Variations in hand position, cerebral lateralization, and reading ability among right-handed children

A group of 121 right-handed children between the ages of 7 and 9 with a range of hand positions between normal and inverted were assessed for verbal and visuospatial lateralization and reading comprehension. Results indicate that (a) children with a normal hand position tended to be more verbally lateralized than children with nonnormal positions, although the effect was not strong or always consistent, (b) the closer the child was to the normal position, the higher the child's reading scores, and (c) poor readers were as lateralized for verbal and visuospatial functions as were good readers. Coupled with the results of previous research, these findings suggest that hand position indexes both maturation and lateralization, and that the relationship between hand position and reading is primarily mediated by the former.     

Introduction

Abstract

The introduction to the special issue situates the five following essays in the context of historical and contemporary theological reflection on maternality. It addresses the fraught connection between sexuality and maternality in the Christian theological imagination and argues that the maternal body has often functioned as a bridge between the opposed arenas of Word and flesh, God and humanity, and eternity and time. The introduction concludes by using the figure of the Virgin Mary as a lens to consider the theological themes of birth, grief, the incarnation, sacrifice, and Eucharist. Mary’s body, site of the incarnation, allows connection, mediation, contiguity, and congress to occur. As such, it also functions as a bridge between theology and sexuality.     

What's in a title? Personality,job aspirations,and the nontraditional woman

The vocational interests and job aspirations of traditional and nontraditional women in a single work environment were examined in a study of 258 paying-and-receiving tellers. Nontraditionality was operationally defined as choosing the honorific “Ms.” when given the opportunity to do so. Even with a variety of demographic characteristics statistically controlled, nontraditional women scored higher than traditional women on Vocational Preference Inventory Investigative and Enterprising scales. Nontraditional women also aspired to occupations employing a greater percentage of men, but no reliable difference in the prestige level of future aspirations was found. Implications for counseling and the study of career development are discussed.     

Mary – ‘Mother of the Church’: challenging conciliar ecclesiology

On 21 November 1964, at the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (LG), was solemnly adopted together with its final chapter on Mary. Simultaneously, Pope Paul VI proclaimed the Marian title Mater Ecclesiae. This article will both review the Council’s debate and identify the specifics of the title Mater Ecclesiae. The Council had rejected the idea of awarding this title to Mary, even though chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium mentions her ‘function as mother’ (LG 60). In proclaiming this title, Paul VI did not follow the Council, which had located Mary within the Church. The question therefore arises as to whether Mary, as the ‘Mother of the Church’, is now placed outside the Church.     

A dialogue between the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia (1979–1980) with its wider Baptist context

In 1979–80 conversations were held between representatives of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia in a situation of oppression by the Communist state. The agreed document that emerged from this dialogue is printed here, and is preceded by an article which expounds it from a Baptist perspective, sets it in the wider context of Baptist theological and ecumenical theology, and relates it to the practices of the present-day Baptist Church of Georgia. The stated purpose of the dialogue was to achieve reconciliation and unity between Orthodox and Baptist Christians in Georgia, first by agreeing substantial matters of doctrine and then by adopting a common liturgy and common sacramental life. Among the range of subjects reviewed, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, nationalism, confession and icons, the discussion on baptism is perhaps the most adventurous, and remains promising though flawed. The document does not represent the views of the present-day Orthodox Church of Georgia, and its contents clearly reflect the political pressures under which it was composed. However, it is of historical interest, and some will see it as a sign of hope for co-operation in the mission of God.