The Fifth R: Jesus as Evolutionary Psychologist

The historical Jesus seems to have known about human nature as described by evolutionary psychology. He addresses the dispositions of human nature that evolutionary psychology says are central: resources, reproduction, relatedness (kinship), and reciprocity. In doing so he answers Aristotle's question, how can human beings flourish? His answer opens a window onto the divine.     

The Quest to Digest Jesus: Recent Books on the Historical Jesus

Books reviewed in this article:
Mark Allan Powell, The Jesus Debate: Modern Historians Investigate the Life of Christ
Phillip J. Cunningham, A Believer's Search for the Jesus of History
Clive Marsh and Steve Moyise, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction
N. T. Wright and Marcus Borg, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions     

Breaking up with Jesus: a phenomenological exploration of the experience of deconversion from an Evangelical Christian faith to Atheism

This study examines the experience of deconversion from an Evangelical Christian faith to Atheism in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants and the data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The resulting superordinate themes emerged: Process of Deconversion; Post Deconversion Issues; What Helped and Did Not Help. The findings are supportive of similar research conducted on deconversion but are from the UK, rather than from a largely American, perspective. The underlying reason for deconversion is found to be cognitive dissonance and, as such, deconversion is a rational and intellectual process. Helping professionals need to convey a non-judgemental attitude, being understanding, sympathetic, supportive and kind.     

The Blood of Jesus in revival theology and the contemporary Church with particular reference to the East African Revival and Roy Hession

One of the most common phrases heard in testimony, preaching, and song during the East African Revival (EAR) was the phrase ‘The Blood of Jesus Christ’. Taken from a rich biblical heritage, this phrase encapsulates a wide range of ideas concerning the work of the cross and the power of forgiveness in a believer's life. Whilst, as will be noted, the use of The Blood has been common to many revivals, this article examines especially the theology behind this phrase by looking at the most prominent of the EAR authors – Roy Hession. It investigates seven different applications of The Blood in a believer's life: The Blood as a testament that sin is forgiven, The Blood as cleansing the conscience, The Blood as victory over despair, The Blood as the remover of shame, The Blood as washing away sin, The Blood as the gateway of the Holy Spirit, and finally The Blood as the source of true fellowship. The theology of The Blood has a long history of use in the Church but it also comes with difficulties. To this end the article will investigate the legitimacy of the practice often found in Africa and some Pentecostal circles of invoking The Blood as protection against the demonic. The article closes by considering the reasons why speaking of The Blood in church can be uncomfortable yet is paradoxically of vital importance to revival.     

The Counselor as Prophet: Frank Parsons, 1854–1908

This article summarizes the life and work of the political and economic reformer, Frank Parsons. The author gives special attention to his founding, shortly before he died, of the Vocation Bureau, often described as the origin of professional counseling in the United States. Through his work, he offered a challenging example for counselors today as both a social crusader and a pioneer in the systematic guidance of youth.     

Practising the Space Between: Embodying Belief as an Evangelical Anglican Student

Abstract

This article explores the formation of British evangelical university students as believers. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with a conservative evangelical Anglican congregation in London, I describe how students in this church come to embody a highly cognitive, word-based mode of belief through particular material practices. As they learn to identify themselves as believers, practices of reflexivity and accountability enable them to develop a sense of narrative coherence in their lives that allows them to negotiate tensions that arise from their participation in church and from broader social structures. I demonstrate that propositional belief—in contexts where it becomes an identity marker—is bound up with relational practices of belief, so that distinctions between ‘belief in’ and ‘belief that’ are necessarily blurred in the lives of young evangelicals.     

Jonathan Martin: Prophet and incendiary

Jonathan Martin was a fundamentalist itinerant Christian preacher. Outraged by the laxity of Church of England clergy and inspired by prophetic dreams, he set fire to York Minster in 1829. At his trial for this capital offence, medical expert witnesses argued that Jonathan Martin was suffering from monomania and he was incarcerated for the rest of his life in Bethlem Hospital. This paper reviews the medico-legal use of the insanity defence in cases of religious motives for grave offences from the early 19th Century, and describes the millenarian climate of the period as well as the phenomenon of biblical exegesis and prophecy. Finally, the case of a contemporary bible-inspired arsonist is reviewed and his medical mitigation and 'disposal' is compared with that of Jonathan Martin.     

The Prophet and the Woman Who Shatters and Heals

What does the story of Jesus's anointment by a woman say about pastoral care? This is a case study which addresses pastoral care in a communal and medical setting. Jesus both challenges and comforts in His response to those at table. The case study raises for reflection the question of whom I am at table with and what the answer says about me.     

Freak Observers and the Simulation Argument

The simulation hypothesis claims that the whole observable universe, including us, is a computer simulation implemented by technologically advanced beings for an unknown purpose. The simulation argument (as I reconstruct it) is an argument for this hypothesis with moderately plausible premises. I develop two lines of objection to the simulation argument. The first takes the form of a structurally similar argument for a conflicting conclusion, the claim that I am a so‐called freak observer, formed spontaneously in a quantum or thermodynamic fluctuation rather than through ordinary processes of evolution and growth. The second rejects the basic line of reasoning of both arguments: the sort of evidence they cite is not capable of supporting either the claim that I am a simulant or the claim that I am a freak observer. The evidence that simulants or freak observers exist is not a reason to think that I am one of them.     

从历史角度谈中医"扶阳学派"的复兴

产生于100多年前以重阳扶阳为主要思想、喜用姜桂附等温阳药物的"扶阳学派"近年有复兴之势,从中医历史发展角度进行分析:(1)"纠偏正弊、曲折前进",是中医历史发展的规律:"挟阳学派"也是为纠正温病学派用药寒凉阴柔的时弊而从阳立论的;(2)时代需要,是中医发展的动力:当今中医呈现"异化"、"退化"、"西化"等现象,"扶阳学派"是在中医回归自身发展,以传统理论应对"-3今疾病的思潮下应时复兴的;(3)历代曲折发展中多有矫枉过正之嫌,希望扶阳学派复兴不要蹈其旧辙,形成滥用温补的新时弊;(4)经典是各学派共同的基础,辨证论治是中医永恒的法宝,不能离开中医经典之道.而径效扶阳之术.     

心学的展开和晚明佛教的复兴

晚明佛教的复兴得益于心学的展开,具体表现在两个方面：一是心学以主体的自得为学术准则打破了理学一统天下的权威局面,为佛教复兴提供了多元化学术思想环境;二是心学学人对佛教心性理论的汲取刺激了佛教界对自身的反思,推动了佛教重新进入主流文化。晚明佛教在心学的影响下复兴,却又在一定程度上表现出对心学的反动。