bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Primacy of Peter: Theology and Ideology—II
Authors: Ernst Cornelius
Published: August 2007

In the light of what has been said in the first part of this article, it may be useful to examine briefly the text of Matt. 16, 17-19. It is remarkable that most of the interesting exegesis of this passage has been the work of Protestant scholars, notably O. Cullmann in his Peter: Apostle and Martyr, and also J. Ringger, ‘Das Felsenwort. Zur Sinndeutung von Matt. 16, 18, vor allem im Lichte der Symbol- geschichte’ in Roesle-Cullmann, Begegnung der Christen, 1959, together with numerous articles on key-concepts by J. Jeremias now available in English in the translation of Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. As to the propriety of looking at these verses in isolation, we may quote the remark of the Catholic exegete, W. Trilling (Das wahre Israel, 3rd ed., 1964): ‘This language, dense with imagery, of a kind also found in the Qumran writings, is in itself foreign to Matthew’ (p. 156). It may be that within the perspective of a modern jurisdictional theology of the primacy, the symbolic sense of the text was not easily accessible to Catholic scholars before Protestant exegetes opened the way to an understanding of it in some respects closer to patristic exegesis.

In summary, then, the whole passage is an instance of anticipated eschatology, in which the Messiah invests an individual with his own messianic powers over the messianic community.

v. 17. In response to his messianic confession, Simon is greeted with a ‘beatitude’ or ‘macarism’, for in him the eschatological event of the last times has been anticipated by ‘apocalypse’.
Lévi-Strauss: Myth's Magician The Language of Antropology
Authors: Poole Roger
Published: August 2007

By the language of anthropology I mean Lévi-Strauss’s language of anthropology, and in particular, the language used by Lévi-Strauss in the three volumes of his Mythologiques which have appeared to date, LeCru et le Cuit (The Cooked and the Raw) 1964; Du Miel auxCendres (From Honey to Ashes) 1966; and L’Origine des Manures de Table (The Origin of Table-Manners) 1968. Since these three thick books have been produced with such amazing rapidity, and since they are little known here in England as yet, and since they represent a radical new departure in anthropological language, it seems useful to make a preliminary estimate of their contents and probable significance.

Lévi-Strauss’s ‘debts’ to structural linguistics, especially that of Jakobson and the Prague School, have been enormously overestimated. The time has come to suggest another view of things, to suggest in what ways the language of anthropology’ as used by Lévi-Strauss is not tied down by an unrelenting linguistic method, is not co-extensive wdth present tendencies in the linguistics of, say, Chomsky. Lévi-Strauss’s language of anthropology is a breakthrough entirely sui generis whose importance is certainly underestimated if it is compared to current linguistic models.

For Lévi-Strauss regards structural analysis as the discovery of a language which is inherent in the materials he studies, not imposed upon them from above by reference to some artificial linguistic schematism. In fact, even by 1952, when he and Jakobson and others met at Bloomington, Indiana, at a Conference of Anthropologists and Linguists, Lévi-Strauss had already found the methods of Jakobson insufficient and partly irrelevant to the work he wanted to do himself.
Anarchy and Grace: St Thomas
Authors: Lefébure Pascal
Published: August 2007

Even for those who are still willing to learn with St Thomas Aquinas, the image of him may be that of one whose achievement was, supremely, synthetic: starting from the first and ultimate principles, he descends steadily down from God to man, in the manner of those streams from the heavens down the mountains into the plains celebrated in the psalm (103, 13) which St Thomas chose as the text of his inaugural lecture as Master in the university of Paris:

Rigans montes de superioribus suis, ‘ de fructu operum tuorum satiabitur terra From your dwelling you water the hills; earth drinks its fill of your gift

This image has some measure of truth in it, but for reasons which will appear only slowly in the course of this article. Nevertheless, the plain—and to us more sympathetic—fact remains that this image is also false: St Thomas found men much as we find men: man is broken and lives in a broken society, a creature always liable to fall apart into his constituent pieces within a society riven by discord and distortions.
Psychology and Virtue
Authors: Pohier Jacques‐M.
Published: August 2007

Virtue is not in fashion. Not even the word appears in most catechetical or theological writings. For us today it carries a musty smell of moralizing; it suggests a puritanism which we have good reason to mistrust, for we no longer want the prohibitions and obligations imposed on us by society to be the immediate criteria of our conduct. Even when it is the prohibitions and obligations imposed on us by the Church which are in question, we no longer feel that the quality of our Christian lives is to be judged according to our capacity to conform to the patterns of behaviour imposed on us in this way.

