bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Rise of Postcolonial Criticism in Biblical Studies and Its Current Status
Authors: Nadella Raj 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter explores the origins and development of the rapidly growing field of postcolonial biblical criticism and examines its current status. It begins with a brief account of postcolonial discourse in the secular academy which traces its roots to the anticolonial political and cultural struggles in twentieth-century Asia, Africa, and Latin America and serves as the foundation for postcolonial biblical criticism. It highlights major phases in the emergence of the field, its intellectual precursors, methods, and theories and assesses the contributions of key practitioners. The article analyzes the multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature of the field, its impact on biblical studies and current interpretive trajectories, and calls attention to the directions that research in the field should continue to take.
Mitochondrial Dynamics and Stress Signaling in Cancer
Authors: Rubio-Patiño Camila , Chipuk Jerry Edward 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Mitochondria are double-membrane organelles that provide precursors, metabolites, and energy—all of which impact upon the fundamental principles of cell biology. Over the past decade, the study of mitochondrial dynamics has also achieved great significance in cancer mechanisms—the mitochondrial dynamics literature expands beyond cell biology principles, and now captures our attention as a major contributor to cancer-promoting pathways. In parallel, mitochondria activate a repertoire of stress response cascades that facilitate organelle quality control through proteostasis and mitophagy and when stress is irreparable, eventual commitment to apoptosis. This chapter explores current literature that discusses how the mitochondrial dynamics machinery functions in the context of oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways. Particular emphasis will be placed on the intersection of mitochondria-specific stress responses and mitochondrial dynamics in the context of cancer. Our goal is to capture how mitochondrial pathways directly impinge upon the principles of cell biology and the fundamentals of cancer mechanisms to motivate further research efforts in these areas.
“In-Betweeners”
Authors: Morse Ainsley 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Late Soviet culture abounded in spaces, practices, and even individuals who existed “in-between” with respect to official and unofficial culture(s). Negotiations between official ideology and discourse and the way people lived and made art became increasingly complex and intimate in the years between the Thaw and perestroika. This article interrogates the concept of “in-between” aesthetics—posited as one of eclecticism and ambiguity—through an examination of widespread, yet highly variable manifestations of “in-between” creative activity, including literature, bard music, translation, and children’s books (including illustration). The disparate examples of “in-between” activity given here only constitute a few instances of a tendency that, even while liminal by definition, approached the mainstream in its ubiquity in the late Soviet period.
Video Games and Identity Formation in Contemporary Society
Authors: Muriel Daniel 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
The irruption and broad adoption of digital technologies such as video games are reshaping individuals and affecting fundamental aspects of their symbolic and material configuration such as their identity, gaze, body, and agency. This chapter focuses on what video gamers’ identities tell us about the contemporary processes of identity formation. Drawing on social theorists who have approached the crisis of identity in contemporary society, the chapter sets out a theoretical framework that describes the shift in the identity construction models from those based on solid and permanent identities to those centered around fluid and fragmented ones. The text then explores the most relevant empirical research on gaming and identity, linking it to the main debates on the subject. Not only do video games express the fluid, contingent, and volatile nature of identity in today’s world; they also anticipate social settings in which the very notion of identity is under scrutiny.
The Effects of Confessional Strife on Religious Authority in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Nellen Henk 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter discusses the confessional controversies on biblical authority and ecclesiastical tradition in the first half of the seventeenth century. While Protestant theologians upheld the status of the Bible as a divinely inspired, unique, coherent, and self-evident source of faith and stressed the subordinate significance of the patristic legacy, the Roman Catholic camp embraced the importance of the teachings of the Church Fathers, conciliar decrees, and papal decisions as a rock-solid criterion for a sound interpretation of the Bible. On the basis of treatises authored by eminent and hard-core exponents of Calvinism like Abraham Scultetus, Jean Daillé, Louis Cappel, and André Rivet, set against the views of the Jesuit Denis Pétau, expert in the history of the primitive church, it is argued that debates led to a reciprocal undermining of viewpoints, which eventually paved the way for more radical positions at the end of the century.
