English for Bible and Theology: Understanding and Communicating Theology Across Cultural and Linguistic Barriers

This article introduces English for Bible and Theology (EBT), an inherently interdisciplinary field that merges English language learning with the content of biblical and theological studies in a context that is, by nature, cross‐cultural. Within this collaboration there exists the possibility not only to enable theological study, but also to enhance it through a focus on personal meaning and its communication, both of which are foundational to the communicative language classroom. That is, EBT seeks both to aid students worldwide in attaining the specialized language and cultural proficiency necessary to access English theological resources and to provide a community in which students can connect theological content to their lives. It is this second aim that provides EBT its relevance across a range of theological contexts, as native English‐speaking students likewise stand to benefit from the application of EBT's principles.     

Learning Through Shared Christian Praxis: Reflective Practice in the Classroom

The cultivation of reflective practice has become a commonly accepted goal of theological education. However, theological educators must face the challenge of teaching and assessing reflective practice. Hypothesizing that this concern is best addressed in community, the authors of this article devised a collaborative action‐research project using Thomas Groome's “shared Christian praxis” model. They describe the ways in which they have, over the course of the project, modified their pedagogy to improve their students' reflection on practice.     

Understanding Biology in Religious Experience: The Biogenetic Structuralist Approach of Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg

What are the biological bases of religious experience? Are there biological constraints upon or determinants of religious narratives and practices? How does understanding the biology of religious experience inform the ongoing reconstruction of religious rituals and myths? In The Mystical Mind, Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg address these central questions and others from a distinct perspective called biogenetic structuralism. They propose a model of how brain activity gives rise to mystical experiential states, examine how neurobiological responses to rhythmic behavior form religious ritual, and point toward the development of a megatheology, or a theological system appealing to the widest scope of religious world‐views. This paper is a critical review of d’Aquili and Newberg's exciting work.     

The Development of the Spiritual Focus in Counseling and Counselor Education

This article summarizes the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling's (ASERVIC's) history with the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Summit on Spirituality. It includes comments on the importance of spirituality in counseling and the rewarding aspects of infusing spirituality into counseling from the perspectives of Mary Thomas Burke, Eugene Kelly, and Judy Miranti. The article concludes by exploring issues related to fusing spirituality with counseling and presents recommendations.     

How programs in prisons are challenging the who,where, how,and what of theological education

This paper claims that programs in prisons are challenging the very who, where, how, and what of theological education. The author draws on research from the fields of pedagogy and prison studies, nearly a decade of experience teaching master's level seminary‐style classes in prison , and the findings of a two‐year cohort of prison educators convened by the Association of Theological Schools for their Educational Models and Practices Project. Addressing displacement as a learning strategy, classroom diversity, the use of student experience, narrative grading strategies, and classroom ritual, the author shows how the teaching strategies emerging from prison classrooms provide vibrant models for the theological academy at large.     

Through Solidarity to “Fluidarity”: Understanding Difference and Developing Change Agency Through Narrative Reflection

This paper examines the development of the concept of solidarity as expressing a sense of shared humanity, while detailing critiques of its current use, especially when it implies a privileged center setting the agenda for the sake of marginalized others. My research demonstrates how solidarity can be modified when encountering difference, and how it might be better conceptualized as “fluidarity,” an attitude and practice that embraces the complexity of engaging the other in pluralized and ever‐changing struggles. This engagement with otherness, an explicit part of an undergraduate theological ethics course with an embedded service‐learning component, is pedagogically facilitated by a threefold reflection process required of students: critical reflection on their own narratives, reflection on the narratives encountered in their service‐learning, and reflection on the lives of spiritually grounded agents of social change. Case studies of four undergraduate students demonstrate the ways in which this pedagogical strategy contributes to the development of solidarity and moves students' understanding towards fluidarity. In the end, the students gained a sense of spiritually grounded change agency, combining spiritual development with growth in critical consciousness.     

Teaching Theological Reflection Well,Reflecting on Writing as a Theological Practice

Abstract. In order to teach theological reflection well, it is necessary to teach students how to write it well. This paper probes the writing of theological reflection as a rhetorical process and a theological practice by (1) situating theological reflection broadly within a “correlation” model, adapted for theological writers; (2) identifying two “generic” styles of theological reflection papers, the pastoral reflection paper and the systematic reflection paper; (3) following a writer's progress as she writes a one‐page pastoral reflection paper and constructs a working theology in the process of writing it. In conclusion, the correlation‐based “Reflecting on Paper” process provides a pedagogical bridge between the writing and teaching of “pastoral” and “systematic” theological reflection, and exemplifies the dynamic interplay between teaching theological reflection and reflecting on writing as a theological practice.     

