The Motherhood of the Church in Henri de Lubac and John Calvin

Both Henri de Lubac and John Calvin described the Church as ‘mother’. From the patristic tradition, the motherhood of the Church had two dimensions: (i) the Mother Church as an institution delimited by the episcopacy of which inclusion was a necessity for salvation; and (ii) the Church as the mother of believers through whose ‘motherly’ care of bringing to life, nourishing and teaching through the sacraments God makes provision for his children. Both de Lubac and Calvin stress the maternal functions of the Church, but differ over how the Church’s motherhood relates to its visible identity and why inclusion in the Church is necessary for salvation. This article argues that this connection represents a rich theme for ecumenical ecclesiology. Despite divergent ecclesiological grammars and themes, Catholic and Reformed traditions are drawing from a shared patristic inheritance which gives good ground for dialogue for respective ecclesial self-understandings.     

Why we need cognitive explanations of autism

In the 70 years since autism was described and named there have been huge changes in the conceptualization of this enigmatic condition. This review takes a personal perspective on the history of autism research. The origins of the first cognitive theories of autism, theory of mind and weak central coherence, are discussed and updated to inform future developments. Selected experimental findings are interpreted in the historical context of changes that have been brought about by advances in methodology. A three-level framework graphically illustrates a causal chain between brain, mind, and behaviour to facilitate the identification of phenotypes in neurodevelopmental disorders. Cognition is placed at the centre of the diagram to reveal that it can link together brain and behaviour, when there are complex multiple mappings between the different levels.     

Where is the History in Mel Gibson’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Passion of the Christ</Emphasis>?

Mel Gibson’s repeated claim for the accuracy of his powerful and popular film, The Passion of the Christ, inevitably raises the question: Where’s the history here? A close analysis leads to these conclusions: Gibson provides no context for understanding the brutality suffered by Jesus in this film, why anyone hated him or followed him. Gibson relies on medieval speculations and 19th century visions for most of the plot and many of the scenes. He whitewashes the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and presents Pilate’s wife as a crypto-follower of Jesus. He demonizes most of the Jewish leaders, especially the high priest Caiaphas, makes Mary, Jesus’ mother, the unhistorical focus of very many scenes, and ignores the historical Jesus’ critical actions, prophetic social critique, and profound concern for the poor and marginal.     

Western and Russian Traditions of Big History: A Philosophical Insight

Summary  Big History – an integral conception of the past since the Big Bang until today – is a novel subject of cross-disciplinary interest. The concept was construed in the 1980–1990s simultaneously in different countries, after relevant premises had matured in the sciences and humanities.Various versions and traditions of Big History are considered in the article. Particularly, most of the Western authors emphasize the idea of equilibrium, and thus reduce cosmic, biological, and social evolution to the mass-energy processes; the informational parameter involving all mental and spiritual aspects are seen as epiphenomena of material structures” complication that do not play their own role in evolution. In Russian tradition ascending to A. Bogdanov, E. Bauer, I. Prigogine, and E. Jantsch, sustainable non-equilibrium patterns are used. This implies attention to the pan-material sources and evolution of mental capacities and spiritual culture (as basic anti-entropy instruments) and humans” growing intervention in the material processes on Earth and outside it.The non-equilibrium approach in the context of modern control and self-organization theories, alters the portrayal of the past, and still more dramatically, estimation of the civilization’s potential perspectives.     

Functions of the Black Church in a Global Society: A Du Boisian Approach

Globalization's impact on local communities is a topic that religious congregations should address as a means of moral and socioeconomic well-being. This is especially important for the Black Church if it hopes to continue supporting the socioeconomic outcomes of its congregants and community members, as it has in the past. Using Du Boisian assessments of the functions of the Black Church, this study assessed how today's congregations can serve similar functions as the congregations that Du Bois studied, while exploring contemporary concerns. With an explanatory sequential research design, this study surveyed Philadelphia-based congregations (N = 108) to assess their understanding of and engagement with the impact of globalization on future generations, paired with subsequent interviews (N = 15) for deeper analysis. The survey included clergy members and youth leaders of various races and religious traditions. With an eye toward equity and considering Philadelphia's diverse demographics, the in-depth semistructured interviews centered on Black churches in Philadelphia. The core findings highlight that clergy members in Philadelphia recognize the importance of prioritizing global issues as a means of social betterment and that a special lens toward race should be considered when looking to solve socioeconomic global issues.     

Orthodoxy in Unity and in Conciliarity

This article considers how the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church faced challenges such as how the gospel relates to a pluralistic society; the Christian message in a society marked by religious pluralism, ethnic diversity, and cultural relativism; whether Christians encountering today's pluralist society should concentrate on evangelism or on dialogue; and on how conciliarity relates to the unity of the church. The article examines how the council attempted to respond to, or at least reflect on, these challenges in relation to the theological dialogue of the Orthodox Church with the other Christian churches and confessions. The bilateral theological dialogues have also increasingly led to bearing Christian witness, and an atmosphere of mutual appreciation, friendship, and fellowship has already become at least a reality. But has this development also led to a deeper mutual theological understanding? Have the profound differences between the Orthodox churches and the other churches in bilateral dialogues been clarified theologically?     

Hysteresis behaviour of psychobiological variables during exercise

ObjectivesThe rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and the heart rate (HR) have been widely studied and monitored during exercise, but their hysteresis behaviour is still unexplored. Our aim was to study the hysteresis behaviour of RPE and HR in triathletes and non-athletes.DesignCross-sectional study.MethodEighteen triathletes at different competitive levels (elite n = 9, non-elite n = 9) and ten students were tested while cycling and running, using a pyramidal protocol (incremental/decremental workloads). The hysteresis area, considered positive when values of the dependent variables (RPE and HR) at the same workload were higher in the decremental phase than in the incremental phase, and vice versa for the negative areas, was calculated in all tests. The Wilcoxon matched-pairs test and Kruskal Wallis ANOVA were applied to detect intra- and inter-group differences, respectively, of RPE and HR values during the incremental and decremental phases, as well as between cycling and running.ResultsThe following results were observed: a) an incoherent relationship of RPE with HR and workload, b) positive hysteresis areas of RPE and HR in all groups during cycling and running, c) a partial negative hysteresis area of RPE, but not of HR, in the triathlete groups, d) larger hysteresis areas of RPE and HR in students than in triathletes, and e) larger hysteresis areas in cycling than in running.Conclusionsthe study of the hysteresis behaviour of RPE and HR reveals the history dependency of both variables, highlights their incoherent or non-unique relationship during a pyramidal exercise, and questions their widely assumed linear association to workload intensity. The hysteresis area is proposed as a new non-invasive marker of exercise stress and tolerance that should be further investigated.     

Chances and frequencies in probabilistic reasoning: rejoinder to Hoffrage,Gigerenzer, Krauss,and Martignon

Do individuals unfamiliar with probability and statistics need a specific type of data in order to draw correct inferences about uncertain events? Girotto and Gonzalez (Cognition 78 (2001) 247) showed that naive individuals solve frequency as well as probability problems, when they reason extensionally, in particular when probabilities are represented by numbers of chances. Hoffrage, Gigerenzer, Krauss, and Martignon (Cognition 84 (2002) 343) argued that numbers of chances are natural frequencies disguised as probabilities, though lacking the properties of true probabilities. They concluded that we failed to demonstrate that naive individuals can deal with true probabilities as opposed to natural frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate that numbers of chances do represent probabilities, and that naive individuals do not confuse numbers of chances with frequencies. We conclude that there is no evidence for the claim that natural frequencies have a special cognitive status, and the evolutionary argument that the human mind is unable to deal with probabilities.