Single Denomination Research Articles

Negotiating the Pulpit: African-American Clergywomen’s Acceptance of Guest Speaking Invitations

Using the concept of agency, this article examines the choices Black Clergywomen make when offered guest speaking engagements where they would be prohibited from speaking from the pulpit. In-depth interviews were conducted with eighteen African American clergywomen. Utilizing the concept of agency in gender-conservative religions, findings demonstrate that the women engage in resistance and empowerment through their acceptance or decline of invitations. Theory of agency in gender-conservative religions is advanced by demonstrating that the examination of a wider religious context, as opposed to a single denomination, may be useful in understanding agency.

Fuzzy Power, Converter for Coin Sorting System Based on Weight, Edge

Nowadays, intelligent robot technology is extensively used in every aspect of human existence and production. To achieve automatic sorting, future development must concentrate on employing intelligent robots instead of humans. Coin sorting robots are an important research object in the field of sorting robots. This paper focuses on a machine vision (MV) sorting especially difficult application, in which the `part' is an Indian coin. The lack of distinguishing characteristics between denominations and the variation in features within a single denomination makes the application difficult in part. Even though coin recognition algorithms have been published in the literature, most applications are evaluated offline using the coins' weights. In the end, it was determined that none of these three methods achieved the desired 95% accuracy at 1000 coins per minute.

Da velhice à terceira idade: um estudo exploratório sobre a evolução do conceito e as implicações para as políticas públicas

The present work makes a theoretical survey about the transition from the concept of old age to old age, analyzing the trajectory and the implications for public policies aimed at the elderly in Brazil. This is an exploratory work, since it aims to explain specific theoretical categories. The technique employed was a bibliographical survey based on recent literature available in scientific journals. We know that the challenge is to ensure the insertion of the elderly in society and in the different spacesof the public sphere with guarantees of health, income, security and dignity. However, this work emphasizes that public policies directed towards the elderly should be thought of in the plural, since this category encompasses several age groups within a single denomination. This implies assuming the intrinsic heterogeneity, given the different trajectories immersed in the social and economic life of the country, in the diversity of which the old and new demands for public policies emerge.

The complex karyotype in hematological malignancies: a comprehensive overview by the Francophone Group of Hematological Cytogenetics (GFCH).

Karyotype complexity has major prognostic value in many malignancies. There is no consensus on the definition of a complex karyotype, and the prognostic impact of karyotype complexity differs from one disease to another. Due to the importance of the complex karyotype in the prognosis and treatment of several hematological diseases, the Francophone Group of Hematological Cytogenetics (Groupe Francophone de Cytogénétique Hématologique, GFCH) has developed an up-to-date, practical document for helping cytogeneticists to assess complex karyotypes in these hematological disorders. The evaluation of karyotype complexity is challenging, and it would be useful to have a consensus method for counting the number of chromosomal abnormalities (CAs). Although it is not possible to establish a single prognostic threshold for the number of CAs in all malignancies, a specific consensus prognostic cut-off must be defined for each individual disease. In order to standardize current cytogenetic practices and apply a single denomination, we suggest defining a low complex karyotype as having 3 CAs, an intermediate complex karyotype as having 4 CAs, and a highly complex karyotype as having 5 or more CAs.

TITLES OF LITURGICAL BOOKS AS THE PROBLEM OF CORRESPONDENCE IN RELIGIOUS TRANSLATION

The paper is aimed at presenting convergent and divergent features encoded in the titles of liturgical books of Eastern and Western Christianity. Titles of liturgical books seen as translation objects have revealed extremely vibrant and dynamic essence of some religious terms. All the conditions of the historical development and liturgical praxis put a translator in a very difficult position when a historical context plays a decisive role in interpreting the text and historical truth. The typical translator usually hesitates between choosing the domesticating or foreignising strategy.In the case of liturgical books, their option can cause wrong associations connected with the change of a target denomination. This is why the comparative table of books used during liturgies in the Roman and Byzantine Rites will be helpful for translators to understand the liturgical praxis of another denomination. The table was compiled and checked on the basis of the very liturgical books in original editions and in translations into English, Ukrainian, and Polish as well as on the basis of theological encyclopaedias and instructive sources.This correspondence is relevant not only for intercultural communication where a single denomination dominates over a nation’s whole culture but also for interdenominational interpretation when in the same national community, readership is denominationally diverse and can generate the superficial interpretation of celebrants’ and believers’ liturgical practices.

