Dogmatic Statements Research Articles

Probing the Gendered History of Aegean Survey Archaeology

Probing the Gendered History of Aegean Survey Archaeology

Theology of nature: Reflections on the dogmatic doctrine of creation

The doctrine of creation and the knowledge of nature have come into tension in modernity. Against this background, the article discusses the basic problems of a theology of nature starting from a systematic theology of religious communication. Dogmatic statements about the world as God’s creation are not about a description of nature and reality but about a reflexive account of Christian–religious communication. The object of the doctrine of creation is thus the world-related contents of the Christian religion as well as the function these have in it. Thus, both the critique of the representational version of the doctrinal tradition’s conception of creation and its reflexive turn in 20th-century Protestant theology are taken up and carried forward in such a way that the belief in creation is not understood as a general qualification of the world but is related to the concrete contents of religious communication.Contribution: The article proposes a new formulation of the traditional doctrine of creation on the basis of a systematic theology of religious communication. This approach is intended to avoid a coexistence of religious belief in creation and scientific explanation of the world, as well as their being pushed into one another. By transferring the belief in creation to Christian–religious communication, the latter thematises how religious contents are created in the Christian religion.

Glaube: Das Verständnis des Glaubens im frühen Christentum und in seiner jüdischen und hellenistisch-römischen Umwelt

Glaube: Das Verständnis des Glaubens im frühen Christentum und in seiner jüdischen und hellenistisch-römischen Umwelt

Anaerobic Bacterial Response to Nitrosative Stress.

This chapter provides an overview of current knowledge of how anaerobic bacteria protect themselves against nitrosative stress. Nitric oxide (NO) is the primary source of this stress. Aerobically its removal is an oxidative process, whereas reduction is required anaerobically. Mechanisms required to protect aerobic and anaerobic bacteria are therefore different. Several themes recur in the review. First, how gene expression is regulated often provides clues to the physiological function of the gene products. Second, the physiological significance of reports based upon experiments under extreme conditions that bacteria do not encounter in their natural environment requires reassessment. Third, responses to the primary source of stress need to be distinguished from secondary consequences of chemical damage due to failure of repair mechanisms to cope with extreme conditions. NO is generated by many mechanisms, some of which remain undefined. An example is the recent demonstration that the hybrid cluster protein combines with YtfE (or RIC protein, for repair of iron centres damaged by nitrosative stress) in a new pathway to repair key iron-sulphur proteins damaged by nitrosative stress. The functions of many genes expressed in response to nitrosative stress remain either controversial or are completely unknown. The concentration of NO that accumulates in the bacterial cytoplasm is essentially unknown, so dogmatic statements cannot be made that damage to transcription factors (Fur, FNR, SoxRS, MelR, OxyR) occurs naturally as part of a physiologically relevant signalling mechanism. Such doubts can be resolved by simple experiments to meet six proposed criteria.

La presunciòn de legitimidad del acto administrativo: un mito innecesario y pernicioso

Abstract. Extensive case law from the Administrative Contentious Court affirms the legitimacy presumption of administrative acts. In the absence of statutory law drawn up in said respect, the Court bases its rulings on the opinion of MARIENHOFF. MARIENHOFF’s opinion on the subject matter is not at all isolated; many an author support the legitimacy presumption. However, they do so by means of dogmatic statements, lacking any deep delving in the matter, and many times – as it happens in Argentina and Spain – within a statutory framework which imposes the legitimacy presumption. A profound analysis revealsthat the legitimacy presumption is bereft of legal grounds, violates clear general principles of our law, is innecessary for the purposes of drawing the consequences intended and it is harmful, since it favors administrative arbitrations to the detriment of human rights. In sum, the legality presumption is an unnecessary and pernicious myth.

