spanish politics and policy-making. Finally, we focus on judicial behaviour in the Court, both from a comparative and an empirical perspective, and with a particular emphasis on the Court’s role in the allocation of powers and competencies between the central government and the ‘comunidades autónomas’.
The Quality of Democracy
Authors: Font Joan
Published: March 2020

This chapter discusses the quality of Spanish democracy. Lacking a widely accepted definition of the concept of the quality of democracy, it reviews three types of evidence: the existing comparative measurements, citizens’ own definitions of democracy, and a normative definition of the concept, according to which the quality of democracy is different from democracy itself and consists of two main components: voice and political equality. Using different types of evidence from the national, regional, and local government levels, and from the institutional and civil society sides, the performance and trade-offs between these two components are examined. The effect of participatory institutions and of the Great Recession on the quality of democracy is reviewed. The chapter makes clear that the choice of different definitions of the concept leads to quite diverse assessments of its situation.
Political Culture in Spain in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Torcal Mariano , Christmann Pablo
Published: March 2020

This chapter discusses the reason for the outstanding decline political trust and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) in Spain since 2008. It analyses the evolution of political attitudes between 1985 and 2018, and contrasts these with political and economic performances in Spain. It then situates the recent developments within the rest of Europe, showing that the decline in political trust and SWD has been especially pronounced in Spain, even when contrasted with other Southern European countries or Eastern Europe. Finally, we analyse an individual-level panel dataset (CIUPANEL) to put existing explanations of the recent decline to a multivariate test. We present empirical evidence which confirms that despite the initial importance of the Great Recession, evaluations of the system’s political responsiveness and political corruption are equally relevant when accounting for changes in political trust and SWD in Spain over time. We find indications that poor political performance is the main reason why political trust has remained so low, despite the economic recovery in the country.
Parties and Party Systems
Authors: Méndez Lago Mónica
Published: March 2020

Using the most relevant indicators highlighted by the literature on party systems, such as the indexes of volatility, fragmentation, and ideological polarization in the electoral–parliamentary arena, this chapter analyses the development of the Spanish party system since the transition to democracy. It focuses on the different stages of its development, marked by the two main transformations it has experienced: the first in the 1982 elections with the collapse of the incumbent party, and, after a long phase of stability, the second transformation in 2014/15 with the emergence of two new national parties onto the electoral and parliamentary arena. One of the key questions the chapter addresses is why a party system that had remained quite stable for more than three decades since 1982, preventing newcomers from coming in, finally gave way to a transformation in the mid-2010s.
Elections in Spain
Authors: Montero José Ramón , Santana Andrés
Published: March 2020

The new democratic system established in Spain in the late 1970s has supposed a breakaway from almost two centuries of discontinuity, instability, and fraud. This rupture has not been accidental: it has been favoured by an appropriate electoral system, the moderation of Spanish voters, and the decision of political elites to play potentially destabilizing cleavages down when the new democracy was still in its infancy and the possibility of new spells of instability could not be foreclosed. Social divides have been gradually incorporated as anchors of voting and, together with ideological self-placement, which has played a key role in Spanish elections, and short-term factors, government alternation has taken place in several occasions. In two cases, the 1982 and 2015 elections, electoral earthquakes or realignments did occur, but they have bolstered the legitimacy of the political system instead of menacing it. While the former opened up a different and long-lasting scenario, the consequences of the second one are yet to be devised.
Determinants of Voting Behaviour
Authors: Fraile Marta , Hernández Enrique
Published: March 2020

This chapter provides an overview of the main correlates of voting behaviour in Spain. Through a review of existing studies we first offer an outline of the most relevant factors associated with Spaniards’ voting choices. Next, we present a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the importance of these correlates of voting behaviour, drawing on the four available pre- post- electoral panel studies from the Spanish Centro de Investigaciones Socioló
gicas (CIS). Through this data we analyse the association of these features with individuals’ voting choices in the 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2015 general elections. Findings illustrate the relevance and evolution of key factors related to the sociological, the social-psychological, and the performance-based models of voting behaviour in Spain. Class voting, economic voting, and ideological voting contribute to explaining Spaniards’ behaviour at the polls.
Turnout
Authors: Riera Pedro
Published: March 2020