Some Determinations About Tesheffu’ and Its Banning in the Context of the Transfer Between Sects in the Ottoman Period

Müslüman toplumlarının ihtiyaçları sonucunda ortaya çıkan ve zamanla müesseseleşen fıkıh mezhepleri İslam dünyasında bin asrı aşan bir süredir uygulama sahası bulmuştur. Osmanlı Devleti de aynı geleneği devam ettirmiş ve şer’î hukuk sahasında Hanefî mezhebini esas almıştır. Tek mezhebe dayalı bu hukukun toplumun ihtiyaçlarına ve gelişme çizgisine ne ölçüde cevap verdiği, teori ile hayat arasında uyumu nasıl sağladığı, hukuki hayatta istikrar ve adaletin temininde nasıl bir rol oynadığının anlaşılması hukuk tarihi açısından büyük önem arz etmektedir. Zamanın değişimini ve gelişimini doğru yorumlayabilmek için buna ihtiyaç da vardır. Osmanlı fakihleri Hanefi mezhebinin en sahih görüşlerini uygulamaya çalışmış ancak şartların değişmesi sonucu, ilgili görüşün maslahatı gerçekleştiremediği durumlarda çeşitli arayışlara girmişlerdir. Mezhepteki hükmün yeterli olmadığı veya kamu vicdanını zedelediği bireylerle ilgili bazı meselelerde ise 944/1537 tarihine kadar teşeffu‘yu önermişlerdir. Teşeffu’ hususu, o tarihte yayınlanan bir fermanla uygulama bu yönde devam ederken, Diyâr-ı Rûm’da tamamen yasaklanmıştır. Teşeffu‘ Hanefi mezhebini iltizâm eden bir kimsenin bir meselede Şâfiî kavliyle amel etmesidir. Bu durumda kişi karşılaştığı meselenin çözümü için ya doğrudan Şâfiî hâkime ya da dolaylı olarak Hanefî hâkimin tayin ettiği Şâfiî naibe müracaat edecektir. Bu çalışmada öteden beri uygulama alanı bulmuş olan teşeffu‘ imkânının yasaklanma sebebleri araştırılmaktadır.

Kinetics of White Soft Minerals (WSMs) Decomposition under Conditions of Interest for Astrobiology: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

In this paper, the thermal decomposition kinetics of a class of minerals that we call White Soft Minerals (WSMs) is studied by means of theoretical and experimental methods, in connection to the transport of extraterrestrial organic matter to Earth and the possible use of the decomposition reaction in the characterization of these minerals in space. WSMs include, under a single denomination, carbonates and sulphates of Mg, Fe, and Ca. To improve the present knowledge of the properties of such materials, we use the following techniques: kinetic models for chemical decomposition, atmospheric entry models, spectroscopy, and gravimetric analyses. Model results show that the atmospheric entry of WSM grains is strongly affected by their thermal decomposition. The decomposition reaction, being strongly endothermic, tends to significantly lower the grain temperature during the atmospheric entry, especially at high altitudes and for grazing entries. A previously proposed infrared spectroscopic technique to evaluate the degree of advancement of the reaction is found to be in good agreement with gravimetric measurements for calcium carbonate. The numerical model developed for the atmospheric entry scenarios is used to interpret experimental results. These main findings show that an additional contribution to the reaction enthalpy is needed to reproduce the experimental results, suggesting that the present theoretical model needs improvements such as the account of gas diffusion in the materials.