This is, however, not the only reason for our mistrust of virtue. We also react against its suggestion of the cultivated soul, the ideal of the ‘righteous man’ whose virtues are his adornment. And that is indeed what virtue meant at the beginning of our culture: the Greeks were so taken by virtue because it was the spiritual equivalent of physical beauty. Against this, on the one hand, we feel that this ideal is too self-centred: other people and the mystery of being and of the world seem to become mere pretexts or instruments for our personal perfection. On the other hand, we have also learned to distrust the clear conscience: Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger and Sartre have all, in their turn, unmasked the illusions of the cultivated soul. And Christians have reason not to turn deaf ears to these voices,
Mowgli, Dr Doolittle and the Banshee
Authors: Edwards Adrian
Published: August 2007

Mowgli and Doctor Doolittle were my friends when I gave up fairy stories. Years later, as an undergraduate I was enabled to unmask them, or rather to site them accurately in the zoo of fantasy, for, so we were taught, while ants and monkeys might live in societies, man alone could be characterized by language and culture. Mowgli as the boy living among wolves, and Doctor Doolittle speaking the language of animals, represented in different ways the craving of fantasy to break through the bonds of necessity, either by sloughing off the second skin of transmitted human knowledge, or by discovering in the animal kingdom the same arbitrary and artificial codes by which we communicate. Lately, Mowgli and Doctor Doolittle have returned to the boundary of my reflections on the cultural and ethical significance of the biological aspect of human personality, perhaps to suggest that their very anomalousness indicates the necessary inadequacy of all attempts to categorize absolutely. Yet they retain the essential innocence of uncommitment, whereas this article is loaded in that not only was its starting point consideration of Humanae Vitae, but also that it leans very heavily to the Pope’s point of view. I shall be concerned mainly with looking at underlying assumptions, rather than trying to synthesize. If the Pope or his critics are relying on principles which the development of the social sciences has shown to be inadequate, it does not automatically follow that the other side is right; but the terms of the debate must be recast.
Structuralism Side‐tracked
Authors: Poole Roger
Published: August 2007

There are obviously two groups of structuralists. There are the original quiet ones, led by Lévi-Strauss and Lacan, and the new noisy ones, propagating ‘neo-structuralism’ with its political message.

Already last year this process of degeneration was apparent in France. Le Monde for the 30th November had a special section of comment and opinion called: ‘Was structuralism killed by the movement of May?’ Its general conclusion seems to be that it was.

With the publication of Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme?, a series of essays from various hands, published late last year, it is apparent that the work of the original structuralists cannot be brought together into any meaningful synthesis. Their key concepts are meanwhile being misapplied.

It may seem incredible that such a promising idea as the original concept of structuralism can have been side-tracked so soon, long before any adequate understanding of what it was has penetrated into our discussions in this country.

Yet it is the case. Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme? is only the last, and poorest, attempt to give a unity to something which defies unification. In the last two or three years we have seen appear Clefs pour le Structuralisme, by Jean-Marie Auzias (1967); Comprende le structuralisme, by J-B. Fages (1967); A Quoi sert la Notion de ‘Structure’ ? by Raymond Boudon (1968); Le Structuralisme (in the series Qtie sais-je?) by Jean Piaget (1968); and last and most formidable of all, Claude Lévi-Strauss ou la ‘Passion de I'Inceste'.
Stalemate on Celibacy
Authors: Magrath Oswin
Published: August 2007

In spite of the greater ease with which dispensations to marry are being granted to laicized priests, it is becoming increasingly evident that the subject of celibacy is being approached from very different angles by the Holy See, and by those seeking a change in the law and many of those seeking dispensations. And the procedure being used, the delays and the secrecy are tending towards a loss of confidence in authority similar to that precipitated by the encyclical Humanae Vitae. There is a tendency to a stalemate on the subject of celibacy, between very large numbers of priests and laity on the one hand, and the Holy See and the majority of bishops on the other, which could have widely damaging effects unless true dialogue can be reopened.

In the encyclical of 1967 On Priestly Celibacy Pope Paul VI indicates the point of view of the Holy See. If a priest is ‘unfortunately unfaithful to the obligations accepted’ it is due either to a mistake, ‘a judgement on the fitness of the candidate for the priesthood which was not always adequate or prudent at the proper time’, or to a moral failure in the ‘way in which sacred ministers live their life of total consecration’ (ibid., 83).

This is a development on previous times. The Codex of Canon Law only provides for release from celibacy owing to ordination having been received under the compulsion of grave fear and a complicated legal process, analogous to that needed for release from a non-consummated Christian marriage, is required (Canons 1993-8).
Authority and Obedience in the Church Today—II
Authors: Torbet Ronald
Published: August 2007

In the first part of this paper, I suggested something of the nature and justification of our current questioning of authority in the Church, and tried to indicate the relevant scriptural criteria for evaluating the issues. Towards the end of this first part, brief reference was made to some of the actual questions being raised in the present crisis of authority. A great many of these deal with what we could call ‘outward’ and disciplinary matters. But there are others which belong more directly to the realm of doctrine, where teaching authority comes in. These would seem to give rise to a more serious inner sense of anguish than many of the others, since they penetrate more deeply into the inmost reserves of our Christian commitment.

