bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Reformed Theosis?”: A Response to Gannon Murphy
Authors: Habets Myk
Published: February 2011

Any attempt to reclaim Orthodox aspects of the “great tradition” for contemporary theology is to be applauded. In this light, Gannon Murphy has done the church a real service in stimulating discussion surrounding the compatibility of an Orthodox notion of theosis with contemporary Reformed theology.1 Having argued the same thing previously, I stand beside Murphy as a brother in arms.2 There are, however, differing views on how best to incorporate theosis and Reformed thought. In this essay, I point out areas of agreement between Murphy and myself, discuss a number of areas in which I disagree with Murphy's proposal, and finally offer a brief reflection on how I think Reformed theology and a doctrine of theosis are compatible. At the outset I wish to affirm my agreement with Murphy and make it clear that we share much in common despite our disagreements.3
Kierkegaard's Eucharistic Spirituality
Authors: Vainio Olli-Pekka
Published: February 2011

Some years before his death Søren Kierkegaard wrote a number of theological treatises on Holy Communion. In these texts he presented a view of the Eucharist that joins his existentialist emphasis with classical Christian doctrines in a way that provides fresh insight into this Christian sacrament. In Communion, the paradox of eternity-in-time is embodied in bread and wine through which communicants are made one with God-in-time. Kierkegaard seemed to understand Communion as a cure for the existential angst of the individual communicant, but this cure always remains an absurdity to outside observers.
The Church of the Reformation Faces Today's Challenges
Authors: Hromádka Joseph L.
Published: February 2011

Prefatory Note—Dr. Joseph L. Hromádka, Dean of the Jan Hus Theological Faculty in Prague, is considered the foremost Protestant theologian and Church leader in Czechoslovakia. He fled the Nazi terror and came to the United States to spend eight years in exile as a professor of theology in Princeton Theological Seminary. Shortly after the War closed, during the summer of 1947, he and his family returned to his native land to help in the reconstruction.

Political conditions changed rapidly and the Communist Party came into power early in 1948. Since that time Dr. Hromádka and his colleagues have had to face a new situation. They have tried to maintain a Christian position in their national revolution, believing that while the new order represents an inevitable development in history, the Christian must not withdraw from it, but take a positive yet critical attitude towards it and give his Christian witness in it. That this is being done is evidenced by this powerful address, which is here presented in unabridged form.

Some think that Hromádka has gone too far in working with the new order, although they admire his courageous stand and his precarious position. Others, who know the European situation, feel that he is on the right course, and that his future will no doubt determine the future of evangelical Christianity in all Communist countries. Communists in Czechoslovakia respect men like Hromádka, because they know that such Christians are sincere, fearless, and incorruptible. They also know that Christians like Hromádka have great social concern for the people.

This address, delivered a few months ago to several thousand people in one of the large halls of Prague, is based upon Psalm 75 and will indicate to those who read the Psalm how relevant the Bible is! It reveals the core of the Protestant faith of the Reformation which is coming to renewed life in many areas of the Church. The address also communicates the tension which in a sense always exists between the Church and the world, the tension which in our time has become acute.—E. G. Homrighausen.
The Hebraic Void in the University
Authors: Harcourt Hugh R.
Published: February 2011

THESIS: Almost all academic communities presuppose that the Greeks and the Romans have an exclusive monopoly on the intellectual-cultural life of the university. In the midst of most academic communities, there is usually also a Christian community of faculty and students which needs to be creatively disturbed by this presupposition. The Christian community is the heir in a peculiar way of Hebraic culture, and it needs to remind the university of its whole obligation as the transmitter of what is of lasting value in our cultural heritage. This transmitting function of the university cannot be fulfilled if the Hebraic roots of Western thought are either overlooked or undervalued.
Community and Humanity in the University
Authors: Shaull M. Richard
Published: February 2011

“We have been reminded again and again that the new situation in the university has contributed to the collapse of all moral, spiritual, and intellectual values among students, and made it almost impossible for the university to do anything significant to meet the problem. What we do not hear very often is that precisely this university is now a place where the search for new possibilities of meaning and fulfillment in life, in interrelationship, and in responsibility is wide open and can be pursued in a way which may be significant for the larger society.”
The Theologian and the Gospel
Authors: Kimball Robert C.
Published: February 2011

“The churches may not be Christian, but they offer a magnificent opportunity as a battleground where community might be risked from the perspective of the Gospel. What do we mean by Gospel? I am not certain that the Gospel can be well expressed by the theologian. The Gospel is not something you write. It is certainly not something you can take for granted, as the theologian usually does. The Gospel is an event. It happens, appears, in community.”
The Lord's Supper in Ecumenical Dialogue
Authors: Crow Paul A.
Published: February 2011