Learning the Code of Plural

ABSTRACT Jayeel S. Cornelio explores the practices of the religiously plural within a single denomination, as well as the institutional pushes and pulls that result from this plurality, an overlooked space within the study of religious practice. This response, framed within an overarching theme of religious plurality, briefly engages two points that emerge from the text: (1) institutional formations within Catholicism, and (2) the codes of religious affiliation. It describes how Cornelio explores the dividing lines of institutionality and orthodoxy, on the one hand, and creativity and heterodoxy, on the other, and explores how “creative Catholics” engage and constitute new codes of religious plurality in the Philippines.

The emergence and significance of heavy-duty scrapers in ancient stone toolkits

Heavy-duty scrapers are documented as a specific morphotype in ancient African and Eurasian toolkits from the Oldowan into the Acheulian. They are characterized by a flat platform perpendicularly oriented to a carinated edge. The convex surface of that edge displays semi-peripheral, unidirectional removals associated with steep retouch and/or crush marks. This morphotype has been described from numerous sites covering a long temporal scale and are diversely referred to in French as “rostro-carénés” or “nucléus-racloirs” and in English as “massive scrapers”, “core scrapers”, “large scrapers”, or “heavy end-scrapers”. Morpho-technological definitions and interpretations are reviewed to track the origin and evolution of heavy-duty scrapers over time and space. Results show that tools referred to as heavy-duty scrapers were made on thick cobbles during the Oldowan, and later, at the onset of the Acheulian, on Large Flakes, while smaller-sized items in Late Acheulian sites assume end-scraper morphologies. But should all of these tools really be grouped under a single denomination? Experimental work explores whether heavy-duty scrapers are the result of knapping processes, or if their morphology could be derived from other kinds of activities. Chronological continuity of the attributes specific to heavy-duty scrapers points to their role in ancient toolkits, suggesting that these scarce but ubiquitous primitive implements are, on equal footing with chopper-cores, one of the oldest morphotypes in the world.

Patterns of Dissent: The Social and Religious Geography of Nonconformity in Three Counties

ABSTRACTThis study combines personal, community, regional and national perspectives to identify patterns of Dissent and discuss their character and causes in relation to varying local environments. It demonstrates how the approaches of earlier historians may be further developed and debated. The study area- the three counties of Oxford diocese, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire- shows many factors at work using linked evidence, including both overall data and detail from original 1851 religious census returns. Significant determinants of the Dissenting experience and its locations were: response to disruptive change; the strength and continuity of earlier cultures of Dissent; the condition and attitudes of Anglicanism; the impact of the Evangelical Revival; the status, material resources and personalities of chapel activists; the surrounding social and physical environment of landscape, settlement, ownership and social structure; and local cultures of dependency or diversity and independency. Many of these determinants can only to be fully assessed by looking beyond a single chapel or denomination or settlement. Dissenting patterns were commonly organic and locally rooted, examples of an environmental religious fit recoverable through local and regional studies.

What’s in Your Wallet? Psychophysical Biases in the Estimation of Money

AbstractThe denomination effect (Raghubir and Srivastava 2009) suggests that individuals are less likely to spend when money is in the form of a single large denomination (e.g., a $10 bill) relative to many smaller denominations (e.g., ten $1 bills). We explore the idea that consumers are reluctant to break large bills because smaller denominations are less easy to monitor and keep track of relative to larger denominations. This increases the likelihood of spending with smaller denominations. In estimating the contents of one’s wallet, money is more difficult to recall, and recalled less accurately the smaller the denomination, and the more the number of units of any denomination. Study 1 demonstrates the biases in a memory-based task, study 2 adds a stimulus-based task, study 3 explores the effect of accuracy motivation and task difficulty, and study 4 links the biases to actual spending. We develop a descriptive psychophysical model of how individuals estimate contents of their wallet and fit the model ...

