On the use of the symmetrical square root in G analysis

Abstract.— Describes a method for computing the symmetrical square root (SSR) for two-dimensional models in G analysis_: Demonstrates the application of the SSR in the rotation of factors, using delegate scores as marker variables. Provides illustrative examples, using hypothetical data.     

Participation in God and the Nature of Christian Community: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel

This article explores the theme of the church's participation in God by way of two contemporary theologians' accounts of the matter: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel. Specifically, the question of how Jenson's and Jüngel's respective accounts of the church's participation in God determine their accounts of the church's presence in and to the world is explored. The theme of ‘mission’ is taken up along the way, and it is suggested that Jenson's construal of the church's place in God prevents a sustained account of the church's sending into the world. Jüngel's construal of the church's participation in God, it is argued, allows for an alternative depiction of the church's presence in and to the world that accounts for the fundamentally missionary nature of the Christian community.     

Experimental Evidence that Theistic-Religious Body Affirmations Improve Women's Body Image

We examined in a random-assignment, pretest-posttest design whether college women's body image would improve after reading religious and spiritual affirmations about their bodies. The sample was predominantly white and Christian. In a pretest, women completed measures of religiosity and body esteem (how they felt about their weight and appearance) and were then assigned via matched random assignment to three different groups for a treatment and posttest one week later. In the Religious group, women read affirmations with a theistic and Christian-based tone that emphasized God's love and acceptance of their bodies; in the Spiritual group, women read body affirmations with a more positive secular tone and no mention of God; Control group women read random statements about campus issues. After reading the affirmations, women then viewed photos of "thin ideal" fashion models to activate body image concerns. Women next completed the posttest body esteem measures. Women in the Religious group increased significantly compared to Control women (who declined) in how they felt about their appearance and looks. Women in the Spiritual condition improved marginally compared to the Control condition.     

ABSOLUTE ACTION: DIVINE HIDDENNESS IN KIERKEGAARD'S FEAR AND TREMBLING

This article reads Fear and Trembling constructively as a theological work. Abraham's faith is a lived movement irreducible to either ontology or epistemology. Faith is an action that waits upon what it alone could never accomplish. This is absolute action. In Abraham's case, he offers up Isaac to death with the absurd expectancy that Isaac will be returned. This double movement is a doxological abandonment of oneself and one's world to God that waits expectantly to receive them back as gifts. It is these dynamics of faith that show God to be hidden, precisely within the intimate drawing near of God. The article concludes with a constructive gesture toward an “apophaticism of action.”