“The prospect of a church union cannot expect an exactly agreed-upon theology of the eucharist. Any effort to unite the church on a precise definition would cause a union on any comprehensive basis to fail. This is one of the places where unity in diversity is essential. Having made this point, however, there is a sense in which an emerging consensus, guided by fruitful New Testament studies, can be discerned on the ecumenical horizon. Far from a systematic interpretation, these issues furnish a significant basis for conversation, and indicate that the status of creative tension may possibly be preserved without division even on such a central matter as the Lord's Supper.”
Self-Identity in an Urban Society
Authors: Callahan Daniel
Published: February 2011

“In the city, we do not have peace and quiet; the seasons are barely noticeable except as the occasion for minor pleasures or discomforts; and we meet men in the aggregate, great swarming crowds of men. We cannot, therefore, reasonably expect to meet the God of repose and contemplation in the city; nor can we reasonably continue to proclaim private relationships with God, non-social relationships, as the ultimate ground of Christian belief. The creation of an urban myth equal in power to the anachronistic rural myth must look to the social experience for its source and power.”
Bittersweet Grace: Religious Satire
Authors: Wagoner Walter D.
Published: February 2011

“Satire is humor on an errand. It is wit used with a vengeance, rejecting the facades of the godly, insisting on reminding those within the Holy of Holies that their pretense is showing. … Join the satirist as he mixes humor with wit, as he tars and feathers, not God or Christ or Moses, but the holy swindlers, the ecclesiastical con men, and seeks to puncture stuffiness and to fumigate the odors of sanctity.”
A New Syntax for Religious Language
Authors: Hall Thor
Published: February 2011

“I am not prepared to argue the case for the new music, but if (for the sake of analogy) the new sound is found to correspond to something elemental in life and can be heard to speak to people of our day and situation, I wonder whether we who operate in the verbal fields do not need to think through the parallel possibility of some such syntactical development in speech.”
Christianity's Stake in Metaphysics
Authors: Allen Diogenes
Published: February 2011

“Christianity need not establish nor seek to establish the claim that its view of the world is the best. Hence it does not have to establish in some way that explanations involving a Deity must be given to be adequate to the ‘facts’; or, in other words, have its claim dependent on our ability to resolve the problem of specifying criteria which enable us to evaluate rival world views to determine which one is the best. For Christianity can rest its world view on another ground.”
Theology and the Transformation of Society
Authors: Shaull Richard
Published: February 2011

“At a time when neo-orthodox theology was dominant, [Reinhold] Niebuhr was able to use effectively, with far-reaching social consequences, the metaphysical-ontological categories of transcendence. Today it is important to recognize not only that these concepts have little meaning for another generation, but also that the biblical symbols point us in a different direction. The transcendent reality described in the biblical myths and images is not so much the God who stands above all human attainments, judging them and raising man to a higher order, but the God who goes ahead of us, opening the way for greater fulfillment on the road to the future. He is one whose actions in the totality of man's hisotyr lead to new events that open new possibilities. Thus the basic Christian symbols suggest that human life is free because it is lived, in history, in the context of ‘gracious’ sovereignty.”
What is Theology's Standpoint?
Authors: Novak Michael
Published: February 2011

“A standpoint is the set of experiences, images, presuppositions, expectations, and operations (of inquiring and deciding) by which men make themselves conscious of their own identity and their relation to their world. … An adequate theology today must be able to enter into many historical standpoints, and perhaps to invent other possible standpoints as well. The theologian at his best must operate from a ‘higher standpoint,’ or, better, an ‘open standpoint,’ to empathize with, to explore, and to enter into more than one historical standpoint. … The task of learning how to operate from an open standpoint involves the relativities of one's own standpoint as well as the relativities of other standpoints. To see fundamental concrete symbols as others see them, and to learn how to discern what is illuminating and what is merely adventitious in such symbols, is a tricky business. Theologians are notoriously tricky people. Living with relativity requires trickiness.”
Living on the Left Hand of God
Authors: Marshall Calvin B.
Published: February 2011

“Then the King will say to those … at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’” (Matthew 25: 34-45)
Gospel for Atheists
Authors: Lochman Jan M.
Published: February 2011

What does this “gospel for atheists” really mean in our encounter with our atheistic fellow-men? What perspectives can be thereby opened up? Which ways of proceeding are thus marked for us to initiate an authentic encounter? In a preliminary way I want to answer these questions with the following proposition. The encounter of Christians with atheists will proceed correctly on the side of the church only when it is done in the spirit of the gospel and not in the spirit of the law.
The Primacy of Philosophical Theology
Authors: Nielsen Kai
Published: February 2011

