refWrite...page3

Work Design: Enspiral: Much spin spiralling out of self-control, but some very good points worthy of being reworked

2012-01-27T02:31:00.000-08:00

This Vimeo video shoud be appreciated, analyzed and taken with more than one grain of salt. It doesn't address the needs of, nor the Christian address to, the 99% of the world's poor — who want jobs, are willing to labour, and require organization by companies with capital to hire them and engage them in production of goods and services.

Rather, it's addressed to 1% of the middle-class, to children of that middle-class, who are attracted to work of particular kinds — especially computing and designing (print and digital, especially digital IT programming) who come to the need to earn a living with the baggage of horizons formed by privilege — certainly in the expectation that (some) people will want to work two days a week, "people who want to work for change"

"Democracy, networks, and collaboration" — the soft even tone of voice, borrowed from invidious gurus -- the surest sign of a master manipulator — "autonomy" — "self-control" — "optimizing happiness" -- "we just try to take away the pain of running your own business" Time (cleaving the week into 3 segments): 2 days of "client work," three of "change work," and 2 days of "Reading and Research." What I like least about the presentation, other than the phoney guru tone of voice, is the lack of giving credit where credit is due, as few if any of the ideas bundled and packaged here have no history. The impression is that everything suggested here is brand-new, but even the three segments offered mere distribute Karl Marx's utopian scenario of how "after the Revolution" we will be able to function, not by the segmented week, but by the segmented day. Of course, what Communism produced in the way of work conditions never attained the lustre of the Marxian pipe-dream. But, more largely, I want to emphasize that other people came up with the bookshelf of ideas on display, and in this case a little name dropping of these ideational forebears woud be appreciated. I don't begruge this idealized version of what it coud be like for some people in their multi-dimensionally active lives and income earning. But, neither do I begrudge the Mercedes (or was it Ferraris) to those who have set that kind of ownership as a life-goal or symbollically valuable (for them) of "the good life." I don't evny the rich, but as the Enspiral video suggests there are other ways of disposing of one's time and labours — the Enspiral model is one among many, and it doesn't require the guru vocal piety for its own validation.
—————————————————
Vimeo (January27,2k11)
Thanks and Hat Tip to Steve Bishop The Daily Reformational
— video reposted here by OwlbFollow @Owlb
general editor, refWrite page 3 (Special Features)
------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps a key point I am trying to make here is simply that some other people, lots of them, find the "traditional" type of work under a boss, often with professional managers and often with owners and investors, okay. Many industrial workers in the Western economies actually enjoy their job, and some really appreciate being represented by a labour union that situates union stewards on the shop floor.

The scholarly work I woud juxtapose to the Enspiral guru's voice is a traditional book by Maarten J. Verkerk, Trust and Power on the Shop Floor: An ethnographical, ethical, and philosophical study on responsible behaviour in industrial organizations (2004). It doesn't even concern itself with the issue of labour representation and a plurality of unions chosen by different workers on the same shop floor — which has become a long term philosophical and practical concern of my own. What Verkerk dwells on is the formation of work-community becawz people, even in these workaday milieux, want to do a good job and obtain satisfaction from it. Large industrial organizations (businesses, corporations, both privately owned and stock-sharing with investors ... yes, for a profit) can be operated with wisdom and the benefits of science of groups and organizations that take up a good measure of a labouring person's time, time out of one's life if it is experienced negatively, time for one's life also at work if one experience's one work positively. It's not all as obvious as Enspiral soaps out — with its own business ideology, borrowed but unacknowledged ideas, and lack of industrial experience.

Verkerk traces thru the history of Western business in the industrial mode, picking out the key moments of truth in the ideas of theorists and practitioners actual engaged in or close to the actual work process. He goes as thoroly into the contributions of Big Business practioners who wrote books in the West and Japan, helping managers who want to change the world and their own work close to the shop floor. It's a much better problem than those posed by Enspiral, which too has its moment of truth. The difficulty is to isolate them conceptually, appreciate them for those valuable moments, and critique them as another self-contained ideology that lacks universality, which indeed is a truth to which the envideod Enspiral spokesman seems to turn only his blind eye. We all have blindspots, and some of us actually put on blinders with glee.

— Owlb

Introduction to Enspiral from Enspiral on Vimeo.

A photo from Chile, one of those entombed in a mine not so long ago, one who re-emerged, praising God ....

CLA-USA CLAC CNV

A photo by a Brazilian photo-artisit (sorry, I lost track of his name) featuring a worker with either a packcheque or a lottery-win cheque.

Found it on a site recommended by a digi-friend there (sorry again, I lost track of the documentation).

Thanks! and Hat Tip!

Academics: Philosophy, theology, comparative religions: The life-work of Hendrik Vroom, VU Amsterdam

2012-01-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

-
Verbum et Ecclesia, Vol 32, No 1, 2011 (found January23,2k12)

Hendrik Vroom is a reformational philosopher and theologian, professor at the theological faculty of the Free University in Amsterdam (VU University). His monumental book, Religions and the Truth: Philosophical Reflections and Perspective is part of the "Currents of Encounter" series published jointly by Rodopi in Amsterdam and William B. Eerdman in Grand Rapids (1989). Vroom is a theologian who has considerable ins+t into the philosophical undergirding of every theology that rises above irrationalism, including our Christian Fundamentalism/s. He advocates intra-Christian dialogue, and inter-faith dialogue where the particularities of belief are not surrendered at the outset.

The article below is by Dirk van Keulen and Annewieke L. Vroom, authors of the title of a book also published by Rodopi, Amsterdam, some two decades after the appearance of his Religions and the Truth. The Van Keulen / Vroom book itself is in Dutch and has not yet been translated into English, I guess. Their title is Een waaier van gedachten over geloven: Hoofdlijnen in het theologisch werk van Hendrik M. Vroom. (2010) [A dispersion of thoughts on religion: Main themes in the theological works of Hendrik M. Vroom] Bibliography of Published Works by Hendrik M Vroom compiled by Annewieke L. Vroom.

The reviewer in V& E is Johann-Albrecht Meylahn, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

A rounded guide to the work of
Hendrik M. Vroom

This concise book written by Dirk van Keulen of the Protestantse Theologische Universiteit [a multi-campus institution of the newly-reunited Protestant Church in the Netherlands] gives a good and useful introduction to the range of theological and religious philosophical thinking, and impact of Hendrik M. Vroom of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The book introduces Vroom to the reader by narrating a short reflection of the academic and religious journey that shaped Vroom’s work. This is performed by indicating and describing the context of his student years, the various places of ministry as well as the great mentors that influenced and shaped his thought in the exciting and turbulent times of the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland [Reformed Churches in the Netherlands].

The chapters are divided according to central themes in Vroom’s work, such as faith, Scriptures and hermeneutics, Reformed ecumenism, theology and religions, cultural and political engagement. The author discusses these themes within the context that formed and shaped them. Van Keulen does this by drawing the reader into the world of Europe, the Netherlands and more specifically the world of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands from the early 1960s until well into the first decade of the new millennium. This context, together with the great philosophical and theological minds that shaped and responded to it, is brought into the discussion and it becomes clear how Vroom’s thoughts emerged in this dialogue of texts and contexts. Vroom was a strong believer in the importance of the context and the fusion of horizons through dialogue, something that Van Keulen remains true to.

The themes are discussed by focussing on and shortly describing a particular work, either an article or a book that best captures the specific theme under discussion, but with numerous cross references to other works.

Annewieke Vroom’s compilation of Hendrik Vroom’s published works, Bibliography of Published Works by Hendrik M. Vroom (pp. 99–120), is useful for further in-depth study of the themes and following up on the cross references.

The book is a good introduction to the range of Vroom’s work. As the title indicates, it is not intended to be a comprehensive nor an in-depth study, but a brief introduction to the main lines of thought. The book awakens the reader’s appetite to further explore the thoughts of this Dutch theologian and with the compilation of the published works the book becomes a useful tool for further in-depth study of one of the more recent modern Dutch theologians.

— Re-posted here by OwlbFollow @Owlb

general editor, refWrite Special Features (page 3)

Academics: Historiography USA: Roger Williams under the microscope

2012-01-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Roger Williams:

The Great Separationist

By JOYCE E. CHAPLIN

Published: December 30, 2011

New York Times

Should you find yourself in front of the Rhode Island Statehouse in Providence, look up and east, and tip your hat — real or imagined — to Roger Williams. A 35-foot statue of the Protestant theologian (1603?-1683) stands high in Prospect Terrace Park, with right hand extended, as if blessing the city he founded. The beatific image does not quite resemble its cantankerous model, for reasons that John M. Barry explores, if only partly, in his new biography, “Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul.”

Barry is the gifted author of several historical works that examine the early 20th century, most notably “The Great Influenza.” He had begun working on a biography of a figure from the same period, the American evangelist Billy Sunday, but his curiosity about the longer history of religion in public life whisked him back in time and to Williams, long regarded as the original American proponent of liberty of conscience and the separation of church and state.

Recommended. Read more ...

refWrite comment: In her NYT review of John M. Barry's new book, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, Harvard historian Joyce E. Chaplin probes her counterpart's latest study and finds it wanting. People interested in iconizing Roger Williams (1603-1683) will find plenty to whet their appetites in Barry's new work. However, too much is claimed, by both historians Barry and his critic Chaplin, too much for the founder of the British colony of Providence Plantation in North America in the department of church and state relations as far as historical consequences are concerned.

Although he took Holy Orders in the Church of England, he had become a Puritan at Cambridge, forfeiting any chance at a place of preferment in the Anglican church. After graduating from Cambridge, Williams became the chaplain to a Puritan lord, Sir William Macham. He married Mary Barnard (1609–76) on December 15, 1629 at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England. They had six children, all born in America. Their children were Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel and Joseph.

Williams was privy to the plans of the Puritan leaders to migrate to the New World, and while he did not join the first wave in the summer of 1630, before the end of the year, he decided he could not remain in England under Archbishop William Laud's rigorous (and High church) administration. He regarded the Church of England to be corrupt and false, and by the time he and his wife boarded the Lyon in early December, he had arrived at the Separatist position.

The ignorance of Joyce Chaplin in regard to "separation of church and state" (a key doctrine of Williams), is palpable and ideological, a leftwing and ACLU corrupted historical interpretation, and little else. It does not enter into the language or purpose of the First Amendment of the USA Constitution, where the wording "make no law concerning ... establishment of religion" pertains only to the federal government. Almost all of the colonies and the states that followed them had established churches, which states eventually abolished the establishments, altho they didn't have to do so under the USA Constitution. You cannot get this from Chaplin's review and it makes suspect what she says otherwise regarding Barry's historiography at hand. A much better formulation may be found in Wilkipedia:

When Roger and Mary Williams arrived at Boston on February 5, 1631, he was welcomed and almost immediately invited to become the Teacher (assistant minister) in the Boston church to officiate while Rev. John Wilson returned to England to fetch his wife. He shocked them by declining the position, saying that he found that it was "an unseparated church." [Unseparated from the state and from the Anglican Church which was tied to the Crown. New England's established Churches considered themselves Anglican Congregationalists, rather than Anglican Episcopalians. - Owlb] In addition he asserted that the civil magistrates may not punish any sort of "breach of the first table [of the Ten Commandments]," such as idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, false worship, and blasphemy, and that every individual should be free to follow his own convictions in religious matters. Right from the beginning, he sounded three principles which were central to his subsequent career: Separatism, freedom of religion [as a matter of indivudual conscience], and separation of church and state.

As a Separatist he had concluded that the Church of England was irredeemably corrupt and that one must completely separate from it to establish a new church for the true and pure worship of God. His search for the true church eventually carried him out of Congregationalism, the Baptists, and any visible church. From 1639 forward, he waited for Christ to send a new apostle to reestablish the church, and he saw himself as a "witness" to Christianity until that time came. He believed that soul liberty freedom of conscience, was a gift from God, and that everyone had the natural right to freedom of religion. Religious freedom demanded that church and state be separated. Williams was the first to use the phrase "wall of separation" to describe the relationship of the church and state. He called for a high wall of separation between the "Garden of Christ" and the "Wilderness of the World." This idea might have been one of the foundations of the religion clauses [is there more than one? I had thawt not. - Owlb] in the U.S. Constitution, (although the language used by the founders is quite different) and First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Years later, in 1802 Thomas Jefferson, writing of the "wall of separation" echoed Roger Williams in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

In other words, Williams gets credit from the angle of the history of ideas for launching the base formulation of separationist thinking, but the influence of that idea became possible in American statecraft only under a radical modification whereby it become a different idea, a different idea which was inscribed in a clause of the Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments to the Constitution), an idea of a freedom of religion and belief (freedom of conscience but not some absolute freedom of behaviours), a freedom of religion without outlawing establishments of religion in the various states. Indeed, the USA has never had "a wall of separation between church/es and state/s," even in regard to the Federal Government. The absolutistic metaphor of "wall" here is misleading and dangerous. But in any case, the idea has never been constitutionally enshrined — no matter what Roger Williams or Thomas Jefferson wrote.
Yet, we shoud not begrudge the h+est respect for Williams in regard to his thawts regarding the Native Americans, a point appropriately stressed by both Barry and Chaplin. I think this is William's real achievement, and it certainly is integral to his notions of freedom of conscience and religion. Yet, for the Naragansetts and other tribes with which he got along well, there was no separation of church and state. Of course, we have to look past the lack of differentiation in this respect in Native tribal societies of the time, and discern among them the functions of governance and faith-community without any "wall of separation." So, what was Williams doing when he explained the Gospel to these folks? Was he hoping some woud convert and join his utopic community in Providence Plantation where local church and the local state were presumably walled apart? Wasn't he calling the Native Americans away from their 'benited' lack of such a wall in their own society? Was Williams calling them to something that woud be disintegrative of their own societies?, so that to become a Christian was in important part to erect a wall of separation between the civil and faith-functions of life. I prefer, in principle, the constitutional way of communication between the various levels of government and the churches / faith-communities of the society. Why shoud churches and religions be singled out for non-communication?