It should be noted that the more disciplinary difficulties date mainly from the Middle Ages, whereas the doctrinal are more peculiar to the post-Reformation Church. Of course, heretics were burned in the Middle Ages, but the theory at least was that this took place because they were a threat to the social cohesion of the Christian world. It was only when the Church was progressively robbed of her grip on society, from the sixteenth century onwards, that there was added the intense preoccupation with a demand for a thorough-going conformity of conscience all along the line, even in detail, in matters of doctrine, according as these were examined, decided and prescribed entirely from above.
World Religions and Christian Theology—II
Authors: Ernst Cornelius
Published: August 2007

Every genetic moment is a mystery. It is dawn, discovery, spring, new birth, coming to the light, awakening, transcendence, liberation, ecstasy, bridal consent, gift, forgiveness, reconciliation, revolution, faith, hope, love. It could be said that Christianity is the consecration of the genetic moment, the living centre from which it reviews and renews the indefinitely various and shifting perspectives of human experience in history. That, at least, is or ought to be its claim: that it is the power to transform and renew all things: ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Rev. 21,5).

But, it will be said, even supposing your interpretation of Christianity is just, that at its centre is the genetic moment, the holiness of the new, could not the same claim be made for other traditions, for which, say, the experience of enlightenment is the heart? Either Christianity is merely an instance of a universal type of the humane, whether communicated by religious tradition or not, or your version of Christianity is merely parasitic on some generally available truth about human experience, which historical Christianity as a matter of fact has successfully smothered for centuries of institutionalized timidity, boredom and repression.

I want of course to argue that the Christian experience of the genetic moment is the critical instance, the touchstone of the new. But this is not to say that Christian self-understanding in theology does not allow of exploration of its crucial sense of the genetic moment in terms of other insights into genesis, birth from above and anew.
Monastery for the Poor
Authors: Glencross Fabian
Published: August 2007

When a Benedictine monastery reaches a point in its course where ‘renewal’ or re-orientating becomes important, what way will it take? There are two courses. Both ways have been tried in the last seventy years in this country, and comparison between them shows up some interesting features in more or less modern Christian life. I would like to discuss these two courses with a view to introducing the Worth Abbey Peru Foundation. To do so, however, I must summarize the features of Benedictine Christianity which are reckoned essential to it, and therefore at once beyond ‘renewal’, and also the guiding principles of any particular renewal.

A monastery is not Benedictine unless it is a charitable spiritual ‘family’ living more or less permanently together in one place under an Abbot, having common work and prayer as its main activities. The vows: obedience to the local abbot, stability in one Abbey and ‘conversio morum’ (monastic behaviour) underlie this arrangement. It is obvious that such principles lead to team work as against personal ventures or successes. The most obvious evidence of this is that you seldom hear of particular monks becoming great scientists or writers, but you often hear of particular monasteries, like Montserrat or Ampleforth. The democratic election of the Abbot (in this country for only the statutory period of eight years) and his physical proximity to the other monks also encourage corporate activity and unity. Although monasteries often have many different activities, it is of the essence that the effect is unitive, not diversifying.
Doers of the Word
Authors: Meath Gerard
Published: August 2007

Unless we candidly acknowledge, and begin to repair, the shortcomings in our own Christian life, our deeply-pondered schemes for ‘social reconstruction’ are in danger of misfiring. The danger in these war-time social plans of ours is that we over-emphasise the planning element and spend our time talking about how we are going to act in the future without attempting to put our principles into action here and now. Consequently when the time comes for setting our schemes before, a waiting world we shall have nothing more concrete to offer than the distillations of our academic ponderings. Such vagueness will stand little chance of survival against the more practical methods employed by such opponents as the Communist Party. Unless we realise that our plans must ‘be set in motion now and not kept till the end of the war, and unless by the end of the war we have a plan already coping in practice with the problems not only of the intellectual, but of that more influential body, the working class, we are going to be left like dogs baying at the moon while the community falls victim to the tender mercies of the Marxist propagandists. All this because we have talked too much and acted too little.

A second danger lies in regarding our plans as nothing more than ‘emergency measures.’ By definition, such plans fall into disuse the moment they have served their purpose, which in this case is to prevent chaos and disorder after the strain of war. This implies an attitude towards social reform that arises from a misconception of the causes of social injustice. If totalitarianism, and that alone, were the cause of all social evil, then indeed we need only trouble to destroy that and the world would be righted.
The Works of Dr. Darwell Stone
Authors: White Victor
Published: August 2007

The passing of Dr. Darwell Stone may seem to many of us like the end of an epoch. It is less difficult to believe that he has been taken away from us than to believe that he was, even though in retirement and with failing health, so recently among us. He was, in a sense, the last of the Tractarians. Not that a younger generation of Anglican divines may safely build on foundations other than those which they, and he, have laid—it will be a bad day for Anglican theology if that should ever come to pass. Yet he was the successor of the Oxford Movement in a directness of line which it is hardly possible for a newer generation to follow. And that, in part, by reason of the very completeness of his own work. He consolidated the foundations which the Tractarians had laid, surpassing them in his ability to synthesise, and to extract the essentials from, the patristic data to which the scholars of the Oxford Movement had recalled the Ecclesia anglicana.