The center of theology, I shall argue, is philosophical theology, that is, philosophical analysis of fundamental religious concepts and claims. Whether there can be any revelation, general or special, and which putative revelation or revealed theology, if any, is genuine must be settled by reference to philosophical criteria. Whether the very concept of God itself is a coherent concept such that there could be a revelation, a legitimate object of faith, and a source of religious truth, must be made out on philosophical grounds. … The critical question is: Can philosophy justifiably be the kind of arbiter I am maintaining it can?
Biomedical Reproduction
Authors: Fackre Gabriel
Published: February 2011

“Can Christian faith affirm, or must it resist, new forms of human reproduction? Must it distinguish between methods, accepting some and rejecting others? Does it have any light to shed on the ‘how’ as well as the ‘whether’ question? …God is a God with maturity as a goal for man, then he wants him to leave the nest of dependency at this crucial point in his pilgrimage. He wants man to move the process of reproduction from necessity to freedom, from the realm of natural contingency to that of human choice, from the ‘accident of birth’ to its intelligent planning. We have already recognized this in birth control. We should affirm it as well in the more fundamental matter of conception itself.”
In Quest of Context
Authors: Willis David
Published: February 2011

“Contextualism is the humility or teachableness which must inform every theological method. The reason it is so pragmatically tied to each emerging situation is because it is a training in the practice of discerning God's presence in ways anticipated by the tradition but genuinely novel in their own right.”
Roaming Catholics
Authors: Robben John
Published: February 2011

“We… still consider ourselves Catholics, but no longer Roman ones. We still believe in God, but he's no longer enshrined in the Vatican or a candlelit church….I guess our Roman days are over, and our roaming ones just begun.”
Parables of Costly Grace: Flannery O'Connor and Ken Kesey
Authors: Boyd George N.
Published: February 2011

“Kesey's and O'Connor's contrasting images of the human dilemma naturally produce contrasting modes of redemption. For Kesey, redemptive self-sacrifice is heroic, through the inspirational power of heroism to elicit imitation. For O'Connor, grace is primarily the experiencing of forgiveness, and the humbling of self is both its preparation and its effect, as is proper to a Thomistic understanding of grace.”
All is OK
Authors: Gramm Kent
Published: February 2011

“Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden …’ But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him … But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, ‘Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?’ … So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, ‘Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people; and set two base fellows opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, “You have cursed God and the king.” Then take him out, and stone him to death …’ Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘Arise, go down to meet Ahab the king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession …’ Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’ He answered, ‘I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold I will bring evil upon you; I will utterly sweep you away.’”—I Kings 21:1-21.
The High Mass as Sacred Dance
Authors: Tucci Douglass Shand
Published: February 2011

“It is everywhere assumed in the literature of the liturgy but almost nowhere else in the church that ceremonial is the art of the body, which is why Newman described the movements of the ministers at high mass as ‘sacred dance.’… The sacred dance, like all liturgical art, must struggle for the incarnation in it of the supernatural if it is to be transfigured. In the Holy Place, at the heart of the liturgy, it can most easily be debased.”
The Nerve of Failure
Authors: Sweet Leonard I.
Published: February 2011

“The quality that should mark the Christian church is not goodness, but grace, not merit, but mercy, not moralism, but forgiveness, not the enshrinement of success, but the acceptance of failure … Lacking the nerve of failure, we have suffered a failure of nerve—to dare to dream dreams, venture visions, and risk getting splinters that come from cutting against the grain.”
Reformation and Conversion
Authors: Steinmetz David C.
Published: February 2011

“These four themes from early Protestant thought–the denial of the possibility of preparation for the reception of grace, the insistence on the church as the context in which genuine repentance takes place, the description of conversion as a continuous and lifelong process, and the warning that there is no conversion which does not exact a price from the penitent–are certainly not the only themes which need to be considered by the church in the present as it ponders its own evangelistic mission… But they are insights which cannot be lightly set aside. As Calvin observed, when we deal with repentance and the forgiveness of sins, we are dealing with ‘the sum of the gospel.’“
Evangelicals in Search of Maturity
Authors: Mouw Richard J.
Published: February 2011

“For a variety of reasons, evangelicals are no longer uniformly viewed as a lunatic fringe by the rest of the religious world. Familiarity carries with it a certain degree of accountability. Evangelicals can no longer conduct their business in private. What is some of the business which now must be conducted? What are the defects, tensions, and problems which evangelicalism must deal with if it is to mature as a creative religious force?”
Christian Doctrine: I: Chalcedon Revisited
Authors: Stroup George W.
Published: February 2011

