The Reformation of Jan Hus as Inspiration for Transformative Ecumenism

While 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, this article argues that reflection on the Reformation should begin by remembering that the Lutheran Reformation was only one of several reformations. Noting both the achievements and the limits of Luther's Reformation, the article proposes commemorating Jan Hus and the Czech Reformation, which took place a hundred years before Luther. Unlike Luther's Reformation, which focused on the doctrinal issue of “justification by faith,” the Czech Reformation focused on the issue of the Lord's supper and practised a “social Holy Communion” beyond the boundaries of the church. The article concludes that the Czech Reformation provides a fresh vision and inspiration for the contemporary ecumenical movement in Korea and around the world, transcending a perspective that sees ecumenism as being focused on a fellowship of churches.     

The Routledge companion to religion and film

This paper concerns U.S. evangelical Christian mission practice in the Muslim world. Interests in and support for mission work among Muslims have increased – shifts that evangelical church leaders and missiologists attribute to the impacts of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed – and the short-term segment, which fuses voluntarism, tourism and evangelism, represents the newest paradigm in these undertakings. While the overall popularity of short-term mission is recognised by scholars and church leaders, its role in mediating interactions between Christians and Muslims has received little attention. This paper documents short-term mission engagement with Islam by showing how Islam is represented by agencies and how volunteers interact with Muslims. I argue that styles of representing and engaging with Islam, while arising from a range of theological orientations, are also products of changing contexts and practices of mission, both the routinisation of short-term mission and the expanded opportunities for mission under rubric of faith-based development. This paper is based on research in Southern California between 2009 and 2012, including visual and textual content analyses of sending agencies' websites and guidebooks, and interviews with 57 short-term mission participants.     

Human/companion animal therapy

Human/Companion Animal Therapy is a single process in that it introduces a companion animal into the life of a person to enhance his emotional well being. There are, however, various ways in which the companion animal may be used. These are: a) as a psychotherapeutic adjunct, b) as the sole therapist, c) as a catalytic agent for change, d) as a means of contact with nature, one's unconscious and the universe. These uses are all interrelated, and it is understood that in all of them, contact comfort is either present or is easily available.     

Liberty and equality. A critical response to the debate between James P. Sterba and Jan Narveson

Abstract

This article examines the libertarian arguments of Jan Narveson and James P. Sterba regarding the compatibility of liberty and equality. It then posits that their arguments fail in solving tensions between liberty and equality, because all fundamental rights cannot be derived from liberty. A coherent scheme of human rights is only possible if human dignity is used to balance the conflicting interests of liberty and equality. It then proceeds to make some suggestions on how human dignity as core value might help to solve tensions between equality and liberty.