No Preacher Left Behind: A New Prerequisite for the Introductory Preaching Course

M.Div. programs sequence curriculum in order to cumulatively build competencies for wise, faithful, reflective, appropriate and effective ministerial practices. That is why the introductory preaching course typically is positioned somewhere near the middle of the program. The author of this article discovered that students who, in the semester immediately preceding the introductory preaching course, were apprenticed in the art of critical theological reflection on previously preached sermons entered the introductory course more eager, with more finely attuned expectation levels, and with anxiety levels that promoted rather than hampered learning.     

No Child Left Behind: Values and Research Issues in High‐Stakes Assessments

High‐stakes testing and mandated assessments, which are major outcomes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; 2002) contain multiple embedded values that affect the lives of students, their families, teachers, and counselors. A primary embedded value within the NCLB is the privileging of quantitative science over other methods of inquiry and assessment. Thus, accountability, a cornerstone of NCLB legislation, has come to be understood in a narrow way and is valued primarily as a feature of quantitative assessment. This restricted view of accountability has had significant effects on how teachers and counselors organize their work with students.     

End Times Entertainment: The Left Behind Series,Evangelicals, and Death Pornography

Many Evangelical Christians are avid fans of the Left Behind series despite the shocking amounts of violence and death the novels contain. This enthusiastic support is puzzling, given that Evangelicals frequently criticize the mainstream entertainment media for the displays of violence in movies, television programs, and video games. In this article, I attempt to explain why the fictional violence of the Left Behind series entertains Evangelical audiences, while the fictional violence of the mainstream media repulses them. I examine Evangelical tastes in entertainment in light of the general increase in displays of violence in the American entertainment industry over the last two centuries. I argue that Evangelicals are as entertained by displays of violence as mainstream audiences are, as long as the violence is in line with key Evangelical values.     

歧视知觉、抑郁和农村留守儿童的学业成绩：纵向中介模型

以1147名双亲外出儿童和父亲外出儿童为被试,采用追踪研究设计,探讨了农村留守儿童歧视知觉和学业成绩之间的相互作用关系以及抑郁在其中的中介作用。结果发现:（1）农村留守儿童的学业成绩显著负向预测其随后的歧视知觉,但是歧视知觉不能显著预测其随后的学业成绩;（2）抑郁在留守儿童的学业成绩和歧视知觉之间起着纵向中介作用。这表明,学业成绩是降低留守儿童歧视知觉水平的重要资源,良好的学业成绩不仅可以直接降低农村留守儿童的歧视知觉,而且还能通过降低其抑郁水平来降低农村留守儿童的歧视知觉水平。     

Those Easily Forgotten: The Impact of Emigration on Those Left Behind

Much has been written about the experiences and stresses of those who emigrate. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the experiences of those who stay behind—family members and friends who for various reasons do not to join their loved ones in the destination country. In this article, I describe the experiences of some South Africans whose families and friends have emigrated. This study forms part of a larger research project focusing on the impact of emigration on South African family life. Twenty‐one participants were interviewed by means of a semistructured interview at least 6 months after one or more family member(s) and/or friend(s) left South Africa, to explore participants’ experiences around their loved ones’ emigration. A thematic analysis of the data reveals that those left behind experience various emotions, ranging from emotional ambivalence to anger and distress. Emigration is mostly experienced as a vast loss, almost akin to a “death,” bringing about significant changes in social networks and relationships. The therapeutic significance of the findings for those working with emigrant families is also explored.     

公民逝世后器官捐献的伦理审查与监督

在器官移植的供体来源为尸体器官时,无器官移植资质的医院常没有针对公民逝世后器官捐献做伦理审查。基于此现状,结合国内《执业医师法》《侵权责任法》《人体器官移植条例》《医疗机构管理条例》等有关法律法规,探讨在医疗机构环境下,公民逝世前后的器官捐献伦理审查和监督制度,以进一步尊重公民的尊严和意愿,保护隐私,避免医生职务利益冲突,规范和完善公民死亡判定与器官捐献工作流程,切实维护公民权益,增进社会公众对器官捐献伦理的认识和支持。     

Leave No Text Behind: Teaching the Psychology of Women During the Emergence of Second Wave Feminism

The purpose of this paper is to explore the resources (especially the textbooks) used to teach early courses in the psychology of women. Textbooks represent an underutilized vehicle by which to explore ideological change because they are documents frozen in time that reflect the way their authors responded to particular historical and scholarly circumstances. The early textbooks reflect how perceptions about the methods and content of psychology changed in response to alterations in professional and personal consciousness induced by the emergence of second wave feminism. The structure and content of a sample of early and more recent textbooks (some that I authored as well as some written by others) is analyzed to help chart how and why the field has changed since the first textbooks were published in 1971.     

Behind, Between, and Beyond Anthropomorphic Models of Ultimate Reality

The plurality of models of ultimate reality is a central problem for religious philosophy. This essay sketches what is involved in mounting comparative inquiries across the plurality of models. In order to illustrate what advance would look like in such a comparative inquiry, an argument is presented to show that highly anthropomorphic models of ultimate reality are inferior to a number of competitors. This paper was delivered as a keynote address during the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.     

Citizen Science,the Body of Christ,and Testimonial Epistemology

How does explicit theological knowledge emerge out of communal practices, who is involved in its production, and what are its procedures? These are neither neutral nor arbitrary methodological questions; they are themselves deeply theological. Digital innovations and the subsequent transformations of society and academia invite us to redefine the work of theology. Epistemologically drawing on a theology of the cross and centring the communal nature and vulnerable existence of the witnessing community, we develop a model of doing theology that is collaborative and exploratory within the medial transformations of the digital age. Taking cues from participatory research conceptions of “citizen science,” we propose going toward and beyond a “citizen theology.” We need the courage to conceive of a theology that is ultimately centreless. Therefore, we cannot aspire to testimonially responsible forms of doing theology without striving for epistemic justice and diaconal empowerment at a global level. The “distributed theology” we envision promotes global (catholic), decentral (apostolic), and communal (local) forms of knowledge production by the whole of the body of Christ in ever more distributed ways.