In Defense of Mainstream Conservatism: A Response to Crouse and Stalker

This article provides a response to Crouse and Stalker's reply to my commentary (Thomas, 2013) on their article titled “Do Right‐Wing Authoritarian Beliefs Originate from Psychological Conflict?” (Psychoanalytic Psychology, 24, 25–44). The authors' critical remarks regarding my commentary are addressed, and recommendations are offered for a more cautious use of psychoanalytic theory and results derived from The Right‐Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Altemeyer, 1998) for labeling persons with mainstream conservative political beliefs as being “psychopathological” or “right‐wing authoritarians.” Such assertions regarding the personality characteristics of political conservatives are particularly troubling, since the authors' conclusions were purely speculative, and they collected neither clinical nor empirical data on patients or research subjects with so‐called right‐wing authoritarian personalities to support their speculations.     

Support of Theological Education in a Cross‐cultural Setting

Based on recent reports on the global status quo of theological education, including a mapping of Danish organizations supporting theological education in a cross‐cultural setting, the paper asks how theological education is best supported. It argues that theological education, while referring to a historical heritage and sacred text, is also exposed to developments in church and society. Stretched between the historical and contemporary perspective, theological education includes a cultural component that we need to consider when discussing development and support. The paper argues further that support of theological education offered in a cross‐cultural setting is susceptible to failure if the cultural aspect is not considered, primarily through engaging in the cultural background of the supporting agencies. As a help to identifying the cultural element, the paper proposes four indicators, challenging agencies of the global North to face latent aspects of culture and secularization, presenting a global and social perspective of theological education. The cultural component visualized in cross‐cultural support reveals that we must complement the classical notion of theological education as Christian leadership training with an understanding of formation, where spiritual and cognitive aspects accompany social and cultural critique of totalitarian regimes both inside and outside churches. Critique in this setting is not a matter of giving in to secularization, but rather expresses an openness to historical and contemporary perspectives and a commitment to the sources of faith.     

Differential effects of happy,neutral, and sad still‐faces on 2‐, 4‐ and 6‐month‐old infants

The role of facial expression in the determination of infants' reaction to the sudden still‐face of a social partner was investigated. In a within subject design, 2, 4 and 6‐month‐old infants were tested in periods of normal interaction interspersed with periods of prolonged still‐face episodes in which the female adult social partner adopted either a happy, neutral, or sad static facial expression while maintaining eye contact with the infant. Proportion of infants' smiling and gazing at the social partner as indices of reaction from the various still‐face episodes reveal that, in comparison with same age control groups, four and six‐month‐old infants did not demonstrate any differential responses depending on either happy, neutral, and sad still‐faced expression. In contrast, two‐month olds demonstrated some evidence of a reduced still‐face effect in the happy still‐face condition. These results point to early developmental changes in the mechanisms underlying the still‐face phenomenon. We propose that by 4 months, and not prior, the reaction to still‐face episodes are essentially based on the detection of social contingencies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Lutheran Reflection on The One Mediator,The Saints,and Mary1 in Relation to the Question: How Do Lutherans Understand Prayer for Other People?2

Abstract : In this article, the author offers a critical, appreciative appraisal of The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary (1992), which was the publication that emerged from the eighth round of the U.S. Lutheran‐Catholic Dialogue. Writing from a Lutheran perspective and using the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ, October 31, 1999) as a critical hermeneutical lens, the author points to Luther's theological conviction concerning how Mary—the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ—and departed saints are to be regarded. Luther's emphasis on Christ the only Mediator was highlighted. Reflection on this text was done in light of the theme of the dialogue's eleventh round, “The Hope of Eternal Life.” Prayer is always in and through Jesus Christ.     

A Begrudging,Recalcitrant Academic Observes What She's Learning: Distance Learning in Leadership Formation

Neither advocacy nor condemnation of distance learning, this essay offers observations and critical reflection on four years' longitudinal engagement with distance learning pedagogies for formation in higher theological education. Instead, readers are invited to curiosity, communal‐institutional discernment, and intense ambivalence. Theological, pedagogical, contextual, and ethical concerns are examined, as well as potential opportunities for innovation amidst age‐old practical theological challenges. A moral imperative emerges for those within and outside historic faith traditions, and some plausible impacts on educational and communal life are explored, especially faculty grief.     