“In contemporary theology it has been apparent for some time that there are serious problems in the language of Athanasius and the Christological formulas of the early church, and there has been an intensive search for a new idiom and conceptual structure to reinterpret the meaning of ‘God was in Christ.’ … I will sketch briefly some of the insuperable problems in the traditional Christological formulas, some recent proposals for the reconstruction of Christology, and the basic themes to which future Christology must attend.”
Literary Criticism and Gospel Criticism
Authors: Frye Roland Mushat
Published: February 2011

“A literary form is highly flexible, and even in that most rigorously structured of literary forms, the sonnet, it is subject to far greater variation than New Testament form criticism sometimes allows in its treatment of an apparently more flexible form such as the parable.”
Theological Reflection in An Uncertain Age
Authors: Rooks Charles Shelby
Published: February 2011

“There is no respected forum today where theologians gather … Too often theological scholars in seminary speak only to each other … The contemporary situation is a new challenge.”
Christian Vocation—In Context
Authors: Zikmund Barbara Brown
Published: February 2011

“The four ways we tell serious Christians to live out their vocation are either simplistic and shallow, or they are so demanding that people pale at the task. At the risk of caricature, we insist that an authentic understanding of Christian vocation: (1) has little to do with our jobs, (2) has something to do with all jobs, (3) has more to do with certain jobs, (4) or has everything to do with on-the-job and off-the-job existence. No wonder good Christians get confused.”
Compassion for the Sinned Against
Authors: Fung Raymond
Published: February 2011

“People are not only willful violators of God's law, they are also the violated. This realization must have a bearing on our evangelism … The gospel which ignores the sinned against may work among the middle class … But it cannot possibly work among the overwhelming majority in Asia—peasants and workers who are poor … Compassion for people is possible only when we perceive people as the sinned against.”
The Role of Theology in Pastoral Care for the Dying
Authors: Spilka Bernard , Spangler John D. , Rea M. Priscilla
Published: February 2011

“The pastoral crisis situation of death is obviously quite complex. Central among the factors motivating thought and behavior in these anxious circumstances is the theological position of the minister. Theology is of great importance for offering solace, strength, and understanding, especially if it is conservative in its orientation. More liberal and educated clergy acknowledge greater doubt and question in their work, but they, too, seem to resolve these problems successfully.”
The Religion of Antiblackness
Authors: Washington Joseph R.
Published: February 2011

“Antiblackness renders people of African descent categorically unacceptable as human beings, irrespective of their intelligence, character, competence, creativity, or achievements. … Antiblackness is a spiritual condition, a sickness unto death with no redeeming features.”
Countee Cullen's “The Black Christ”
Authors: Smylie James H.
Published: February 2011

“Lynch him! Lynch him!” O savage cry Why should you echo, “Crucify.”
Religious Studies and Life Stories
Authors: Woelfel James
Published: February 2011

“I recently decided to build the entire course around the lives of three ancient and three modern figures who stood in one or another direct relationship to religion: Socrates, Gautama, Jesus, Bertrand Russell, Gandhi, and Simone Weil.… This biographical and autobiographical approach seemed to generate student excitement and engagement.”
Crosiers Into Plowshares (or Catholic Bishops as Peacemakers)
Authors: Deedy John
Published: February 2011

“We are seeing a remarkable turn of events. The God-and-country mentality, so pronounced in the late Cardinal Spellman, is as dead as the Dred Scot decision … The bishops are against the arms race; they reject the concept of peace through a balance of terror; and they seem to be coming rapidly to the view that the just-war theory, for centuries the cornerstone of Catholic moral teaching, is no longer operative.”
The Beginning
Authors: Berry Richard W.
Published: February 2011

“What creationists are really saying is that God is real and responsible for creation, so scientific proof in support of evolution seems irrelevant to them. What evolutionists are really saying is that the scientific method is valid and is the most effective means of maintaining objectivity in the search for truth, so philosophical or theological arguments in support of creationism seem irrelevant. Is it any wonder that neither side is successful in influencing the other? They only appear to be debating the evolution/creationism controversy; each side is actually debating and defending something quite different.”
Parabolic Events in Augustine's Autobiography
Authors: Capps Donald
Published: February 2011

“Augustine was middle-aged when he wrote the Confessions. While memoirs, usually written in old age, address the question, ‘What has become of me?,’ autobiography, usually written in mid-career, asks the question, ‘What is becoming of me?’… Why does Augustine reproach himself so severely? … While Adam sought to hide his shame from God, Augustine dares to reveal his shame through his Confessions because he perceives that, through such self-disclosure, God will appear to him.”
Frederick Buechner: The Novelist as Theologian
Authors: Woelfel James
Published: February 2011

