Is Shepherd's pen mightier than Berkeley's word?

In 1827, Lady Mary Shepherd published Essays on the Perception of an External Universe, which offers both an argument for the existence of a world of external bodies existing outside our minds and a criticism of Berkeley's argument for idealism in A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. In this paper, I evaluate Margaret Atherton's criticisms of Shepherd's case against Berkeley, and provide reasons for thinking that, although Shepherd's particular criticisms of Berkeley do not succeed, she correctly identifies an important problem to which Berkeley's reasoning is subject.     

Ecumenism in the 21st Century

This article explores the challenges facing the ecumenical movement at the beginning of the 21st century: global demographic trends and a shift in the centre of gravity of Christianity toward the global South; the need for ecumenical structures and institutions to change in response to new realities; the need to widen the ecumenical fellowship so that Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and evangelicals who have not played a part in the WCC may participate more fully; the urgency of inter‐religious dialogue; and the need to discover a “spirituality of engagement” in interaction with the world and its people.     

The Quantificational Domain of <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">dou</Emphasis>: An Experimental Study

Which NP does all associate with in e.g. “The pandas, the children all saw”—the pandas, the children, or both? The intuition of adult Mandarin Chinese native speakers regarding the interpretation of the adverbial quantifier dou ‘all’ remains unclear and controversial, and various incommensurate theories of domain selection have been proposed. These studies may have failed to yield clear results because they used testing materials in which the interpretation of dou is confounded with other principles of NP interpretation (e.g. zhexie xiaohai ‘these children’ is truth-functionally synonymous with ‘all these children’). To address these concerns, we present the first set of experimental studies on adult knowledge and use of syntactic constraints on the quantifier domain of dou. The results support the hypothesis that dou can take one and only one c-commanding NP as its domain, but falsify interesting theoretical accounts that assume a strict locality constraint on dou quantification.     

Racial Diversity, Religion, and Morality: Examining the Moral Views of Multiracial Church Attendees

Previous research has identified an important link between participation in a racially diverse faith community and more progressive views on racial, political, and social issues, but researchers have yet to examine whether multiracial church attendees differ from racially-homogeneous church attendees in terms of their moral views. This research note utilizes national data (2005 Baylor Religion Survey) to examine the relationship between involvement in a multiracial congregation and views toward activities that are understood to be morally contentious. I estimate logistic regression models to isolate the relationship between multiracial church attendance and support for nine morally contentious activities related to sexuality, families, substance use, and suicide. Analyses reveal that, net of other factors, persons who attend multiracial congregations are more likely to express support for extramarital sex, premarital cohabitation, planned unwed pregnancy, marijuana use, and euthanasia, compared to persons who attend homogeneous congregations where they are the majority race. Multiracial church attendees thus appear to hold more permissive moral views on certain issues relative to attendees of racially homogeneous congregations. Significant interactions are also found between multiracial church attendance, race, and religious tradition. Alternative explanatory accounts (social contact vs. self-selection) are considered.     

Antecedents and Outcomes of Challenging Job Experiences: A Social Cognitive Perspective

There is debate whether the social objectives met by banding can justify the loss in performance. To rationally assess this trade-off, one must know the magni- tude of performance lost. This article presents a mathematical model that allows computation of (a) the expected difference in performance between the top- ranked and bottom-ranked person in the band, and (b) the likelihood that the top-ranked person will actually outperform the bottom-ranked person, under various common testing situations. The model shows that, in most situations, a small loss in average performance may be expected, and that a person at the top of the band is only slightly more likely to actually outperform a person at the bottom of the band. The results support the use of banding and selection based on secondary criteria and generally show that the social gains of banding may be greater than the economic cost.     

Oppression by Tadeusz Grygier

The treatment of character pathology in group therapy becomes ever more relevant in the current climate of health care delivery with the mounting awareness of the importance of the long-term treatment needed for such problems. This article reviews the psychodynamic meanings of character pathology and addresses the specific ways that psychodynamic group therapy is suited to its treatment. Clinical examples are offered to illustrate how the resolution of character difficulties occurs in group therapy.     

Social Capital,Race, and Personal Fundraising in Evangelical Outreach Ministries

This study examines the relationship between social capital inequality, race, and personal fundraising within evangelical outreach ministries (EOMs). Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data that assess the personal fundraising experiences and outcomes of a large sample of EOM workers (N = 715), I demonstrate that the fundraising challenges and deficits faced by EOM workers are best understood as deficits in the social capital of these individual workers. Multivariate analyses affirm that social capital deficits (that is, having smaller social networks and networks with fewer resources) negatively affect the fundraising experiences and outcomes of EOM workers, especially for racial minorities. Findings also evidence a strong correlation between the paucity of minority EOM workers’ social capital and the extent to which they must seek bridging social capital from white individuals and churches. This study concludes with implications for the financing of American evangelical parachurch organizations, the sustained racial and socioeconomic homogeneity of EOMs, and theories of social capital exchanges within interracial religious organizations.     

Religion and Whites’ Attitudes Toward Interracial Marriage with African Americans,Asians, and Latinos

Religious factors have been shown to influence whites’ attitudes toward interracial marriage, but this relationship has yet to be studied in depth. This study examines how religious affiliation, beliefs, practices, and congregational composition affect whites’ attitudes toward interracial marriage with African Americans, Asians, and Latinos. Employing data from Wave 2 of the Baylor Religion Survey, I estimate ordered logit regression models to examine the influence of religious factors on whites’ attitudes toward racial exogamy, net of sociodemographic controls. Analyses reveal that, relative to evangelicals, religiously unaffiliated whites report greater support of intermarriage with all minority groups. Biblical literalists are less likely to support interracial marriage to Asians and Latinos. However, whites who frequently engage in devotional religious practices are more likely to support interracial marriage with all racial groups, as are whites who attend multiracial congregations. My findings suggest that the relationship between religion and whites’ attitudes toward racial exogamy is more complex than previously thought and that the influence of religious practices and congregational composition should not be overlooked.