The Idea of an Anglican Covenant: A Faith and Order Perspective

Recent Roman Catholic texts (Dominus Iesus, 2000, and Responsa, 2007) have raised the question of what kind of theological understanding enables Catholics to identify what constitutes a ‘proper’ church. This article addresses the same question with regard to both the Anglican Communion and its constituent member churches. It examines how the churches of the Anglican Communion understand their own ecclesial character at different levels (local, national/regional and worldwide), in relation above all to their professed belief in the ‘one holy catholic and apostolic Church’. It considers some of the current ways in which Anglicans appear to regard themselves as ‘church’ and seeks to identify some historic questions concerning their ecclesiology. Against this background, the article shows how the need for something like a covenant has been urged for many years and asks whether this might provide a possible way forward at a time of crisis for the Anglican Communion.     

Correlates of the Protestant Ethic of Hard Work: Results From a Diverse Ethno-Religious Sample

We examine the demographic and personality correlates of the Protestant ethic and how it correlates with contemporary individual and social issues. Success is more prevalent among Christian fundamentalists, those who were born outside the United States, individualists, individuals who have a higher locus of control, and individuals who believe in a just world. Hard work is more prevalent among Asian Americans and Filipinos, women, those who have a higher internal locus of control, and those who believe in a just world. Our data show that success and hard work are correlated positively with hours worked, total hours worked, and liberalization of drug laws. No other study has examined these issues using a diverse ethno-religious sample.     

From the Story of Jesus to the Faith of the Readers

The author analyzes the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke regarding the stories that tell of the death and resurrection of Jesus to determine how these works attempt to deal with such issues as unmerited suffering and the relationships among faith, knowledge, and experience. The author shows that the Gospels use different literary strategies in their discussions of these issues even as they try to encourage their readers toward faith and the corresponding behavior required by that faith.     

Classification of Attempted Suicide: A Review of Empirical Studies, 1963–1993

A review was carried out on empirical studies on the classification of attempted suicide over the period 1963-1993. Our aim was to investigate whether there is research evidence for a valid classification of homogeneous subgroups of suicide attempters. After assessment of the research quality, 32 studies were selected for comparison. Although there is lack of consistency among the studies, indications were found for two clearly distinguished subgroups characterized by mild and severe suicide attempts, which constitute the opposite poles of a one-dimensional concept of severity.     

Digital Mental Health Services: Moving From Promise to Results

The papers in this special series make a compelling case for the value of digital mental health services (DMHS; including technology-based interventions, assessments, and prevention programs) to help address some of the currently unmet needs in mental health care. At the same time, the papers highlight the work that needs to be accomplished for DMHS to fulfill their promise. We review the papers’ contributions in terms of (a) the imperative to increase access to evidence-informed, high-quality care, especially for underserved populations, both in the United States and globally; (b) ways to use DMHS to improve the ways that clinical care is provided to make treatment provision more effective and efficient; and (c) the current state of the research on DMHS for emotional disorders. We then consider lessons learned and recommendations to move the field forward, such as increasing (and making transparent) the research base on DMHS, adopting regulatory standards for DMHS, attending carefully to training issues for DMHS and best practices for dissemination and implementation, designing specifically for digital platforms, and being intentional about efforts to reduce disparities regarding who benefits from DMHS.     

Technology and Work: Future Issues for Career Guidance

Advances in communication and microcomputer technologies are having a dramatic impact on our personal and vocational lives. This article focuses on possible consequences for career guidance professionals.     

Word Order Processing in a Second Language: From VO to OV

Event-related potential studies on second language processing reveal that L1/L2 differences are due either to proficiency, age of acquisition or grammatical differences between L1 and L2 (Kotz in Brain Lang 109(2–3):68–74, 2009). However, the relative impact of these and other factors in second language processing is still not well understood. Here we present evidence from behavioral and ERP experiments on Basque sentence word order processing by L1Spanish–L2Basque early bilinguals (Age of Aquisition  \(=\)  3 years) with very high proficiency in their L2. Results reveal that these L2 speakers have a preference towards canonical Subject–Object–Verb word order, which they processed faster and with greater ease than non-canonical Object–Subject–Verb. This result converges with the processing preferences shown by natives and reported in Erdocia et al. (Brain Lang 109(1):1–17, 2009). However, electrophysiological measures associated to canonical (SOV) and non-canonical (OSV) sentences revealed a different pattern in the non-natives, as compared to that reported previously for natives. The non-native group elicited a P600 component that native group did not show when comparing S and O at sentence’s second position. This pattern of results suggests that, despite high proficiency, non-native language processing recruits neural resources that are different from those employed in native languages.     

Results of Walking in Faith: A Faith-Based Physical Activity Program for Clergy

Clergy are disproportionately affected by obesity and chronic disease. Physical activity (PA) offers a viable option for addressing the health of clergy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally tailored PA program for clergy. Clergy (N = 44) were randomly assigned to an intervention group or wait-list control group. Baseline and follow-up measures included PA behavior and psychosocial measures. Analyses revealed a significant effect of the intervention on sedentary behavior, PA behavior, self-efficacy for PA, and outcome expectations for PA. Culturally tailored PA programs could potentially influence PA behavior and psychosocial mediators of PA among clergy.