“‘If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.’”
Cultural Anthropology: Its Meaning for Christian Theology
Authors: Kraft Charles H.
Published: February 2011

Whether it is in the application of one or another of the approaches of metaphysical philosophy, or in the use of historical perspectives infected with social evolutionism, or in the dependence upon philological perspectives that take little, if any, note of the plethora of insights into language that have come to us from the study of thousands of non-Western languages, from an anthropologist's perspective the discipline of theology seems not to have grown with the world.
Hymns are Theology
Authors: Kimbrough S T
Published: February 2011

“All Christians need to develop critical acumen about what they sing. Hymns are theology, and Christians tend to reflect the content and mood of their hymns in the way they think and live as a church and community…. There is a need to recognize hymns for precisely what they are, in both words and music, and to discard poetical and musical statements which perpetuate a static theology which never leads beyond self to service.”
To Discover How to be Human Now …
Authors: Ramsay Nancy J.
Published: February 2011

In what follows I will share reflections from my participation on the African Awareness Team which traveled in Africa in December of 1984. I have not chosen to share statistics and detailed information but rather the convictions shaped by my experience. I am aware, however, that many who will read this essay are in the position to influence congregations to give sacrificially for African relief. I want to assure them that through Church World Service, our gifts for food, medical supplies, transportation, personnel services, and development are reaching the people and saving lives. The resources our gifts purchase are carefully monitored from their arrival in the countries of need to their distribution. They are also reaching the provinces in northern Ethiopia through the Christian Council of Sudan. We need to remember that the need in 1985 will be even greater than it was in 1984.
Toward A Postliberal Hermeneutics
Authors: Outler Albert C.
Published: February 2011

“The aim of a postliberal hermeneutics is to reposition Holy Scripture as a unique linguistic medium of God's self-communication to the human family. Its primary task is to re-present the Bible as the human medium of a divine revelation that has endured and will endure in and through the cultural metamorphoses that succeed each other as history unfolds.”
Senile Dementia and A Resurrection Theology
Authors: Weaver Glenn D.
Published: February 2011

“Slow physical deterioration and loosened social relationships have profound spiritual significance, for they can separate a person from God. It is remarkable that the laments which so vividly portray this human despair should dominate the Psalter—Israel's book of praise. Their presence must be taken to reflect complex struggles to understand a God who could only be the just, loving, sovereign Lord, yet who stood witness to such violation of God's purposes for human beings.”
In Praise of Shaky Ground: The Liminal Christ and Cultural Pluralism
Authors: Taylor Mark Kline
Published: February 2011

“ The Christ symbol expresses and creates Christian existence lived within, but at the margins of, at the limen of, its own cultural and linguistic worlds. The Christian's liminal existence involves an affirmation of the culturally other and, ultimately, of all those who are most severely marginalized, ‘made other’ by the dynamics and structures of oppression.”
Franciscan Exegesis
Authors: Dixon John W.
Published: February 2011

“In the 1480s, Giovanni Bellini painted a large panel which is now generally known as ‘St. Francis in Ecstasy’. … The painting is one of the greatest works of one of the greatest painters of the Western tradition, so understanding it is an exceedingly important enterprise. … Images and symbols, the great symbolic forms, are the shaping forces of our spiritual lives. We become what we behold.”
Woody Allen's Theological Imagination
Authors: Commins Gary
Published: February 2011

“ ‘To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition.’ … Allen comes out of the Jewish tradition which, from its scriptural roots, has poked and prodded the powerful. He turns this protest against a powerful God, saying ‘Thou hast a good job. Don't blow it.” ’
Suffering and Hope: The Story Behind the Book
Authors: Ollenburger Ben C.
Published: February 2011

“For in their own bodies, Christians live exist entially the tension of their present uncompleted existence in solidarity with an unredeemed creation, and they must therefore yearn for the consummation of the resurrection, which is nothing but God's triumph over the power of death that poisons his creation.”
Surrogate Motherhood
Authors: GÖTz Ignacio L.
Published: February 2011

The angel said to her … “You shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus.” … “How can this be,” said Mary, “when I have no husband?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you.”… “Here I am,” said Mary. “I am the the Lord's servant.”—Luke 1:28–38
Imperial Decree
Authors: Riley Tom
Published: February 2011

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.”—Luke 2:1
Two Types of Postmodernism: Deconstruction and Process
Authors: Cobb John B.
Published: February 2011