All this history feeds into the question of civil religion, civic religious expression. I'm wondering how today's successor state to the Providence Plantation colony — namely, Rhode Island — handles the walling off of religious expression by its citizenry?

Wikipedia provides "a 'clarification' of how the Establishment of Religion Clause should be read" , penned in a concurring opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor:

The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community. Government can run afoul of that prohibition in two principal ways. One is excessive entanglement with religious institutions ...The second and more direct infringement is government endorsement or disapproval of religion. Endorsement sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.
This is sometimes referred to as the "Endorsement Test." A law which fails this test is found to be unconstitutional because it "endorses" religion or religious beliefs in such a way that it tells those who agree that they are favored insiders and those who disagree that they are disfavored outsiders. The other side of the coin would be the "disapproval" of religion or religious beliefs in such a way that those who agree with the beliefs are told that they are disfavored outsiders while those who disagree with the beliefs are told that they are favored insiders.

I think this year the quarrel in Rhode Island was over whether a Christmas tree coud not be called such but woud have to follow the usage of Governor Lincoln Chafee by referring to the government's lighted tree as the "Holiday Tree." A bunch of protesting carol-singing Christians disrupted the ever-so secularist ceremony at Rhode Island's Statehouse

New American (December2,2k11)

Ignoring protests from residents and a resolution from state legislators calling for the state’s seasonal celebratory tree to be called by its Christmas designation, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (left) insisted that the blue spruce that graces the Statehouse this year be referred to officially as a “Holiday Tree.”
According to the Associated Press, Chafee, who changed his party designation from Republican to Independent in 2007, said that eschewing the term “Christmas” is in line with the principles laid down by Rhode Island founder Roger Williams that the state would supposedly be a place where religion and government are to be kept separate.

The song "O Christmas Tree" was sung in the protest.

— Owlb

Media: Online news & opinion: Best 10 books I've read or am still reading as 2k11 draws to a close

2011-12-29T02:36:00.000-08:00

refWrite's 10 top books,
titles I've read in whole or in part, this year:

My list of top ten books I've read

1.) Maarten Verkkerk, Trust and power on the shop floor

2.) Romel Regalado Bagares, attorney, philosopher of law, Beyond Sovereignty versus Community: A Social Pluralist Perspective on the International Legal Order, dissertation University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Even more developed, is his full-length dissertation for VU University, Amsterdam, with which he earned the doctorate.

3.) Anthony Tol, Philosophy in the Making: D.H.Th. Vollenhoven and the emergence of Reformed philosophy, dissertation VU University, Amsterdam.

4.) Jeremy Ive, A Critically Comparative Analysis and a Trinitarian, ‘Perichoretic’ Reconstruction of the Reformational Philosophies of Dirk H.Th. Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd (dissertation submitted Dec 2, 2k11 for PhD) King’s College, London

5.) Leonard Sweet and Hendrik Hart [in series Value Inquiry Books] Responses to the Enlightenment -- an exchange on foundations, faith, and community

6.) Nadia Szilvassy, editor, Brick, an international review, twice yearly, Toronto

7.) Lambert Zuidervaart, After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformational Philosophy, online digital publication, Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto

8.) TV viewing: television political & economic
news and opinion, shows — narrative series with

consequent episodes, specials, awards shows

or at least the latest news on who's won what

when it happens this year ....

9.) James Olthuis The Beautiful Risk: A new psychology of
Loving and Being Loved (2001)

10.) Here's where the goin' gits ruff, folks. Wow! come to think of

it, I'm spending many hours reading online texts of many kinds,

but I can't think of any other books, right now.

11.) I've drawn a blank. I read to keep abreast of the 24-hour news

cycle, simulating a future with quick and clear up-to-the-minute
reformational media institution online, international. I don't read
enuff novels or a book of poetry or literary critique. Sad to say.

— Albert Gedraitis

Media: Online news & opinion: Steve Bishop puts out a list of his favourite reads (most importantbooks he'd read this last year, I guess ...

2011-12-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

An accidental blog (December28,2k11)

Steve Bishop is the dean of reformational blogging in English.

Here is his selection in the waning days of the year, of the top books he's encountered.

Pirated 8-) and reposted here by Owlb

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

My top books of 2011

by Steve Bishop UK

My top books of 2011 - in no particular order:

Jason Zuidema (ed.) Reformational Thought in Canada: Essays in Honour of Theodore Plantinga

Bert Cusveller, Maarten Verkerk and Marc de Vries The Matrix Reformed

Richard Mouw Abraham Kuyper:

A Short and Personal Introduction

Abraham Kuyper Wisdom and Wonder

Geoff Hall The Cultural Way of Being

Ernst Conradie Creation and salvation:

Dialogue on Abraham Kuyper's Legacy for Contemporary Ecotheology

Mike Goheen A Light to the Nations

Michael P. Schutt Redeeming Law

[technically this was released in 2007 but I read it in 2011 so it makes the list - it's my blog and my rules :) ]

James K. A. Smith Letters to a Young Calvinist

Tom Nelson Work Matters [review to come shortly]

Anthony Tol Philosophy in the Making

Jonathan Chaplin Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society

and Robert A. Wauzzinski Ruth: The Story of God’s Unending Redemption

Follow @Owlb

Best books of 2009
Best books of 2008

Pisteutics: Christian misisonary: In Cairo missionary William-Jan de Witt is acclaimed for his just-awarded dissertation

2011-12-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

Machine translated by Google Translate (December 24, 2k11)

De Wit PhD at the VU in Bavinck

23/12/2011 9:45
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag.

Willem-Jan de Wit works on behalf of the Reformed Mission League (GZB) in Cairo.

Congratulations to Bavinck Society member Willem-Jan de Wit, who received his doctorate from the VU University Amsterdam on December 16, 2011 (see also this Reformed Daily exclusive).

De Wit’s dissertation, under the supervision of Prof. A van de Beek and Prof. C. van der Kooi, is titled, On the Way to the Loving God (VU University Press, 2011). It offers a “cathartic reading” of Herman Bavinck’s faith wrestlings, beginning with his student years at Leiden. The dissertation is available as a free download via his web site as is his related article in TBR 2: “Will I Remain Standing?”: A Cathartic Reading of Herman Bavinck.

Dr. de Wit works in Cairo, Egypt on behalf of the Reformed Mission Union (Gereformeerde Zendingsbond), teaching at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in that city. A recent graduate of Calvin Theology Seminary, Anne Zaki, is also now teaching at Cairo's Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo (ETSC) is the seminary for the Evangelical Synod of the Nile. One of the largest Christian Arabic-language theological seminaries in the world, it trains pastors, teachers, and musicians for Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, the Gulf States and North Africa. It offers a Diploma in Theological Studies, a four-year Bachelor of Theology degree, and a Masters of Theology in Biblical Studies and Middle East Christianity. In 2005 the seminary inaugurated its Center for Middle East Christianity, which invites both Western Christians and Arab Christians to come and study more about the roots of Christianity in the Middle East. It publishes theological books and Christian education materials in Arabic for the Middle East Christian community.

Egypt - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) is one of Egypt's largest development organizations, providing integrated approaches to poor communities in the areas of economic development, agriculture, education, health care, and the environment. CEOSS uses a rights-based approach to improve the quality of life in impoverished Egyptian communities, empower communities and individuals with sustainable development, promote a culture of dialogue based on pluralistic democratic approaches, and encourage religious and social enlightenment. CEOSS positively impacts 2 million Egyptian citizens each year.

Violence Erupts in Egypt - Christian Reformed Church

In Egypt, [Anne] Zaki is teaching at a seminary and working with the Christian community. Her husband, Naji Umran, is working to create dialogue between Christians and Muslims. CRC leaders praise the effort. But the ministry in Egypt is not officially connected to the CRC. Zaki and her husband came the U.S. in 2002 to attend Calvin Theological Seminary. After graduation from CTS and before leaving for Egypt, they served a Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Mich., and one in British Columbia.

Specifically, last Sunday’s demonstrators, said Zaki, were protesting the destruction in late September of Christian homes and a TV and radio broadcasting building in the village of Aswan. But there have been several other incidents of violence directed at Christians since the Egyptian Revolution occurred in January of this year.

From Reformatorisch Dagblad, Christian daily online, an ariticle
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag, translated into English from the Dutch original

Dr. Willem-Jan de Wit werkt namens
de Gereformeerde Zendingsbond (GZB) in Caïro.

Nieuwerbrug, Netherlands — The Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck (1854/1921) prayed to God for him to keep going while studying in Leiden. "He saw that the stream of his time comes from the point at which Christ and the cross is," says Dr Willem-Jan de Wit, "Bavinck was a man who felt challenged by the modern philosophy of his day."

Friday, the PhD was granted at the VU University in Amsterdam to De Wit by Prof. A. van de Beek and Prof. C. van der Kooi on the thesis "On the Way to the Living God" (publ. VU University Press).

In the first half of his thesis, he offers a "cathartic reading" ("cathartics reading") of Bavinck: the story of Bavinck's struggle to tell readers he extends a mirror to face their own struggle.
The research is based in Bavinck on correspondence with his university friend Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and texts that have not previously been published or been forgotten (were lost). "My image of Bavinck was that he entered the Reformed denomination of his life-time, but I soon discovered that his horizon was much larger, and that brought him to battle with them. He writes concerning his "naive childlike faith about his lost soul" and even an unspoken desire becomes detectible "that the Scripture might be true, that the new criticism could be right."

Two sections of the dissertation is devoted to the concluding chapter of Philosophy of Revelation (1908-09, Stone Lectures at Princeton Theoligical Seminary). "Bavinck argues that the modern evolutionary worldview of man without hope in the world makes and points to the cross as the place where we see God's will to save the world."

Wits dissertation consists of six essays that that are both scientific and personal. "My method of theology is not descriptive or prescriptive, but inviting. I begin the book with a short walk through post-Christian Amsterdam, the city in which I've lived for seven years and where life seems to be without God. Bavinck called the unchurched neiborhood one of the greatest evils of his time, but it has since risen spectacularly. In this context, I based on Psalm 42 at the invitation of the heart's desire to be understood as a thirst for the living God. "
De Wit will not prove the existence of God, but explains: only a God who really is the deepest thirst of the heart can fill it. "Christians and atheists can therefore stand side by side when debunking gods which are no-gods at all. Bavinck more so than I am open to trying the natural world to explain. While I do the invitation to the world of signs and references to the living God to see. When we open with two eyes, a scientific and a religious eye of reality, we can see depth. "
Now, besides many delicious to see much harm, he says. "The brokenness of the references may raise the question whether they really refer to God. The Christian faith at its core, however, shows that this is indeed possible: it knows the revelation of the Lord of glory, without form or glory on the cross. "
After studying theology in Utrecht, Durham and Tübingen, De Wit worked at the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI) at the Free University. Today he teaches in the service of the GZB, Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.
Since the revolution of January 25, De Wit writes regularly blogs about life in Egypt. "The revolution has cawzed many Egyptian Christians to feel   are more involved in their country and people as a whole. Simultaneously, they are concerned.  The future will have to learn what is to be the outcome of the permanent revolution. "
Amsterdam and Cairo, according to De Wit, are both post-Christian: In Egypt, the Gospel of the cross was largely supplanted by Islam; in the Netherlands by a secular worldview. "But you will also find that secularization in Cairo and Amsterdam includes many Muslims. This double challenge of "post-Christian" deserves further reflection. Life on the road to the living God always follows the narrow path between religiosity and searching disbelief. The exciting question remains: is it nonsense, profanity, or truth when we say that Christ is the Crucified [and risen and ascended] wisdom of the living God revealed? "

Academics: Christian Philosophy: The Enlightenment - scrutinized and evaluated by two Christian philosophers

2011-12-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

-
-
Rodopi's New Titles
includes a new book by
Leonard Sweet (Catholic, analytic philosophy) and
Hendrik Hart (Reformed, neo-calvinian, reformational philosophy)
-

Responses

to the Enlightenment.

An Exchange

on Foundations, Faith,
and Community.

by William Sweet
& Hendrik Hart

Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2012, XIV, 294 pp.

Series:
Value Inquiry Book Series 241
Philosophy and Religion

Since the time of the Enlightenment in Western Europe, discussions of faith and reason have often pitted the believer against the skeptic, the theist against the atheist, and the person of one faith against the person of no professed faith. But the relation of reason to faith has been a matter of debate among believers as well. There are those who hold that religious faith can be proven or supported by rational argument. Others say that to try to give reasons and arguments does violence to religious faith, or opens it to misunderstanding and doubt, or trivializes it.