Darwell Stone’s was not perhaps an adventurous mind, nor was his writing, though always lucid and free from jargon, exactly exhilarating. He was a conservative of the conservatives. The great spiritual and religious upheavals of his day seem (if we may judge from his writings) to have passed him by. The lectures which in igoi he delivered in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and which were published under the title Christ and Modern Life, show that he had indeed devoted considerable attention to many of the questions which were tormenting his contemporaries—questions of comparative religion and of Christian apologetics confronted by ‘modern thought.’ But the very assurance and ease with which he treated of them tend to show that they did not present him with any serious challenge or any deep spiritual problem.
The Beast From the Abyss
Authors: Foster Paul Urban
Published: August 2007

The role of Germany is written in the clearest print upon the map of Europe. In the centre of the European land mass it is, apart from Russia, the greatest homogeneous unit within that mass. With some seventy-eight million inhabitants, largely self-sufficient in food, with great industrial resources of every kind, its inhabitants have spilled over its natural limits and can be found beyond the Vistula, the Bohemian Mountains, the Alps, the Danube and the Rhine. Racially, linguistically, and self-consciously distinct, this nation has vast dynamic energies which it is supremely capable of organising and a strong historic consciousness of its geographical-historical position. That position has two aspects. As the Germanic tribes silted into their present territories, they had the Roman Empire on their Western flank, a static and friable organisation inviting aggression; on their Eastern flank the tribal and barbaric wave beat up against them. The attitude bred by that situation still remains, a feeling of predatory virility towards the Western and settled nations, the lands of the evening; an attitude of cultural defensiveness towards the vast, level, amorphous frontiers to the East. There is no doubt what is Germany’s natural role; it is to be the mistress of Europe.

Divine Providence has apparently ordained that she should be a mistress too tyrannical to be tolerated. For this enormous and extremely able nation has certain obvious psychological defects which make the unrestricted use of its natural supremacy intolerable. It is a very selfconscious nation; it is a politically immature nation; it is an arrogant nation; a warlike one; cruel, unscrupulous, emotional. There is a dark strain of tribalism and totemism in its make-up, despite enormous civilised achievements.
A Sort of Fiction?
Authors: Gregor Ian
Published: August 2007

What are the motives which make a man wish to write his autobiography? Notoriety, fame, money—these are end products They don’t dictate the decision to write, the impulse to construct an artistic form which will be the shape of one’s own life. We might, perhaps, start by saying that to write an autobiography is a form of self-discovery through the necessity of having to shape and frame one’s life. This affords a measure of control which is also a liberation; we can write the past out of our system by re-living it. But perhaps it is more our sense of the present or an ever diminishing future which hastens our pen. From this vantage we must feel that our life has a kind of totality about it which makes it more than just ‘our life’. It makes a representative gesture, giving our memories and reflections more than a confessional interest. We must have a deep conviction that our constantly repeated first person singular is on easy terms with the first person plural. Looking at these suggested motives for autobiography—-the ordering of experience, the self-discovery, the liberation, the belief that your impressions will hold good for others —we see how little they differ from the motives behind any piece of imaginative writing. There are reasons for thinking that writing an autobiography is closer to writing fiction than to writing history. And if it is a novelist himself who should write his autobiography, a man whose life has already furnished a whole house of fiction—then I think rather odd things begin to happen, particularly if that novelist is Graham Greene.

When it was announced some while ago that Greene was engaged in writing his autobiography, it seemed entirely fitting. Here was a novelist whose life seemed hardly less eventful than his works. The table of contents came readily to the mind’s eye.
Missionaries Go Home—?
Authors: Boivin Marcel
Published: August 2007

Some time ago I met here in England a missionary priest with whom I had worked while in Tanzania. I knew him for an excellent missionary, a man who had adapted himself well to Africa and had put himself entirely at the service of his people. Yet, when I met him, he stated his firm intention of never returning to Tanzania.

Why had he so radically altered the course of his life? Was it for personal reasons—failing health—or a compelling desire to marry ? No. He had come back because he could not see why he should stay in Tanzania any longer. For one thing, the ‘new theology’ had considerably weakened the motives for which he had gone to the missions in the first place: if pagans already know God, why bother to cross sea and land in order to announce God ? If men can be saved without being baptized into the Church, why go on instructing catechumens and making converts? Besides, after twenty years of experience, he had reached the conclusion that conversion to the Church did not appreciably affect people’s lives—Christians seemed no better than pagans. Then, thirdly, there are enough Tanzanian priests to cater for the flock, and in the sectors of education and health, the country is sufficiently developed to look after its own people. Better leave now than wait to be expelled in five years’ time . . . our time is limited, anyway.

