Sola Scriptura—A Hermeneutical Impossibility and a Doctrinal Necessity: Twenty‐One Theses

The following theses represent an attempt to delineate some of the contemporary basic conditions for maintaining the use of the sola Scriptura in the Lutheran churches. This must, I argue, be done without using it as a means for ignoring other types of information and experience than that which is contained in the Scriptures. I argue that sola Scriptura formulates what is necessary for salvation, but cannot be used to delineate or present all information that is necessary to live in the contemporary world and interpret all contemporary experience.     

Freedom,Love, and Justice

This article starts from love as being a fundamental value, guiding modes of behaviour that establish a reliable framework and basis for the recognition of the rights and dignity of everyone in the community. The affirmation of justice and freedom based on love leads to corrective and transformative action in cases where life is threatened and rights are being violated. Drawing on the experience and witness of Martin Luther King Jr, the article underlines that love empowers the oppressed to stand up and becomes a moral imperative for change, against the background of the many forces promoting conflict and violence, division, and polarization. The power of love is a message to the world, to the powerful, and to the powerless – to all who long for a different reality from what we see in today’s world. This needs to be expressed in the quest for the unity of the church and the unity of humankind, serving the sustainability and unity of God’s creation.     

Inequality constrained analysis of variance: a Bayesian approach

Researchers often have one or more theories or expectations with respect to the outcome of their empirical research. When researchers talk about the expected relations between variables if a certain theory is correct, their statements are often in terms of one or more parameters expected to be larger or smaller than one or more other parameters. Stated otherwise, their statements are often formulated using inequality constraints. In this article, a Bayesian approach to evaluate analysis of variance or analysis of covariance models with inequality constraints on the (adjusted) means is presented. This evaluation contains two issues: estimation of the parameters given the restrictions using the Gibbs sampler and model selection using Bayes factors in the case of competing theories. The article concludes with two illustrations: a one-way analysis of covariance and an analysis of a three-way table of ordered means.     

The Epidemiology of Homicide followed by Suicide: A Systematic and Quantitative Review

This systematic review of population based studies of homicide followed by suicide was conducted to examine the associations between rates of homicide‐suicide, rates of other homicides and rates of suicide. The review analysed 64 samples, including the case of an outlier (Greenland) that were reported in 49 studies. There was a significant association between the rates of homicide‐suicide and those of other homicides in studies from the U.S.A. Outside the U.S.A. there was no clear association between homicide‐suicide and other homicide but there was modest but significant association between rates of suicide and homicide‐suicide. Homicide‐suicide appears to be closer in epidemiological terms to homicide than suicide in regions with high rates of homicide and measures to reduce homicide in these regions may also reduce homicide‐suicide.     

Biclustering Models for Two-Mode Ordinal Data

The work in this paper introduces finite mixture models that can be used to simultaneously cluster the rows and columns of two-mode ordinal categorical response data, such as those resulting from Likert scale responses. We use the popular proportional odds parameterisation and propose models which provide insights into major patterns in the data. Model-fitting is performed using the EM algorithm, and a fuzzy allocation of rows and columns to corresponding clusters is obtained. The clustering ability of the models is evaluated in a simulation study and demonstrated using two real data sets.     

Negative affectivity,coping, immune status,and disease progression in hiv iwected individuals

Abstract

The primary goal of the study was to assess the relationship between personality dispositions, coping styles, immune markers, clinical status, and subjective somatic symptoms in a mixed sample of HIV positive individuals. Specifically, the prognostic value of psychological and immunological measures in HIV progression was emphasized. Subjects (n = 104) were recruited from a cohort of 422 HIV positive individuals enrolled in the Oslo HIV Cohort Study. The partkipants were given self-administered questionnaires assessing behavioral, psychological, and psychdal variables. Clinical assessment and immunological tests were performed at regular follow-up visits. Clinical status was assessed according to the Centers for Disurse Control criteria. The immune markers used were CD4 T cell counts, beta2-microglobulin concentration, sewn levels of HIV-1 p24 core protein, and levels of antibodies to core protein. In addition, subjective somatic symptoms were assessed.

The results showed that measure-s of negative affectivity (NA; e.g. anxiety, distress, tension) were consistently related to subjective somatic symptoms and passivedefensive coping style. However, no amistent association between NA measures and immune markers was found. Individuals who developed AIDS in the study period had significantly lower initial CD4 cell counts as well as lower scores on measures of active-pmblem related wping (e.g. Positive reappraisal, Seeking social support) and passivedefensive coping (i.e. Escape-Avoidance, Self-control).

The results suggest (1) that coping styles may merit a specific focus in future research of psychological factors and medical outcomes in HIV infection, and (2) because of associations of NA measures with symptom reports studies of the relationship between e.g. stress, depression and HIV outcome should consider these variables as confounders.