bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Church Planting
Authors: Pitt Richard N. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Chapter 2 is intended to be a primer for laypeople on a number of basic dynamics of church planting. As this book is less about church planting than it is about church planters themselves, this chapter provides a brief introduction to the contemporary history of church planting as a phenomenon. Drawing primarily on secondary sources, the chapter will give context to the issues raised in the rest of the book. Some of the basics of church planting—why denominations do it, forms church planting takes, the various customer bases for new congregations, and how new church plant locations and names are chosen—are described as well.
“Pack Up Your Office and Go”
Authors: Pitt Richard N. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This chapter describes four catalysts for planting new congregations that seem driven more by terrestrial chance and happenstance than celestial directives. The first of these, difficulties on the job market, not only is a catalyst for the decision to start a new congregation but is claimed as the God-influenced rationale for doing so. The second social catalyst, congregational conflicts and division, is a common dynamic of established congregations that has a common but unexamined outcome: the birth of a new church. In the third social catalyst for church planting, being “pushed out of the nest,” leaders of parent congregations encourage their associate ministers to plant a new church. The final phenomenon, the evolution of a parachurch ministry, is the most serendipitous catalyst for finding oneself in a founding pastorate. These entrepreneurs set out to create parachurch organizations, usually for Bible studies, with no interest at all in starting a formal church.
But, What Actually Happens When We Engage with “Art”?
Authors: Pelowski Matthew , Leder Helmut 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
In this chapter, the authors report on how they joined in the exciting project to lay the theoretical foundations describing aesthetic experiences with artwork. Their 2017 paper was a culmination of meetings, later intense collaboration in Vienna’s empirical aesthetic research group, and the convergence of the models that the authors had independently developed in the past. The joint model described here was a major development that included a pre-state incorporating schemas (working maps of the world, expectations, beliefs, cued behaviors, actions, meanings, responses, and a general idea of self) that one might bring to an art encounter and also addressed the implications of different outcomes from all engagements, with especially visual media. The authors’ general aim was to answer what, broadly speaking, could happen when individuals encounter any design or visual art.
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience
Authors: Nadal Marcos , Pearce Marcus 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
In the paper discussed in this chapter, the authors aimed to develop a consensus conceptual framework for neuroaesthetics. They wanted to present a joint vision of what they believed neuroaesthetics was about. The authors aspired to outline the fields’ aims and scope in a way that would accommodate most researchers, to answer some of the criticisms that had been leveled at the field, and to show how much the field could contribute to scientific disciplines, like psychology and neuroscience, and to humanist disciplines, like philosophy, the arts, and anthropology. One of the main points made was the importance of distinguishing between a cognitive neuroscience of aesthetics concerned with the biological mechanisms involved in aesthetic experience of all sorts of domains (not just art) and a cognitive neuroscience of art, which investigates the biological mechanisms involved in creating and appreciating art (not just aesthetically).
Art Is Its Own Reward
Authors: Lacey Simon , Sathian K. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The “art infusion effect” suggests that people evaluate products more positively when they are associated with art images than non-art images. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging during viewing of art and non-art images matched for content, the authors investigated whether artistic status alone could activate the reward circuit. Relative to non-art images, art images indeed activated reward-related regions including the ventral striatum. This activity was uncorrelated with response times, ratings of familiarity, or aesthetic preference for art images, suggesting that these variables were unrelated to the art-selective activations. Effective connectivity analyses showed that the ventral striatum was driven by visual cortical regions when viewing art images but not non-art images and was not driven by regions that correlated with aesthetic preference for either art or non-art images. These findings suggest that visual art involves activation of reward circuitry based on artistic status alone and independently of its aesthetic value.
Toward a Computational Understanding of Neuroaesthetics
Authors: Iigaya Kiyohito , O’Doherty John P. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Among the most challenging questions in the field of neuroaesthetics concerns how a piece of art comes to be liked in the first place. That is, how can the brain rapidly process a stimulus to form an aesthetic judgment even for stimuli never before encountered? In the article under discussion in this chapter, by leveraging computational methods in combination with behavioral and neuroimaging experiments the authors show that the brain does this by breaking a visual stimulus down into underlying features or attributes. These features are shared across objects, and weights over these features are integrated over to produce aesthetic judgments. This process is structured hierarchically in which elementary statistical properties of an image are combined to generate higher level features which in turn yield aesthetic value. Neuroimaging supports the implementation of this hierarchical integration along a gradient from early to higher order visual cortex extending into association cortex and ultimately converging in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex.