Responses to the Enlightenment: An Exchange on Foundations, Faith, and Community is a dialogue between Hendrik Hart and William Sweet, two philosophers who identify themselves as Christians, and who seek to respond to the challenges of the Enlightenment and its legacy. The authors approach the relation of faith to reason, however, in very different ways: Hart from the perspective of the Calvinian tradition and postmodern philosophy, Sweet from the Catholic tradition and analytic philosophy. Among the topics discussed are the nature of religious faith and of reason, liberalism and orthodoxy in religion, the relation of religious experience and rationality, and building community in a religiously and culturally pluralistic world. This exchange presents two distinctive perspectives to some of the major challenges of the reason to religious belief, but seeks to find common ground between them.

Contents

Kenneth A. Bryson: Editorial Foreword

Preface

Hendrik Hart: Reason and Religion

Hendrik Hart: Liberalism, Pluralism, and Lived Faith

William Sweet: Anti-Foundationalism and the Nature of Religious Belief

Hendrik Hart: Faith as Trust and Belief as Intellectual Credulity

William Sweet: Faith, Belief, and Religious Truth

William Sweet: Discourse and Religious Truth

William Sweet: Religious Belief, Meaning, and Argument

William Sweet: Final Vocabularies and Building Communities

William Sweet: Religious Belief and Community

Hendrik Hart: Sorting Out Reason

Hendrik Hart: Focused in Faith: The Epistemology of Faith as a Way of Knowing

Hendrik Hart: The Give-and-Take of Cross-Traditional Discourse

William Sweet: Distinguishing to Unite: Reason, Religion, and the Legacy of the Enlightenment

Works Cited
Appendix
About the Authors
Index

Academics: Philosophy: Prof Lambert Zuidervaart's research paper "After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformational Philosophy

2011-12-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

-
-
-

ARTICLE: 20081007-1
TITLE: After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformational Philosophy

AUTHOR: Zuidervaart, Lambert

ISSUE DATE: August 2008

TYPE: Article

SERIES/JOURNAL:

KEYWORDS: Herman Dooyeweerd, reformational philosophy, truth, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, religious truth, theoretical truth, epistemology, truth theory, reformational ontology, artistic truth, authentication, objectivity, propositional truth, transcendent truth

NOTES: Author note: This is the long version of my paper 'After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformation Philosophy'. There are two essays derived from this paper that are forthcoming in the publication Philosophia Reformata.

CITATION FORMAT: Zuidervaart, Lambert. After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformational Philosophy. Toronto, ON: Institute for Christian Studies, 2008.

Additional Resources:

• PDF Version (best for printing)

After Dooyeweerd:
Truth in Reformational Philosophy

Lambert Zuidervaart

Institute for Christian Studies
229 College Street
Toronto, ON
Canada M5T 1R4

© Lambert Zuidervaart, 2008

Abstract (August 2008)

A transformed idea of truth is central to the project of reformational philosophy. This paper lays groundwork for such an idea by critically retrieving Herman Dooyeweerd’s conception of truth.

Section 1 explicates relevant passages in A New Critique of Theoretical Thought.

Section 2 demonstrates several problems in Dooyeweerd’s conception: he misconstrues religious truth, misconceives its relation to theoretical truth, and overlooks central questions of epistemology and truth theory. Section 3 proposes an alternative reformational conception of truth, in five stages. First I compare my “critical hermeneutics” with other reformational models of critique. Then I summarize my account of artistic truth and indicate its origins in reformational ontology. Next I sketch my general conception of truth and show how it responds to issues in Dooyeweerd’s conception. Then I take up the topics of objectivity and propositional truth. Finally I introduce the notion of “authentication” as a way to appropriate insights from Dooyeweerd’s emphasis on “standing in the Truth.” While abandoning his idea of transcendent truth, I seek to preserve the holism and normativity of Dooyeweerd’s radical conception.

Outline (August 2008)

1. Dooyeweerd’s Conception
1.1 Synthesis and Intuition
1.2 Horizon of Experience
1.3 Religious Truth
1.4 Standing in the Truth
1.5 Theoretical Truth

2. Critical Retrieval
2.1 Structuralized Religion
2.2 Limited Experience
2.3 Self-Referential Incoherence
2.4 Tautologous Truth
2.5 Privileged Access

3. Truth and Authentication
3.1 Critical Hermeneutics
3.2 Artistic Truth
3.2.1 Imagination
3.2.2 Imaginative disclosure
3.2.3 Reformational ontology
3.3 Fidelity and Disclosure
3.3.1 Societal principles
3.3.2 Life-giving disclosure
3.3.3 Dynamic correlation
3.4 Propositional Truth
3.4.1 Heidegger’s contribution
3.4.2 Predicative availability
3.4.3 Predicative self-disclosure
3.5 Authentication
3.5.1 Bearing witness
3.5.2 Discursive justification
3.5.3 Correctness and truth

These newsworthy data and theories at the research edge of the conceptualization and the very possiblioty of theoretization of an idea of truth, in an anti-propositionalist tradition that is constructively dialogical with the moments of truth that Dr Russell Kirk discovered in The Conservative Mind about the nature of society, and nature disturbed. Kirk cites the romances of Sir Walter Scott, the speeches of Sir Edmund Buke, as especially emphatic emblems of what conservatism meant and perhaps still means today. Steve, my list of top reformational reads for the year just past, 2011, is coming in my next blog entry — Owlb.

Journalism Education: Africa Workshop: Belz Foundation to assemble evangelical journos in Uganda

2011-11-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

-
-
-
Here's an item from our Calendar on refWrite page 1. It's baseed on a webpage for the World Journalism Institution in New York City.

January 15-27: World Journalism Institute will hold an African Workshop over these two weeks at African Bible University, Kampala, Uganda

15 scholarships will be awarded to pay applicants for their expenses to and from the workshop, as Africa is a huge continent. The teaching will be led by experienced journalists of the Belz family under the auspices of their Joel Belz International Fellowship Program. Joel Belz founded World magazine. The faculty will be Nat Belz of Trak, Drew Belz of Fancy Rhino, and Mindy Belz of World magazine; the administrative director is Kimberley Collins of World Jounalism Institute.

Here are the Invited Fellows to date:

September Conference — Princeton reflects on Scottish Common Sense Philosophy and USA's Natural Law Theory

2011-11-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

Center for the Study of Scottish Philosophy
at Princeton Theological Seminary

Scottish Common Sense Philosophy
and the Natural Law Tradition in America

was an important intellectual event
for American historical self-understanding
September 6-8, 2011

Conference Website

Thursday 6th September
KEYNOTE I -- ‘Piety and Science: the Princeton Tradition of Christian Education’
Prof Gordon Graham, Henry Luce III Professor of Philosophy and the Arts, Princeton Theological Seminary
Respondent, Prof Leigh Schmidt, Edward Mallinckrodt University Professor, Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis

Friday 7th September
KEYNOTE II -- ‘Protestantism, Ethics and Natural Law: two perspectives’
Prof Jennifer Herdt, Professor of Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School
Dr Stephen J Grabill, Director of the Acton Institute
Chair/Commentator, Prof John Bowlin, Rimmer and Ruth De Vries Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary

KEYNOTE III -- ‘Thomas Reid, Morality and Common Sense’
Prof Keith Lehrer, Regents Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Arizona
Respondent, Dr Esther Kroeker, Center for Logic, University of Leuven

Saturday 8th September
KEYNOTE IV -- ‘Reid, Knowledge, Faith and Scepticism’
Prof Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology Emeritus, Yale University
Respondent: Prof Rene van Woudenberg, Dean of the Philosophy Department, Free University, Amsterdam

*************************************************************************

Common Sense, Natural Law and America: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Relevance
The conference program includes an afternoon and evening of lectures and discussions open to the general public as well as conference participants, with keynote speakers Daniel R Robinson and Alan L Keyes. Panelists include Jennifer Herdt, Jeffrey Stout and Hadley Arkes. No registration is needed. For full details visit the Public Events page.

*************************************************************************

Sunday 9th September
CONFERENCE WORSHIP SERVICE

KEYNOTE V -- ‘Ethics, Religion and Education’
Prof Dawn De Vries, John Newton Thomas Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond
Respondent: Professor Sam Fleischacker, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Jewish Studies, University of Illinois-Chicago
This conference has been made possible through the generous support of Theresa Khuri and the Foundation that is being created of which she will be honorary chairman.

Arts: Public Policy: Professor Zuidervaart's new book reviewed by Duke U's Taylor

2011-09-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

Comment magazine (Sep12,2k11)

a book review by David Taylor

Art as a Public Responsibility
September 12, 2011 - David Taylor

Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture by Lambert Zuidervaart. Cambridge University Press, 2011. 352pp.

Is government funding beneficial to artists and their publics, or would it be better for artists to compete in the economic marketplace without government support? Should government funding come "with no strings attached" or should it uphold standards of decency and social order? Are contemporary artists progressive agents of social change or are they a decadent menace to society? These are the questions that motivate the argument of Zuidervaart's latest contribution to philosophy, Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture.

In it he tells the tale of two groups who find themselves frequently at odds with each other. On the one side stand the "prophetic and transgressive artists," defenders of "freedom of expression." On the other side stand "ordinary people" and "decent citizens," vigorously seeking to preserve "traditional values." It is the tale of Andres Serrano against Jesse Helms, of the NEA against the AFA. It is the tale of those who support government funding of the arts and those who oppose it. According to Zuidervaart, both groups get it badly wrong; specifically, both fail to perceive the faulty assumptions that support their respective convictions. Those assumptions are:

That government funding will prime the pump for an art world dominated by corporate business interests.

That the artist and the audience's experience of artwork should be viewed on individualist terms.

That art's role in society is to press the vanguard forward.

Against these three assumptions, Zuidervaart offers three counter proposals. First, we need to recover the idea of a Civil Society as a distinct macrostructure that stands in dialectical, as well as fruitful, relationship to the State and the Market. Second, we need to allow for a dynamic tension between artistic authenticity and social responsibility — for without social responsibility, artistic authenticity devolves to aesthetic solipsism, and without artistic authenticity, social responsibility is reduced to uncritical collectivism. Third, instead of viewing art as something isolated at the margins of society and good for only a few, he suggests that art provides a common good, or three to be precise: the occasion for imaginative disclosure, for cultural orientation, and for critical and creative dialogue.

refWrite recommended — intro to Taylor's reposted here by Owlb

Evan Runner celebrated and analyzed by his student, Albert Wolters

2011-08-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Cardus (found May30, 2k11)

FEATURE ESSAY
The Importance of H. Evan Runner
August 29, 2011 - Al Wolters

"He was like a general deploying his troops as he advised his students how best they could serve the cause of the reformation of scholarship."

Comment continues to mine its rich archive with this reflection on neocalvinist pioneer H. Evan Runner from his grateful student, Dr. Al Wolters.

—Editors

Wolters on Runner:

This fundamental distinction between structure and direction, Runner taught, is something that holds throughout created reality after the Fall. There is nothing that does not have an aspect of the good creation in it (structure), and there is nothing that does not fall under the curse of sin and the necessity of redemption (direction). This applies as much to institutions like the state as activities like farming or philosophizing.

— Or perhaps print- and digital-journalism too, new media too.

— reposted by Owlb

Science and Faith: Butterfly: Observation suggests an Intelligent Designer

2011-08-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Illustre Media channel on YouTubeServices, refWrite's affiliated yUT2ube channel likewise.

