title: The Vatican in dialogue with Islam: inclusion and engagement

authors: Pratt, Douglas

subjects: Islam

abstract: Since the epoch-making Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the engagement of the Roman Catholic Church in interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations has developed and expanded. Other faiths, hitherto the object of missionary outreach for proselytising purposes, have been re-appraised as valued partners in dialogue. Islam, once regarded as the hostile 'other' to be held at bay, became, aside from Judaism, the first among the faiths with which the Church engages in dialogue. An overview of the origins and development of this dialogical activity during the twentieth century with special reference to the relation of the Vatican to Islam is the focus of this article. The topic is, of course, vast. The aim here is simply to distil the essential principles and processes, and to discuss some of the salient features. This dialogical development has not been without its difficulties; it remains, arguably, of critical concern.

text: The Vatican in dialogue with Islam: inclusion and engagement Since the epoch-making Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the engagement of the Roman Catholic Church in interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations has developed and expanded. Other faiths, hitherto the object of missionary outreach for proselytising purposes, have been re-appraised as valued partners in dialogue. Islam, once regarded as the hostile 'other' to be held at bay, became, aside from Judaism, the first among the faiths with which the Church engages in dialogue. An overview of the origins and development of this dialogical activity during the twentieth century with special reference to the relation of the Vatican to Islam is the focus of this article. The topic is, of course, vast. The aim here is simply to distil the essential principles and processes, and to discuss some of the salient features. This dialogical development has not been without its difficulties; it remains, arguably, of critical concern.

year: 2010

title: The Personality Assessment Inventory as a Proxy for the Psychopathy Checklist Revised: Testing the Incremental Validity and Cross-Sample Robustness of the Antisocial Features Scale

authors: Douglas, Kevin S.

subjects: Psychopathy

abstract: The Personality Assessment Inventory's (PAI's) ability to predict psychopathic personality features, as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R), was examined. To investigate whether the PAI Antisocial Features (ANT) Scale and subscales possessed incremental validity beyond other theoretically relevant PAI scales, optimized regression equations were derived in a sample of 281 Canadian federal offenders. ANT, or ANT–Antisocial Behavior (ANT-A), demonstrated unique variance in regression analyses predicting PCL-R total and Factor 2 (Lifestyle Impulsivity and Social Deviance) scores, but only the Dominance (DOM) Scale was retained in models predicting Factor 1 (Interpersonal and Affective Deficits). Attempts to cross-validate the regression equations derived from the first sample on a sample of 85 U.S. sex offenders resulted in considerable validity shrinkage, with the ANT Scale in isolation performing comparably to or better than the statistical models for PCL-R total and Factor 2 scores. Results offer limited evidence of convergent validity between the PAI and the PCL-R.

text: The Personality Assessment Inventory as a Proxy for the Psychopathy Checklist Revised: Testing the Incremental Validity and Cross-Sample Robustness of the Antisocial Features Scale The Personality Assessment Inventory's (PAI's) ability to predict psychopathic personality features, as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R), was examined. To investigate whether the PAI Antisocial Features (ANT) Scale and subscales possessed incremental validity beyond other theoretically relevant PAI scales, optimized regression equations were derived in a sample of 281 Canadian federal offenders. ANT, or ANT–Antisocial Behavior (ANT-A), demonstrated unique variance in regression analyses predicting PCL-R total and Factor 2 (Lifestyle Impulsivity and Social Deviance) scores, but only the Dominance (DOM) Scale was retained in models predicting Factor 1 (Interpersonal and Affective Deficits). Attempts to cross-validate the regression equations derived from the first sample on a sample of 85 U.S. sex offenders resulted in considerable validity shrinkage, with the ANT Scale in isolation performing comparably to or better than the statistical models for PCL-R total and Factor 2 scores. Results offer limited evidence of convergent validity between the PAI and the PCL-R.

year: 2007

title: Matariki, commodity culture, and multiple identities

authors: Hardy, Ann

subjects: Matariki

abstract: The event known as Matariki, the rising of the Pleiades in winter, which Māori take as the mark of the beginning of a new year, was not a strong feature of the wider public sphere for most of the 20th century. Since 2001, however, when Te Taura Whiri, the Māori Language Commission, published an explanatory booklet with the aim of reviving interest in Matariki as an aide to the maintenance of te reo, it has been promoted by several quasi-governmental institutions, especially the national museum, Te Papa, as a winter festival for all New Zealanders. Its main public presence to date has been through media products: posters, banners, websites, television programmes, newspaper features, calendars, some theatrical performances and physical commemoration ceremonies.

The larger project, of which this paper represents an initial descriptive and positioning phase, is a continuation of the researcher's long-standing interest in the intersections of religiosity, culture, and media as they are active in the environment of Aotearoa New Zealand. It assumes, building on theorists such as Bellah and Lundby that the creation of such festivals is an act of 'civil religiosity' that attempts to create and strengthen national community around a set of numinous symbols.
However, the development of an enterprise such as Matariki is pursued in a complex political field, where broad agreement across various factions is needed before the festival can take on an enduring material and symbolic existence. In investigating the factors that will determine the future of Matariki it is relevant to consider the interaction of three factors in particular: the ethno-political history of New Zealand; the characteristics of contemporary reflexive spirituality, which are intertwined with commodificatory tendencies and thirdly, the impacts of increasing globalisation on the parameters of identity-formation for citizens in late-modern societies.

text: Matariki, commodity culture, and multiple identities The event known as Matariki, the rising of the Pleiades in winter, which Māori take as the mark of the beginning of a new year, was not a strong feature of the wider public sphere for most of the 20th century. Since 2001, however, when Te Taura Whiri, the Māori Language Commission, published an explanatory booklet with the aim of reviving interest in Matariki as an aide to the maintenance of te reo, it has been promoted by several quasi-governmental institutions, especially the national museum, Te Papa, as a winter festival for all New Zealanders. Its main public presence to date has been through media products: posters, banners, websites, television programmes, newspaper features, calendars, some theatrical performances and physical commemoration ceremonies.

The larger project, of which this paper represents an initial descriptive and positioning phase, is a continuation of the researcher's long-standing interest in the intersections of religiosity, culture, and media as they are active in the environment of Aotearoa New Zealand. It assumes, building on theorists such as Bellah and Lundby that the creation of such festivals is an act of 'civil religiosity' that attempts to create and strengthen national community around a set of numinous symbols.
However, the development of an enterprise such as Matariki is pursued in a complex political field, where broad agreement across various factions is needed before the festival can take on an enduring material and symbolic existence. In investigating the factors that will determine the future of Matariki it is relevant to consider the interaction of three factors in particular: the ethno-political history of New Zealand; the characteristics of contemporary reflexive spirituality, which are intertwined with commodificatory tendencies and thirdly, the impacts of increasing globalisation on the parameters of identity-formation for citizens in late-modern societies.

year: 2011