Voters’ turnout is always a crucial aspect in our explanation of election outcomes. A high turnout is often said to give legitimacy to the democratic system. Moreover, turnout usually has distributive effects: parties’ vote shares depend on the levels of turnout registered in a given election. My chapter has the following four aims. First of all, it offers a broad picture of electoral participation in Spain by comparing its level with data in other established democracies. Second, I examine the evolution of turnout in Spain and include information on the different types of elections that take place in the country. The third part of the chapter is devoted to studying the determinants of turnout at the aggregate (electoral district) level. Finally, I analyse what sources of variation in turnout exist at the individual level by taking into account the effect of three main groups of explanatory factors: sociodemographic, attitudinal, and economic.
Spanish Nationalism Since 1975
Authors: Núñez Seixas Xosé M.
Published: March 2020

Most Spaniards, including many intellectuals and influential public figures, have no difficulty claiming Spain is a multicultural and historical nation. However, to its defenders, this affirmation seems to fall entirely outside the category of nationalism, and instead lie in the realms of constitutional loyalty. In this chapter, the thesis is maintained that Spanish nationalist and patriotic discourse has existed and exists even more today, stimulated by the challenge posed by Catalan secessionism. Various Spanish nationalist discourses coexist and vie for hegemony, although they share a set of basic presuppositions. Amongst these is the indivisibility of sovereignty and the conviction that the Spanish political community rests on earlier historical and cultural foundations. However, regardless of divisions between right and left, all variants accept or defend the 1978 Constitution as a legitimate basis for maintaining the political and territorial unity of Spain, as well as its definition as a nation.
Spanish Democratization
Authors: Sánchez-Cuenca Ignacio
Published: March 2020

This chapter offers an analysis of the Spanish transition to democracy that does not fit in the typologies that have been used in the literature on democratization. Rather than trying to summarize the whole process in a single cell of a typological scheme, a sharp distinction is made between the political dynamics of the initial period of the transition (1975–77), up to the holding of the first elections, and of the posterior period of building and consolidating democracy (1977–78). Whereas the first period is characterized by pressure from below and reforms from above, with full control of the reform process by the Francoist elites, the second period corresponds to consensual politics and encompassing agreements. The consolidation of democracy and the legacy of the transition are also discussed.
Regional and National Identities in Spain
Authors: Hierro María José
Published: March 2020

In this chapter, I contend that territorial (both regional and national) identities in Spain are shaped by a conflict involving the centre and the peripheries, that is, the Basque Country and Catalonia. The chapter traces back the conflict, devoting a special attention to its evolution since 2010. In the last decade, this internal conflict appeased in the Basque Country, and intensified in Catalonia. The push for independence in Catalonia, and statewide political parties’ unwillingness to offer a political solution to the conflict lies behind the escalation of the conflict and the crystallization of these antagonistic identities. Even if dual identities continue to be the modal category of identification in Spain, Catalonia, and the Basque Country, the conflict has altered the meaning of these identities. Future research should help to elucidate the relational meaning of these identities, that is, the way in which people with dual identities in Spain perceive people in Catalonia and the Basque Country and vice versa.
Social Inequalities
Authors: Salazar Leire
Published: March 2020

This chapter addresses the extent of social inequalities in contemporary Spain using a broad array of indicators. Trends in economic inequalities are firstly analysed. The risk of poverty and social exclusion are then considered because of their special relevance in the Spanish case in the context of the Great Recession. Then, changes in educational inequalities and social mobility are examined. An account of several indicators of gender differences in the labour market and in other areas, is then provided. Lastly, a discussion of social inequalities across generations is offered. These trends are compared with those in other European countries, and specificities of the Spanish case are particularly emphasized.
Employment Policy in Spain
Authors: López-Santana Mariely
Published: March 2020

