title: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism/ Christian idealism

authors: McKeogh, Colm

subjects: Reinhold Niebuhr

abstract: The foregoing quip captures a realization that came to the young Reinhold Niebuhr in the 192os and that turned the liberal Christian pastor away from pacifism and toward a more realist ethic of politics. From then until his death in 1971, Niebuhr was to remain always a liberal Christian of realist bent. He was a liberal Christian in his concentration on the law of love as the only absolute and in his rejection of Christian fundamentalism, biblical literalism, and the consequent clash with science. He was a political realist, and rose to national prominence as such in the 1930S and 1940s, in his dismissal of pragmatic pacifism and his advocacy of American responsibility to use force in opposing the Nazi and Soviet threats to the world. He was famous particularly for his sharp attacks on those who failed to see the limits on morality in politics. Yet this realism was but one strand of Niebuhr's dualist approach to politics, the other being his Christian idealism.

text: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism/ Christian idealism The foregoing quip captures a realization that came to the young Reinhold Niebuhr in the 192os and that turned the liberal Christian pastor away from pacifism and toward a more realist ethic of politics. From then until his death in 1971, Niebuhr was to remain always a liberal Christian of realist bent. He was a liberal Christian in his concentration on the law of love as the only absolute and in his rejection of Christian fundamentalism, biblical literalism, and the consequent clash with science. He was a political realist, and rose to national prominence as such in the 1930S and 1940s, in his dismissal of pragmatic pacifism and his advocacy of American responsibility to use force in opposing the Nazi and Soviet threats to the world. He was famous particularly for his sharp attacks on those who failed to see the limits on morality in politics. Yet this realism was but one strand of Niebuhr's dualist approach to politics, the other being his Christian idealism.

year: 2007

title: Teacher identity, activism, and empowerment: Entanglements with climate in Aotearoa, New Zealand

authors: Everth, Thomas

subjects: Climate Change

abstract: Propelled by energy from fossil fuels, human population and agency have grown exponentially over the last century, resulting in rapidly increasing and potentially catastrophic anthropogenic impacts on the coupled systems of climate, ocean chemistry, ecology, and society. Education could bring about the fundamental change in human behaviour required to avert the potential dystopian futures predicted by climate scientists. 

By applying a DeleuzoGuattarian analytical and methodological framework, this thesis researched the perceptions and desires of seventeen climate activist secondary school teachers in Aotearoa, New Zealand, as they try to make sense of the diffractions between their ambition to be changemakers for a sustainable future and the milieu of territorialising institutional, social, and economic assemblages resisting this change. The analysis of the participant narratives generated specific insights into opportunities to deterritorialise and decode educational institutions in order to promote a meaningful engagement with the fundamental questions of human relations with the more-than-human world. 

This thesis promotes a critical-realist ontology for education to navigate the complex entanglements between social and material assemblages. The theoretical preparations for this research included a critical discussion of the epistemic relativism in constructivist philosophy and a critique of the ontological indeterminism in quantum mechanics-inspired agential realism.

text: Teacher identity, activism, and empowerment: Entanglements with climate in Aotearoa, New Zealand Propelled by energy from fossil fuels, human population and agency have grown exponentially over the last century, resulting in rapidly increasing and potentially catastrophic anthropogenic impacts on the coupled systems of climate, ocean chemistry, ecology, and society. Education could bring about the fundamental change in human behaviour required to avert the potential dystopian futures predicted by climate scientists. 

By applying a DeleuzoGuattarian analytical and methodological framework, this thesis researched the perceptions and desires of seventeen climate activist secondary school teachers in Aotearoa, New Zealand, as they try to make sense of the diffractions between their ambition to be changemakers for a sustainable future and the milieu of territorialising institutional, social, and economic assemblages resisting this change. The analysis of the participant narratives generated specific insights into opportunities to deterritorialise and decode educational institutions in order to promote a meaningful engagement with the fundamental questions of human relations with the more-than-human world. 

This thesis promotes a critical-realist ontology for education to navigate the complex entanglements between social and material assemblages. The theoretical preparations for this research included a critical discussion of the epistemic relativism in constructivist philosophy and a critique of the ontological indeterminism in quantum mechanics-inspired agential realism.

year: 2024

title: Review: Memoirs of Active Service

authors: Cheesman, Sue

subjects: Maaka Pepene

abstract: Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou - we will remember them…poignant last words…   bidding farewell to a generation of veterans moving on...leaving fragments  of memories and diaries for children/grandchildren to honour, celebrate and remember …black costumes billow, fold, swirl and wrap the dancers bodies…wide sweeping arm movements…jumps and turns…slides on all fours - provides the vehicle for five accomplished dancers to fill the space with fluidity and lyricism in this very moving finale, a lament set to Albinoni’s adagio - maybe old soldiers never die.

text: Review: Memoirs of Active Service Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou - we will remember them…poignant last words…   bidding farewell to a generation of veterans moving on...leaving fragments  of memories and diaries for children/grandchildren to honour, celebrate and remember …black costumes billow, fold, swirl and wrap the dancers bodies…wide sweeping arm movements…jumps and turns…slides on all fours - provides the vehicle for five accomplished dancers to fill the space with fluidity and lyricism in this very moving finale, a lament set to Albinoni’s adagio - maybe old soldiers never die.

year: 2007