“Can It Be that a Sole Authority Remains?” Epistemological Conundrums in Post-Reformation Polemic

The texts of the ancient skeptics resurfaced in the sixteenth century. How the Reformation and the subsequent confessionalization process interacted with the revival of skepticism remains disputed. Some historians contend that skeptical methods, especially those of Sextus Empiricus, were co-opted by French Catholic polemicists in the service of “counter-reformation”; others suggest that they were suppressed on both sides of the confessional divide by the new church-state establishments that were anxious to protect certainty and impose unity. Where these scholars agree, however, is on the historical trajectory of skeptical techniques: the loss of certainty in theology and the emergence of tolerance. The disputations on sacred scripture of Roberto Bellarmino and William Whitaker, the pre-eminent controversialists of late-sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism and English Calvinism, respectively, reveal the perdurance of skeptical techniques through the Reformation. They also reveal their unstable functionality. Bellarmino proposed papal supremacy as a solution to the insufficiency of reason. Whitaker then challenged the traditional foundations of ecclesiastical authority while simultaneously advancing a principle of scriptural hermeneutics that depended upon institutionally-codified dogmatic statements. Both polemicists engaged in epistemological warfare without surrendering their own claims to certainty; both established stricter ways for their churches to achieve that certainty; neither sought to promote tolerance.

Early Controversies over Athetosis: I. Clinical Features, Differentiation from other Movement Disorders, Associated Conditions, and Pathology.

Since the description of athetosis in 1871 by American neurologist William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900) the disorder has been a source of controversy, as were many aspects of Hammond's career. Primary sources have been used to review controversies in the 50-year period since the initial description of athetosis, in particular those concerning clinical features, differentiation from other movement disorders, associated conditions, and pathology. Controversies concerning treatment will be addressed in a subsequent article. Hammond struggled to establish athetosis as a distinct clinical-pathological entity, and had successfully predicted the striatal pathology in his initial case (albeit somewhat serendipitously). Athetosis was, nevertheless, considered by many neurologists to be a form of post-hemiplegic chorea or part of a continuum between chorea and dystonia. European neurologists, and particularly the French, initially ignored or discounted the concept. Additional controversies arose over whether the movements persisted during sleep, whether athetosis was, or could be, associated with imbecility or insanity, and how it should be treated. Some controversies concerning athetosis served to identify areas where knowledge was insufficient to make accurate statements, despite prior self-assured or even dogmatic statements to the contrary. Other controversies illustrated established prejudices, even if these biases were often only apparent with the greater detachment of hindsight.

Early Controversies over Athetosis: I. Clinical Features, Differentiation from other Movement Disorders, Associated Conditions, and Pathology

<strong>Background:</strong> Since the description of athetosis in 1871 by American neurologist William Alexander Hammond (1828–1900) the disorder has been a source of controversy, as were many aspects of Hammond’s career. <strong>Methods:</strong> Primary sources have been used to review controversies in the 50-year period since the initial description of athetosis, in particular those concerning clinical features, differentiation from other movement disorders, associated conditions, and pathology. Controversies concerning treatment will be addressed in a subsequent article. <strong>Results:</strong> Hammond struggled to establish athetosis as a distinct clinical–pathological entity, and had successfully predicted the striatal pathology in his initial case (albeit somewhat serendipitously). Athetosis was, nevertheless, considered by many neurologists to be a form of post-hemiplegic chorea or part of a continuum between chorea and dystonia. European neurologists, and particularly the French, initially ignored or discounted the concept. Additional controversies arose over whether the movements persisted during sleep, whether athetosis was, or could be, associated with imbecility or insanity, and how it should be treated. <strong>Discussion:</strong> Some controversies concerning athetosis served to identify areas where knowledge was insufficient to make accurate statements, despite prior selfassured or even dogmatic statements to the contrary. Other controversies illustrated established prejudices, even if these biases were often only apparent with the greater detachment of hindsight.