This chapter provides an overview of the emergence, consolidation, recalibration, and liberalization of employment policies in Spain. By identifying five developmental periods, it reviews transformations in the nature and regulation of labour market policies from the early 1900s to the mid-2010s. In addition, it explores changes in the territorial organization and governance of labour-market policies with a focus on decentralization, (re-) centralization, and delegation reforms. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Great Recession on Spanish labour market policies and structures, including its dualized labour market. All in all, the chapter sheds much light on the nature and changes of the Spanish welfare state since the early twentieth century.
Corruption and Transparency
Authors: Villoria Manuel
Published: March 2020

According to different surveys, corruption has become the second-most significant problem for Spaniards since the beginning of 2013. This article tries to demonstrate that corruption in present-day Spain is a consequence of institutional deficits that stem from the democratic transition. However, despite a certain path of dependence, the political consequences of the Great Recession economic crisis and the numerous scandals have fostered the emergence of a pro-integrity advocacy coalition. Using the know-how of the anti-corruption epistemic community, this coalition aims to modify social perception of the problem and introduce radical policy change. This chapter ends by offering a critical analysis of the incremental change in the anti-corruption policy made by the national government, particularly regarding transparency and open government outputs.
Decentralization in Spain
Authors: Colino César
Published: March 2020

The chapter seeks to provide an analytical and historical interpretation of the evolution and workings of the Spanish model of decentralization, the Estado autonómico, and its territorial politics, its determinants and consequences. On the basis of a comparative diagnosis and explanation of its territorial model, such as the degree of devolution acquired or its territorial reforms and its dynamics, the chapter utilizes the broad recent literature, legal, political or economic, dealing with the history, institutional design, political operation and consequences of the territorial system in Spain, so as to evaluate the difficulties and governance results of Spain’s version of federalism. After describing the Spanish territorial institutions and dynamics and their mutual relationships and consequences on stability and adaptability, conflict potential and autonomy protection, the chapter argues that the Spanish decentralization model shows both centrifugal and centripetal forces, and features traits of several types of federations, and therefore of problems typically afflicting them.
Barth and Modernity
Authors: Pfleiderer Georg
Published: March 2020

The struggle with modernity is a characteristic feature of Barth’s theology throughout his career. Because of the moral failure of his ‘liberal’ teachers in the First World War, Barth came to insist that Christian theology be based on a transparent epistemology, and that theory and practice be integrated. From 1915, Barth developed an avant-garde dialectical theology, initially in a neo-idealistic and expressionistic manner, with an implicit methodology, and later in an academic manner, with an explicit methodology. The result of this endeavour was an interpretation of God’s acting in the world through a (dialectically conceived) church.
The Tasks of Theology
Authors: Schwöbel Christoph
Published: March 2020

Starting from his ‘last word’ on the nature and tasks of theology in Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, this chapter attempts to retrace some of the decisive steps in Barth’s understanding of theology. Barth’s theological beginnings, his taking leave from the theology of his teachers and the programme of dialectical theology are touched upon; and some continuities and discontinuities are highlighted with reference to Barth’s book on Anselm, Christian Dogmatics, and Church Dogmatics. Throughout, the chapter emphasizes Barth’s view of the practice of doing theology and the way Barth himself tried to make this practice transparent with respect to its ground, aims, criteria, and methods, as they are rooted in God’s revelation in Christ through the Spirit.
God
Authors: Sonderegger Katherine
Published: March 2020

Barth’s doctrine of God is revolutionary. It leaves behind many of the traditional elements of a doctrine of God—natural knowledge of God, comparative religious practice, and proofs—and puzzles over simplicity and immutability. In their place Barth installs a new maxim, that God demonstrates or ‘proves’ himself. The Bible is the record of that self-demonstration. The divine perfections emerge in dialectical pairs, each displaying the personal life of God as the ‘One who loves in freedom’. Language for God successfully names God when it speaks of Jesus Christ, the Holy One who exemplifies divine omnipotence, omniscience, grace, mercy, and patience. In this way, Barth carries out his programme of Christological concentration, even in the doctrine of God. This is a doctrine of God unlike any other, an unsettling and a glorious one.
Trinity
Authors: McCormack Bruce L.
Published: March 2020