“I will put the distinction between the two forms of postmodernism crudely. Deconstructive postmodernism expresses the consequences of an idealism that has taken the linguistic turn and then has seen through the language. Whiteheadian postmodernism expresses the consequences of a realism that is reconstructed in terms of the priority of events over things or substances. It is quite consistent that deconstructive postmodernism peels the onion. It is equally consistent that Whiteheadian postmodernism seeks insights into the inexhaustible reality of the plenum of events, wherever those insights can be found.”
Renewing Worship: The Recovery of Classical Patterns
Authors: Wainwright Geoffrey
Published: February 2011

On almost all sides, official liturgical revisions in the second half of the twentieth century have recognized that Christian Sunday worship, in its fulness, includes both word and table. This is clearly stated in the Lima text on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, and in one way or another, practically all church responses accept this, whatever their respective difficulties of implementation. It is not simply a question of antiquarian return to early tradition. … Rather the ancient tradition is seen to have permanent theological advantages.
Saving Therapy: Exploring The Religious Self-Help Literature
Authors: Kaminer Wendy
Published: February 2011

“Religious writers justify their reliance on psychology by praising it for ‘catching up’ to some eternal truths, but they've also found a way to make the temporal truths of psychology palatable. Religious leaders once condemned psychoanalysis for its moral neutrality…. Now popular religious literature equates illness with sin …, which makes psychology a penitential technique, if not a form of exorcism. While religious writers stress repeatedly that psychology is only a spiritual tool, some therapists might consider religion only a therapeutic one. But whether psychology has caught up to religion, infiltrated it, or been adopted by it, the most popular versions of both psychology and religion are becoming less and less distinguishable. Like Macy's and Gimbel's, therapists and religious leaders are happily staking out a common market.”
One Day the Rabbi Speculated
Authors: Barker Kenneth
Published: February 2011

“When I got my S'michah—you call it ordination—I was not questioned on my beliefs and I took no oath of any sort”. … “But faith, Rabbi. If you have faith in the majesty and glory of God …” “Ah, but we don't.” “No faith?” The priest was shocked. “None that is enjoined upon us. It is not a requirement of our religion, as it is of yours.”
Rapsody in Black: Utopian Aspirations
Authors: Spencer Jon Michael
Published: February 2011

“It is not rapping per se— the style of vocalization, its syncopations, or its driving, percussive rhythms—that is dreaded by the protected white world. What threatens is the cultural and attitudinal blackness of the music, the verbal brashness of its performers, their irruption of speech, their ‘insurrection of subjugated knowledges’. … The Jesus of old-style gospel is ‘white’ because the message that black people are nothing coincides with what long has been told them by white America. In gospel hip-hop, however, this tradition is being radically overturned.”
Catechetical Language and Religious Education
Authors: Harris Maria , Moran Gabriel
Published: February 2011

“An education that deserves to be characterized as religious would have to include two quite distinct things: (1) an understanding of religion, starting but not ending with one's own religion; and (2) access to the free and intelligent practice of a particular form of religious life. … Christian doctrine is no less and no more than thinking about Christian life as it has been experienced in liturgical and moral life. … What we need is a religious education that is sufficiently long, deep, and wide so that people will have a chance to appreciate the complexity and profundity of Christian doctrine.”
Conflicts in Interpretation
Authors: Frei Hans W.
Published: February 2011

“If I have a continuing theme, it is that I agree with structuralists and post-structuralists that we should treat textuality (what is written) and the referent or truth of the text (what is written about) as two different things and that we should be cautious about saying that one is, in principle, more important than the other. … [W]hat has distinguished most recent secular interpreters of the Bible from their Christian counterparts … is that the secular interpreters want to emphasize the text itself, and they do not wish its interpretation to be governed by a criterion of meaning strongly connected to truth. Rather than risking that connection, they would drop the very notions of meaning and truth.”
The Word is Near You: A Feminist Conversation with Lindbeck
Authors: Pauw Amy Plantinga
Published: February 2011

“As Christian feminists provide critiques of male writers and readers of Scripture, they do so not from the secure vantage point of infallible experience, but as fellow pilgrims in the faith. Within the framework provided by Christian readings of Scripture, this entails the acknowledgment that those attacking the sin of the patriarchal tradition are themselves subject to error and sin.”
The Disunity of the Church and the Credibility of the Gospel
Authors: Marshall Bruce D.
Published: February 2011

“Inscrutable states of affairs, like sameness of faith in the heart, ought not … to be ‘taken by themselves,’ as though the unity of the church consisted only of such invisible ties but should rather be taken as interior or structural aspects of a visible, empirical, community they help to unify.”
A Time to Mourn and a Time to Plant
Authors: Bilgrien Marie Vianney
Published: February 2011

What we're planting here, only God knows how to make grow.