A Companion for Newman Studies

85 REVIEW ESSAY: A COMPANION FOR NEWMAN STUDIES rEviEw ESSay: a COmpaNiON fOr NEwmaN STudiES The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman. Edited by Ian Ker and Terrence Merrigan. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pages: xvii + 280. Paper: ISBN 978–0–521–69272–4. $30.99/£17.99. Hardback: ISBN 978–0–521–87186–0. $90.00/£45.00. This collection of thirteen essays opens with Sheridan Gilley’s overview of Newman’s “life and writings,” which provides an historical backdrop to the more detailed discussion of the theological themes treated in the subsequent chapters. A few of Gilley’s interpretations, however, are questionable: first, in regard to ecumenism, although Newman may not have been “the supreme reconciler” (13), he did show himself willing to enter into ecumenical dialogue in an era when partisanship and polemics were much more common than ecumenical friendships— such as those that Newman as Roman Catholic maintained with a number of his Anglican colleagues;unfortunately,while ecumenism is mentioned in passing,it is not among the major topics of this volume. Second, it seems overly generous to Cardinal Manning to state that he supported the efforts of the Duke of Norfolk to obtain the cardinalate for Newman (23); Manning’s support seems to have come only after he realized that Newman’s appointment was inevitable. Third, describing Newman’s Grammar of Assent (1870) as his“last major independent work”(26) seems to ignore the ecclesiological significance of his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (1875).1 The first thematic essay, written by Brian Daley, points out that Newman’s study of “The Church Fathers” was motivated by his desire to present “a fresh and lively picture of early Christianity, one that would totally engage both the heart and the mind of sympathetic readers” (34); however, Newman’s patristic studies presented him with a problem:“How can one see in the early Church a model for contemporary Christianity,if the classical dogmas acknowledged by modern Christians are often still obscure or even missing in the more ‘primitive’ Patristic works of the second and third centuries?” (34–35); ironically, “other doctrines which Anglicans and other Reformation Churches rejected, as not forming part of the Apostolic teaching. . . are. . . commonly affirmed by the Church of the first four centuries in both East and West” (37). Not only did Newman discover “the reality of historical development in the Church by reading the Fathers” (38), reading the Fathers eventually led him into the Roman Catholic Church. The first theological theme treated in this collection is appropriately “revelation”—the heart of every theology. Terrence Merrigan’s insightful essay begins by treating the relationship between revelation and“natural religion.” Playing off the 1 A couple of minor mistakes need correction: Charles Kingsley’s infamous slur appeared in the January 1864 (not the December 1863) issue of Macmillan’s Magazine—which Newman received at the end of December 1863 (21); in addition to the “thirty-one volumes” of Newman’s Letters and Diaries (26), a supplementary thirty-second volume has been published. Cartesian adage—cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”)—Merrigan depicts Newman as arguing—conscientiam habeo, ergo sum (“I have a conscience, therefore I am”)—a position that eventually led Newman to argue in his Grammar of Assent (Chapter 5, § 1) that “in the experience of conscience the subject apprehends not only itself, but itself as subject in relation to God” (49)—thus: conscientiam habeo, ergo Deus est (“I have a conscience, therefore God exists”). This link between conscience and God effectively “explains Newman’s oft-cited remark that, for him, there were ‘two and two only absolute and luminously selfevident beings, myself and my Creator’” (50). Accordingly, the “naturally religious person is,as it were,‘on the lookout for God’”(55). For Newman of course,the locus of revelation is Christianity, which provides “a definite message from God” (56) that is “communicated through human signs, words, and events” (57). On the one hand, this message needs to be codified in dogmatic statements;on the other hand,in order to preserve the integrity of the message, an official codifier—“a supreme authority ruling and reconciling individual judgments by...

Trajectories in the Development of Islamic Theological Thought: the Synthesis ofKalām

AbstractThe field of Islamic theology (kalām) is not merely a receptacle for the presentation of the creedal statements and doctrinal catechisms of Islam; it derives itsraison d’êtrenot only from the articulation and elucidation of the doctrines of faith, but also by means of its rational and painstaking explication of dogma. While many of the dogmatic statements expressed in Islamic theology naturally emanate from a traditional substratum, countless more are the result of dialectical discussions as theologians expounded upon abstract constructs of religious dogma. Recent academic research is exploring the history, trends and conceptual achievements behind the Islamic experiment with theology, providing insights into the tradition's ability to integrate, refine and expand theological constructs. Scholars are also concerned with issues such as origins, authenticity and ascription, although such matters are not deflecting attention from the rich stock of resources and materialskalāmhas to offer.