The development of Karl Barth’s doctrine of the Trinity is traced from its origins in the Göttingen Dogmatics (1924) through Christliche Dogmatik im Entwurf (1927) and on into the final volume of Church Dogmatics. Questions of starting point and method, location and significance of the doctrine, the distinction of common and personal properties, and critical appropriation of classical terms are discussed. Changes of mind are noted and assessed with regard to their significance. A thesis is advanced, viz. that Barth’s doctrine of the ‘essential’ Trinity is grounded (epistemically) in his concept of revelation, leading to the conclusion that what God is eternally is what God is in His Self-revelation in time—and vice versa.
Revelation and Scripture
Authors: Oakes Kenneth
Published: March 2020

The doctrines of revelation and Scripture play an important role in Karl Barth’s theology. Barth develops his theology of revelation and Scripture in the form of an exposition of the threefold form of the Word of God (revelation, Scripture, proclamation) and in close association with other doctrines, especially the doctrine of the Trinity, Christology, and pneumatology. Barth characterizes revelation as the noetic corollary of God’s presence and activity, and Scripture as a witness to this presence and activity, which is engendered by revelation itself. Revelation genuinely reveals who God is and constitutes binding knowledge regarding God’s eternal life, being, and activity. Consideration is also given to Barth’s rejection of natural theology and to some common criticisms of Barth’s doctrine of Scripture.
Providence
Authors: Fergusson David
Published: March 2020

In surveying Barth’s doctrine of providence in Church Dogmatics III/3, the chapter notes the systematic location and epistemological grounding of this doctrine before exploring its main themes. Attention is devoted to Barth’s exposition of the threefold form of providence in divine preservation, accompaniment, and rule, particularly with respect to his reception of Reformed Orthodoxy. The practical significance of faith in providence and of the signs of providence in history are also considered. In conclusion, some questions raised by critics of Barth are registered.
Justification, Sanctification, Vocation
Authors: Rigby Cynthia L.
Published: March 2020

This chapter explores Barth’s understanding of justification, sanctification, and vocation. It begins by directing the reader’s attention to a 1957 sermon, delivered at the prison in Basel, which considers salvation, faith, and the relationship between divine and human agency. The chapter then considers Barth’s understanding of reconciliation in Church Dogmatics IV, paying particular attention to justification before Jesus Christ, sanctification for Jesus Christ, and vocation as the Christian’s cooperation in the work of Christ. A concern throughout is to show that Barth takes reconciliation, centred in the one who is fully divine and fully human, to be both entirely the work of God and also fully our own.
The Making of Colonial Christianity in Hispanic America
Authors: Schwaller John F.
Published: March 2020

The Catholic Church was one of the most important institutions of colonial Latin America; yet, it is poorly understood by many scholars. This chapter outlines the important features of the Catholic Church both from the point of view of institutional structure and the impact of these on the society at large. While generally considered a monolithic institution, the Church consisted of many disparate and often competing units. The clergy itself was divided between those who were members of religious orders and communities and those who were directly under the administrative control of bishops and archbishops. The Church also touched the life of nearly every resident of the colonies, from baptism until death. The Church also had an important impact on the finances of the colonies. In short, this study looks at the broad scope of the actions and activities of the Catholic Church in colonial Latin America.
MainLine Protestantism in Latin America
Authors: Cruz Joel Morales
Published: March 2020

Far from being a newcomer, mainline Protestantism has played a number of roles in the Latin American religious drama. In the colonial era, it represented the dangerous Other vis-à-vis the political, social, and religious structures. In the late eighteenth century, Protestantism was identified with Enlightenment ideas that were perceived as dangerous to the colonial order. During the independence period of the early nineteenth century, Protestant churches confronted a number of challenges of the new republics: debating religious liberty, challenging Roman Catholic hegemony, settling the countryside, and forming leaders who supported politically liberal causes. Though often considered a foreign element representative of European and US sociopolitical interests, mainline Protestant churches have largely come into their own, breaking from missionary or immigrant roots to form their own ecclesial, educational, and interdenominational structures, to develop their own leaders, and to form vital theological perspectives within local and national contexts. For the past century, main-line Protestantism has represented an alternative theological and ecclesiastical voice to Catholicism and evangelicalism, seeking to address Latin America’s challenges of poverty, war, and corruption through their faith traditions.
“The Yankees, Señor General, Are Not Like Us:” Vallejo, Bancroft, and the Construction of California History
Authors: Beebe Rose Marie , Senkewicz Robert M
Published: March 2020