— reposted here by MusicMan

Philosphy Conference schedule of workshops announced

2011-07-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

Workshops

Program of parallel sessions (final)
Parallel session 1Wednesday 17th
August 2011, 11.30 – 12.30 hr

Workshop 1 - Epistemology

Dooyeweerd and Kant in dialogue on free will and more.
Arjan de Visser

Translating reality. Victor Morales

Workshop 2 - Epistemology
Demarcation criteria and creational order. Renato Coletto
Changes in pre-scientific epistemic frameworks: random or constrained?, Ananka Loubser

Workshop 3 - Social philosophy
International Development, Civil Society, and the Complex Act-Structure
of the Human Person: Creation Order and the Poor.
Matthew Kaemingk

The problem of the concept of an 'international community'. Romel Bagares

Workshop 4 - History of philosophy
The Foundation of Creation Order. Josephine van Kessel
The Creation in Theology of fr. Dumitru Staniloae. Reznichenko Egor

Workshop 5 - Philosophy of life sciences
Current ideas on law and emergence in natural sciences. Pieter Stoker
An Attempt to Identify and Qualify the Meaning of 'Information'. Duncan Roper

Workshop 6 - Ethics and practical philosophy
A Reformational Perspective for Health Care. Jim Rusthoven
Reflections on care for the dying. Jeroen Hasselaar

Invited Workshop 1 - Civil society
Speaker: Govert Buijs
Respondent: Jan Hoogland

Parallel session 2Wednesday
17 August 2011, 15.45 – 17.15 hr

Workshop 7 - Systematic philosophy
Order, being human, and trust. Michael and Marita Heyns

Loving the law. Aron Reppmann

That word - I do not think it means what you think it means. Neal de Roo

Workshop 8 - Systematic philosophy
Reformational Philosophy as an ontology of actuality. Rudi Hayward
The paradoxes of Darwinian dis-order. Robert A. Maundy
Kant and the Evil Order. Dennis Vanden Auweele

Workshop 9 - Philosophy of religion
Theological concerns about the future of Creation Order. Anné Verhoef
Communion with Christ, moral order and hermeneutics. Hans Burger
Heaven, Love and Order. Clay Cooke

Workshop 10 - Ethics and practical philosophy
Ethics as a religious activity. Martin A. Rice, jr.
Religious construct or religious disclosure? Maarten Verkerk et al.
Towards a normative model for the practice of cooperation in development. Henk Jochemsen

Workshop 11 - Philosophy of technology
Virtual worlds: order at will? Marc de Vries
Tiengemeten as an icon of our current culture. Peter Jansen
A Philosophical Investigation of Computers and Procrastination. Nick Breems

Invited Workshop 2 - Love and justice
Speaker: Nicholas Wolterstorff
Respondent: Sander Griffioen

Invited Workshop 3 - Philosophy of religion
Speaker: Mikael Stenmark
Respondent: Guus Labooij

Parallel session 3 Thursday
18 August 2011, 13.45 – 15.00 hr

Workshop 12 - Systematic philosophy
Types of aspectual analysis, and their contributions. Andrew Basden
The affordance of Nature. Vincent Blok
Nuancing emergentist claims: Lessons from physics. Arnold E. Sikkema

Workshop 13 - Systematic philosophy
On what there is: the three-legged stool of experience. Jeremy Ive
The debate on natural order in Chinese thought. Koenraad Elst
Does methodological naturalism imply ontogical naturalism? Tiddo Mooibroek

Workshop 14 - Philosophy of religion
For the love of wisdom. Nick Ansell
Creation order in patristic tradition and modern cosmology. Dmitry Kiryanov
Order as telos of the universe. Pater Edmund Waldstein

Workshop 15 - Philosophy of religion
Four patterns of creation’s meaning. James W. Skillen
Creation, fall, redemption, and openness in creation. Don Petcher
Creation orders from Lutheran perspective. Henk Schaeffer

Workshop 16 - Social philosophy
Social media and the normative structure of corporate communication.
Jan van der Stoep
Democratic norms as a religious voice. Kyle David Bennett

Workshop 17 - History of philosophy
Jan Woltjer on Logos, order and knowledge. Rob Nijhoff
Stoker’s philosophy of the creation idea. Henk Stoker
Researching all that is “under the sun”. Chris Gousmett

Invited Workshop 4 - Philosophy of organizations
Speaker: Maarten Verkerk
Respondent: Andrew Basden

Parallel session 4Friday 19 August 2011, 11.00 – 12.30 hr
Workshop 18 - Philosophy of religion
Creation order and the flux of fashion: Beyond Baudrillard and Benjamin. Robert S. Covolo
Properties of the imago Dei. Tony Bolos
Creation order and directional drift within marriage. Guilherme de Carvalho

Workshop 19 - Ethics and practical philosophy
In order to learn. Doug Blomberg
The concept of order in the theory of Gaia: ethical
and cultural implications. Tatjana Kochetkova
The performance of order. Jonathan Weverink

Workshop 20 - Ethics and practical philosophy
How can the concepts of order in creation and eschatological hope
help in an ethical response to the financial, economic and ecological crises?
Martin de Wit

The world’s most unsustainable development. John Hiemstra

Using philosophy to bridge the gap between business theory
and business practice. Ries Haverkamp et al.

Workshop 21 - History of philosophy
Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd: their emerging difference. Tony Tol
The misappropriation of reformational thinking by the
American Christian Right. Jeremy Hexham
From Dooyeweerd cabinet to minority cabinet. Hans-Martien ten Napel

Invited Workshop 5 - Philosophy of language, with special emphasis
on the role of metaphor Speaker: Elaine Botha
Respondent: Leon de Bruin
Invited Workshop 6 - Philosophy of biology; emergence
Speakers: Dick Stafleu and Conor Cunningham

Parallel session 5 Friday
19 August 2011, 13.30 – 14.45 hr

Workshop 22 - History of philosophy
Creation theology in Tennyson's 'In Memoriam'. Frank Sawyer
On Voegelin. Johannes Corrodi
Kierkegaard's criticism of romantic irony. Karin Kustassoo

Workshop 23 - Philosophy of technology
Technology and the Christian ground-motive. Joseph Kirby
Addiction, creation order and the call for meaning. Frans Koopmans
Normativity and disclosure in systemic technologies. Maarten Verkerk et al.

Invited Workshop 7 - On the work of William Desmond
Speakers: Sander Griffioen, Dennis Vanden Auweele
Respondent: William Desmond

Invited Workshop 8 - International Order
Speakers: Simon Polinder, Romel Bagares, Lucas Freire
Respondent: James Skillen

Invited Workshop 9 - Creation order between mathematical Platonism
and constructivism. The possibility of a Christian mathematics.
Speaker: Danie Strauss
Respondent: Dick Stafleu

P1 - Presentation of partner organizations
P2 - Meeting Thinknet members

Ottawa: Canada's capital city: Stage collapses in storm in Bluesfest

2011-07-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

jambands.com (July18,2k11)

See also: Montreal Gazette (July 18,2,11)

Published: 2011/07/18

Stage Collapses at Ottawa Bluesfest

The damage from yesterday’s stage collapse

Last night, an outdoor performance in Canada’s capital city came to an abrupt end when a vicious storm swept through the grounds, collapsing the stage and sending festival goers to scramble for shelter. The storm appeared suddenly during a performance by Cheap Trick at the Ottawa Bluesfest, shortly after the band finished playing their hit “I Want You to Want Me.” Festival goers were forced to scramble for shelter, with many seeking safety inside the nearby Canadian War Museum. One man was seriously injured, while several others were treated onsite for minor injuries. As a result of the stage collapse, performances by Death Cab for Cutie and Galactic were canceled.

A message posted to Cheap Trick’s webpage following the incident reads: “Everyone is shaken up but band and crew are all fine. Cheap Trick hopes that everyone who attended the show is also ok.” Without much explanation, the message also states, “And all the best to our truck driver Sandy.” However, Band manager Dave Frey later confirmed to CNN that one of the band’s drivers would be spending the night in a local hospital.

Head over to our sister site Relix.com where you can watch video of the stage collapse.

— Zoundz! — Music Man

John Ruggie's human-rights regime for business, large and small, in relation the rest of society

2011-06-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

YouTubeServices, channel yUT2ube
partner with refWrite in video collecting (not well organized yet!)

-- posted here by Politicarp

from the standpoint of society and all its members;
the video is 43 minutes viewing-time.

Professor John Ruggie

Business and Human Rights

Today the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the

"Guiding Principles for the
Implementation of the UN
Protect, Respect and Remedy
Framework",

drafted by UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie.

The press release regarding the action by the Council is available here:

http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/1006797

The text of the Principles is available here.

We will add the full text of the resolution alongside the item linked to above, as soon as we receive it – we will also include the resolution in our Weekly Update.

video Wolterstorff

2011-06-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

---------------------------------------------------
Yale University via YouTubeServices (June16,2k11),
channel yUT2ube partnering with refWrite.

-- Hat Tip to Philosophia Christi
-- materials posted by Owlb

Culture: Philosophy: MD Stafleu physiscist and philosopher of the natural sciences

2011-06-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

available in PDF format on the Internet

Marinus Dirk Stafleu,

reformational philosopher of science and nature

apparently not a n e w b o o k,

but Wow!

strongly recommended by refWrite

A World of Relations (2001, translation by the author 2002) 278 pages. Scribd

A scientific world-view is a complex of usually unprovable, mostly normative, sometimes plausible and sometimes controversial views about the presuppositions and methods of science. Laudan 1977, 58:‘Every practicing scientist, past and present, adheres to certain views about how science should be
performed, about what counts as an adequate explanation, about the use of experimental controls, and the like.These norms, which a scientist brings to bear in his assessment of theories, have been perhaps the single major source for most of the controversies in the history of science, and for the generation of many of the most acute conceptual problems with which scientists have had to cope.’

See Margenau 1950, 12- 16; Dijksterhuis 1950; Hanson 1958; Kuhn 1962, chapter X and Postscript 1969; Toulmin 1972; Suppe 1977, chapter V.

-- Marinus Dirk Stafleu, philosopher of science and nature
-- in his online book (PDF option), page of 278

A World Full of Relations:
Character and meaning of natural things and events

-- posted by Owlb

Psychotherapist James Olthuis gets recent book reviewed by Existentialists in field

2011-06-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

Existential Therapy (found May 31,2k11)

The Beautiful Risk:

a new psychology of loving and being loved (2001)

by James Olthuis

reviewed by Louis Hoffman, Ph.D.

James Olthuis is one of the truly wonderful people of this world. I was first introduced to this book when attending a presentation on Olthuis's approach to therapy. I was so struck by the deep compassion and love that was evident in his presence. When providing a therapy demonstration, it was evident that Olthuis is truly gifted in his ability to connect with people and recognize their suffering.

This book is an excellent book, but does not replace the power of attending one of Dr. Olthuis's workshops. While Olthuis does not consider himself an existential therapist, the similarities abound in his relational approach which he describes as being strongly influenced by relational theory, feminism, and postmodernism. An important point of convergence between Olthuis and existential thought is in the valuing of the relationship. He demonstrates the power availed through a compassionate relationship between therapist and client. Some of the most powerful illustration in this book are the times when Olthuis talks about the power of crying with his "therapeuts."

A central theme throughout this book is love. For Olthuis, the basis of this is his spiritual beliefs and convictions. The Beautiful Risk, in embracing this relational perspective, the concept of love, and spirituality provides a great example of a high quality integrative perspective. Yet, it is still a good read for those not interested in the more spiritual approach.

I highly recommend this book for therapists and those seeking to become a therapist, especially those who feel stifled by many of the ways therapy is practiced in today's society.

-- Hoffman material posted by Owlb

New Dutch book 'Chronos and Clio', by Dr Marinus Dirk Stafleu, long a favorite author of refWrite

2011-06-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

---------------------------

A mini-symposium will be held at VU University in Amsterdam on June 17, 2k11, around Dick Stafleu's new book on time and history. Dr. Stafleu is a reformational philosopher of science and of physics, famous for his study Time and Again.

The event will be held under the auspices of Stichting voor Christelijke Filosofie (SCF) and Association for Reformational Philosophy (ARP).

-- SCF material posted by Owlb

Gabriel-Honoré Marcel (1889–1973) philosopher, drama critic, playwright and musician

2011-06-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online

'His philosophy was later described as “Christian Existentialism” (most famously in Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism) a term he initially endorsed but later repudiated.'

The Broken World

and the Functional Person

-- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Gariel-Honoré Marcel"

In line with his preference for concrete philosophy that speaks in ordinary language, Marcel begins many of his philosophical essays with an observation about life. One of his central observations about life and experience, from which he is able to derive many of the philosophical distinctions that follow, is that we live in a “broken world.” A world in which “ontological exigence”—if it is acknowledged at all—is silenced by an unconscious relativism or by a monism that discounts the personal, “ignores the tragic and denies the transcendent” (Marcel 1995, p. 15). The characterization of the world as broken does not necessarily imply that there was a time when the world was intact. It would be more correct to emphasize that the world we live in is essentially broken, broken in essence, in addition to having been further fractured by events in history. The observation is intended to point out that we find ourselves hic et nunc in a world that is broken. This situation is characterized by a refusal (or inability) to reflect, a refusal to imagine and a denial of the transcendent (Marcel The Mystery of Being, I Reflection and Mystery , pp. 36–3; II Faith and Reality, 1951b). Although many things contribute to the “brokenness” of the world, the hallmark of its modern manifestation is “the misplacement of the idea of function” (Marcel 1995, p. 11).

“I should like to start,” Marcel says, “with a sort of global and intuitive characterization of the man in whom the sense of the ontological—the sense of being, is lacking, or, to speak more correctly, the man who has lost awareness of this sense” (Marcel 1995, p. 9). This person, the one who has lost awareness of the sense of the ontological, the one whose capacity to wonder has atrophied to the extent of becoming a vestigial trait, is an example of the influence of the misapplication of the idea of function. Marcel uses the example of a subway token distributor. This person has a job that is mindless, repetitive, and monotonous. The same function can be, and often is, completed by automated machines. All day this person takes bills from commuters and returns a token and some change, repeating the same process with the same denominations of currency, over and over. The other people with whom she interacts engage her in only the most superficial and distant manner. In most cases, they do not speak to her and they do not make eye contact. In fact, the only distinction the commuters make between such a person and the automatic, mechanical token dispenser down the hall is to note which “machine” has the shorter line. The way in which these commuters interact with this subway employee is clearly superficial and less than desirable. However, Marcel's point is more subtle.

What can the inner reality of such a person be like? What began as tedious work slowly becomes infuriating in its monotony, but eventually passes into a necessity that is accepted with indifference, until even the sense of dissatisfaction with the pure functionalism of the task is lost. The unfortunate truth is that such a person may come to see herself, at first unconsciously, as merely an amalgamation of the functions she performs. There is the function of dispensing tokens at work, the function of spouse and parent at home, the function of voting as a citizen of a given country, etc. Her life operates on a series of “time-tables” that indicate when certain functions—such as the yearly maintenance trip to the doctor, or the yearly vacation to rest and recuperate—are to be exercised. In this person the sense of wonder and the exigence for the transcendent may slowly begin to wither and die. In the most extreme cases, a person who has come to identify herself with her functions ceases to even have any intuition that the world is broken.