—Grave digger's remark to Bishop Casaldáliga of Brazil as they buried yet another tortured, murdered compesino

For we know that to this day the entire creation has been groaning and suffering agony together as if in childbirth. We also groan within ourselves as we await the redemption of our bodies.

—Romans 8:22–23
Sustainable management of urban pollution: an integrated approach
Authors: Pettit Carol , Chung Winson , Sharifi Vida , Chalabi Zaid , Fletcher Tony , Cleall Peter , Thomas Hywel , De Munck Cecile , Sinnett Danielle , Jefferies Stephan , Jones Martyn , Azapagic Adisa
Published: February 2011

This paper presents a new decision-support framework and software platform for an integrated assessment of options for sustainable management of urban pollution. The framework involves three steps: (1) mapping the flow of pollutants associated with human activities in the urban environment; (2) modelling the fate and transport of pollutants; and (3) quantifying the environmental, health and socio-economic impacts of urban pollution. It comprises a suite of different models and tools to support sustainability appraisals including life cycle assessment, substance flow analysis, source and pollutants characterisation, pollutant fate and transport modelling, health impact analysis, ecological impact assessment, and multi-criteria decision analysis. The framework can be used at different levels, from simple screening studies to more detailed assessments. The paper describes the decision-support framework and outlines several case studies to demonstrate its application. The software tool is available free of charge at www.pureframework.org. Practical applications: The PUrE framework and software platform can be applied to assess and compare the sustainability of different technologies, products, human activities or policies. Example applications of the framework have so far included sustainability comparisons of technologies for thermal treatment of municipal solid waste; generation of electricity from coal and biomass; environmental and health impacts of a mixture of pollutants in Sheffield; the role of urban green space in reducing the levels of particulate matter in London and the impacts of environmental policy on legacy pollution in Avenmouth.
High intensity interval training reduces systemic inflammation in post-PCI patients
Authors: Munk Peter Scott , Breland Unni Mathilde , Aukrust Pål , Ueland Thor , Kvaløy Jan Terje , Larsen Alf Inge
Published: February 2011

Background: Increased plasma levels of inflammatory markers and markers of endothelial cell activation have been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events. Exercise training may lower the risk for coronary heart disease by attenuating inflammation and improving endothelial function. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of regular high-intensity exercise training on a wide range of markers of inflammation and endothelial cell activation.

Materials and methods: Consecutively, 40 patients were prospectively randomized to a 6 months supervised high-intensity interval training programme or to a control group following successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Blood samples of 36 patients with stable angina, drawn at baseline (before PCI) and at 6 months, were analysed. Late luminal loss was measured at 6 months using quantitative coronary angiography.

Results: At 6 months, levels of the inflammatory markers interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 were reduced and levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 increased in the training group only. The decrease in IL-6 and C-reactive protein levels were significantly correlated with the decrease in luminal loss following PCI. In contrast to these anti-inflammatory effects, training had no effect on markers of platelet-mediated inflammation, and the effect of training on markers on endothelial cell activation were rather complex showing attenuating (von Willebrand factor) and enhancing (E-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1) effects.

Conclusions: Regular exercise training in stable angina patients following PCI may attenuate some, but not all, inflammatory pathways, potentially contributing to the beneficial effects of exercise training on restenosis.
Porcine dentin sialoprotein glycosylation and glycosaminoglycan attachments
Authors: Yamakoshi Yasuo , Nagano Takatoshi , Hu Jan CC , Yamakoshi Fumiko , Simmer James P
Published: February 2011

Background

Dentin sialophosphoprotein (Dspp) is a multidomain, secreted protein that is critical for the formation of tooth dentin. Mutations in DSPP cause inherited dentin defects categorized as dentin dysplasia type II and dentinogenesis imperfecta type II and type III. Dentin sialoprotein (Dsp), the N-terminal domain of dentin sialophosphoprotein (Dspp), is a highly glycosylated proteoglycan, but little is known about the number, character, and attachment sites of its carbohydrate moieties.

