Hermeneutics and Religious Understanding Part Two: towards a critical theory for religious education

The previous article offered an account of the hermeneutics implicit in religious education from 1960 to the present. It was suggested that an uncritical reliance on the traditions of romanticism and postmodernism serves to impair the emergence of religious literacy. Here an attempt is made to plot the contours of a critical hermeneutical theory for religious education, drawing on the resources of linguistic hermeneutical theory provided by the critical realism of Gadamer and Habermas.     

SPSS procedures for approximate randomization tests

Randomization tests are valid alternatives to parametric tests like the t test and analysis of variance when the normality or random sampling assumptions of these tests are violated. Three SPSS programs are listed and described that will conduct approximate randomization tests for testing the null hypotheses that two or more means or distributions are the same or that two variables are independent (i.e., uncorrelated or “randomly associated”). The programs will work on both desktop and mainframe versions of SPSS. Although the SPSS programs are slower on desktop machines than software designed explicitly for randomization tests, these programs bring randomization tests into the reach of researchers who prefer the SPSS computing environment for data analysis.     

General contrast effects in speech perception: Effect of preceding liquid on stop consonant identification

When members of a series of synthesized stop consonants varying acoustically inF3 characteristics and varying perceptually from /da/ to /ga/ are preceded by /al/, subjects report hearing more /ga/ syllables relative to when each member is preceded by /ar/ (Mann, 1980). It has been suggested that this result demonstrates the existence of a mechanism that compensates for coarticulation via tacit knowledge of articulatory dynamics and constraints, or through perceptual recovery of vocal-tract dynamics. The present study was designed to assess the degree to which these perceptual effects are specific to qualities of human articulatory sources. In three experiments, series of consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli varying inF3-onset frequency (/da/—/ga/) were preceded by speech versions or nonspeech analogues of /al/ and lav I. The effect of liquid identity on stop consonant labeling remained when the preceding VC was produced by a female speaker and the CV syllable was modeled after a male speaker’s productions. Labeling boundaries also shifted when the CV was preceded by a sine wave glide modeled after F3 characteristics of /al/ and /ar/. Identifications shifted even when the preceding sine wave was of constant frequency equal to the offset frequency ofF3 from a natural production. These results suggest an explanation in terms of general auditory processes as opposed to recovery of or knowledge of specific articulatory dynamics.     

Substance Abuse in Persons With Disabilities: Treatment Considerations

In this article the authors examine the issues and needs of individuals who are physically disabled and have substance abuse problems. Reasons for the high rate of substance abuse among individuals who are physically disabled are explored. Treatment considerations for such individuals are addressed and include individual, family, and educational counseling. Prevention issues are examined, and the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990) is assessed.     

Book reviews and notes

General

Islam and Islamic Groups: A Worldwide Reference Guide. Farzana Shaikh (ed.), 1992. London, Longman. x + 316 pp., hb £85.00, ISBN 0–582–09146–2.

Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Vol. 2: The Contemporary Period. Andrew Rippin, 1993. London & New York, Routledge. 171 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–415–04527–4; pb. £12.99, 0–415–04528–2.

The Medieval Spains. Bernard F. Reilly, 1993. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 228 pp., pb. £10.95, ISBN 0–521–39741–3.

Muhyiddin Ibn ^cArabi: A Commemorative Volume. Stephen Hirtenstein and Michael Tiernan (eds), 1993. London, Element Books. 379 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 1–85230–349–2; pb. n.p., 1–85230–395.

Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales: Sciences Occultes et Islam. Annick Regour and Pierre Lory (eds), 1992. Damas, Institut Français de Damas. pb. n.p., ISBN 2–901315–04–6. ISSN 0253–1623.

Traditional Islam in the Modern World. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1990. London, Kegan Paul International Ltd. 335 pp., pb. no price, ISBN 0–7103–0332–7.

The Renewal of Islamic Law: Muhammad Baqer Al‐Sadr, Najaf and the Shi'i International. Chibli Mallat, 1993. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 245 pp., hb. £30.00, ISBN 0–521–43319–3.

Power‐Sharing Islam. Azzam Tamini (ed.), 1993. London, Liberty for Muslim World Publications. 192 pp., pb. £9.95, ISBN 0–9521672–0–4.

The Ethics of Disagreement in Islam. Taha Jabir Al‐'Alwani, 1993. Herndon, VA, International Institute of Islamic Thought. 158 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 1–56564–118–3.

Regional Africa

Muslim Idenity and Social Changes in sub-Saharan Africa. L. Brenner (ed.), 1993. London, C. Hurst & Co. Ltd. 250 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 1–85065–195–7; pb. £10.50, 1–85065–196–5.