A corollary of the functionalism of the modern broken world is its highly technical nature. Marcel characterizes a world such as ours—in which everything and everyone becomes viewed in terms of function, and in which all questions are approached with technique—as one that is dominated by its “technics.” This is evident in the dependence on technology, the immediate deferral to the technological as the answer to any problem, and the tendency to think of technical reasoning as the only mode of access to the truth. However, it is clear that there are some “problems” that cannot be addressed with technique, and this is disquieting for persons who have come to rely on technics. While technology undoubtedly has its proper place and use, the deification of technology leads to despair when we realize the ultimate inefficacy of technics regarding important existential questions. It is precisely this misapplication of the idea of function and the dependence on technics that leads to the despair that is so prevalent in the broken world.

-- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, last revision online Jul 14.2k10

-- excerpt from article "Gabriel ( -Honoré) Marcel" Part 2 "The Broken World" posted by Owlb

Reformational historian, Dr Henk Post, muses on sphere sovereignty and principles of law in the Netherlands

2011-05-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

Page 1

Google Translate

drhenkpost

Workshop paper presented to the

Association of Christian Historians (Netherlands)

Vereniging Christelijke Historici

VCH-Congress Workshop Jan14,2k11

Sphere Sovereignty Revisited

by Dr Henk Post

-- online-machine translated with a lot of guesswork by Albert Gedraitis and Owlb

-- the text of this blog-entry in English is still in process of consultation and revision

-- glosses and inserts by AG to make the text more apparent to English-language readers

Current discussions include a right of admission for students in particular education, the abolition of private schools, the position of the gay teacher bills on the mere fact of Awgb , and the dominance of equality in society, politics, and law[, this all] requires further reflection on the principle of sphere sovereignty.

Read more ... click on the time-stamp just below ...

One of the great Dutch ideals is the eradication of discrimination. Therefore opens thus our Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Article 1 states, that everyone is entitled to equal treatment and that nobody should be discriminated against. Equality -- which has been, since the French Revolution of 1793, one of the ideals of a modern democratic society. The revolutionaries rallied to the slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity." These were the three fundamental values of a society inspired by the Enlightenment renewal. Freedom is paramount This is not surprising, because we campaigned against tyranny, against domination by [church-manipulated] fronts. or other church leaders. The revolutionaries wanted freedom of thought and word, of belief and expression. The combination of freedom and equality [gave] each an equal right to freedom. This produces a tension. Moreover, essential for both liberty and equality, brotherhood is the experience of social Cohesion or social Citizenship. A national state can be seen as a collection of individuals. However, these individuals live in variety of social contexts.

People are social beings. They create value communities. They are citizens of a society. This implies integration.

Particularly since the nineteenth century, the pluralism of Dutch society has developed. This was partly influenced by both freedom and equality with Calvin as the lighting. It is possible to include both Christian and humanist motives, ways. In this context I restrict myself to a (neo) Calvinist motive -- namely, sphere sovereignty (Dutch: soevereiniteit in eigen kring, coined by Abraham Kuyper - 1880).

Herman Dooyeweerd, for instance, looks to Althusius in the Sixteenth Century, when the idea's first systematic expression of the principle of sphere sovereignty was formulated. According to this Calvinist philosopher [founder of Protestant social philosophy], many different social communities, each with her God-given powers and scope of specific laws that are not derived from any other circuit. Althusius defends the citation of four major characteristics of a plurality of social relationships:

1.) every social context makes its own laws which are supposed to be governed by that convexity;

2.) the legal power of the state over social relations should be governed;

3.) government is the fundamental rights of citizens for their protection by the state, police, military, etc., and

4.) it creates conditions in which individuals and social contexts are allowed to pursue socio-economic prosperity.

Important for the Dutch contribution to the development of the Althusian line of social philosophy is Abraham Kuyper. Fundamental to his vision of the rule of law is the principle advocated by him , sphere sovereignty. With this principle, he is an advocate of a 'pluralistic Society' view. Sphere sovereignty is a typical view of what Kuyper's Calvinist principle implies regarding the right to civil liberties. This includes family, school, business, science and art. Citizens are

Page 2

social circles that owe their existence to the state. These circles obey a national authority for their own character. The government has to respect the sovereignty of specific circles. It is up to government to head-off foreseen collisions, based on respect for boundaries between groups, to monitor and if necessary to enforce. But government does have a vocation to protect especially the weak, and to secure the few individuals in the community against abuse force majeure. This may mean that the government should intervene in the functioning of a circle and its regulations.

Herman Dooyeweerd made the principle of sphere sovereignty a central wise greedy principle. He uses the principle of sphere sovereignty in a way Kuyper's close-to-initial application states. If the societal institutions and communities feel like the family, church and state, then he is involved with the normative structural principles of this set of identifiable, separately respective circles. Each qualified independent connection has its own internal sphere of law, which can not be derived from that of another link. Dooyeweerd sees society as having links among societal spheres, for their [mutual irreducibility to sphere sovereignty]. [Word order and meaning?] In the view of Dooyeweerd, the state has no absolute jurisdiction. Living or legal circles have their legal sphere sovereignty. They derive the right to their own nature and law of life is not to develop state. [What the 'ell?]

Thinking in terms of circles or spheres with their own normative responsibility and power is not alienate to the prevailing law, as confirmed by legal sociologist Kees Schuyt. A circle is never completely autonomous. Circles overlap and thereby influence each other, but the government sees to the enforcement of existing universal law upon every citizen and every organization. The principle of sovereignty in it's own circle [sphere of societal authority] is legitimized by the fundamental right of freedom of beliefs. Sphere sovereignty is a detailed application -- including the principle of separation of church and state. Modern society includes a variety of social fields, each with their own values and own system of standards, [ as linked to and influenced by other societal sphere].

A fundamental rule of law implies a classical pluralist society. In my recent study Equality as a new religion, I pay attention to a variety of cases showing that societal diversity is under pressure because of conflict between two fundamental principles -- equality and sphere sovereignty.

Thus the Reformed Political Party [SGP -- Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij] clashes with the state. This follows from several court decisions, including the ruling of the Supreme Court [of the Netherlands]. The freedoms which the party relies are not absolute. But the exercise of discrimination is also not absolute. The court had the difficult task to determine the extent of right and freedom as to what is the weight of non-discrimination. That is not fixed and is influenced by the social context. In societal terms, the SGP relies on an outdated position. The court has taken this into account in its assessment. The SGP criticizes the Supreme Court's infringement made upon its classic civil liberties. That's true. You could say that the court has taken responsibility and has produced a neutral ruling. First, I would add: the Netherlands is a country of minorities and a pluralistic law. But social development affects the

Page 3.

Kuyper -developed concept of sphere sovereignty -- the peaceful living together that he promoted.

Taking into account the common law, all kinds of groups have the space to develop their own specific rights -- including associations, political parties and religious societies. From this perspective, the Supreme Court did not enforce equality for women in regard to party membership, to respect the SGP [note: women were not permitted to become full members until 2002, whereas they coud vote in general elections long before].

[Inserts by AG] The SGP opposes feminism, and concludes, on Biblical grounds, that men and women are of equal value (gelijkwaardig) but not equal (gelijk).[9] Men and women, so the party claims, have different places in society. This belief led to restricting party membership to men until 2006, when this restriction became subject to controversy[10] and was eventually removed. Wikipedia

Party penalised for woman snub

A Dutch court has ruled that the state must stop funding a fundamentalist Calvinist party, because it refuses to allow women to be full members.

Judges in The Hague said that funding the party was a violation of the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The Reformed Political Party (SGP), which was founded in 1918, will lose about one million euros per year.
The party says it wants government based entirely on Biblical teachings.

The ruling will put renewed pressure on the discussions within the party about membership for women

SGP statement

It campaigns against abortion and for the preservation of Sunday as a day of rest.
It has two members in the lower house of the Dutch parliament and one in the European Parliament.
The SGP said in a press statement that it was disappointed by the ruling, but added that it would not appeal.
"It is clear that the ruling will put renewed pressure on the discussions within the party about membership for women," SGP party leaders Wim Kolijn and Bas van der Vlies said in a joint statement.
The court said the state had not fulfilled its obligations to the UN convention because it had done nothing to stop discrimination against women by the SGP, and also supported the SGP by handing out subsidies.

BBC News (Sept7,2005) Party penalized…

The court has recognized a definition domain. That is significant, and contrary to the principle of sphere sovereignty. This principle implies that a political party is bound to its own internal law of the association's functions. The Supreme Court ruled that the other is contrary to one of the principles of our law.

Another case: Muslim citizens are in principle entitled to live their faith requirements. The Muslim community also has its right to sphere sovereignty. Muslims in principle have the right to dress as they wish. Muslim women and Muslims generally have the right to restrict people of the opposite sex from shaking hands in greeting. When those rights conflict with the law of another circuit, a balancing of interests takes place. For example, a school based on educational goals that require making clothes, or performing certain behaviours. This includes, inter alia, a government agency resorting to certain other reasons. But the sphere sovereignty of an educational group or institution differs from that of a governmental agency. Each circuit has its own character and has the original jurisdiction to regulate its own internal legal relations. Each circuit has its respective internal legal rights. If a court determines that teaching the right thing amounts to rejecting Islamic rules, he does not deal with a government agency, such as a social service, or perhaps the court will engage some other government agency (for example, the police) to allow the freedom to Islamic requirements to comply more extensively, yet is limited. It all depends on the internal legal rights of specific groups, the relationship in any case of a general ban on wearing burqas in public conflicts with sphere sovereignty. It all depends on the internal legal rights of specific groups, the relationship between the colliding legal circles and the weighing of interests. It is clear that a general burqa ban conflicts with sphere sovereignty.

[Insert by AG] Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Amsterdam’s police officers will not arrest women defying a ban on burqas, according to the Dutch capital’s police chief Bernard Welten.

Legislation banning the face-covering Islamic veil is set to go to parliament in the near future. Speaking on a television programme, Mr Welton pointed out that police have room to manoeuvre when enforcing the law.
“I think we’d definitely talk to a woman wearing a burqa. But as a policeman or woman, you should always think for yourself.”
Mr Welten doesn’t believe politicians would force the police to arrest women in burqas. “I don’t think it will come to that.” He believes MPs will give serious thought to how the legislation - which is part of the government programme - will be enforced.
LeewayThe minority government is supported in parliament by the right-wing populist Freedom Party (PVV). The burqa ban was one of the conditions the PVV insisted on for that support. PVV MP Hero Brinkman says the police chief’s comments betray “old-fashioned politics”. Speaking on radio, he said for years police chiefs have been abusing the leeway to implement the law using their own discretion. He believes this will change under the current rightwing government.
The conservative VVD, part of the ruling minority coalition, is also angry at Mr Welten’s remarks and is insisting he take them back. One VVD MP says the police chief cannot choose which laws he enforces. Mr Brinkman points out that Mr Welten’s term of office is almost at an end and that the police force is to be reorganised. This will leave only one national police chief who, he believes, will enforce legislation in the way parliament has ruled.

The principle of equality underlies the traditional freedoms. The principles of sphere sovereignty implies a different angle from the recognition of freedoms. Distinct groups find their legitimacy in a (sub) separation of responsibilities, and a recognition domain. The internal law of a specific group is tangential to the common law. If a conflict arises between jurisdictions, is restraint in the preparation of the statement a requirement for being a law not to compromise.

Sphere sovereignty revisited: the principle is worth re-thinking and its application worth examining first, to the radical pluralism of our society where our social cohesion is under pressure and. Also there is the threat of seduction inspired by a totalitarian ideology and a vision of equality that derives from supporters of secularism in the public domain.

-- translation of Henk Post and posting of other materials by Owlb

Academia: Christian Philosophers: 1st appointment of woman to Special Chairs at secular state universities, Netherlands

2011-05-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Translated from the Dutch Aspecten (2k11 #1, available for download as a PDF)

Renée van Riessen follows Gerrit Glas in Leiden

On January 1, 2011, Dr. Renee van Riessen was appointed special professor of Christian Philosophy at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Van Riessen succeeds Professor Gerrit Glas who became special-chair professor at VU University in Amsterdam, the Dooyeweerd ChaIr maintained by the Foundation for Christian Philosophy, as well as having taken on the responsiblities of President of the Association for Reformational Philosophy.

In her work on behalf of the Leiden chair of the Foundation for Christian Philosophy, Prof. Van Riessen engaged in philosophical anthropology. Her interest involves thinking about human existence as an existence in relationships, replacing the old concept of 'soul'. At this point, she sees opportunities to make connections between Christian philosophy, especially the reformational philosophy, and the Jewish philosophy of Levinas and Rosenzweig. She is also interested as a philosopher in how religion is expressed in symbolic forms and aesthetic systems (language, images, music, ritual practices). On this topic she has published and organized a number of multidisciplinary educational projects.

-- Translated with Im Translator online machine by Owlb

JuridicsUSA: Financial firms: Intensely scrutinized under new Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law

2011-05-22T22:46:00.001-07:00

Eagle Investment Systems
(May23,2k11, announcing an event May25,2k11)

A Wall Street & Technology Webcast:

Data Management's Critical Role

in Regulatory Compliance

Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Time: 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET

Duration: 60 minutes

Financial firms are facing a regulatory onslaught unlike anything in memory,
making 2005's Reg NMS look like a walk in the park.