The Contemplative Bow in Teaching and Learning Pastoral Care

This article elucidates theoretical underpinnings for the use of one's self in the pastoral theological classroom. The contemplative bow is developed as a capacious metaphor to describe appropriate self use and its necessary importance in the teaching and learning of pastoral arts in a theological curriculum. Central to the argument is the assumption that effective teaching and learning in pastoral care emerges from awareness and knowledge of self as well as letting go of self in beneficial service with others. Analytical engagement of educational, theological, and psychological theory informs practice for the professional school classroom.     

Barth and the Evangelicals – Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques – Edited by David Gibson and Daniel Strange

This review examines twelve conservative evangelical responses to David Gibson and Daniel Strange's Engaging with Barth. Witten in a charitable spirit that gives deference to Barth, the essayists remained uncomfortable with the prospect of rehabilitating Barth's radical neo‐orthodoxy for contemporary evangelical theology. In the article, I summarize the authors' critiques to Barth's exegetical, historical, and theological program, and locate their contributions pertaining to the reading of Barth's dogmatics. The review concludes with a possibility of interrogating the pneumatological‐underpinnings in Barth's theology as a constructive reworking of Barth's trinitarian theology for evangelical theology. There are ‘spaces’ for evangelicals to mine from the Barthian legacy, albeit via the medium of turning Barth's proposals on its head.     

Embodied learning: Teaching sexuality and religion to a changing student body

Sexuality, more so than other subject areas, magnifies the embodied nature of teaching and learning as well as conspicuously silences open dialogue given its taboo status in many religious and theological contexts. Yet, student learning about sexuality that incorporates knowledge of and about religion, in particular, may greatly improve the public discourse about sexuality through our students as responsible citizens and as leaders in their chosen professions. To bridge this gap, through a year‐long collaboration, a group of professors and instructors with expertise and experience teaching sexuality and religion in a variety of disciplines and diverse institutional and religious contexts developed, tested, and refined classroom teaching strategies to shift from a content‐based “subject matter” to an embodied learning experience, resulting in perspective transformation as a primary student‐learning outcome. Findings in the form of “guiding questions,” encourage instructors to attend to contextual, experiential, and performative aspects of the classroom environment.     

Revisiting the God/World Difference

On what basis do we distinguish God from the world? I argue that the doctrine of creation, more specifically the analogical notion of causa , supplies a salutary foundation. My conversation partners are Karl Barth and Thomas Aquinas. I take up the former's five conditions for a right theological use of causa , demonstrating that despite his basic misreading of Thomas, both theologians share some basic convictions regarding God's independence. I argue, moreover, that Thomas provides a more theologically satisfying anchor for what distinguishes God from what is not God. I conclude by reflecting on the importance of experience in articulating the distinction.     

‘THE METAPHYSICS OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS: RADICAL ORTHODOXY AND THEOSIS’

Western theology struggles with the rise of secularism and postmodernism. The Radical Orthodoxy sensibility asserts that the ancient principles of methexis (participation) and theosis (deification) presents an alternative metaphysical narrative to the narrative of secularism and the onto‐theological tradition. This article addresses the problems of the onto‐theological metaphysical tradition in Western theology by analyzing Radical Orthodoxy's rediscovery of the philosophical and theological principles of participation and theosis as articulated in the patristic tradition and in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Using historical and analytical methods, this article will survey the biblical and patristic literature on theosis, as well as John Milbank's understanding of methexis and theosis in Thomas Aquinas. The result of this study will be to offer theosis, rooted in participation in God, as not only a soteriological model to reclaim for the West, but also a core metaphysical principle for Christian ethics that contravenes both onto‐theology and the materialistic reduction of ontology in secularism.     

Improving metacognition: A comparison of interventions

Accurate knowledge monitoring is critical to the learning process, as it allows one to regulate studying and test preparation. Thus, a number of investigations have attempted to improve metacognition in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of improving student exam performance. However, such interventions have had inconsistent success using varying paradigms. We compared the effectiveness of five interventions aimed at improving prediction accuracy in a laboratory environment: review, salient feedback, motivation warning lecture, incentives, and reflection. Only the salient feedback and the motivation warning lecture interventions significantly improved participants' prediction accuracy from test 1 to test 2. Review, incentives, and reflection did not improve predictive or postdictive calibration. Well‐timed salient feedback and a lecture warning students not to be biased by desired grades were effective methods of improving calibration accuracy. Results offer effective interventions to improve metacognition that could be used in a classroom setting.