This article explores the relationship between Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vallejo was one of the most important contributors to Bancroft’s massive History of California. He entrusted to Bancroft thirty-six volumes of primary source documents and his own five-volume manuscript on California history. He also encouraged other Californios to share their own family documents with Bancroft and to provide oral histories of the Mexican era. Vallejo believed that he was working in partnership with Bancroft, who would in turn compose a sensitive and community-based account of pre-U.S. California. But Vallejo was deeply upset about Bancroft’s finished product, which he believed deliberately suppressed the Hispanic contribution. The conflict between Vallejo and Bancroft lays bare a series of issues revolving around inclusion, omission, and the nature of historical authority that have remained crucial in the construction of Western history.
Quantification of In Planta Zymoseptoria tritici Progression Through Different Infection Phases and Related Association with Components of Aggressiveness
Authors: Rahman Atikur , Doohan Fiona , Mullins Ewen
Published: March 2020

In planta growth of Zymoseptoria tritici, causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch of wheat, during the infection process has remained an understudied topic due to the long symptomless latent period before the emergence of fruiting bodies. In this study, we attempted to understand the relationship between in planta growth of Z. tritici relative to the primary components of aggressiveness, i.e., latent period and pycnidia coverage in regard to contrasting host resistance. We tested isolates collected from Ireland against the susceptible cultivar Gallant and cultivar Stigg, which has strong partial resistance. A clear isolate−host interaction effect (F = 3.018; P = 0.005, and F = 6.008; P < 0.001) for latent period and pycnidia coverage, respectively, was identified. Furthermore, during the early infection phase of latency from 5 to 11 days postinoculation (dpi), in planta growth rate of fungal biomass was significantly (F = 30.06; P < 0.001) more affected by host resistance than isolate specificity (F = 1.27; P = 0.27), indicating the importance of host resistance in the early infection phase. In planta Z. tritici growth rates in cultivar Gallant spiked between 11 and 16 dpi followed by a continuous fall onward, whereas in cultivar Stigg it was slowly progressive in nature. From correlation and regression analysis, we found that the in planta growth rate preceding the average latent period of cultivar Gallant has more influence on latency duration and pycnidia production. Likewise, correlation between component of aggressiveness and in planta growth rate of pathogen supports our understanding of aggressiveness to be driven by the pathogen’s multiplication capacity within host tissue.
Medical Education Empowered by Theater (MEET)
Authors: de Carvalho Filho Marco Antonio , Ledubino Adilson , Frutuoso Letícia , da Silva Wanderlei Jamiro , Jaarsma Debbie , Helmich Esther , Strazzacappa Marcia
Published: March 2020

The medical education community acknowledges the importance of including the humanities in general, and the liberal arts in particular, in the education of health professionals. Among the liberal arts, theater is especially helpful for educators wanting to bring experiences that are both real and challenging to the learning encounter in an interactive, engaging, and reflective way. In this Perspective, the authors share what they have learned after working together with a company of actors for 8 years (2012–2019) in different obligatory and elective curricular activities. Influenced by Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the ideas of Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, Medical Education Empowered by Theater (MEET) embraces social accountability and applies the concept of sensible cognition to empower medical students as the protagonists of their learning and professional development to become agents of change—both in patients’ lives and in health care systems. The MEET theoretical framework builds on the concepts of liberation, emancipatory education, critical pedagogy, and participatory theater to offer medical students and teachers an opportunity to problematize, criticize, and hopefully reform the hierarchical and often oppressive structures of medical education and practice. MEET sessions include activating previous knowledge and experiences, warm-up exercises, different improvisational exercises, debriefing, and synthesis. Vital to the praxis of MEET is applying theater-teaching traditions to develop capacities important in medicine: presence, empathy, improvisation, communication (verbal and nonverbal), and scenic intelligence (i.e., the capacity to self-assess one’s performance while performing). The authors believe that theater offers a venue to integrate both the personal and professional development of students into a process of reflection and action, targeting the transformation of the medical culture toward social justice.
Outcomes-Based Selection Into Medical School: Predicting Excellence in Multiple Competencies During the Clinical Years
Authors: Schreurs Sanne , Cleutjens Kitty B.J.M. , Cleland Jennifer , oude Egbrink Mirjam G.A.
Published: March 2020

