Evidence of a metacognitive benefit to memory?

Studies of the memory-control framework have contrasted free-report and forced-report recall, with little regard to the order of these two tests. The present experiment sought to demonstrate that test order is crucial, and that this suggests a potential role for metacognitive monitoring on memory retrieval. Participants undertook tests of episodic and semantic memory in both free- and forced-report format, in one of the two potential response orders. This showed that free-report performance was more accurate if conducted prior to forced-report, rather than after it, with no cost to memory quantity. Additionally, there was a trend towards higher forced-report performance if it was preceded by an initial free-report test, a pattern revealed by a meta-analysis to be consistent with previous studies in the literature. These findings suggest a reciprocal relationship between metacognitive monitoring and early retrieval processes in memory that results in higher memory performance when monitoring is encouraged.     

Types of God Representations and Mental Health: A Person-Oriented Approach

As God representations are multi-facetted psychological processes regarding the personal meaning of God/the divine to the individual, this study examines how multiple aspects of God representations are configured within individuals belonging to a sample of psychiatric patients or a non-patient sample, and how these configurations are associated with mental health. By means of cluster analyses, three types of God representations were found: a Positive-Authoritative one, a Passive-Unemotional one, and, only among psychiatric patients, a Negative-Authoritarian one. Types of God representations were significantly related to affective state, as well as religious saliency and religious background. Patients with the negative type of God representation were more distressed and depressed, and Orthodox-Reformed patients reported significantly more negative types of God representations. This study demonstrates the value of a person-oriented approach, by showing that scale scores became especially meaningful in the context of the types, which enables more nuanced distinctions regarding subgroups.     

Growing Together, Growing Apart

Abstract : How does diversity define the limits of the Body of Christ in the context of its fundamental unity? For Lutherans the visible unity of the church is grounded in those signs and constitutive elements which convey salvation. Unified on the basis of a common baptism, a common communion, and a common mission, the church of the gospel must be defined more by being than by doing. The church doing God's redemptive work in creation will always experience tension, but we must be mindful that wholeness is not equivalent to sameness.     

The Unsettled German Discussions of Justification: Abiding Differences and Ecumenical Blessings

Abstract :  This essay provides an analysis of The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification . It argues that the future of ecumenism demands greater attention to doctrinal differences than was evident after 1980 in much of the Roman‐Lutheran dialogue on justification, especially as it unfolded in Germany.     

Ecumenism Today?!

Abstract:  Prompted by the 5^th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification , this article argues that (1) all theology must be ecumenical; (2) marks and strategies of ecumenical theology should include differentiated consensus, ecclesia semper reformanda , merging ecumenical and inter‐religious agendas, and a tria‐logue that incorporates dialogue with science; (3) and an analysis of the challenges of globalization, postmodernism, and the invoking of the Holy Spirit for unity.