Abraham as an iconoclast: Understanding the destruction of ‘images’ through Qur'anic exegesis

The question of Islam and its aversion to images has caused modern scholars to search for a theological basis in Islam's traditional sources. Much work has been done on the various hadiths that indicate that graven images are forbidden and particular verses in the Qur'an that allude to an aversion to them. However, little work has been done to understand this issue through the qur'anic parables and exegesis. This paper explores the issue of Islam and image through qur'anic exegesis, in particular, the story of Abraham as a youth breaking the idols in his polytheistic town. By tracing the commentary of some of the major exegetes of the Qur'an, such as al-&art6;abarī, al-Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr and Sayyid Qu&art5;b, this article considers how Islam has viewed images and how that view has either fluctuated or remained constant over time.     

Correlates of self-worth and body size dissatisfaction among obese Latino youth

The current study examined self-worth and body size dissatisfaction, and their association with maternal acculturation among obese Latino youth enrolled in a community-based obesity intervention program. Upon entry to the program, a sample of 113 participants reported global self-worth comparable to general population norms, but lower athletic competence and perception of physical appearance. Interestingly, body size dissatisfaction was more prevalent among younger respondents. Youth body size dissatisfaction was associated with less acculturated mothers and higher maternal dissatisfaction with their child's body size. By contrast, although global self-worth was significantly related to body dissatisfaction, it was not influenced by mothers' acculturation or dissatisfaction with their own or their child's body size. Obesity intervention programs targeted to Latino youth need to address self-worth concerns among the youth as well as addressing maternal dissatisfaction with their children's body size.     

Ishmael as Abraham's Sacrifice: Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathīr on the Intended Victim

This article examines how Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathīr shift the Islamic exegetical tradition towards accepting Ishmael as Abraham's intended sacrifice. Earlier exegetes, such as al-?abarī, maintained that Isaac was the intended sacrifice through a philological analysis of the qur'anic text. Contrary to expectations, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathīr do not only use Prophetic reports (Hadith) to make their case but also employ biblical and philological arguments. The modern dominance of Ibn Taymiyya's qur'anic hermeneutic and the popularity of Ibn Kathīr's qur'anic exegesis have influenced Islamic orthodoxy to hold that Ishmael was the sacrificial son and to be more skeptical of biblical sources.     

The Rumsfeld effect: the unknown unknown

A set of studies tested whether people can use awareness of ignorance to provide enhanced test consistency over time if they are allowed to place uncertain items into a "don't know" category. For factual knowledge this did occur, but for a range of other forms of knowledge relating to conceptual knowledge and personal identity, no such effect was seen. Known unknowns would appear to be largely restricted to factual kinds of knowledge.     

Drugs, hopes and dreams: appreciative inquiry with marginalized young people using drugs and alcohol

Drugs and alcohol misuse in young people is a major public health problem with substantial levels of morbidity and mortality. Social, economic and cultural factors play a major part in the initiation and maintenance of substance misuse in young people. Many young people who misuse drugs have multiple antecedent and co-occurring mental health problems, unrecognized learning difficulties, family difficulties and deeply entrenched social problems. Given the heterogeneity of the patterns of substance misuse in these young people, and the potential for persistence of serious problems into their adult lives, a range of interventions should be developed to address the risk factors across biological, psychological and social domains. Family/systemic interventions provide the best outcomes for young people with substance misuse, though even the most intensive forms of systemic therapies may fall short of producing enduring changes, especially for marginalized young people and communities. Appreciative inquiry (AI) is one of the most significant innovations in action research in the past decade and a method of producing long-lasting changes to the larger social system. AI is an attempt to generate a collective image of a new and better future by exploring the best of what is and has been. We describe an anecdotal experience of using AI in producing long-lasting changes in a group of marginalized young people in South Africa, who were engaged in drug and alcohol misuse and antisocial behaviour. The principles and practice of AI are described in detail, followed by a discussion of the implications of these findings for a UK population.     

A user’s guide to the evolutionary argument against naturalism

Alvin Plantinga has famously argued that metaphysical naturalism is self-defeating, and cannot be rationally accepted. I distinguish between two different ways of understanding this argument, which I call the "probabilistic inference conception", and the "process characteristic conception". I argue that the former is what critics of the argument usually presuppose, whereas most critical responses fail when one assumes the latter conception. To illustrate this, I examine three standard objections to Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism: the Perspiration Objection, the Tu Quoque Objection, and the "Why Can't the Naturalist Just Add a Little Something?" Objection. I show that Plantinga's own responses to these objections fail, and propose counterexamples to his first two principles of defeat. I then go on to construct more adequate responses to these objections, using the distinctions I develop in the first part of the paper.