Windows on the Sudan: A Story of Pain and Pride. Timothy Biles, 1991. Dorset, Brenda Travers, 2nd edn. 164 pp., pb. £4.99, ISBN 0–9517915–0–8.

Sudan: History, Identity, Ideology. Herve Bleuchot, Christian Delmet and Derek Hopwood (eds), 1991. Reading, Ithaca Press. 298 pp., hb. £25.00, ISBN 0–86372–149–4.

Religion and Power in Morocco. Henry Munson Jr., 1993. New Haven & London, Yale University Press. 232 pp., hb. £19.95, ISBN 0–300–95376–2.

Lé Passe de la Ville de Sale dans tous ses Etats: Histoire, Archéologie, Archives. Joudia Hassar‐Benslimane, 1992. Paris, Editions Maisonneuve et Larose. 291 pp. no price, pb., ISBN 2–7068–1039–4.

Der Heiligenkult in Marokko: Formen und Funktionen der Wallfahrten. Hubert Lang, 1992. Passau, Passavia Universitatsverlag. 235 pp., pb. DM 49.80, ISBN 3–860360–06‐X.

Insoumissions Populaires et Révolution au Burkina Faso. Richard Banégas, 1993. Bordeaux, Centre d'Étude d'Afrique Noire. 148 pp., pb. 110FF, ISBN 2–908065–18–5.

Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu. Michael A. Gomez, 1992. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 252 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–521–41940–9.

Peace is Everything: The World View of Muslims and Traditionalists in the Senegambia. David E. Marantz, 1900. Dallas, TX, International Museum of Cultures. 300 pp., pb. $32.00, ISBN 0–88312–816–0.

Europe

Muslims and Christians in Europe: Breaking New Ground. Essays in Honour of Jan Slomp. Gé Speelman, Jan van Lin and Dick Mulder (eds), 1993. Kampen, Uitgeverij Kok. 211 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 90–242–8064–8.

Religion. Central Office of Information, 1992. London, HMSO. 80 pp., pb. £5.00, ISBN 0–11–701704–3.

The Migration Process: Capital, Gifts and Offerings among British Pakistanis. Pnina Werbner, 1990. Oxford, Berg. 391 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–85496–625–0.

Moscow's Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia. Michael Rywkin, 1990. Revised ed, Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe. 180 pp., hb. $45.00, ISBN 0–87332–613‐X.

State Religion and Society in Central Asia: A Post‐Soviet Critique. Vitaly Naumkin (ed.), 1993. Reading, Ithaca Press. 289 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–86372–162–1.

Russia's Muslim Frontiers: New Directions in Cross‐Cultural Analysis. Dale F. Eickelman (ed.), 1993. Bloomington, Indiana University Press. 206 pp., pb. £11.99, ISBN 0–253–20823–8.

Middle East

Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon: Decline of a State and Rise of a Nation. Theodor Hanf, 1993. London, I. B. Tauris with The Centre for Lebanese Studies. xvii + 712 pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 1–85043–651–7.

Russian Policy in the Middle East: From Messianism to Pragmatism. Alexei Vassilev, 1993. Reading, Ithaca Press. 384 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0–86372–168–0.

Christian‐Muslim Relations

Stepping Stones to a Global Ethic. Marcus Braybrooke, 1992. London, SCM Press. 151 pp., pb. £9.95, ISBN 0–334–01574‐X.

A Greek and Arabic Lexicon, Materials for a Dictionary of the Mediaeval Translations from Greek into Arabic. Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gutas (eds), 1992. Fascicle, 1. Leiden, New York, Köln, E. J. Brill. 96 pp., plus glossary, pb. DFL80.00, $45.75, ISBN 90–04–09494–6.

Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam: Contacts and Conflicts 1596–1950. Karel Steenbrink, Translated by J. Steenbrink and H. Jansen, 1993. Amsterdam‐Atlanta, GA, Rodopi. 170 pp., hb. £18.50, ISBN 90–5183–267–2.

Wandering Like a Madman. Timothy Biles, 1992. Dorset, Beaminster Team Publications. 134 pp., pb. £4.99, ISBN 09517915–1–6.     

The effect of signal probability on the slope of the receiver operating characteristic given by the rating procedure

Signal detection theory (SDT) requires that the slope of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) is independent of the probability of signal and noise. But it has been shown that when the rating procedure is applied to detection, the slope of the receiver operating characteristic may increase as a function of the probability of the signal (Schulman & Greenberg, 1970). This presents a serious problem for signal detection theory. This problem is examined in relation to a recent theory of criterion setting (Treisman & Williams, 1984), and an explanation for the effect of signal probability on ROC slope is derived which is compatible with SDT. Further data on the relation between signal probability and ROC slope are reported.