Measuring Implicit British Perceptions of German Intentions in 1938–1939

Implicit British perceptions of German leaders during the period September 30, 1938–September 1, 1939 (from the Munich Agreements to the German invasion of Poland) are studied with a "ratio of threat accentuation" measure. This ratio is calculated by comparing the densities of power motive imagery in two kinds of archival material: full texts of major Hitler speeches versus summaries in The Times of London, and British versus German accounts of meetings between British diplomats and major Nazi leaders. In both cases, the British ratio of threat accentuation increases following the unexpected German occupation of Prague and the rest of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939. These changes in implicit perception are congruent with changes in British explicit perceptions and foreign policy after the German action.     

Internalism and Evidence of Reliability

This paper concerns various competing views on the nature of perceptual justification. Various thought experiments that motivate various views are discussed. Once reliabilism is rejected and some form of internalism is instead embraced, the following issue arises: must an internalist nevertheless require that perceptual justification involve the possession of evidence for the reliability of our perceptual processes? Matthias Steup answers in the affirmative, espousing what he calls internalist reliabilism. Some problems are raised for this form of internalism.     

Brexit,Trump, and Christ's Call to Discipleship

In March 2018 the World Council of Churches will convene a Conference on World Mission and Evangelism at Arusha in Tanzania to address the theme “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.” The verbs in the title give an important clue as to its meaning. It suggests an understanding of faith that is dynamic and relevant, provoking challenge and engendering change. This article seeks to sketch salient aspects of the contemporary global context that invite such transformative engagement. We are living through a time of rapid change in the “Overton window” – the acceptable range of beliefs and values in a culture at any particular time. This is illustrated by examining populist politics; fake news, post‐truth and alternative facts; the new age of xenophobia and racism; inequality and justice; and the earth at stake. Behind the forces driving the change in values are powerful vested interests that will not take kindly to being challenged. Discipleship is going to be costly. Deep personal transformation will shape agents of change who bring hope to a deeply troubled world. Disciples are called to carry their cross, yet at the same time, and no less fundamentally, they discover the source of infinite joy.     

Tendentious texts: Holocaust representations and nation-rebuilding in East German,Italian, and West German schoolbooks, 1949–1989*

This article examines how post-fascist perpetrator countries – East Germany, Italy, and West Germany – represented the Second World War and the Holocaust in middle school history textbooks. History textbooks were important actors in the creation of new democratic communities in East Germany, Italy, and West Germany. Through a transnational comparison of one leading textbook published in each country, this paper answers why and how West Germany was eventually more successful than East Germany and Italy in conveying to its youth a more nuanced and self-critical national memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Such knowledge is imperative, not just to understand the past, but also to provide a better grasp of how to democratize youth in the future, an important topic, given the spectre of right-wing ethno-nationalism that has seen a revival in recent years.     

Is there a world Lutheranism? Accountability and representation in ecumenical dialogue

The following thoughts were occasioned by my experiences representing the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in a variety of international ecumenical dialogues over the past thirteen years. I reflect on some of the fundamental challenges faced by many Lutherans as we seek to represent, as conscientiously as possible, the global communion of which we are members. The question we face is a very simple one: Whom do we represent?