What Can We Learn About Art from People with Neurological Disease?
Authors: Chatterjee Anjan 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Investigation of people with neurological illnesses has been a central approach to understanding the neurobiology of cognitive systems like language, attention, emotions, and decision-making. Yet such lesion studies had not been applied to neuroaesthetics. In the article under discussion, the author reviewed the extant literature and found that artists were not spared the kind of visual-spatial deficits that others experience from brain damage. Rather, in their artwork, they gave eloquent expression of the nature of their deficits. The author was particularly interested in the paradoxical enhancement of some artists whose work seemed to get better following brain injury, and developed a scale, the Assessment of Art Attributes, by which to assess change in artistic style and content. Neuropsychological studies remain a relatively untapped source of information in probing the biology of aesthetic experiences and artistic production.
Why Does Music Evoke Strong Emotions?
Authors: Levitin Daniel J. , Fleming Lindsay A. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Although much is known about the brain mechanisms underlying music perception and cognition, there is much work to be done in understanding aesthetic responses to music: Why does music make us feel the way we do? Why does it make us feel anything? In the article under discussion, the authors suggest that the brain’s own endogenous opioids mediate musical emotion, using the hypothesis of naltrexone-induced musical anhedonia. They conclude that endogenous opioids are critical to experiencing both positive and negative emotions in music and that music uses the same reward pathways as food, drugs, and sexual pleasure. Their findings add to the growing body of evidence for the evolutionary biological substrates of music.
Investigating Musical Emotions in People with Unilateral Brain Damage
Authors: Belfi Amy M. , Pralus Agathe , Hirel Catherine , Tranel Daniel , Tillmann Barbara , Caclin Anne 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The study under discussion sought to investigate the hemispheric laterality of musical emotions: Is one hemisphere of the brain preferentially involved in recognizing emotions in music? The authors took a neuropsychological approach to answer this question by studying emotional judgments of music in people with brain damage to either hemisphere. Their results indicated that individuals with left hemisphere damage were significantly impaired in recognizing musical emotions as compared to healthy comparison participants. In contrast, individuals with right hemisphere damage were not impaired at identifying emotions in music, but rated the perceived intensity of the emotions lower for sadness and fear (as compared to joy and serenity). Their work suggests that the identification of emotions in music and the perceived intensity of the emotions expressed may rely on different hemispheres of the brain.
Pictograph Portrays What It Is
Authors: He Xianyou , Zhang Wei 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
As one origin of Chinese characters, pictograph has a graphical structure based on its referent. Are the aesthetic qualities of the reference objects reflected in the neural processing of pictographs? In the study reviewed in this chapter, participants were scanned while making aesthetic judgments of pictographs and their referents. The conjunction analysis revealed the common involvement of the bilateral inferior occipital gyri and inferior frontal gyri, the right superior occipital gyrus, the left middle occipital gyrus, and the inferior orbitofrontal cortex for the aesthetic judgments of pictographs and object images referring to beautiful objects. Moreover, only the beautiful judgments for pictographs but not object images activated the motor areas, implying that an approach motivation was elicited during the aesthetic perception of novel pictographs. Results indicate that not only the object images, but also the corresponding pictographs arouse a sense of beauty that relies on common neural mechanisms during aesthetic judgments.
Training Effects on Affective Perception of Body Movements
Authors: Kirsch Louise P. , Cross Emily S. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
What leads us to enjoy watching others’ bodies in motion? In this chapter, the authors discuss their motivation to explore how our bodily experiences, especially in the form of dance training, shape our perceptions and preferences for watching others move, especially in dance contexts. They highlight findings from several studies that they conducted to investigate how general dance experience (or lack thereof) influences our enjoyment of watching dance and how acquiring experience specifically related to the dance piece being observed shapes the pleasure we derive from watching that piece specifically. Overall, our work finds that the richer experience an observer has with learning particular dance movements, the more enjoyment that observer derived from watching those movements. This research underscores the utility of dance as a stimulus and training intervention for addressing key questions relevant to human neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, particularly in the domain of neuroaesthetics.