Dodd-Frank touches virtually every financial services business line
and stresses increased financial transparency and risk management reporting.

In order to meet the strict compliance demands, financial firms will need to
rationalize financial data across business units — a task that has stumped firms for years.

The key to meeting Dodd-Frank regulatory requirements will be to improve data management capabilities across the enterprise without breaking the IT budget.

A true, easy-to-manage data-centric solution
will help risk managers and financial executives make sure
their firm's financial positions do not violate risk parameters
in the new regulations.

Many firms are meeting the compliance goals

by utilizing private cloud technology

to compile disparate financial data

more flexibly than previously possible.

Join Greg MacSweeney, Editorial Director for
Wall Street & Technology,
and hear how leading financial firms
are looking to meet regulatory reporting requirements
with innovative and cost effective private cloud technology.

-- Eagle Investment Systems materials posted by EconoMix.
-- No product is being endorsed by EconoMix or refWrite!

Vasta's new 'essential tension' for Rationality and Culture -- 'form of politics without further explanation'

2011-05-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

from a Springer publication

Axiomathes (2010) 20:129–143

DOI 10.1007/s10516-009-9082-3

Axiomathes (JournalSeek)

is a peer-reviewed academic journal
devoted to the study of
ontology and cognitive systems.

journalseek.net/cgi-bin/journalseek/journalsearch.cgi?...
Cached - Similar

----------------------------

ORIGINAL PAPER
The entire paper of 14 pages is accessible online at
Axiomathes (2010) 20:129–143
---------------------------------------
here played for semiotically-further-enriched text
by Albert Gedraitis in tribute to Prof Salvatore Vasta

---------------------------

---------------------

A New ‘Essential Tension’

for Rationality and Culture

What Happens if Politics Tries to

Encounter Science Again

by Salvatore Vasta

Received: 22 April 2009 / Accepted: 15 July 2009 /
Published online: 27 September 2009

Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

A b s t r a c t *

My intention is not to get into specific, detailed historical observation

about the ways that led the term ‘democracy’ to take on its current
meaning, in science as much as in politics, but rather to establish a
comparison between the models that political science proposes and
interprets as important for the existence of democracy and those that

science illustrates as indicators of

scientific knowledge

constructed in a

democratic form.

The debate about the contemporary meaning of democracy has

generated an extraordinary diversification of models of

democracy:

from

technocratic conceptions of government

conceptions of social life

that include widespread political participation.

And it is exactly for this reason that the assumption of a

specific point of view on the question we are dealing with,

inevitably brings with it the choice of a model suitable to

describe democratic form as a

form of politics without further explanation,

that is, as a political system with which

science measures itself as a cultural category.

In this sense,

we can consider the passage from the concept of democracy
to that of politics and generally of science to be a peaceful one,
since politics has been appointed with that

set of behaviours and democratic practices (including science)

that

political culture demands for the social benefit.

This demand can be met only on condition that structural obstacles
are removed and new cultural and epistemological mediators are

introduced.

Keywords

Knowledge society Cultural models Cultural mediators

Science policy Democracy Social policy Social change

Culture is what is left in man when he has forgotten everything

(von Harnack–Einstein).

Author:

Salvatore Vasta (&) University of Catania,

Via Caltabiano 16/B,

Riposto, 95010 Catania,

Italy

e-mail: s.vasta@unict.it

123

Trauma-counsellor and scholar Tory Hoff has a great study for the Christian integration of faith and learning in psychology

2011-04-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

Dr. Tory Hoff

Christian philosopher of psychological science
a practicing trauma-counsellor

writer, book-loving entrepreneur

His 1978 study of

Nephesh and the fullfillment it receives as Psuche

traces the historical roots of the key concept of 'soul'
in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament,
along with contemporary ideas used in clinical psychology
derived from those ancient sources

$15 USA $20 Canada

Order by email: drhoff@drhoff.com

Dr Hoff's background and service:

Tory Hoff grew up in Salinas, California, and graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1970 after having been immersed in the music and student aspirations of that era. He spent a year in Europe, where he located himself in the vicinity of a Christian study centre called L'Abri in Switzerland. After returning home, he next spent a year building the family house outside Salinas, California, then moving to Toronto to attend the Institute for Christian Studies, where he was introduced to the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd, a Dutch thinker of Christian commitment and professor of law philosophy at the Free University in Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam). More specifically, while at ICS, the young scholar developed his wholistic, phenomenological perspective regarding issues such as mind and body. Retroactively he was given a Certificate in the Philosophy of Psychology, 1976.

Tory worked with disturbed children in residential treatment for a few years, also completing in 1980 an M.A. from Carleton University in Ottawa. In 1990 he was granted his Ph.D. in the History of Psychology from York University, Ontario, Canada. His dissertation was on the demise of physiognomy and phrenology, a demise that expressed social and intellectual changes within Western society. From 1987 to 1994 he taught at the University of Saskatchewan and at its Catholic affiliate, St. Thomas More College, and then returned to Toronto where he obtained his registration to practice as a counselling psychologist in Ontario.

Assisted nowadays by his administrative and clinical staff, the Doctor provides psychological therapy to a wide range of clients, but mostly those suffering mental trauma and depression due to an accident. Many of his patients have been diagnosed with posttraumatic fibromyalgia. He also works part-time for Christian Counselling Services as its psychologist.

A collector of old psychology and phrenology books since the early 1980's, he began to sell used books his last year in Saskatoon, and in the fall of 1995 started to list them on his first website. When not seeing clients or taking a break from his burgeoning book business, he spends time with his partner, Linda McClelland, at their home in the Beaches. They still manage to get to the dance floor. A member of the Longboat Running Club since 1994, he tries to stay in shape running a few races most years, his favourite being the Big Sur Marathon near where he grew up. He and Linda bought another house in 2006, located an hour east on a quiet street in Port Hope among several old houses. Meanwhile, the garden and rocks in Toronto are coming along but the house itself awaits renovation if the money ever accumulates. Little time to read books or publish academic research these days.

Nephesh
and the fullfillment it receives as Psuche

by Tory Hoff

Don't miss your chance to benefit

from this intellectually and spiritually rich resource.

Visit the website: DrHoff.com

Check out the books-for-sale catalogue!

Philippines: Maguinado Massacre: A year ago, journos slawtered en masse

2011-03-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

CenterLaw website

Written on NOVEMBER 22, 2010 AT 7:56 AM by ADMINISTRATOR

Victims of Massacre Seek UN

Special Rapporteur’s Help

on Ampatuan Case

Filed under UNCATEGORIZED{NO COMMENTS}

UN Special Rapporteur Frank William La Rue speaks at the
public forum held at the University of the Philippines
College of Law on ‎22 November 2010

RELATIVES of victims of the year-old Maguindanao massacre on
Monday sought the help of the visiting United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression in
speeding up prosecution of members of the Ampatuan family
and more than a hundred others charged with the multiple
killings that have been described as the country’s worst
election-related violence.

“Can you be a bridge to our government as our justice is so
delayed?” Catherine Nunez, mother of one of the 32 journalists
and media workers killed in the massacre, asked Special
Rapporteur Frank William La Rue during a lecture-dialog held
at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

Nunez specifically asked if the U.N. could facilitate with the
Philippine government a speedier resolution of the prosecution
of the case.

Victims of the Massacre in Maguindanao speak with UN Special Rapporteur Frank William La Rue on ‎22 November 2010

La Rue is in Manila not on an official visit but to participate in
activities marking the first anniversary of the massacre. But
he told Nunez, “As a matter of principle, impunity often
comes (not just) as denial of justice but also as slowness of
justice.”<

La Rue expresed optimism over the prospect of coming to
the Philippines on a formal visit, but at the same time said it
could happen only after requests and invitations are made by
a broad spectrum of affected individuals and institutions.

He would need a formal invitation from the Philippine
government to conduct a formal factfinding.

Isabelita Vinuya of Malaya Lolas tells UN Special Rapporteur Frank
William La Rue that the plagiarism and the dismissal of the
motion for reconsideration of their case before the Supreme Court
“was like a second rape” 22 November 2010

-----------------------------------

The last time such an official invitation was issued was in
February 2007, when Philip Alston, then the UN Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary
Executions, visited and issued a report characterized by
a strong disapproval of the many executions that occurred
during the Arroyo government.

As special rapporteur, La Rue has a mandate from the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct
factfinding missions relating to violations of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression, discrimination,
threats and violence against journalists or other
professionals in the field of information.

La Rue noted that it is in the Philippines that the highest
number of journalists killed in a single instance happened.

Ma. Cipiriana Gatchalian, one of the victims of the Massacre in Maguindanao listen to UN Special Rapporteur Frank William La Rue on ‎22 November 2010

The 2010 Impunity Index of the Committee to Protect
Journalists ranked the Philippines third worldwide, after Iraq
and Somalia, among the countries where journalists are
killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.

At the lecture-dialog sponsored by CenterLaw, Media
Legal Defence Initiative and the National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines, La Rue talked about his
experience as a Guatemalan human rights lawyer and
how mechanisms such as the U.N.-sponsored
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala
could be a useful model for other countries.

Besides Nunez, relatives of massacre victims who attended the
lecture-dialog were Myrna Reblando, Editha Tiamzon,
Julieta Evardo, Zenaida Duhay and Ma. Cipiriana Gatchalian.

Two Filipino comfort women— Isabelita Vinuya and Perla
Balingit—also spoke with La Rue.

-- all CenterLaw materials from their website, and are
posted here by Lawt, refWrite frontpage columnist

Hier Learning: Research: ICS launches research center in 3-pronged programming, adding to its overall scope

2011-03-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

Christian Week (Canada) Dec21,2k10

Institute examines

ethical&religious questions

By Sheila Nonato | Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lambert Zuidervaart is launching the first centre for religion, philosophy and social ethics.

TORONTO, ON�"In the heart of downtown Toronto at th eInstitute for Christian Studies' campus, Lambert Zuidervaart is in the midst opening of Canada's first centre for religion, philosophy and social ethics.

The centre's goal is to examine some of the main ethical and religious questions that challenge contemporary society, says Zuidervaart, the centre's director. It welcomes collaborative research among the institute's faculty and scholars at partner institutions such as theToronto School of Theology, the VU University Amsterdam and sister institutions in the Reformed tradition leading to new publications, conferences and lecture series.

“It does so in a way that promotes dialogue across the disciplines and fields of scholarship," he says, adding it also encourages dialogue across religious traditions.

Founded in 1967, the Institute for Christian Studies is a privately funded, independent graduate school of philosophy and theology in the Reformed tradition where the sacred and secular intersect. Affiliated with the Toronto School of Theology, located on the University of Toronto campus (but not part of the university) the new Centre for Philosophy, Religion and Social Ethics will welcome researchers and interdisciplinary debate later this year.

Among the topics that could be examined at the new centre is the nature of social justice, why it's important and “how do we envision a more just society?" Zuidervaart says.

Zuidervaart hopes a project on inter-religious dialogue will also take root in the centre.

There's a misperception in Western scholarship, he says, that religion is becoming “less and less relevant" and a private matter in a secularized society.

“But empirically, I don't think that is the case and shouldn't be the case," he says.

Various religious have important contributions to make, Zuidervaart says, on issues like the role of government and poverty alleviation. And while religion has been at the centre of many conflicts, it can also offer possible solutions.

“To get people past those conflicts requires they talk across their religious differences," Zuidervaart says.

From these kinds of conversations, he hopes a “global ethic" or a shared understanding can help inform the decisions of politicians, legislators and judges.

Respond to Article | E-mail Article | Print Article

Hendrik Hart: A Lenten sermon on the love of God

2011-03-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

First publication (Mar19,2k11) Dr Hendrik Hart -- retired professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto -- preached this sermon on consecutive Sundays in a Christian Reformed congregation in St Catherines, Ontario, and then in a United Church of Canada congregation in Mount Albert, Ontario. Thanks, Henk! -- refWrite

Learning to Love for Lent

"For God so loved the world...." John 3:16. Likely the best known verse in the Bible. Or the most ill treated verse, torn from the gospel as a naked fragment brazenly broadcast on bulky billboards. Lent is a good time for us to take a closer look, to take it off the billboard and place it in the context of John's gospel and the setting of Psalm 121. Will we recognize it there?

Psalm 121, with its moving language for God as helper, deliverer, rescuer, savior, has a strong relation to both Lent and historical Christian worship. For the great celebration of the exodus from slavery, Passover, Israel's primal event of deliverance, pilgrims sang songs of ascent, climbing Mount Zion while singing. Psalm 121, one of these 15 songs of ascent, celebrates God as helper:

"I lift up my eyes to the hills—

from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth."

For ages Christian worship started with these very words: "Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth." For God so loved the world. During their Lenten pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples would sing these words. For God so loved the world—God, the maker of heaven and earth. God almighty.

God as our helper first appears in the creation story, when God realizes that Adam is alone and needs help. The creator is savior from the very beginning, a helper for the helpless Adam, our helper. For God so loved the world. It was an arch confession for Israel to sing: "Our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." This God protects us from all danger, whether we are coming or going, by day or by night:

"The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night. ...