Unity and Engagement in the Modern World
Authors: Wood John Halsey 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
In the midst of the roiling chaos of the nineteenth century, Abraham Kuyper’s Neo-Calvinism was a strategy to maintain a Calvinist unity and engagement with an increasingly disintegrated Western world. The unity Kuyper pursued was of two kinds: intellectual and social. As a thinker, Kuyper valued coherent, interrelated systems. He took as his starting point the systematic Calvinism of Protestant scholastics and the Reformed Confessions as well as Romanticism’s organic impulse which elevated the organic and natural over mechanical and artificial. In addition to a unified mind, Kuyper also pursued a unified Calvinist community, albeit a different kind than imagined by earlier Calvinists. Under the pressures of modernity, Kuyper didn’t pursue a repristinated Calvinist culture, but a renewed Calvinist subculture.
Calvin’s Geneva
Authors: Spierling Karen E. 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Since Calvin’s lifetime, Reformation-era Geneva has taken on a life of its own as the model—and even the myth—of what truly dedicated Christian reformers can achieve: a community dedicated unswervingly to Christian piety and living out ‘true’ Christian doctrine in daily life. Despite the tenacity of this myth of Calvin’s Geneva, scholarship of recent decades has begun to forge a more precise and complicated picture of the Reformation as it happened in Geneva: a reform with seemingly absolute goals but without absolutely rigid or complete effects. As this chapter demonstrates, in order to contextualize the work of Calvin fully, we must continue to deepen our understanding of Geneva as the perpetual work-in-progress that Calvin himself would have recognized rather than only as the ‘most perfect school of Christ’ trumpeted by John Knox.
Old Princeton and European Scholarship
Authors: Aubert Annette G. 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter discusses Old Princeton in its broad intellectual and historical contexts, especially the engagement of Princeton faculty with European religious scholars. The Princeton professors used German and European scholarship extensively in their work, including in their defences of Calvinism. The chapter addresses some of the challenges that the Princeton professors faced in the context of modernity, and provides details regarding their reliance on a transatlantic community of evangelical scholars who were familiar with the Enlightenment Bible and issues tied to the rise of modern universities. A transatlantic reading supports an examination of scientific theological efforts on the part of Princeton-based scholars, and underscores their links with evangelical European scholars. The chapter shows how current research on the academic work and defence of traditional Calvinist ideas that emerged from Princeton Theological Seminary in the nineteenth century benefits from a broader historical context that includes the influx of European ideas.
Calvinism and Reformed Confessions in the Korean Presbyterian Church
Authors: Kim Byunghoon 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
The study of Calvin and Calvinism in Korean churches is closely related to the history and development of Presbyterianism in Korea. For the most part of its history, Calvinism in Presbyterian churches had been understood very limitedly in one of three ways: the Westminster Confession of Faith, Calvin’s Institutes, or the five points of TULIP. Such a narrow understanding, however, began to change after 1980 due to the efforts of scholars and doctoral students who had studied abroad and also with many books on Calvin and Calvinism being translated into the Korean language. This chapter examines this development by tracing the role of confessional documents adopted by the Korean Presbyterian churches. In light of the historical context, this chapter looks at how the first creed of the Korean Presbyterian Church called the Twelve Articles, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and other Reformed Confessions have shaped the identity of Korean Presbyterianism, which claims itself to be in the heritage of Calvinistic tradition.
(Re)Discoveries of the Reformed Faith in Brazil
Authors: Campos Heber 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
The recent widespread interest in the Reformed faith among evangelicals in Brazil raises the question of how much Calvinism entered and established itself in this country. Brazilian Presbyterianism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries appears to have been more conservative evangelical, more anti-Roman Catholic, than distinctively Reformed. The twenty-first-century interest in the Reformed faith among many evangelicals from different denominations (including a greater interest among Presbyterians) comes through four avenues: literature, conferences, media, and theological schools. However, the variegated use of the terms ‘Reformed’ and ‘Calvinism’ allows the conclusion that many elements that have composed this historical tradition have not been widely rediscovered. In order for Brazilians further to understand Calvinism, there needs to be a discovery of its rich legacy in biblical-hermeneutical, historical-dogmatic, as well as pastoral studies.
Calvin, Calvinism, and Medieval Thought
Authors: Zahnd Ueli 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter deals with the possible role of medieval scholasticism in early Reformed theology and aims at re-evaluating the triangle of medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation thought. First, the chapter briefly reviews the question of medieval thought in Calvin’s theology, it discusses then the role of medieval scholasticism in the emergence of Reformed scholasticism, and it finally focuses on three exemplary cases of post-Reformation theologians and their attitude towards medieval thought: Antoine de Chandieu, Lambert Daneau, and Polanus of Polansdorf. In doing so, the chapter both extends and qualifies the ‘positive continuity view’ prevalent in recent research: on the one hand, on the level of explicit references, it points to the apparent discontinuity in the expressed attitude towards medieval thought between the first few and the later generations of Reformed theologians. On the other, it argues that on the level of implicit allusions and methodological imitations the doctrinal and methodical continuities between Calvin and later ‘Calvinists’ can be extended to continuities between late medieval and early Reformed theology.