In God We Learn? Religions' Universal Messages, Context-Specific Effects, and Minority Status

We study the relationship between major religious denominations and individuals’ levels of education, using the World Values Survey. In a first step, running country-by-country regressions, we report first-time evidence that no single denomination has a universal effect on education. Each denomination has a positive and statistically significant effect in some countries, a negative and statistically significant effect in others, and a statistically insignificant effect elsewhere. In a second step, we relate the sign of the impact of a denomination in a country to whether the denomination is a minority in that country. We find that denominations that are a minority in a country are more likely to be associated with a higher level of education, and less likely to be associated with a lower level of education in that country. In both steps, the findings are independent from the specification of the regressions used in the first stage to determine the sign of the impact of denominations on educational outcomes. The finding of the second step is moreover robust to defining minority denominations using various thresholds. It is robust to controlling for whether the denomination is a state religion, for the country’s level of democracy, per capita GDP, or level of education, to introducing denomination- and country- fixed effects, and to controlling for the identity of the largest other denomination in the country.

Reimagining Judaism

Reimagining Judaism

The Mystical Force of Money

hen Marx broaches the question of money in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 he does not turn to the political economists for an explanation, as one might expect, but rather to the poets and playwrights. In a reading of William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens Marx tells us that “Shakespeare excellently depicts the real nature of money.”1 The play follows the decent of Lord Timon from riches to wretchedness as usurers redeem their debts and exhaust the Lord’s estate. As the play unfurls, Timon undergoes a traumatic transformation from a kind hearted and compassionate aristocrat to seething misanthrope. Timon is exiled from Athens and takes shelter in the forest outside the city. Then, in a twist of fate, he stumbles upon a new found fortune. Lord Timon ironically proclaims “Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, Gods, I am no idle votarist!... Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, wrong, right, base noble, old young, coward valiant...”2 Marx quotes from this scene in the Manuscripts and suggests that money, the real nature of money, appears replete with its many magical powers. Money makes possible a universal exchange of both tangible objects that meet each other in the marketplace as well as the intangible human qualities such as courage, beauty, intelligence, etc. Timon himself displays all these qualities when he is wealthy and their opposites when he is poor. We discover in the money-form King Midas incarnate: it transforms all that it touches so that one who possesses money takes on the qualities of money itself. The universal exchange crushes difference and reduces all to a single denomination. In the Manuscripts Marx’s writes “what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality.”3 The money-form sets the limits and bounds of one’s own horizon. “If I have no money for travel” Marx’s writes, “I have no need for travel...If I have the vocation for study but no money for it, I have no vocation for study.”4 The singularity of money, he argues, becomes the sole delimiting factor for social, cultural and economic relationships.

Sacred plants and visionary consciousness

Botanical preparations used by shamans in rituals for divination, prophecy, and ecstasy contain widely different psychoactive compounds, which are incorrectly classified under a single denomination such as “hallucinogens,” “psychedelics,” or “entheogens.” Based on extensive ethnopharmacological search, I proposed a psychopharmacological classification of magic plants in 1979. This paper re-evaluates this taxonomy in the context of consciousness research. Several groups of psychodysleptic magic plants are proposed: (1) hallucinogens—psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline cacti, dimethyltryptamine snuffs, and the synthetic ergoline lysergic acid diethylamide induce strong perceptual changes, affective intensification, and cognitive enhancement. Their ethnobotanical uses include long lasting divination rituals, prophecy, and sacramental practice. (2) Trance-inducers—ergoline Convolvulaceae and South American Banisteriopsis produce quietness, abstraction, lethargy, mild sensorial and cognitive changes, and salient visual imagery changes used in trance rituals and specific divination practices. (3) Cognodysleptics—marijuana (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other terpene-containing plants induce changes in thought, imagination, and affective functions and are used in short-term divination or oneiromancy. (4) Deliriants—tropane-containing Solanaceae, wild tobacco, and Amanita muscaria (muscimol) induce a delirium characterized by dim and clouded consciousness, stupor, confusion, disorientation, perception distortion, difficulties in recollection, anxiety, irritability, excitation, and behavioral disorganization employed in sorcery, purification, or exorcism rituals. The core mental effects required for a drug to be used in shamanistic rituals include light-headedness, enhanced imagery, and experience intensification. This constellation was the reason why, in his classification of psychoactive compounds, the pioneer German psychopharmacologist Louis Lewin established in 1924 a group of drugs under the appropriate name of Phantastica.