Grégoire l’Innovateur ? Tradition et innovation théologiques chez Grégoire de Nazianze

Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390) seeked the profession of the Holy Spirit’s divinity to be explicitly inscribed in the official creed. But being non scriptural, this were blamed as an « innovation », a concept whose heavy heresiological meaning hindered the resolution of the pending theological questions splitting the Christians. This paper scrutinizes Gregory’s use of the notion and shows how, carrying on the spirit of Nicea, whose « consubstantial » inaugurated a dogmatic liberated from the bounds of the Letter, he on the contrary justifies dogmatic innovation. He understands the tradition of the baptism instituted by Christ as an implicit trinitarian theology which the Church must protect by making it explicit and proclaiming it through clear dogmatic statements. He furthermore legitimate this dogmatic innovations by regarding them as part of the divine process of the Revelation, or more precisely, as his third historial time, the Spirit’s one. The latter inspires spiritual exegesis, which fulfills the passing from the Law/Letter to the Spirit/spirit in theological matter, revealing above all his own divinity in this way.

Infection Control Dogma Among Nurses in Iran

Using 33 dogmatic statements about infection control, we assessed the knowledge of infection control nurses at a conference in Iran and compared their responses with those of infection control nurses at a conference in the United States. A majority of those at the Iran conference responded correctly to 11 (33%) of 33 statements, whereas a majority at the US conference responded correctly to 20 (61%) of the statements. The differences in responses were significant (P<.001). Nurses at the Iran conference were more likely to agree with dogma not supported by the literature and to put more faith in general cleanliness to prevent infection than is supported by the literature. A similar questionnaire survey might be useful in countries like Iran that are developing their infection control personnel and infrastructure.

La Royal Academy of Arts au XVIIIe siècle, une académie royale ?

"The Royal Academy of arts in 18th century, a royal academy ?", by Basile Baudez. The Royal Academy of arts, established in 1768, could have been just one of many art societies created in Eighteenth-Century London. But the closeness of one of the founder, the architect William Chambers, with king George III and the latter's known fondness for arts in general and specially architecture drove the artists to place themselves under the royal patronage and protection. This story has much to do with the beginnings of the Paris Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. However, unlike the other continental academies, the London Royal Academy kept its autonomy and its private status. The English political regime, the king's personal weakening in the end of the second part of his reign don't explain all. The fact that the Academy refused to deliver dogmatic statements or to control the arts in the Kingdom allowed the society to benefit from the king's generosity and protection without giving up its independance which was practically unique amongst the great European academies of the Eighteenth-Century.

Newman in France During the Modernist Period: Pierre Batiffol and Marcel Hébert

Although Newman felt that the conferral of the cardinalate lifted the cloud of suspicion forever, soon after his death his reputation came under another cloud: Modernism. This essay shows how Modernist concerns about the philosophical grounding of faith, Biblical interpretation, and the nature of dogmatic statements as presented by Pierre Batiffol and Marcel Hébert counter-pointed Newman’s idea of the development of doctrine.

Athanasius' Initial Defense of the Term homoousios: Rereading the De Decretis

Athanasius begins to defend Nicaea's in the De decretis of ca. 353, pursuing two basic strategies. First, the term is defended as a necessary corollary of Nicaea's controversial phrase, a phrase which appears to be more fundamental to Athanasius. Second, however, he defends both and as necessary in order to preserve the sense of important scriptural terminologies that he takes to emphasize the Son's status as the Father's Wisdom and Word. thus functions as a cipher for phrases that are what Richard Vaggione has termed "basic dogmatic statements." In his account of Nicaea Athanasius also appears to draw on Eusebius of Caesarea's argument in his Epistula ad Caesarienses of 326. The skill with which he adopts and adapts Eusebius' arguments further demonstrates the subtlety with which doctrinal ciphers could be

