Making Time Protestant in Early-Modern Glasgow

This article, drawn largely from the under-utilized Kirk session records from late-sixteenth-century Glasgow, by way of example, demonstrates how changing dispositions towards time were at the heart of the Reformation change of religion in Scotland. From the expansion of time obligations of Christians, the alteration of holy days, and the re-definition of basic units of time, alternative understandings of time were among the most tangible effects of the establishment of Protestantism in Scotland. In introducing time as a new way to examine the broad influence of the Reformation on the lives of the Scottish people, the article builds on recent research on the European Reformations while also introducing new perspectives on the uniqueness of the Scottish case.     

Am I ‘Chinese’ or ‘Scottish’? children’s perceptions of the adaptive nature of Chinese Scottish children’s dual identities

Chinese Scottish children (children who are born and live in Scotland with Chinese parents) face challenges in establishing their identity. However, there is lack of research that investigates ethnic minority Chinese children’s identity and associated feelings about the dual social context in which they live. The study introduced a social identity vignettes task to examine Chinese Scottish and White Scottish children’s perceptions of Chinese ethnic identity and Scottish national identity of a Scottish born Chinese character within two contrasting socio-cultural contexts (Scottish vs. Chinese). This study examines whether children’s ethnic and national identity and feelings of positivity are adaptive and sensitive to social context. In addition it explored age-related changes in perceptions of ethnic and national identification in the vignettes. The sample comprised of 161 children (8, 11, and 14 years). The results found Chinese Scottish children and White Scottish children’s judgments of the characters’ ethnic identity changed with the cultural context. Both groups of children had a similar perception of vignette characters’ feeling of positivity. Both Chinese and White Scottish children judged that the character would feel more positive about him/herself in the Chinese context. There was no main effect of age.     

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.     

Two kings and two kingdoms: the Church of Scotland,the monarchy,national identity and establishment

The debate about Scottish independence raises questions about church–state relations and religious establishment in Scotland as well as about national identity. This article surveys and summarises attitudes in the Church of Scotland on these subjects over the 450 years since the Scottish Reformation. It identifies and explores several key themes, notably the spiritual independence of the church and national recognition of religion. They were hotly debated topics during the reign of King James VI, enshrined in law in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution and prompted the use of the royal veto by Queen Victoria. The Articles Declaratory of the Church of Scotland, embodied in the Church of Scotland Act of 1921, which provide a unique definition of church establishment, will have to be renegotiated in the event of Scottish independence. There are competing views within the Kirk about the constitutional position of Christianity and more specifically of the Church of Scotland in an independent Scotland.     

Population sex differences in IQ at age 11: the Scottish mental survey 1932

There is uncertainty whether the sexes differ with respect to their mean levels and variabilities in mental ability test scores. Here we describe the cognitive ability distribution in 80,000+ children—almost everyone born in Scotland in 1921—tested at age 11 in 1932. There were no significant mean differences in cognitive test scores between boys and girls, but there was a highly significant difference in their standard deviations (P<.001). Boys were over-represented at the low and high extremes of cognitive ability. These findings, the first to be presented from a whole population, might in part explain such cognitive outcomes as the slight excess of men achieving first class university degrees, and the excess of males with learning difficulties.     

"We are an island": Geographical Imagery in Accounts of Citizenship, Civil Society, and National Identity in Scotland and in England

In this article we question recent psychological approaches that equate the constructs of citizenship and social identity and which overlook the capacity for units of governance to be represented in terms of place rather than in terms of people. Analysis of interviews conducted in England and Scotland explores how respondents invoked images of Britain as "an island" to avoid social identity constructions of nationality, citizenship, or civil society. Respondents in Scotland used island imagery to distinguish their political commitment to British citizenship from questions relating to their subjective identity. Respondents in England used island imagery to distinguish the United Kingdom as a distinctive political entity whilst avoiding allusions to a common or distinctive identity or character on the part of the citizenry. People who had moved from England to Scotland used island imagery to manage the delicate task of negotiating rights to social inclusion in Scottish civil society whilst displaying recognition of the indigenous population's claims to distinctive national culture and identity.     

Ecumenism in Scotland

This article examines the history of Scottish ecumenism through the institutional ecumenism of the Scottish Churches Council, the Scottish Ecumenical Committee, the second Scottish Churches Council and Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS), looking at the significant contribution of Scottish Churches House and the ‘Tell Scotland’ Movement. It also looks at the history of ‘participative ecumenism’ and how it has related to ‘representative ecumenism’. It gives a brief reflection on local ecumenism and notes the history of discussion for organic union.     

Curriculum, Critical Common-Sensism, Scholasticism, and the Growth of Democratic Character

My paper concentrates on Peirce’s late essay, “Issues of Pragmaticism,” which identifies “critical common-sensism” and Scotistic realism as the two primary products of pragmaticism. I argue that the doctrines of Peirce’s critical common-sensism provide a host of commendable curricular objectives for democratic Bildung. The second half of my paper explores Peirce’s Scotistic realism. I argue that Peirce eventually returned to Aristotelian intuitions that led him to a more robust realism. I focus on the development of signs from the vague and indeterminate to the determinate and universal. The primary example will be the evolution of the very idea of number. I believe we will never arrive at the end of number history because we can never fully contain creativity. I draw similar conclusions for the idea of curriculum. Whether or not there is an end to the evolution of signs in Peirce is a matter of debate. I incline toward the opinion there is not, though I am unsure. I conclude by arguing that rationality itself is but the form and structure of poetic creation and that we should embrace paradox and even contradiction rather that become caught in totalizing and totalitarian end of history stories.