Purpose

Medical school selection committees aim to identify the best possible students and, ultimately, the best future doctors from a large, well-qualified, generally homogeneous pool of applicants. Constructive alignment of medical school selection, curricula, and assessment with the ultimate outcomes (e.g., CanMEDS roles) has been proposed as means to attain this goal. Whether this approach is effective has not yet been established. The authors addressed this gap by assessing the relationship between performance in an outcomes-based selection procedure and performance during the clinical years of medical school.

Method

Two groups of students were compared: (1) those admitted into Maastricht University Medical School via an outcomes-based selection procedure and (2) those rejected through this procedure who were admitted into the program through a national, grade-point-average-based lottery. The authors compared performance scores of students from the 2 groups on all 7 CanMEDS roles, using assessment data gathered during clinical rotations. The authors examined data from 3 cohorts (2011–2013).

Results

Students admitted through the local, outcomes-based selection procedure significantly outperformed the initially rejected but lottery-admitted students in all years, and the differences between groups increased over time. The selected students performed significantly better in the CanMEDS roles of Communicator, Collaborator, and Professional in the first year of clinical rotations; in these 3 roles—plus Organizer—in the second year; and in 2 additional roles (Advocate and Scholar—all except Medical Expert) at the end of their clinical training.

Conclusions

A constructively aligned selection procedure has increasing predictive value across the clinical years of medical school compared with a GPA-based lottery procedure. The data reported here suggest that constructive alignment of selection, curricula, and assessment to ultimate outcomes is effective in creating a selection procedure predictive of clinical performance.
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN AQUEOUS VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR LEVEL AND CLINICAL ACTIVITY IN NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION
Authors: Ichiyama Yusuke , Sawada Tomoko , Sawada Osamu , Ito Yuka , Kakinoki Masashi , Obata Shumpei , Saishin Yoshitsugu , Ohji Masahito
Published: March 2020

Purpose:

The aim of the current study was to investigate the correlation between the pretreatment aqueous level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and clinical activity in neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Methods:

Patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration treated by intravitreal ranibizumab injections and followed for 12 months were included in the current study. The treatment regimen consisted of three consecutive monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injections (loading treatment) followed by a pro re nata (PRN) treatment regimen. The aqueous VEGF levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using aqueous humor samples obtained just before the first intravitreal ranibizumab injections.

Results:

Sixty-four eyes of 64 patients were included in the current study. The mean number of intravitreal ranibizumab injections during 12 months was 4.6 ± 1.4, and 17 eyes had no recurrence after loading treatment. The mean aqueous VEGF level was significantly higher in eyes with recurrence after loading treatment than in eyes without recurrence (107.6 vs. 83.8 pg/mL, respectively; P = 0.04) and significantly higher in eyes with recurrence within 3 months after loading treatment than in other eyes (114.9 vs. 86.7 pg/mL, respectively; P < 0.01).

Conclusion:

Pretreatment aqueous VEGF level was significantly correlated with the likelihood of recurrence in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The measurement of pretreatment aqueous VEGF level may be useful to determine the best treatment options for patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.
Orbital Actinomyces Masquerading as Meningioma
Authors: Yu Caroline Y. , Simmons Brittany A. , Greenlee Jeremy D , Woo Kyung In , Ko Audrey C. , Shriver Erin M
Published: March 2020

Orbital actinomyces is a rare diagnosis with only a few cases reported in the literature. It can be difficult to diagnose due to its slow, indolent course, and nonspecific findings on imaging and clinical examination, and frequently it can masquerade as other pathologies such as neoplasm and inflammatory disease. The authors present a case of actinomyces masquerading as meningioma with findings of hyperostosis and a superior orbital roof interosseous tract on imaging.