The Secret of Sinuhe

In a recent article in Bibliotheca Orientalis} I suggested that the Lebensmude, the Dispute of a Man with his Ba, might best be understood as a dramatic monologue intended to be recited or even performed by an individual speaker who would thus give a personal interpretation to a text which, I believe, is basically a portrait of the developing psychological situation of an internal and spiritual struggle. This suggestion contains two significant implications, the first being that the oral and dramatic element was a highly important one in Egyptian literary tradition. This oral/ dramatic aspect provided a means of permitting a wider and more liberal interpretation of any specific text, and the interpretation in turn was to a certain extent dependent upon the dramatic abilities and sensitivity of the performer. A second implication of this suggestion is that Egyptian didactic texts, at least texts which were written with a view to a performance situation, were intended not as dogmatic statements of emphatic and inflexible precepts, but as a catalyst for stimulating an intellectual and/ or emotional reaction on the part of an audience. The readers or hearers who were the objects of a specific text were thus not passive recipients of that text but active participants in an intellectual process of interpretation and creativity. The basis of such a view is the highly reasonable assumption that the Egyptian mentality had progressed to the stage where intellectual discourse was a significant element in the internal life of at least certain

Born Before All Time: The Dispute over Christ’s Origin by Karl-Josef Kuschel

BOOK REVIEWS 699 Born Before All Time: The Dispute over Christ's Origin. By KARL· JosEF KUSCHEL. Translated by John Bowden, with a Foreword by Hans Kiing. New York: Crossroad, 1992. Pp. 664. $50.00 (cloth). The question of the pre-existence of Christ is crucial for Kuschel (Professor of theological aesthetics and ecumenical theology at Tiibingen ) because it reflects the perennial human attempt to ask " about the beginning of all beginnings, about the foundation of all foundations , about the origin of all origins" (22). This substantial and erudite work on the theology of pre-existence is an attempt to " make a critical re-examination of the dogmatic statements of faith in the light of biblical knowledge " (33) by narrating " the history of the rediscovery of the pre-existence of Christ as a ' problem ' which is reflected in the theology of the twentieth century" (31). The narration takes place in three stages. Part I (140 pp.) is concerned with those three thinkers who Kuschel believes set the parameters for the contemporary discussions on pre-existence: Harnack, Barth, and Bultmann. He writes that the gulf between critical biblical exegesis and dogmatics which has plagued post-Enlightenment theology is reflected in the positions of these men: the conflict between them was essentially one between history (Harnack), exegesis (Bultmann), and dogmatics (Barth). As a result of penetrating analyses of their theologies (and of their cultural/political/social contexts), Kuschel concludes by noting (1) what they had in common, (2) how they differed, and (3) their lasting contributions to contemporary theology. It would be well to summarize the first and third, as they are particularly crucial to the argument of the rest of the book. Each of these men shared the common conviction that the early Church (especially Paul and John) had taken over a mythological understanding of pre-existence from a hellenistic-syncretistic religious milieu (Harnack understood this as bad, Bultmann as good, Barth as irrelevant). (Part II of the present work is a careful attempt to demonstrate that this was emphatically not the case, but that the (few) pre-existence statements in the New Testament were in the tradition of Hellenistic Judaism (particularly the Wisdom tradition), that they did not imply a 'high' christology, and that they were essentially eschatological and soteriological in character ) . Concerning their lasting theological contributions, Kuschel thinks that we have learned from Harnack the truth that " the history of the idea of pre-existence [is] its own criticism" and that "the message of Jesus himself and the original proclamation of Jesus as the Christ remain the critical standard for later dogmatic statements " 700 BOOK REVIEWS (487). Barth teaches us that " christology has decisive priority over anthropology " (487), and that time and history themselves must he rethought in Christological terms. Finally, and perhaps most importantly for Kuschel, we learn from Bultmann that " there can be no christology without demythologizing, no talk of the ' eternal Christ ' without seeing through the opportunities and dangers of mythical talk; no christology without existential, soteriological relevance " (488) . Harnack and Bultmann especially will wield decisive influence on Kuschel's own position as he elaborates it in the Epilogue. Part II (220 pp.) begins with a remark of Ernst Fuchs which very much reflects the author's own attitude toward the relationship of exegesis to dogma: "'If there were no biblical text, Barth's outline would be preferable'" (179). Kuschel has several purposes in this section: to demonstrate in detail how wrong Harnack, Barth, and Bultmann were in their understandings of the biblical notion of pre·exist· ence, and to develop a firm and critical exegetical basis for systematic discussions of pre-existence. In fulfilling these aims, he considers all of the relevant Old and New Testament texts in chronological order, and stresses (as he also did in Part I) the "political, psychological and sociological " contexts of the biblical writings (180) . Indeed, one of his major theses is that the genuine pre-existence statements of the New Testament are put forward in response to very particular social, political, and religious crises. They emerge, he feels, only " when human trust in reason, wisdom, and the ordering of the world begins to crumble," and that they are both...