Obviously, the majority of missionaries working in Africa or elsewhere are remaining at their posts, and of those who come home, not all come for the reasons given by the missionary I have quoted. I have, nevertheless, chosen to begin with this example because it so well illustrates the kind of questions missionaries are asking, questions as to whether or not they still have a role to play in the Church, and if they have, how they should be playing it.
Schools, De‐Schooling and Education for a Future
Authors: Haughton Rosemary
Published: August 2007

All over the ‘developed’ world, children left their homes this morning and went to school. All over the undeveloped world, parents were wishing their children could do so.

All over the developed world, millions of children are accepting school as an unavoidable bore, or actively hating it. Some weep, some play truant, some produce psychosomatic symptoms to avoid going to school. Most just put up with it and long for the holidays. A lucky few enjoy school, at least until the age when the shadow of public examinations falls over their lives. Yet all over the undeveloped world, angry or wistful teenagers see schooling as the means to a good life—a means withheld from most of them.

The greater part of the world’s children long for what those who have it dislike. And even those who loathe it grow up to assume it has an absolute value, and should be imposed on every human child. No wonder the whole notion of schooling as a method of education is coming under fire. But too often the question of schooling or not schooling is treated in isolation from its social and economic setting. What follows is an attempt to consider a few of the problems involved, and possible solutions, for there have been changes recently, in the way people think about the schooling situation. For one thing, an uncomfortable realization is spreading that the schooling systems of the prosperous nations are not working too well. Violence in schools is frequently in the news, and organized as well as spontaneous protest by school children is not uncommon.
The Function of Criticism and Tragedy
Authors: Beisly Phil
Published: August 2007

When Walter Stein, in his book Criticism as Dialogue, proposes his version of criticism and takes it into the area of tragedy, we are challenged to reconsider some essential notions. It is when faced with tragedy, perhaps, that criticism meets its most exacting responsibilities; what it makes of tragedy reveals its inner nature most clearly. What, then, are we to make of Stein’s argument that the demands which criticism faces are nothing less than metaphysical? What do we say to the various stages of his argument ?

Do we agree, for example, that in Arnold we have a key-figure who fails to meet these demands and whose work can be characterized by such words as ‘reductio’ and ‘surrender’ ?

‘His religious strengths (like his insistence that God is “a term thrown out, so to speak, at a not fully grasped object”—not a “fixed and rigid idea”) as well as his complacent, wholesale surrender of dogmatic tradition and metaphysical concepts points directly to present ferments.’

Again, how shall we formulate our uneasiness at the following suggestion ?

‘Dr Leavis may have been led into an undue disregard for conceptual thought as such, including the conceptual presuppositions of his own critical practice.’
Alice and Anarchy
Authors: Eagleton Terry
Published: August 2007

There are two fairly commonplace facts about games which seem relevant to a discussion of Alice in Wonderland. First, games are rule-governed, and so orderly; but playing a game involves a creative application of the rules, as Wittgenstein reminds us in Philosophical Investigations, and thus allows for freedom: rules are fixed, but moves are to some extent unpredictable. Seen in this way, a game might appear as a paradigmatic fusion of order and liberty—one, perhaps, of some relevance to society. Second, games involve a means/ends rationality, but aren’t in themselves functional: they are played as ends in themselves and in that sense transcend considerations of sheer utility. From this viewpoint, games raise interesting questions about the relations between rational and ‘irrational’ for msof activity, and indeed this issue is touched on at the very beginning of Alice: the White Rabbit appears just as Alice is wondering ‘whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies’, pondering the relations between utilitarian effort and creative play. This, too, has a wider social application which the book brings out.

Alice in Wonderland abounds in games; indeed, most of the central scenes—the Caucus Race, the tea-party, the croquet match, the lobster quadrille, even the trial—are games of a more or less direct kind. But, of course, these games are, by normal standards, very peculiar. The croquet game, for instance, is completely chaotic, since the players ignore the rules and the equipment won’t stay in place. Alice has to hit a rolled-up hedgehog through the arch of a doubled-up soldier with a flamingo, but the hedgehog keeps unfurling, the flamingo won’t keep still and the soldiers continually get up and stroll away at the crucial moment.
By Law Established: The Beginnings of the English Nation and Church
Authors: Brown J. P.
Published: August 2007

When I was a youth in England, a favourite anti-Protestant argument ran: ‘We were here first.’ ‘We’ meant St Augustine of Canterbury. When I came to Wales, this would not do, for as Bede tells us, there were Christians here before St Augustine, and, when he met them, they rejected his authority. To the argument that these Christians were obviously not Roman Catholics, we used to reply: ‘Yes, they were, but cut off by barbarian Saxon invaders of England, they were unaware of Roman liturgical changes and were so attached to old Roman ways that they quarrelled with Augustine.’