John Knox and John Calvin
Authors: Dawson Jane 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
John Calvin and John Knox were very different personalities, with the Scotsman looking to the French Reformer for religious leadership and defending Calvin’s reputation with fierce loyalty. Their personal relationship was forged between 1554 and 1559 when Knox was based in Geneva and served as co-minister to the English exile congregation in the city. When dealing with this enthusiastic, if independent, Scottish admirer, Calvin demonstrated patience and forbearance. Knox sought to follow Calvin’s lead on predestination but was prepared to go his own way on worship and especially on the validity of resistance to a ruler. Knox’s 1558 resistance tracts, not sanctioned by Calvin, brought major consequences for the way in which Calvin, Beza, and the ‘example of Geneva’ were viewed in Tudor England and Stewart Scotland. This had long-lasting implications for the Protestant identities of the two kingdoms and for the unity of the wider Reformed family.
TMS measures and voluntary motor function
Authors: Rothwell John C. , Hannah Ricci 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be viewed as interacting with voluntary movement in two ways: it can used to probe the excitability of central nervous system (CNS) pathways before, during, and after a movement; alternatively, it can be used to interfere with movement and give information about the role of different cortical areas in different aspects of a task. This chapter concentrates on the role of single and paired pulse TMS methods that have been covered in detail in previous chapters. Long lasting effects of repetitive TMS (rTMS) are described in later chapters. Almost all of the TMS measures described in previous chapters differ in subjects at rest and during tonic voluntary activity.
Democracy and the Quality of Government
Authors: Bauhr Monika , Grimes Marcia 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Does democracy reduce corruption and improve quality of government? While the corruption-reducing effect of democracy may be seemingly self-evident in light of theoretical expectations, a wealth of empirical literature suggests that democracy is not always as effective as theories predict. Studies consistently demonstrate that newly democratized countries exhibit, on average, higher levels of corruption than more established democracies but also than some autocracies. This chapter takes stock of recent advances in efforts to understand how, whether, and when democracy contributes to weeding out corrupt leaders and government corruption more generally. While research has made notable advances, we suggest that a closer examination of the underlying theory of change and assumptions upon which the beneficial effects of democracy rest can identify new ways forward. We point to a need for greater attention to how, for example, state capacity, transparency, and experiences with different forms of corruption influence civic and electoral engagement against corruption.
Trust, Populism, and the Quality of Government
Authors: Keefer Philip , Scartascini Carlos , Vlaicu Razvan 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Why do voters elect politicians whose populist policies degrade the quality of government? Low social trust can account for this paradox: it undermines the collective action by voters that is necessary to elect politicians who support high-quality government. If all voters believe that every other voter will accept particularistic benefits in exchange for supporting poorly performing governments, no voter has an incentive to spurn those benefits in order to select politicians who promise high-quality government. By the same logic, low social trust prevents voters from sanctioning politicians who renege on their promises. Low political trust springs from social mistrust, yielding low-quality government and populism as optimal electoral strategies. New survey data from seven Latin American countries reveal that respondents who exhibit low social trust are more likely to prefer populist policies that reflect a low quality of government.
Electoral Rules and Corruption
Authors: Xezonakis Georgios , Dawson Stephen 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
A large literature reviews the effects of constitutional arrangements and electoral rules on various aspects of QoG. The state of the debate, so far, is not one that provides straightforward answers regarding the important institutions, the magnitude of the effects, or even their direction. Through a meta-analysis of the relevant literature, we seek in this chapter to evaluate the relationship between electoral rules and corruption. The results of the meta-analysis suggest support for an individual accountability mechanism that transcends the crude majoritarian–proportional distinction. We show that absence of corruption can be positively correlated with systems in which district magnitude is at its lowest (plurality systems) and its highest (proportional systems). The important electoral system features appear to be those that cultivate a “personal vote,” strengthening accountability between voters and individual legislators.