The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in...."

God Almighty, maker of all that is made, so loved the world. How sensible that John begins his gospel of redeeming love with the Word of God through whom all things were made:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... All things came into being through him, ... What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." John tells Good News starting with God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, our helper. For God so loved the world.

But listen: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him."

What is this? Is John writing about the Jews? Not really. Recognizing God's presence is not a Jewish but a human problem. When we read this today we need to hear its echo in Romans: God is visible in all of creation, but human foolishness makes us blind. So when love for the world makes God appear in our flesh, that's a problem. Suppose Betty Cupples became pregnant (don't laugh, remember Sarah!) and became convinced her baby would be Immanu-el, God with us? Betty's baby? If that's a problem, why isn’t Jesus a problem? He came from Nazareth, son of carpenter Joseph and his wife Mary. Why would anyone recognize the maker of heaven and earth in a wood worker's child? Is that how God helps? Whether we're coming or going, by day or by night?

John helps with a story. If we do not recognize Jesus as creator, have we not heard of the wedding in Cana? Where the wine ran out? Great need for help, a wedding without wine. God's creation is for celebration. In Cana there is only water, six huge vats for washing off the world's misery, six vats for ritual cleansing. Then the Word, through whom all things were made, present in the flesh (for God so loved the world), speaks to these vats. And the party can go on: there is wine. John tells this story of glory as the miracle of miracles. Now the disciples realize this Word-of-God come-in-the-flesh deserves their trust, the way you trust God, whether you're coming or going, by day or by night. For God so loved the world: the wedding goes on with wine.

Next John tells us the story of Nicodemus, who came to see Jesus by night. Why not? If in Jesus God is our helper coming and going by day and by night, why not come by night? "Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ " Nicodemus didn't quite know whether he was coming or going. Surely Jesus had a powerful connection to God. But his father was Joseph and he came from Nazareth. Better not make a fool of yourself. Go talk to him when no one else can see your coming or going, talk to the light in the darkness. But if God so loved the world, why come to the light at night? Well, maybe you do. It's in the night we need light.

Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus: "‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ .... Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?' " Do you not understand God is love? Do you not remember Moses and the serpent? Let me tell you, "... just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." Nicodemus knew about lifting up your eyes. When looking for help, lift up your eyes to the hills. When a snake has bitten you in the desert, lift up your eyes to the Man of God who lifts high the very snake that bit you—trust what God is doing in that man and you will be healed. Trust now, says Jesus, your Helper-made-flesh and lifted up on a cross. You will be given your life as surely as the water was made into wine. A savior has come to the world, recognizable by his birth in a crib, a sign for humble shepherds. He humbled himself on a cross, that all who lift up their eyes may live.

John explains: "For God so loved the world!" Our entry into every mystery is the love of God. God creates in love, God redeems in love. And, as John tells the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet, Jesus says there is no love greater than laying down your life. That's love divine all loves excelling. And as an explanation for the incarnation it is at once an invitation. If we want to be disciples, if our feet have been washed, then we need to trust our invitation to image the God who loves the world. Will we lay down our lives, will we wash feet, will we live as vessels in which Jesus changed the water of misery into wine of joy, will we drink his cup?

Our invitation to embody God's love in Christ is crucial to the presence of God's redeeming love in the world. God invites us to be the Eve of God's Adam, bride of Christ, Jesus' helper. Without a body of Christ, God's love in Christ remains invisible in our world. We are, says Paul, "ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us...." We are invited to love as God loves, to give ourselves in love as Jesus loved. In so following Jesus we, like him, will be filled with God's fullness.

When our love mirrors God's love in Christ we will love like the Samaritan and we will love the thief on the cross. God’s redeeming love will be visible in our love. Christ, the second Adam, will have a helper, his body, his Eve, his bride.

Our help is in the name... for God so loved,

Our help is in the name of Adam's maker...for God so loved,

Our help is in the name of the giver of Eve, ...for God so loved,

Our help is in name of the Word, ...for God so loved.

The Word in the flesh was alone, for we knew him not!

God calls the church to help, ...for God so loved.

Jesus bids us take up our cross, that we may inherit his glory, provided we suffer with him. May we lift his name on high. Amen.

Philosopher Merold Westphal theorizes hermenutics of the Bible, welcoming a plurality of interpretations to enrich the Church

2011-03-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com (found Mar16,2k11) refWrite appreciates the contributions of Dr Merold Westphal who's tawt at Fordham U in NYC for some 20 years +. Many reformationals consider him one our Christian philosophical community who has taken on the reading, analysis, criticism, and appreciation of many "difficult thinkers" and schools of thawt. With only 2nd-hand knowledge of his texts, I've thawt of him as sometimes too bleeding-hearted toward some of these bleeders with their whining complaints regarding Christianity, but I haven't and won't make the journeys into the works in which he seems to specialize to correct my biases at this late date in my life.

The matter here has to do with our informal division of labor among reformational philosophers, since not all of us can read every thinker directly (tho many of us, including an amateur philosopher like myself, have over the years tried to maintain an extensive scope of familiars within the discipline -- for instance, I read in some years, some years ago, works in the then-burgeoning newer field of semiotics -- Umberto Eco, Roland Barthes, Thomas Sebeok and others). Sadly, I haven't yet found anyone among us a someone who has specialized in this field that poses a certain order of philosophic questions and who essays some solutions to the problems addressed. Those authors I read in semiotics were at the time busy constructing a new special science of semiotics.

Westphal has chosen folks like Nietzsche, Mark, Darwin, also contemporary ethicists like Levinas, phenomenologists of religion deconstructionists, and post-structuralists. In hermeneutics, I've read fat original works by Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer, both of whom are focii in Westphal's present text. I've read Derrida's On Grammatology (and little else of his), and Roman Jacobsen on poetics (to much ignored by reformational poets and literary thinkers).

Except for such one-time forays, it's okay to concentreate on reformational-friendly scholars who write (re-read) great contemporary minds and then publsh their appraisals into which other members of our community can plug. Reading 2nd-hand is not all always bad, rather sometimes for various scholars and scholarship-appreciative laity it can be a very positive good. You have the best estimate of what you can take on from the ever-growing pile of books. You can't read them all. -- Owb

Hat Tip to James Anderson (Paradox in Christian Theology, Paternoster Theological Monographs)

Whose Community? Which Interpretation?:

Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church

(The Church and Postmodern Culture series)

[Paperback]

Merold Westphal (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews) |

List Price:	$19.99
Price:	$13.31

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this volume, renowned philosopher Merold Westphal introduces current philosophical thinking related to interpreting the Bible. Recognizing that no theology is completely free of philosophical "contamination," he engages and mines contemporary hermeneutical theory in service of the church. After providing a historical overview of contemporary theories of interpretation, Westphal addresses postmodern hermeneutical theory, arguing that the relativity embraced there is not the same as the relativism in which "anything goes." Rather, Westphal encourages us to embrace the proliferation of interpretations based on different perspectives as a way to get at the richness of the biblical text.

From the Back Cover

In this compelling volume, renowned philosopher Merold Westphal introduces current philosophical thinking related to interpreting the Bible. Recognizing that no theology is completely free of philosophical "contamination," Westphal engages and mines contemporary hermeneutical theory in service of the church. He encourages readers to embrace the proliferation of interpretations based on different perspectives as a way to get at the richness of the biblical text.

"Merold Westphal is a clear, insightful, and astute interpreter of philosophers for Christian understanding and of Christianity for philosophical understanding. A faithful and learned churchman, Westphal here mines his deep philosophical learning but wears it lightly, enabling beginners to access important insights while inviting others to probe significant issues. This book deserves a wide readership."--L. Gregory Jones, dean of the Divinity School and professor of theology, Duke University

"Westphal deftly navigates between hermeneutical despair and hermeneutical arrogance to arrive at a hermeneutic that affirms the vital importance of interpretation and yet insists that Scripture itself truly speaks. The result is not only a judicious and correct theory of interpretation but also a striking demonstration of what such a humble and respectful hermeneutic looks like in practice."--Bruce Ellis Benson, professor and chair of the philosophy department, Wheaton College

"In this beautiful little book, Merold Westphal brings to bear on the interpretation of Scripture his life-long interest in hermeneutics. With his customary clarity of analysis and style, the author debunks the common equation of interpretation with relativism, showing theologians, pastors, and laypeople what the church can learn from philosophical hermeneutics about reading and performing God's word. Besides showing how 'Athens can be helpful to Jerusalem,' this book provides an excellent introduction to Gadamer's hermeneutics and to the most-central issues and thinkers surrounding interpretation theory, including the important aspects of community and politics. This book is a gift not only to the church but also to anyone looking for a clear and thoughtful introduction to contemporary interpretation theory."--Jens Zimmermann, professor of English and Canada Research Chair for Interpretation, Religion, and Culture, Trinity Western University

About the Author

Merold Westphal (PhD, Yale University) is distinguished professor of philosophy at Fordham University in Bronx, New York, where he has taught for more than twenty years. His many publications include Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought and Overcoming Onto-Theology.

The scholarly discipline of Economic History shoud be pursued multifactorally

2011-03-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Telos (Mar9,2k11) The writer, Adrian Pabst, starts off with the old saw from Weber, but plays a few tricks of his own. He uses a dualism critique that echoes that of Herman Dooyeweerd, the neo-calvinist and reformational philosopher hily regarded here at refWrite. I won't parse the argument, in part simply becawz only the opening salvo is presented in this brief excerpt I found in Telos; but it must be said that Pabst, no blue-ribbon, conflates John Calvin with some other, later and much later, folks in the Reformed communities of their day. The great body of Calvinists in the first century of the movement's existence had no "Calvinist gospel of prosperity." Tribulation was as likely as prosperity, and neither were expected to be the usual course, as most of us Calvinists woud just muddle thru the vagaries of economic circumstances, without it being the sign or source of election or no. The two economic processes to which Pabst points regarding Henry VIII and enclosure of the commons (fencing out the commoners who had had free-grazing customary liberties hitherto) offer much finer grist for reflection. I coud point to another item, the first town clock and first factory that emerged in Italy to call the silkworm tenders to the factory to work, brite and early. This was pre-Reformation, sometime in the 1300s or a bit earlier --as I recall, I first encountered this factoid in Economic History of Europe (Fontana) -- Owlb

Moralizing the Market?

Economies of Gift in an Age of Global Finance

by Adrian Pabst

This paper was presented at the 2011 Telos Conference, "Rituals of Exchange and States of Exception: Continuity and Crisis in Politics and Economics."

1. The Theological Origins of Secular Capitalism

For Max Weber, the spirit of capitalism is best understood in terms of Calvinist divine predestination. But by focusing on the Protestant work ethic, Weber's thesis about the origins of modern capitalism is at once too broad and too narrow. Too narrow because he neglects the counter-Reformation Baroque scholasticism of influential Catholic theologians like Francisco Suárez that sunders "pure nature" from the supernatural and thus divorces man's natural end from his supernatural finality. As a result, human activity in the economy is separated from divine deification and the market is seen as increasingly autonomous. In short, human contract is severed from divine gift.

Too broad because Weber fails to recognize the more specific, historical origins of capitalism. Those origins can—and must—be traced to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries (following his break with the Church of Rome) and the English "enclosure movement" that privatized common land. This violent redistribution of wealth to the new class of the landed gentry started the process of repeated "primitive accumulation"—expropriating the small-holding free peasantry, reducing them to wage laborers and progressively stripping them of their mutualist support structures. In turn, the process of continuing dispossession provides the surplus capital for financial investment in non-reciprocal, piratical trade (as both Karl Polanyi and Robert Brenner have documented).

Thus, Weber is right to highlight the Calvinist gospel of prosperity that conflates the elect with the wealthy and sanctifies the pursuit of power and prosperity—a justification for free-market capitalism that cuts across the liberal-conservative divide in the Anglo-Saxon West and remains influential to this day—for instance Andrew Carnegie's 1910 Gospel of Wealth.[1] But linked to the divine predestination of the prosperous is the Calvinist separation of human contract from the divine gift of grace and the Lutheran divorce of faith and works.[2] The same dualism between transcendence and immanence underpins the Baroque Catholic sundering of "pure nature" from the supernatural and the concomitant claim that human beings have a natural end that is unrelated to their supernatural finality. Taken together, these dualistic theories view the market either as morally neutral or as positively conducive to human freedom or else as the "invisible hand" of divine providential intervention converting rival self-interest into mutually beneficial cooperation or indeed as all of the above at once (e.g., in the work of Adam Smith).

In any case, Weber's theory is not nearly theological enough. For it was the modern dualism—which split asunder human natural goods and the divine supernatural Good in God—that brought about a market economy that is increasingly disembedded from the social bonds and civic virtues of civil society. So configured, the market was seen as a system that requires little more than a state-policed legal framework.

