ERNAN MCMULLIN ON CONTINGENCY,COSMIC PURPOSE,AND THE ATEMPORALITY OF THE CREATOR

This article reviews, and offers supportive reflections on, the main points of Ernan McMullin's provocative 1998 article, “Cosmic Purpose and the Contingency of Human Evolution,’’ reprinted in this issue of Zygon. In it he addresses the important science‐theology issue of how the Creator's purpose and intention to assure the emergence of human beings is consonant with the radical contingency of the evolutionary process. After discussing cosmic and biological evolution and critically summarizing recent solutions to this question by Keith Ward, John Polkinghorne, Arthur Peacocke, Alvin Plantinga, and others, who presuppose in different ways that God is subject to time, McMullin compellingly argues for the traditional position, that God is unconditioned by time, and this enables God to work purposefully through contingency, randomness, and chance just as easily as through law‐like regularity.     

The influence of auditory stimulation on a visual oblique effect

It has previously been reported by Smets that there is an increase in the magnitude of the monocular oblique effect when a 70 dB(A), 1 kHz acoustic stimulus is presented contralaterally, but not ipsilaterally, to the viewing eye. This finding was interpreted as one which provided difficulties both for data-driven models of information processing and for the cortical simple cell explanation of the oblique effect. There are several logical and methodological difficulties in Smets's paper, and in the two experiments reported here the effect found by Smets was not replicated. The failure to observe the effect was robust under conditions that maximised the possibility of neural interaction. It is concluded that acoustic stimulation does not affect the magnitude of the oblique effect.     

THEOLOGY FROM A FRACTURED VISTA: SUSAN NEIMAN'S EVIL IN MODERN THOUGHT

Evil in Modern Thought, Susan Neiman's account of the intellectual trajectory of modernity, employs the trope “homeless” to articulate deep difficulties that affirmations of divine transcendence and of human capacities to acknowledge transcendence face in a contemporary context thoroughly marked by fragmentation, fragility, and contingency. The “hospitality” of the Incarnation, which makes a fractured world a place for divine welcoming of the human in all its contingency and brokenness, is proposed as locus for theological engagement with Neiman's appropriation of a Kantian sense of hope as the readiness to resist evil in a world seemingly bereft of welcome.     

Heightened religiosity and epilepsy: evidence for religious-specific neuropsychological processes

It has been hypothesised that humans may have an innate neurologic tendency towards being religiously oriented, suggesting that we possess religious-specific neuropsychological processes. Persons with epilepsy provide a unique opportunity to study these relationships given the documented hyper-religious experiences observed with epilepsy. The current study evaluated 19 individuals with epilepsy to determine if epilepsy-related religious experiences (as measured by the Bear Fedio Inventory [BFI]) are reflective of a general increase in behaviours observed with epilepsy (e.g., philosophical thoughts, emotionality), or if they are reflective of a religious-specific orientation. Spearman correlations indicated that: (1) BFI religious-orientation scales are significantly related to philosophical concerns (i.e., nature of the universe), but not measures of emotionality and (2) BFI religious-orientation scales, but not philosophical or emotionality scales, are significantly associated with other commonly used measures of spirituality. These findings suggest that individuals may possess neuropsychological processes that are specific to religious orientations.     

The 2014 Agreed Statement on Christology of the Churches of the Anglican Communion and the Oriental Orthodox Churches: a Catholic review

This article discusses the sources of the 2014 Agreed Statement on Christology, which include not only the 433 Formula of Union and the teaching of St Cyril of Alexandria but also some language from the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Second Council of Constantinople (553), and the Third Council of Constantinople (680–681). It also examines the rejection of Eutychianism and Nestorianism, as well as the Anglican Christology represented by Richard Hooker and the firm connection drawn between the hypostatic union and Christ’s work of salvation. The article also presents the text in comparison and contrast with two Christological declarations shared by the Roman Catholic Church and the Coptic Pope Shenouda III (1973) and the Assyrian Church of the East (1994).     

In the Presence of Love: The Pneumatological Realization of the Economy: Yves Congar's Le Mystère du Temple

Abstract:   Yves Congar's The Mystery of the Temple develops many of the themes that will be more fully worked out in his later pneumatology, particularly I Believe in the Holy Spirit . Considered against its context, Congar's pneumatology can be seen to be central to his particular strategy of ressourcement. In particular, Congar deploys pneumatology to preserve the theological connection between Christology and ecclesiology, and so offers a version of 'Spirit Christology' which avoids the pitfalls usually associated with such a position. This use of pneumatology in Congar's vision can be traced back to his account of the particular hypostasis of the Spirit in the immanent Trinity.     

Relationships Among Religiousness,Spirituality, and Health for Individuals with Stroke

The current study evaluated the relationships among spiritual beliefs, religious practices, physical health, and mental health for individuals with stroke. A cross-sectional analysis of 63 individuals evaluated in outpatient settings, including 32 individuals with stroke and 31 healthy controls was conducted through administration of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) and the Medical Outcomes Scale-Short Form 36 (SF-36). For individuals with stroke, the SF-36 General Mental Health scale was significantly correlated with only the BMMRS Religious and Spiritual Coping scale (r = .43; p < .05). No other BMMRS factors were significantly correlated with SF-36 mental or physical health scales. Non-significant trends indicated spiritual factors were primarily related to mental versus physical health. This study suggests spiritual belief that a higher power will assist in coping with illness/disability is associated with better mental health following stroke, but neither religious nor spiritual factors are associated with physical health outcomes. The results are consistent with research that suggests that spiritual beliefs may protect individuals with stroke from experiencing emotional distress.