The Neuroaesthetics of Architecture
Authors: Vartanian Oshin 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Environmental psychology is concerned with understanding the impact of the environment—built and natural—on the mind. Neuroscience of architecture can contribute to this aim by elucidating the workings of the brain in relation to features of our physical environment. Toward that end, Vartanian et al. (2013) examined the impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions while viewing images of room interiors in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. Participants found curvilinear rooms more beautiful than rectilinear rooms, and viewing curvilinear rooms in that context activated the anterior cingulate cortex—a region involved in processing emotion. That observation, coupled with the finding that pleasantness accounted for majority of variance in beauty judgments, supports the idea that our preference for curvilinear design is driven by affect. This study represents an example of how neural data can reveal mechanisms that underlie our aesthetic preferences in the domain of architecture.
The Moral Basis of State Independence
Authors: Stilz Anna 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The chapter takes as its starting point the central claim in Arthur Ripstein’s defense of a Kantian approach to war, namely that each state has a right to be independent from the determining choice of other states. The state’s right to independence is the basis for its permission to use force in national defense, and also for in bello restrictions that limit the permissible means of waging war to those necessary to stop aggression. But what morally justifies the state’s right to independence? And can this right be accounted for on Kantian grounds? Specifically, Stilz focuses on whether the Kantian view, as Ripstein reconstructs it, provides a philosophically satisfying basis for attributing a right to political independence to the state. In the final section, she outlines an alternative reading of Kant that may provide a more compelling moral foundation for this right.
EU Solidarity as Collective Self-Defense?
Authors: Herlin-Karnell Ester 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The chapter sets out to explore the notion of self-defense and how it is manifested in contemporary law of war. In addition, the chapter discusses the notion of collective self-defense in the context of the European Union (EU). The chapter links this debate to Ripstein’s Kant and the Law of War by using the EU as a test case of Kantian war theory. The chapter focuses on the imminence criteria for deciding on self-defense, in the context of EU security law, and to the extent to which Kant completely ruled out any preventive use of force. The EU’s fight against terrorism and security regulation appears to have many parallels with the “war” model which will be discussed in this chapter.
“One Voice in Many Languages”
Authors: Ross Melanie C. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Chapter 8 examines “Holy Inheritance,” a multiethnic congregation comprised of African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian members. However, the theological ideal of multiethnic worship is difficult to realize in practice. Some congregants tolerate unfamiliar additions to corporate worship as “accommodations” that need to be made for members of different races. Other congregants warn that this perspective exposes a problematic power dynamic: one that construes minority people as “guests” of the majority group’s largess. Over time, the leaders of Holy Inheritance hope to resolve these debates by developing a new, hybrid worship culture that expresses the church’s unified collective identity—one in which there is no sense of “us” or “them” according to race.
“Navigating the Beautiful Tension”
Authors: Ross Melanie C. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The book’s conclusion draws together the seven ethnographic studies by arguing that evangelical worship is better understood as a theological culture than as a static structure. In contrast to the scholarship Kathryn Tanner and Molly Worthen, which understands the culture of Christianity and/or evangelicalism as an essentially contested concept, this chapter ultimately affirms the perspective of theologians John Webster and Kevin Vanhoozer, who understand evangelicalism eschatologically, as a unified diversity. When congregations gather in the presence of the living God, they are dislocated and re-established, changed into something they were not before the event began. Consequentially, corporate worship is not a peripheral “extra” tacked on to a fully formed spiritual/political/cultural movement, but rather the crucible in which congregations forge, debate over, and enact their unique contributions to the American mosaic known as evangelicalism.
The Universe Is on Our Side
Authors: Ledewitz Bruce 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
There has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix. Americans cannot even converse about politics. All the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Bruce Ledewitz shows that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche knew would be momentous and irreversible. God was this culture’s story of the meaning of our lives. Even atheists had substitutes for God, like inevitable progress. Now we have no story and do not even think about the nature of reality. That is why we are angry and despairing. America’s future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed by theologian Bernard Lonergan: Is the universe on our side? When we commit to live honestly and fully by our answer to that question, even if our immediate answer is no, America will begin to heal. Beyond that, pondering the question of the universe will allow us to see that there is more to the universe than blind forces and dead matter. Guided by the naturalism of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, and the historical faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we can learn to trust that the universe bends toward justice and our welfare. That conclusion will complete our healing and restore faith in American public life. We can live without God, but not without thinking about holiness in the universe.
The Age of Evasion
Authors: Ledewitz Bruce 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
America is now in the Age of Evasion. Our public events are scripted and phony. Our political rhetoric is filled with lies. Our symbols are fake. Our proposals are unreal. Virtue signaling has replaced reflection. We avoid deep questions, such as, in the abortion controversy, when life begins. Cancel culture has drowned rational debate. Politics are narrow and frozen. We long for more in our public life but feel that it is out of reach. We evade out of fear of the consequences of the Death of God. We do not want to acknowledge how alone we feel. We need a new story.
