Locke on testimony

ABSTRACT

There is good reason to regard John Locke’s treatment of testimony as perhaps the most important of the early modern period. It is sophisticated, well developed, pioneering, and seems to have given shape to the later debate that would occur between Hume and Reid. I attempt to do three things in this essay. First, I argue that Hume’s landmark treatment of testimony is an appropriation of that developed by Locke. Second, I suggest that understanding Locke’s view of testimony is of critical importance to Locke’s broader epistemology. Finally, I claim that Locke’s reflection on testimony is valuable in its own right in that it is not confined to isolating the conditions under which testimonial beliefs are warranted or justified. Locke’s interest is, rather, in a variety of doxastic states, or degrees of assent, that testimony may serve to ground.     

Keep the Faith,for Christ's Sake!

The central Lutheran doctrine of justification through faith served to critique the theology of the medieval Roman church but remains an important, though underutilized, theological resource today. The Lutheran emphasis on faith as trust in God's promise of mercy for Christ's sake is an important corrective to the contemporary culture of privatized faith, offering both a personal and a corporate relationship with a gracious God.     

Faith Alone: Reflections on an Adverb

In response to critics of his New Testament translation, Luther points out that they simply do not understand the grammar restrictions of language that requires the addition of the word alone in his translation of Paul's letter to the Romans. Luther also points out that they do not understand that alone in this passage is an adverb and not an adjective. This article explores the significance of the word alone (in “faith alone”) when it is considered an adverb as opposed to an adjective. As an adverb, alone resists attempts to manipulate it into a metaphysical principle. Alone as an adverb keeps faith as a living, dynamic relationship that God established and which comes to expression in the celebration of the sacrament.     

Religion,Volunteering, and Educational Setting: The Effect of Youth Schooling Type on Civic Engagement

Research on civic engagement shows that volunteering rates decline as young people move from adolescence into emerging adulthood. Using panel data spanning this period of the life course, we examine the impact of secondary schooling type—public, Catholic, Protestant, private nonreligious, and homeschool—on sustaining volunteering into emerging adulthood. We apply a framework that posits pathways between secondary schooling and sets of opportunities to volunteer embedded in institutions and social networks. We also posit a link between schooling type and durable motivational dispositions to volunteer. Results indicate substantial differences by schooling type, although our measures of opportunity structure and motivation do not adequately account for these differences. Those educated in Protestant secondary schools are considerably more likely than other young people to continue to volunteer, even accounting for potential spurious influences. Those schooled at home or in private nonreligious settings are significantly less likely to continue volunteering. We conclude by discussing two alternative accounts that should be addressed in further research: one focused on the role of habituated social practices and the other focused on differences in organizational efforts to link adolescent volunteering to emerging adult volunteering.     

‘We don't do God’: A critical retrospective of New Labour's approaches to ‘religion or belief’ and ‘faith’

Given that Tony Blair was once infamously told by an aide that in Britain ‘we don't do God’, the New Labour Government that he led was responsible for developing and implementing a series of policies that brought religion firmly into British political spaces. Adopting two policy approaches, these approaches focused on ‘religion or belief’ and ‘faith’. Alongside the incorporation of ‘religion and belief’ into the broadening equalities framework, New Labour encouraged greater engagement with faith communities initially through urban regeneration before implementing a more faith-specific programme, namely the interfaith framework. Drawing on three research projects, this article retrospectively considers the extent to which these approaches were joined up and whether – and indeed how – they contributed to New Labour's overarching measurements of success: creating a more equal society.     

Negotiating religion in everyday life: A critical exploration of the relationship between religion,choices and behaviour

One of the characteristics most often associated with religion is that it is a discrete source of value that shapes people's attitudes and behaviour. In some cases, these values may be negative such as submission or violence; in other cases, religion is seen to promote positive values such as charity and social justice. In recent years, the international development community has reawakened an interest in religion, and has directly embraced the assumption that religion is foundational of people's values, seeking how best to tap into the potential positive values while mitigating against the more negative values. This paper critically explores the assumptions behind this approach. It argues that there is no straightforward relationship between belonging to a religion and the values which inform one's actions and decisions. Drawing on fieldwork research from India, the paper shows that it is impossible to disentangle religion from its interaction with the social, economic and political contexts in which it is lived. The paper concludes by deriving some implications of this for the way the international development community engages with religion.     

Understanding the Ageing Process: A Developmental Perspective of the Psychosocial and Spiritual Dimensions

SUMMARY

This chapter describes a perspective of psychosocial and spiritual development in the later years of life. It outlines a study of nurses conducted in six nursing homes using pre and post workshop tests to identify changes in nurses' assignment of a list of behaviours as psychosocial or spiritual. Use of SPSS found significant changes between the pre and post tests. Pre workshop tests only identified items as spiritual if they included the word God, or Bible. Results from this study highlight the potential role for nurses in aged care to provide spiritual care as part of holistic care. It also highlights the fact that many nurses feel ill prepared for this role.     

Encountering the ‘unexpected’ in phenomenological research. Faith and belief as expressions of spirituality in a qualitative study

A study of 12 secondary schools students in Victoria, Australia explored the spirituality of young people in the context of their everyday lives through a hermeneutic phenomenological investigation. In developing an understanding of what spirituality meant to the participants in this study, it was apparent that spirituality was deeply abiding and embedded within the participants’ religious traditions. This was influenced by the exposure participants had to religious and spiritual teachings. Despite the fact that the participants expressed a range of religious beliefs about God, the afterlife and transcendence towards others as significant ways in which they understood spirituality, the findings were not generalisable across the Australian population. These themes will be explored throughout the paper proving implications for educators working with specific groups of students from faith backgrounds and the possibility of investigating what young people from non-religious backgrounds believe.