I began to study the validity of this reply and hence, twenty years later, this article. My amateur thesis is based on the work of the late Rev. A. W. Wade-Evans, complemented by that of three Blackfriars contributors: Mr Donald Nicholl, Professor Finberg and, especially, Mr Eric John.

That barbarian Saxon invaders cut off Wales from the Continent rests entirely on the story of the Loss of Britain, which forms part of a work ascribed to the Welshman Gildas. Bede made important changes in this story and also wove into it independent traditions of a Saxon advent in Kent. He interpreted the whole in the light of his knowledge that the Saxons were of Germanic stock.
Does Simenon write a Metaphysical Novel?
Authors: Luff S. G. A.
Published: August 2007

Georges Simenon writes detective stories, many featuring the amiable Inspecteur Maigret, almost too human to fit the traditional image of the sleuth. Simenon may be read more for atmosphere than for thrills, for Maigret's Paris, or the provincial towns of many non-Maigret stories; the weather mostly wintry with long evenings, the interest in trains, back streets, canals, bars, the small homes of small people in small worlds. And among these I find even more intriguing those with a Belgian scene, the Meuse, the industrial zone around Liege where young Simenon began as a reporter on the local press. Here are his native tow-paths and backyards, alleys and impasses, and a certain quality of mud, of earth and water and the two compounded.

Simenon does not normally set out to retail experiences that demand a transcendental world, least of all that purveyed by the Church. Where religious detail slips in it is seldom more than part of the narrative, handy description—as far as the author is concerned echoes from childhood, and usually no more than that for the characters too. Churchgoing is something children do and it is good for them; subsequently a minority elects to remain in this church sub-culture and becomes a characteristic feature of Sunday mornings.

Yet Simenon stands for something good. I have not combed his works to draw out loose hairs of self-sacrifice or the pursuit of values, but they are there. Monsieur Maigret is good with a comfortable home-loving Gallican middle-class goodness that stands while the world of crime revolves. This goodness has its temporal reward—the adequate recompense of an apartment managed by a faithful helpmate. Mme Maigret is a patient wife who cooks meals and keeps them warm and bears with her husband’s professional irregularities.
Intrinsic Natures: A Critique of Langton on Kant
Authors: ALLAIS Lucy
Published: August 2007

This paper argues that there is an important respect in which Rae Langton's recent interpretation of Kant is correct: Kant's claim that we cannot know things in themselves should be understood as the claim that we cannot know the intrinsic nature of things. However, I dispute Langton's account of intrinsic properties, and therefore her version of what this claim amounts to. Langton's distinction between intrinsic, causally inert properties and causal powers is problematic, both as an interpretation of Kant, and as an independent metaphysical position. I propose a different reading of the claim that we cannot know things intrinsically. I distinguish between two ways of knowing things: in terms of their effects on other things, and as they are apart from these. 1 argue that knowing things' powers is knowing things in terms of effects on other things, and therefore is not knowing them as they are in themselves, and that there are textual grounds for attributing this position to Kant.
Potassium, Na+,K+‐pumps and fatigue in rat muscle
Authors: Clausen Torben , Nielsen Ole Bækgaard
Published: August 2007

During contractile activity, skeletal muscles undergo a net loss of cytoplasmic K+ to the interstitial space. During intense exercise, plasma K+ in human arterial blood may reach 8 mm, and interstitial K+ 10–12 mm. This leads to depolarization, loss of excitability and contractile force. However, little is known about the effects of these physiological increases in extracellular K+ ([K+]o) on contractile endurance. Soleus muscles from 4‐week‐old rats were mounted on transducers for isometric contractions in Krebs–Ringer bicarbonate buffer containing 4–10 mm K+, and endurance assessed by recording the rate of force decline during continuous stimulation at 60 Hz. Increasing [K+]o from 4 to 8 or 10 mm and equilibrating the muscles for 40 or 20 min augmented the rate of force decline 2.4‐fold and 7.2‐fold, respectively (P < 0.001). The marked loss of endurance elicited by exposure to 8 or 10 mm K+ was alleviated or significantly reduced by stimulating the Na+,K+‐pumps by intracellular Na+ loading, the β2‐agonist salbutamol, adrenaline, calcitonin gene related peptide, insulin or repeated excitation. In conclusion, excitation‐induced increase in [K+]o is an important cause of high‐frequency fatigue, and the Na+,K+‐pumps are essential for the maintenance of contractile force in the physiological range of [K+]o. Recordings of contractile force during continuous stimulation at 8–10 mm K+ may be used to analyse the effects of agents or conditions influencing the excitability of working isolated muscles.
Comparison of dose calculation algorithms in slab phantoms with cortical bone equivalent heterogeneities
Authors: Carrasco P. , Jornet N. , Duch M. A. , Panettieri V. , Weber L. , Eudaldo T. , Ginjaume M. , Ribas M.
Published: August 2007