Introduction
Authors: Wellman Kathleen 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This introduction insists that history matters. What if current divisions in America rest, in part, on a fundamental divergence in the understanding of our history? The chapter proposes that the three most prominent Christian curricula have played a role through the historical narrative they promoted for K-12 education since the early 1970s. They became more widespread in different forms of alternative schooling from Christian schools to voucher programs, and homeschooling. Their narrative has been significant in defining Americans’ understanding of the world and its history and exposes the efficacy of the alliance among certain religious interests, conservative legislators, school boards, and various corporate interests in reshaping education in the United States. The campaign for a “Christian right history” is analogous to the successful advocacy for “intelligent design” in public school science curricula. Many conservative institutions support both the inclusion of politically conservative and Christian content into school curricula.
Conclusions
Authors: Morello Gustavo S.J. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines what we learn from the religious experience of these Latin American respondents of lower socioeconomic status: religion as a relationship, and Latin American modernity as a construction that leaves room for a religious, spiritual presence. The chapter presents what respondents’ religious practices tell us about religion in general, the idea of religion as a relation, and a portrait of the Latin American religious landscape as “enchanted modernity.”
The Path and the Buddha
Authors: Wright Dale S. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines fundamental Buddhist themes addressed at the beginning of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. After discussing the setting and the primary characters in the story, it describes the metaphor of Buddhism as a path through life that can be pursued through the various disciplines of Buddhist practice and describes the importance attributed to a motivating concept of the goal of Buddhist practice, bodhicitta, the “thought of enlightenment.” The chapter addresses the question of who the Buddha is understood to be and how Buddhists in the sutra understand the miracles performed by the Buddha as “skillful means” of providing motivation for meditative practice.
Self-overcoming
Authors: Wright Dale S. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This chapter addresses Vimalakirti’s practice of the first four of six pārāmitas, distinct dimensions in which practitioners can overcome the confinements of self-absorption. The bodhisattva is described as engaged in the cultivation of selfless generosity and moral sensitivity to the needs and concerns of others as much as one’s own. It imagines Vimalakirti practicing tolerance and patience with all living beings so that their pursuit of a healthy life is not obstructed or curtailed by his own. Finally, Vimalakirti is pictured as a storehouse of energy, always out in the world offering his assistance to the community.
Embodied Wisdom
Authors: Wright Dale S. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
This chapter takes up the central theme of early Mahayana Buddhism, the “perfection of wisdom” as a quest to experience the “emptiness” of all things, their impermanence, their contingency, and their lack of essence. This realization of “emptiness” is described as giving rise to a profound sense of fearlessness, and Vimalakirti links this capacity to the openness and selflessness of bodhisattva life. The chapter analyzes the Buddhist teaching of “no-self” as it appears in the sutra and describes what selfless living would be like, a life without interior compulsions, a kind of open receptivity to see the world without self-centered projections.
Conclusion
Authors: Wright Dale S. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The conclusion to this book follows themes in the sutra’s epilogue that address the question of why it might be important to take the teachings of Vimalakirti seriously and what means of reading the sutra would allow us to do that. It inquires into the dichotomy between the Buddhist teachings and Vimalakirti’s “thunderous silence,” and raises the sutra’s existential question of what Buddhist practices are most suitable for the goal of awakening. The conclusion ends by examining what the sutra has to say on the crucial question of the most productive relation readers might take to the practice of meditative reading.
Choral Voices
Authors: Ellis Katharine 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Discussion of why choral and instrumental concerts were only lightly regulated by the state provides a springboard for examining the freedom the French provinces enjoyed and the considerable expansion of concert life that was based on individual and collective initiative. Core institutions such as the orphéon, “concerts populaires” and reconstituted cathedral choir schools (maîtrises—some of them state-subsidized) complemented private clubs and chamber ensembles in a bourgeois musical economy that often displayed a varied mix of high and low genres in comparison with Paris. Local administrative machinery aided a “democratizing” shift from private to public (accessibility). Parisian modes of choral and orchestral concert life are introduced as a prelude to discussion in chapters 3 and 4 of the distinctiveness of provincial centers. Discussion touches on provincial attitudes to touring ensembles from Paris and the increasing extent of soft power exerted by the capital.