Results

To identify its carbohydrate attachment sites we isolated Dsp from developing porcine molars and digested it with endoproteinase Glu-C or pronase, fractionated the digestion products, identified fractions containing glycosylated peptides using a phenol sulfuric acid assay, and characterized the glycopeptides by N-terminal sequencing, amino acid analyses, or LC/MSMS. To determine the average number of sialic acid attachments per N-glycosylation, we digested Dsp with glycopeptidase A, labeled the released N-glycosylations with 2-aminobenzoic acid, and quantified the moles of released glycosylations by comparison to labeled standards of known concentration. Sialic acid was released by sialidase digestion and quantified by measuring β-NADH reduction of pyruvic acid, which was generated stoichiometrically from sialic acid by aldolase. To determine its forms, sialic acid released by sialidase digestion was labeled with 1,2-diamino-4,5-methyleneoxybenzene (DMB) and compared to a DMB-labeled sialic acid reference panel by RP-HPLC. To determine the composition of Dsp glycosaminoglycan (GAG) attachments, we digested Dsp with chondroitinase ABC and compared the chromotagraphic profiles of the released disaccharides to commercial standards. N-glycosylations were identified at Asn37, Asn77, Asn136, Asn155, Asn161, and Asn176. Dsp averages one sialic acid per N-glycosylation, which is always in the form of N-acetylneuraminic acid. O-glycosylations were tentatively assigned at Thr200, Thr216 and Thr316. Porcine Dsp GAG attachments were found at Ser238 and Ser250 and were comprised of chondroitin 6-sulfate and chondroitin 4-sulfate in a ratio of 7 to 3, respectively.

Conclusions

The distribution of porcine Dsp posttranslational modifications indicate that porcine Dsp has an N-terminal domain with at least six N-glycosylations and a C-terminal domain with two GAG attachments and at least two O-glycosylations.
Hierarchical graphs for rule-based modeling of biochemical systems
Authors: Lemons Nathan W , Hu Bin , Hlavacek William S
Published: February 2011

Background

In rule-based modeling, graphs are used to represent molecules: a colored vertex represents a component of a molecule, a vertex attribute represents the internal state of a component, and an edge represents a bond between components. Components of a molecule share the same color. Furthermore, graph-rewriting rules are used to represent molecular interactions. A rule that specifies addition (removal) of an edge represents a class of association (dissociation) reactions, and a rule that specifies a change of a vertex attribute represents a class of reactions that affect the internal state of a molecular component. A set of rules comprises an executable model that can be used to determine, through various means, the system-level dynamics of molecular interactions in a biochemical system.

Results

For purposes of model annotation, we propose the use of hierarchical graphs to represent structural relationships among components and subcomponents of molecules. We illustrate how hierarchical graphs can be used to naturally document the structural organization of the functional components and subcomponents of two proteins: the protein tyrosine kinase Lck and the T cell receptor (TCR) complex. We also show that computational methods developed for regular graphs can be applied to hierarchical graphs. In particular, we describe a generalization of Nauty, a graph isomorphism and canonical labeling algorithm. The generalized version of the Nauty procedure, which we call HNauty, can be used to assign canonical labels to hierarchical graphs or more generally to graphs with multiple edge types. The difference between the Nauty and HNauty procedures is minor, but for completeness, we provide an explanation of the entire HNauty algorithm.

Conclusions

Hierarchical graphs provide more intuitive formal representations of proteins and other structured molecules with multiple functional components than do the regular graphs of current languages for specifying rule-based models, such as the BioNetGen language (BNGL). Thus, the proposed use of hierarchical graphs should promote clarity and better understanding of rule-based models.
Integrating multiple protein-protein interaction networks to prioritize disease genes: a Bayesian regression approach
Authors: Zhang Wangshu , Sun Fengzhu , Jiang Rui
Published: February 2011

Background

The identification of genes responsible for human inherited diseases is one of the most challenging tasks in human genetics. Recent studies based on phenotype similarity and gene proximity have demonstrated great success in prioritizing candidate genes for human diseases. However, most of these methods rely on a single protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to calculate similarities between genes, and thus greatly restrict the scope of application of such methods. Meanwhile, independently constructed and maintained PPI networks are usually quite diverse in coverage and quality, making the selection of a suitable PPI network inevitable but difficult.

Methods

We adopt a linear model to explain similarities between disease phenotypes using gene proximities that are quantified by diffusion kernels of one or more PPI networks. We solve this model via a Bayesian approach, and we derive an analytic form for Bayes factor that naturally measures the strength of association between a query disease and a candidate gene and thus can be used as a score to prioritize candidate genes. This method is intrinsically capable of integrating multiple PPI networks.

Results

We show that gene proximities calculated from PPI networks imply phenotype similarities. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the Bayesian regression approach on five PPI networks via large scale leave-one-out cross-validation experiments and summarize the results in terms of the mean rank ratio of known disease genes and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). We further show the capability of our approach in integrating multiple PPI networks.

Conclusions

The Bayesian regression approach can achieve much higher performance than the existing CIPHER approach and the ordinary linear regression method. The integration of multiple PPI networks can greatly improve the scope of application of the proposed method in the inference of disease genes.