Teaching Church Teaching: Theological and Pedagogical Reflections

AbstractThis article describes a process of research and critical analysis of Catholic church pronouncements which I have used with both undergraduate and graduate students over the past ten years. Students are taught a method of “close reading” of Roman Catholic church pronouncements which involves their analysis of such issues as the statement's canonical significance, authorship, audience, historical context, content, and underlying ecclesiology. Through this method, students acquire a working knowledge of theological research methods and tools and learn how to practice a hermeneutics of suspicion and retrieval. They also learn how to recognize the various models of church which underlie particular formulations, the compromise nature of conciliar statements, and become acquainted with recent discussion concerning “reception” and the “hierarchy of truths.” Student awareness of the historically conditioned nature of dogmatic statements and of the need for reforming the way in which universal church teaching is formulated is also heightened.

Ethics of animal research and application to humans

Animal experimentation has proven to be of invaluable help in the understanding of biological functions, for the advancement of medical research and for the improvement of health conditions of both humans and animals. This phase of scientific progress is far from completed and there are no hints for substitution of all animal experiments by so called alternative methods. Therefore, there is a real need to analyse, without prejudice or undue dogmatic statements, the present situation in order to contribute to a responsible attitude, which should be transparent, understandable for lay people and useful as a background for the passing of adequate legislation. This process of analysis calls for the cooperation of scientists, a class which can neither be ignored nor treated as minor and should be above any suspicion of any part concerned. Finding a reasonable and just solution for the problem under debate can only result from the convergence of utilitarian and responsible ethical viewpoints. From utilitarian reasoning an overwhelming mass of evidence has resulted in favour of animal experimentation: medical progress would be severely maimed by prohibition or severe curtailing of animal experiments and catastrophic consequences would ensue. On the other hand, ethical considerations result in clear condemnation of useless or redundant experiments, of those causing disproportionate pain or suffering or of doubtful scientific standing: and to the recommendation that every effort should be undertaken in order to find and to establish on a sound scientific basis, alternative or complementary methods, i.e. those not involving animals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Atlas of Contemporary Ophthalmic Surgery

Henry M. Clayman notes in his foreword to this 1000-page that the contemporary spurt of progress in ophthalmology has necessitated a new atlas and I have tried to produce a comprehensive work without miring the reader in variations of technique. The Atlas of Contemporary Ophthalmic Surgery is divided into eight sections, including corneal surgery, cataract surgery, glaucoma, strabismus, vitreous, retinal, and ophthalmic plastic and orbital surgery. A good portion of the is devoted to the excellent illustrations by Virginia Hoyt Cantaralla and Monika Bittman, which add a considerable dimension to the itself. This book represents a good addition for the general ophthalmologist.... Because there are relatively few authors involved with the atlas, there is some tendency for the authors' individual biases to show with regard to surgical techniques. An example is Charles' discussion of cryopexy vs retinal diathermy, in which rather dogmatic statements are made favoring diathermy.