Top Management Team Diversity and Performance of Christian Churches

This study investigates the relationship of top management team (TMT) diversity with performance of Christian churches, a particular type of nonprofit and voluntary organization. Performance measures were based on applying the balanced scorecard to the church setting. Within a sample of 82 churches from a single denomination, the authors found that greater diversity in the spiritual maturity and relationships of TMT members with the senior pastor was positively related with growth in church attendance. TMT diversity in age was positively related with Sunday school attendance. Surprisingly, diversity in TMT attitudes and tenure were positively related with efficiency of internal processes. Greater diversity in tenure in the TMT was negatively related with growth in church revenues. The findings suggest that diversity in the church TMT’s may pay off in organizational growth, increased constituent learning, and better operating efficiency, but it may have negative impacts on growth in revenues. The findings related to efficiency suggest that TMT diversity may have different effects within nonprofit settings than it does within commercial business organizations.

Carrying cost of money and real effects of denomination structure

This paper provides an explanation for the nature of the real effects of denomination structure using parameterized versions of a search-based model. We show that the carrying cost of money incurs the distortionary effect on output and the adverse distributional effect on welfare. With monetary expansion, average propensity to consume increases more rapidly in a single denomination than in multiple denominations due to the distortionary effect, and the welfare gap between them is augmented due to both distortionary and adverse distributional effects. The implication of these effects for modern economies is that a binary-decimal structure adopted by the EU and the US is superior to a decimal-pair structure adopted by Japan and South Korea.

Folklore into Theory: Freud and L�vi-Strauss on Incest and Marriage

This article suggests that two major modern theories on incest and its prohibition, successively proposed by Freud and by Levi-Strauss, are essentially transformations on a folklore leitmotiv tottering with age. The discussion examines Freud's weaving of traditional themes into psychoanalytic theory, and then engages Levi-Strauss' meta-Freudian elaboration. This inquiry leads to asking whether penetration into the products of the mind by the mind necessarily involves reenacting fundamental patterns of thought. This question raises the issue of the status of theorization in academic realms, such as folklore and mythology, where discipline and object fuse into a single denomination.

Kerkverband: ’n Poging tot reformasie in die negentiende eeu

Church-denomination: A nineteenth century attempt to reformationThe view exists that the term denomination is especially evident of the nineteenth century Netherlands at the time when an attempt was made to accomplish change in the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk. The decay in the Church at the time can mainly be ascribed to the influence of the authorities on the church, material welfare, as well as the climate of thought which originated in the Aufklärung. During this period two theologians were prominent, namely P J Hoedemaker and A Kuyper. The latter protested against the synodic structure of the existing Church and proposed an alternative locally free church in its place, consisting of chosen, reborn members of the church who become part of the church by confession. At the time denomination had a prominent function in the integration of all local churches into a single denomination with the confession being the common source of fellowship.

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

This study explores the relationship between characteristics of a church's organizational culture and church effectiveness. Church effectiveness is measured through application of a balanced scorecard approach. Organizational culture is measured by the relative strength of four cultural types -- hierarchy, adhocracy, market, and clan -- as described by the Competing Values Framework. Using a sample of 53 churches from a single denomination, the study developed and evaluated alternative structural models relating types of organization and effectiveness. The best fit model illustrates the influences of the relative strength of each type on seven aspects of church performance.