To evaluate the dose values predicted by several calculation algorithms in two treatment planning systems, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and measurements by means of various detectors were performed in heterogeneous layer phantoms with water‐ and bone‐equivalent materials. Percentage depth doses (PDDs) were measured with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs), metal‐oxide semiconductor field‐effect transistors (MOSFETs), plane parallel and cylindrical ionization chambers, and beam profiles with films. The MC code used for the simulations was the PENELOPE code. Three different field sizes (, , and ) were studied in two phantom configurations and a bone equivalent material. These two phantom configurations contained heterogeneities of 5 and of bone, respectively. We analyzed the performance of four correction‐based algorithms and one based on convolution superposition. The correction‐based algorithms were the Batho, the Modified Batho, the Equivalent TAR implemented in the Cadplan (Varian) treatment planning system (TPS), and the Helax‐TMS Pencil Beam from the Helax‐TMS (Nucletron) TPS. The convolution‐superposition algorithm was the Collapsed Cone implemented in the Helax‐TMS. All the correction‐based calculation algorithms underestimated the dose inside the bone‐equivalent material for compared to MC simulations. The maximum underestimation, in terms of root‐mean‐square (RMS), was about 15% for the Helax‐TMS Pencil Beam (Helax‐TMS PB) for a field inside the bone‐equivalent material. In contrast, the Collapsed Cone algorithm yielded values around 3%. A more complex behavior was found for where the Collapsed Cone performed less well, overestimating the dose inside the heterogeneity in 3%–5%. The rebuildup in the interface bone‐water and the penumbra shrinking in high‐density media were not predicted by any of the calculation algorithms except the Collapsed Cone, and only the MC simulations matched the experimental values within the estimated uncertainties. The TLD and MOSFET detectors were suitable for dose measurement inside bone‐equivalent materials, while parallel ionization chambers, applying the same calibration and correction factors as in water, systematically underestimated dose by 3%–5%.
Commissioning and clinical implementation of a mega‐voltage cone beam CT system for treatment localization
Authors: Gayou Olivier , Miften Moyed
Published: August 2007

The improvement in conformal radiotherapy techniques with steep dose gradients has allowed for the delivery of higher doses to a tumor volume while maintaining the sparing of surrounding normal tissue. In this situation, verification of patient setup and evaluation of internal organ motion just prior to radiation delivery is a crucial step. To this end, several volumetric image‐guided techniques have been developed for patient localization, such as the Siemens MVision mega‐voltage cone beam CT (MV‐CBCT) system. In this work, the commissioning and clinical implementation of the MVision system is presented. The geometry and gain calibration procedures for the system are described, and guidelines for quality assurance procedures are provided. Different MV‐CBCT clinical protocols, ranging from daily to weekly image‐guidance, which includes image acquisition, reconstruction, registration with planning CT, and treatment couch offsets corrections, were commissioned. The image quality characteristics of the MVision system were measured and assessed qualitatively and quantitatively, including the image noise and uniformity, low‐contrast resolution, and spatial resolution. Furthermore, the image reconstruction and registration software was evaluated. Data show that a large object with electron density contrast can be detected with the MVision system with at isocenter and that the registration software is accurate within in the anterior‐posterior, left‐right, and superior‐inferior directions.
The operation logic of automatic dose control of fluoroscopy system in conjunction with spectral shaping filters
Authors: Lin Pei‐Jan Paul
Published: August 2007

The introduction and extensive application of spectral shaping filters during fluoroscopic imaging procedures have decreased the patient skin entrance exposures (air kerma) dramatically while the image quality is optimized and maintained. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate and understand the functionality and operation of fluoroscopic automatic dose rate control logic installed on a modern cardiovascular angiography system, as seen from the equipment operation point of view. The fluoroscopic “patient” entrance exposure (air kerma) rate and the flat panel image receptor input exposure (air kerma) rate were obtained for reference and future application.
Development of a new concept automatic frequency controller for an ultrasmall C‐band linear accelerator guide
Authors: Kamino Yuichiro , Tsukuda Kazuhiro , Kokubo Masaki , Miura Sadao , Hirai Etsuro , Hiraoka Masahiro , Ishikawa Junzo
Published: August 2007