Inequality and Corruption
Authors: You Jong-sung 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Corruption is a primary problem for the quality of government. Since most corrupt exchanges favor the wealthy and the powerful rather than the poor and the powerless, corruption tends to reinforce and widen existing inequalities of wealth and power. Higher inequalities in income and wealth may lead to higher levels of corruption by undermining democratic accountability mechanisms. The wealthy elite may capture policymaking and implementation processes and corrupt electoral process through sponsoring clientelistic politics. Also, high inequality is likely to affect norms and perceptions about corruption, eroding social trust and encouraging corruption. The reciprocal causality may create a vicious cycle of high corruption and high inequality as well as a virtuous cycle of low corruption and low inequality, especially in democracies.
Quality of Government
Authors: Rothstein Bo 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
In trying to conceptualize quality of government (QoG) one enters into the same difficulties as with other central concepts in the social sciences such as power, democracy, corruption, violence, etc. It is argued that conceptual precision is necessary for creating valid and reliable measures without which empirical research and policy solutions will not be possible. The strategy used in this conceptual operation has been to try to define what could be the opposite of corruption. It is argued that quality of government should be defined as separate from quality of democracy and also government effectiveness since we want to explain the latter by the former. A number of choices for defining QoG are presented (normative vs. empirical, substantive vs. procedural, universal vs. relativistic, multi- vs. unidimensional) are presented. The suggested definition is based on the idea of impartiality in the exercise of public power. Lastly, a number of challenges to this definition are presented.
Corruption, Elites, and Power: An Overview of International Policy Efforts to Improve the Quality of Government
Authors: Fukuyama Francis , Recanatini Francesca 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
In 1996, the then president of the World Bank James Wolfenson stressed the malign effects of corruption on development, putting anticorruption on his institution’s agenda. Since then, the Bank and many other development institutions have focused on corruption and quality of government. This chapter reviews the different approaches taken to improve the quality of governments while fighting corruption: state structural reform, simplification and reduction of administrative discretion, transparency and accountability initiatives, international agreements and conventions, and specialized anticorruption bodies. This chapter reviews the effectiveness of these approaches and concludes that while there have been some successes, there is relatively little evidence of major improvement in aggregate levels of corruption. The reason for this lies in the political nature of corruption and the powerful incentives of elites to maintain the status quo. The limited impact of anticorruption efforts reflects the fact that the international donor community, often operating in an uncoordinated way, usually does not have the political leverage to shift these incentives.
International Efforts to Combat Corruption
Authors: Lohaus Mathis , Gutterman Ellen 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
Attempts to improve the domestic quality of government often involve international arrangements and the fight against corruption is a prominent example. Since the 1990s, anticorruption pledges, international treaties, soft law arrangements, transnational advocacy campaigns, and other commitments have proliferated to control bribery and corruption in a range of contexts. This chapter surveys the literature on the emergence and characteristics of these various initiatives and provides an overview of what is known about their impacts on policy and discourse, law, and behavior. While empirical evidence on the impact of international anticorruption efforts is mixed, existing studies and directions for future research suggest that the quality of government in highly developed states is crucial when it comes to controlling transnational business bribery, money laundering, and other illicit financial flows.
Gender, Gender Equality, and Corruption
Authors: Alexander Amy C. 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter covers the state of the art in theory and evidence on the relationship between gender, gender equality, and corruption. Starting with the theoretical assumptions that link individuals’ gender to the likelihood to engage in corruption, the chapter covers the four mechanisms proposed throughout the literature for expecting women to engage less: gender role socialization, power marginalization, the greater importance of an effective state for women’s self-determination, and the tendency to hold women to higher standards. From here, the chapter reviews additional societal-level theories on gender equality and corruption: 1) theory assuming that gender equality lowers corruption by empowering women, promoting women’s interests and generating norms of impartiality; and, 2) theory assuming that lower corruption increases gender equality. The chapter then reviews the evidence in support of the various theories and concludes with a critical assessment that identifies gaps and suggests future research.
Happiness and the Quality of Government
Authors: Helliwell John F. , Huang Haifang , Wang Shun 
Published: July 2021

Abstract
This chapter uses happiness data to assess the quality of government. Our happiness data are drawn from the Gallup World Poll, starting in 2005 and extending to 2017 or 2018. In our analysis of the panel of more than 150 countries and generally over 1,500 national-level observations, we show that government delivery quality is significantly correlated with national happiness, but democratic quality is not. We also analyze other quality of government indicators. Confidence in government is correlated with happiness, however forms of democracy and government spending seem not. We further discuss three channels (including peace and conflict, trust, and inequality) whereby quality of government and happiness are linked. We finally summarize what has been learned about how government policies could be formed to improve citizens’ happiness.