An empirical evaluation of a scale to measure occupational aspiration level

Data from 34,118 American high school students are used to evaluate the Occupational Aspiration Scale (OAS). The OAS is successively reevaluated for each of 16 subsamples (cells) generated by cross-classifying respondents by grade in school (9–12), sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). In each cell the OAS is found to be essentially unifactorial, and that factor is identified as level of occupational aspiration (LOA). The reliability of the OAS is slightly lower among females ($\text{r}$_kk = .681) than among males ($\text{r}$_kk = .756); it does not vary appreciably by grade or SES. The mean scores are lower for youth from low SES families than for those from high SES families, in accord with previous research. Mean OAS differences due to sex and grade are small. No important differences by age, sex, or SES are found in the standard deviations of the test scores. This and previously published data from small, local samples indicate that the reliability and validity of the OAS are sufficient for research on high school youth of both sexes and from both higher and lower SES levels.     

Making All Things New

The relationship between the civil rights movement and the World Council of Churches was personified in the links between Martin Luther King Jr and Eugene Carson Blake, both of whom were known for heightening the spirit of prophetic Christianity through their involvements in the ecumenical movement and the mounting struggles against global poverty and the Vietnam War. As 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Uppsala assembly and King's assassination, this article focuses on the contributions of King and Blake to the kind of ecumenical movement that united peoples of faith in cooperative, concrete efforts to eliminate racism, poverty, and war. The central argument is that these joint efforts were still unfolding at the time of King's untimely death.     

Proclaiming the Passion: Popular Drama and the Passion Tradition in Luther's Germany

Abstract

This article examines Martin Luther's opinions on popular drama, in particular his views on Carnival plays, Corpus Christi plays, and Passion-tide performances. A consideration of key works by the Lutheran playwright, Joachim Greff (1510-1552), provides an insight into the development of Lutheran biblical drama from its beginnings. It accordingly challenges the consensus that Luther objected to, and actively prevented, the performances of Protestant dramatizations in Reformation Germany of Christ's Passion and the Resurrection.     

Spirit and truth: Reckoning with the crises of Covid-19 for the Church

The Covid-19 pandemic forces North American churches to reckon with long-standing crises and questions surrounding online community, access to worship, decline in membership, the struggle of small congregations, and the reality of our global communion. This article describes a response grounded in faith defined as confidence in our liberation from pride and despair through Jesus Christ. There is need for clarity of doctrine and spiritual courage to fulfill the church's twofold mission to sustain and grow the body of Christ; both these tasks require courage to approach and speak from the Gospel in ever-new contexts and ages.     

Christ‐Centered Concreteness: The Christian Activism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. were both pastors and theologians who wrestled with the meaning of Christ‐centered faithfulness for their time. They were advocates of social justice and human rights who resisted the temptation towards a secularizing two‐realms split that makes Christianity a private life religion; they defied contemporary laws and cultural norms, and they faced opposition to their work from many of their fellow Christians. We may learn from their prophetic witness for Christian faithfulness in our contexts by paying attention to their respective interpretations of the way of Jesus.     

Beyond Deep Incarnation: Rethinking Christology in Radical Lutheran Terms

This article takes the demise of Christendom and what Diana Butler Bass calls the end of religion as its point of departure for a “radical” rethinking of God in fully kenotic terms. It rejects any vestige of otherworldly transcendence as a temptation to escapism, inviting us instead to seek God's complete presence among us here in the world. Going beyond Niels Gregersen's understanding of the deep incarnation of the Logos and starting instead with a complete commitment to the infra‐Lutheranum, the author presents a radical Lutheran theology that embraces a total kenosis of God whose liberating and life‐giving reappearance we must find implicit among us in unexpected places, not least of which might include the embers of a dying church or the crumbling of our religious institutions.     

Continental cross-currents: the influence of Germany on Scottish theology

An intellectual commerce of theological ideas, thinkers and movements has characterised the relationship between Germany and Scotland since the Middle Ages. These are briefly surveyed – with occasional reference to Europe more widely – from medieval scholasticism through the Reformation and the Enlightenment to the present day. Links with Germany have been fostered not only through literary connections but also through numerous personal and institutional contacts. These resulted in sustained and multifarious influences which situate the theological traditions of Scotland in close proximity to developments in Germany, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

Higher Education in Light of the Cross

What is the summum bonum of a university education? The much lauded “liberal” approach of Aristotle, Newman, and Roche proposes that education is for contemplating the truth—an intrinsic, joyous end in itself. This approach offers the benefits of pursuing truth, virtues, and intellectual habits, but it also carries with it the temptations of idealatry and homo incurvatus in se. Christian universities can reform this approach to education, though, with Luther's theology of the cross, reorienting it through the crucified Christ toward the highest ends of life revealed in God's word: faith in God and love for the neighbor.     

Prayer,Self‐Examination,and Christian Catechesis in Augustine and Luther

Augustine and Luther are well known for their self‐examinations of religious experience, especially its trials and temptations. Their theologies of prayer offer a distinctive window into this self‐examination because they traverse the juncture between doctrine and practice, thereby addressing both the theological and pastoral concerns on sin and grace at the heart of their discussions of religious experience. While emanating from their personal spiritual lives, their theologies of prayer also are firmly rooted within the corporate context of the church and Christian catechesis.     

Luther congress in Wittenberg

The Reformation year 2017 provided an opportunity for numerous congresses and publications. This article reports on the World Congress for Luther Research in Wittenberg. In addition to the main lectures and other significant currents of scholarship, the article also highlights some recent publications and public debates around Martin Luther's person and work.