We are developing a four‐dimensional, image‐guided radiotherapy system with a gimbaled x‐ray head. The system has pursuing irradiation capability in addition to precise irradiation capability, owing to its agile x‐ray head. The moving x‐ray head requires a very small C‐band accelerator guide. The heat intensity of the accelerator guide is much higher than that of conventional S‐band medical linear accelerators. The resonance frequency varies over almost with a thermal time constant of about . An automatic frequency controller (AFC) is employed to compensate for this variation in resonance frequency. Furthermore, we noted that fast AFC response is important for step‐and‐shoot intensity modulation radiotherapy (IMRT), in which the beam is turned on and off frequently. Therefore, we invented a digital AFC, based on a new concept, to provide effective compensation for the thermal characteristics of the accelerator guide and to ensure stable and optimized x‐ray treatment. An important aspect of the performance of the AFC is the capture‐frequency range over which the AFC can seek, lock on to, and track the resonance frequency. The conventional, analog AFC used in S‐band medical linear accelerators would have a capture‐frequency range of about , if applied to our accelerator guide, and would be inappropriate. Conversely, our new AFC has a capture‐frequency range of , which is well suited to our accelerator guide. The design concept behind this new AFC has been developed and verified. A full prototype system was constructed and tested on an existing accelerator guide at the rated x‐ray output of our radiotherapy system, with a pulse‐repetition frequency of . The AFC acquired the resonance frequency of the accelerator guide within after beam‐on, and provided stable tracking and adjustment of the frequency of the microwave source to the resonance frequency of the accelerator guide. With a planned improvement of the initialization of the AFC it should be able to acquire the resonance frequency within .
Verification of helical tomotherapy delivery using autoassociative kernel regressiona)
Authors: Seibert Rebecca M. , Ramsey Chester R. , Garvey Dustin R. , Hines J. Wesley , Robison Ben H. , Outten Samuel S.
Published: August 2007

Quality assurance (QA) is a topic of major concern in the field of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The standard of practice for IMRT is to perform QA testing for individual patients to verify that the dose distribution will be delivered to the patient. The purpose of this study was to develop a new technique that could eventually be used to automatically evaluate helical tomotherapy treatments during delivery using exit detector data. This technique uses an autoassociative kernel regression (AAKR) model to detect errors in tomotherapy delivery. AAKR is a novel nonparametric model that is known to predict a group of correct sensor values when supplied a group of sensor values that is usually corrupted or contains faults such as machine failure. This modeling scheme is especially suited for the problem of monitoring the fluence values found in the exit detector data because it is able to learn the complex detector data relationships. This scheme still applies when detector data are summed over many frames with a low temporal resolution and a variable beam attenuation resulting from patient movement. Delivery sequences from three archived patients (prostate, lung, and head and neck) were used in this study. Each delivery sequence was modified by reducing the opening time for random individual multileaf collimator (MLC) leaves by random amounts. The error and error‐free treatments were delivered with different phantoms in the path of the beam. Multiple autoassociative kernel regression (AAKR) models were developed and tested by the investigators using combinations of the stored exit detector data sets from each delivery. The models proved robust and were able to predict the correct or error‐free values for a projection, which had a single MLC leaf decrease its opening time by less than . The model also was able to determine machine output errors. The average uncertainty value for the unfaulted projections ranged from 0.4% to 1.8% of the detector signal. The low model uncertainty indicates that the AAKR model is extremely accurate in its predictions and also suggests that the model may be able to detect errors that cause the fluence to change by less than 2%. However, additional evaluation of the AAKR technique is needed to determine the minimum detectable error threshold from the compressed helical tomotherapy detector data. Further research also needs to explore applying this technique to electronic portal imaging detector data.
Evaluation of internal noise methods for Hotelling observer models
Authors: Zhang Yani , Pham Binh T. , Eckstein Miguel P.
Published: August 2007

The inclusion of internal noise in model observers is a common method to allow for quantitative comparisons between human and model observer performance in visual detection tasks. In this article, we studied two different strategies for inserting internal noise into Hotelling model observers. In the first strategy, internal noise was added to the output of individual channels: (a) Independent nonuniform channel noise, (b) independent uniform channel noise. In the second strategy, internal noise was added to the decision variable arising from the combination of channel responses. The standard deviation of the zero mean internal noise was either constant or proportional to: (a) the decision variable's standard deviation due to the external noise, (b) the decision variable's variance caused by the external noise, (c) the decision variable magnitude on a trial to trial basis. We tested three model observers: square window Hotelling observer (HO), channelized Hotelling observer (CHO), and Laguerre‐Gauss Hotelling observer (LGHO) using a four alternative forced choice (4AFC) signal known exactly but variable task with a simulated signal embedded in real x‐ray coronary angiogram backgrounds. The results showed that the internal noise method that led to the best prediction of human performance differed across the studied model observers. The CHO model best predicted human observer performance with the channel internal noise. The HO and LGHO best predicted human observer performance with the decision variable internal noise. The present results might guide researchers with the choice of methods to include internal noise into Hotelling model observers when evaluating and optimizing medical image quality.