Center for Public Justice signs on to idiot economics policy, abusing slogan "Intergenerationational Justice"

2011-03-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

Witness the now-official failure to develop responsible Christian policy alternatives to face communally the present crisis in American govt debt, and in American govt's relation to the world's poor. Then, along with the document itself, read the critique of this pathetic Evangelical document, A Call to Intergenerational Justice, by a blogger for Acton Institute's Power Blog, the 1st-response piece by Jordan J. Ballor (Mar3,2k11; digitally republished below), Initial Thoughts on a Call to Intergenerational Justice. I've been checking out his further thawts, and trying to see what negotiations between CPJ's Gideon Strauss and the folks at Acton Institure where there's an economy-oriented and -concerned group of Catholic-based scholars. I hope to update further on these matters. -- EconoMix (1st update Mar16,2k11)

Faith in Public Life: A Strategy Center for the Faith Community (Mar3,2k11)

A Call to Intergenerational Justice

Prominent Evangelicals Call for Compassionate Action,

Fiscal Responsibility in Budget Debate

Unveil Christian Proposal on Debt: Protect and Invest in Poor; Fix Tax Code, Subsidies

March 3, 2011

On the eve of the federal budget deadline and on the heels of Congress's passage of a temporary stop-gap funding bill, prominent evangelical leaders today unveiled a Christian proposal on the American debt crisis. On a conference call with reporters this morning, nationally recognized evangelical leaders Shane Claiborne, Michael Gerson and Jonathan Merritt, as well as Dr. Gideon Strauss and Stephanie Summers of the Center for Public Justice and Dr. Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Actionurged Congress not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

"How we balance our national budget is first of all a moral question. That we must do so is clear. But the bible says God measures societies by what they do to the people on the bottom," said Dr. Ron Sider, founder and president of Evangelicals for Social Action. "So as we both cut federal expenditures and raise taxes, we must fully fund effective programs here and abroad that combat disease and starvation and lift millions out of poverty."

The statement, "A Call for Intergenerational Justice: A Christian Proposal on the American Debt Crisis," calls for "fiscal frugality and compassionate action" and proposes concrete ways of cutting the debt while protecting the poor and making moral investments for the future of our nation and world. It was also signed by prominent evangelical leaders including Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, Richard Cizik, President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, Kim Phipps, President of Messiah College, Shirley Mullen, President ofHoughton College, and Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Orlando, Florida and a former member of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. (The full statement and list of signers below and here.)

"From a fiscal perspective, cuts in global health and poverty programs are inconsequential," said Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, fellow at the ONE Campaign, and columnist for the Washington Post. "From a moral and humanitarian perspective, they would be tragic. America does not have a debt problem because it spends too much on AIDS drugs or bed nets."

Specific proposals in the statement include cutting defense spending, curbing health care costs, closing corporate tax loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and cutting wasteful subsidy programs, while fully funding domestic and international programs that empower and protect the most vulnerable and prevent hunger and suffering.

"I am concerned about the elephant in the room. We're spending $200,000 a minute on the military while we cut mosquito nets and nutrition programs for neighborhoods like mine in North Philadelphia where we have an epidemic of obesity... here, it's easier to get a gun than a salad," said Shane Claiborne, founder of The Simple Way and author of Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. "Our money says "Our money says 'In God we trust.' I wish it said, 'In God we hope to trust,' and that we wouldn't take the Lord's name in vain, but do something that'd make God proud."

Their proposal emphasizes the need for shared sacrifice and the need to prioritize the common good over self-interest.

"Partnership of citizens with government at this juncture in the life of our political community is vital to enabling government to satisfy its joint responsibilities to reduce the federal debt to a responsible level while continuing to do justice for the poor and vulnerable," said Stephanie Summers, COO of theCenter for Public Justice. "Confronted by necessary federal austerity measures, citizens of all ages must place the demands of justice before immediate self-interests, sharing costs and making sacrifices to support these difficult but moral responsibilities."

Signatories grounded their support for the proposal in their understanding of Scriptural teachings about justice.

"Biblical Justice is more than a private virtue or moral platitude," said Jonathan Merritt, founder of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative and author of Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet. "Justice is a commitment to care for those who are powerless, to speak for those who lack a voice. Doing justice means both caring for those who need us now and speaking for those who are yet to come."

The statement and its endorsers also appeal to lawmakers' sense of purpose and responsibility as they tackle the fiscal challenges facing our nation.

"In issuing this Call to Intergenerational Justice, we call on those who make our nation's laws and those who administer these laws, to 'fulfill their proper task and high purpose," said Gideon Strauss, CEO of the Center for Public Justice. "...To try to balance the diversity of our interests, but to act to uphold a just public order for us and for all our neighbors."

The Christian Proposal on the American Debt Crisis is below and here.

A Call for Intergenerational Justice: A Christian Proposal on the American Debt Crisis

The Problem

For a generation and more, we Americans have been living beyond our means. Our national debt now puts us on a path towards economic disaster. If unchanged, our current culture of debt threatens to bankrupt us both economically and morally. The biblical call to stewardship demands that we pass on an economic order in which our children and their children can flourish.

Today's federal debts threaten not only the present generation, but also our children and generations yet unborn. Intergenerational justice demands that one generation must not benefit or suffer unfairly at the cost of another.

Who is Responsible?

Reforming our culture of debt is not just the responsibility of government. A materialistic live-for-the-moment mentality has seduced many Christians and many Americans to live beyond their means. Churches must disciple their members toward stewardship, justice, and concern for the poor. Families must change their thinking and spending. Businesses must be concerned not just with short term corporate profits but also with long term community well-being and the common good. But government does have the primary responsibility to reverse at least one part of our mad rush to economic disaster - our ever-increasing government debt.

In our democratic republic, citizens must tell elected officials that we recognize our duty to temper our wants, and even sacrifice with regard to some of our legitimate desires: for the sake of frugal stewardship and long-term sustainability of our economy, for the sake of continuing governmental care for the poor and weak, and for the sake of doing justice to our children and our children's children.

Our Commitments

How our governments and we as citizens together decide to reverse the trend of our ever growing government debt is crucial. Some proposals place much of the burden on the poor. To reduce our federal debt at the expense of our poorest fellow citizens would be a violation of the biblical teaching that God has a special concern for the poor. Effective programs that prevent hunger and suffering and empower poorer members of society must continue and be adequately funded.

Our Core Proposals

We do not endorse any detailed agenda. Experts disagree. But it is clear that a bipartisan agreement must include the following basic elements:

• We must cut federal spending. That will include wasteful corporate and agricultural subsidies, the defense budget and salary increases of federal employees. But it does not mean cutting effective programs that empower poor Americans or contribute internationally to economic development or the advancement of health.

• We must control healthcare expenses. This is a most difficult problem and it cannot be ignored. We must find a way simultaneously to respect individual choice, ensure quality health care for everyone, and stop spending an ever-higher percent of our GDP on medical costs. Everyone must be willing to sacrifice.

• We must make Social Security sustainable. We can slowly increase the retirement age, modestly reduce benefits, and increase the amount of income taxed to pay for Social Security.

• We must reform the tax code. We should remove many special exemptions, end many special subsidies, and keep the tax code progressive.

Our Pledge

Moved by the seriousness of the debt crisis and the biblical summons to intergenerational justice, we pledge to join a trans-partisan, intergenerational movement of citizens that insists that government exercise both fiscal frugality and compassionate action for the sake of the long-term sustainability of our political economy - and for an economy of care. All must sacrifice--time, wealth, entitlements--for the common good. To the young, we say: It is your credit card that will receive the additional trillions of dollars of debt-- unless we quickly end ongoing federal budget deficits. To parents and grandparents, we say: We must give up some things so our children can flourish. All of us now say: We join together to answer the call to intergenerational justice.

Miriam Adeney

Paul Alexander
Stanley Carlson-Thies
Richard Cizik
Shane Claiborne
Luis Cortes
Andy Crouch
Richard Foster
Michael Gerson
David Gushee
Joel Hunter
Jonathan Merritt
Richard Mouw
Shirley Mullen
Kim Phipps
Soong-Chan Rah
Stephanie Summers
H. Dean Trulear

Jim Wallis

###

Critique by a non-signer

Initial Thoughts on ‘A Call for Intergenerational Justice’

Posted by JORDAN J. BALLOR
on THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2011

A number of prominent evangelical leaders in America have issued a statement on the budget fights in the federal government. “A Call for Intergenerational Justice: A Christian Proposal on the American Debt Crisis,” is sponsored by the Center for Public Justice and Evangelicals for Social Action. Signatories include Ron Sider of ESA, Gideon Strauss of CPJ, Richard Mouw, Michael Gerson, Shane Claiborne, Andy Crouch, and Jim Wallis.

Here are some initial thoughts:

There is very little principle in this statement, which purports not to “endorse any detailed agenda.” The basic principle communicated is: “We ought to care for the poor because God does.” This is of course laudable and true, as is the commitment to “intergenerational justice,” as long as that is defined as not living today on the backs of the unborn and not code for something else.

But the rest really just consists of leaps in logic largely based on unstated assumptions about the role that government should have in administering that care. To wit: “To reduce our federal debt at the expense of our poorest fellow citizens would be a violation of the biblical teaching that God has a special concern for the poor.”

Given the current state of affairs, which the statement acknowledges is a “crisis,” I don’t think it is helpful to energize the grassroots to petition to save particular programs from scrutiny and reform. Things are so bad that everything should be on the table. The situation is not an either/or between social spending and military spending, as Claiborne and Wallis would have it. It’s a both/and, and that includes entitlements.

Which brings me to my next point: There isn’t nearly enough in here about entitlement reform. Social Security must become “sustainable,” but there is no mention of entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. These are the real drivers of huge swaths of our national debt. Non-discretionary spending needs to be scrutinized.

But that’s not all. This call wants to place “effective programs that empower poor Americans or contribute internationally to economic development or the advancement of health” out of bounds. The fact is that many of these programs are busted, and I think it is disingenuous for those who know that to say that we have some kind of moral obligation to keep throwing good money after bad simply out of some vague concern for “the poor.” That is more like a salve for guilty consciences than responsible social action.

The language of the statement doesn’t seem to do justice to the principled positions that agree with the vague notion of the obligation to care for the poor, but disagree about the particular policy and budgetary implications at the federal level. Wallis and Chuck Colson recently agreed that Christians ought engage in principled and honest debate, and not demonize other positions, even implicitly. To cast the debate in the terms that budget hawks don’t care about the poor I think violates this kind of commitment.

So what we’re missing here is a really principled and vigorous view of what the government’s legitimate role is in the world and in relationship to a variety of concerns: defense, social welfare, international development, and so on. Once we’ve decided what government is for you can start to make some principled decisions about funding priorities…things closest to the core mission of government should get the highest priority, and so on.

And the focus really shouldn’t just be on what government should and shouldn’t do. Many of these leaders are religious leaders. The focus should be on what these other institutions can and should be doing, beyond simply serving as lobbying organizations for governmental programs.

I guess, needless to say, I won’t be signing.

-- document and critique posted by EconoMix

The English word 'reformational' in Japanese script

2011-03-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

Translation of the word

"Reformational"

into Japanese language

Origin Language: English

Translation that you can say:

改良の

How to Say... website

You can contribute an alternative translation.

-- materials posted by Owlb

Christian Higher Education Canada suggests conference on "academic freedom"

2011-02-15T02:53:00.000-08:00

Christian Higher Education Canada (CHEC)

CHEC is a non-profit association of higher education institutions, based in Steinbach, MB. Members include 33 institutions (with a yearly enrolment figure of over 17,000 students) representing a broad spectrum of undergraduate and graduate Christian higher education within Canada working together to further the CHEC mission. CHEC's mission is to advance the efficiency and effectiveness of Christian higher education at member schools, including fostering institutional cooperation, and to raise public awareness of the value of Christian higher education in Canada.

View CHEC's current websites and initiatives at www.checanada.ca, www.checusout.ca

and www.ccufairs.ca.

Dr. Justin Cooper is the new executive director of CHEC, having concluded his long-term service as President of Redeemer University College. Appointed in 1994, he announced in October 2008 that he would be stepping down in June 2010 after three terms in office. He has been associated with Redeemer since 1980. Cooper received an MA and PhD in political science from the University of Toronto and holds a BA from Trinity Christian College in Chicago. He and his wife Jessie have two sons and seven grandchildren.

CHEC Calls for Dialogue on the

Meaning of "University" and "Academic Freedom" in Canada

Is it possible for a bone fide “university” in Canada today to have an “academic freedom” policy that respects its community’s faith-based standards? Some Canadian educators say yes; some say no. Before about 1950 most educators said yes; and today outside Canada most educators say yes; but today in Canada and the world many say no.

This tension was discussed on June 1, 2010 at the Annual General Meeting of Christian Higher Education Canada, Inc. (CHEC) in Toronto with 37 delegates representing 19 evangelical post-secondary institutions from across Canada. The issue came out of recent visits and reports by delegations of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) to three CHEC institutions and the CAUT hints of future visits to other CHEC institutions. The membership referred its concerns to the Board of Directors which met the following day.

CHEC as an organization recognizes the autonomy of its member institutions to each develop its own statement on academic freedom (as does the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada), but notes with concern the accusation by CAUT against some of its member institutions suggesting they do not practice bone fide academic freedom. The concern raised by CHEC is based on the seemingly arbitrary attitude of CAUT that it alone has authority to define the meaning of “university” and “academic freedom” within Canada and that those who do not accept its definitions are in some manner deficient.

Whereas academic freedom itself implies a basic respect for diversity of views and willingness to debate different positions without threat of reprisal, the Board of CHEC encourages the holding of a national conference to dialogue on the meaning of “university and “academic freedom” within the Canadian context, and in relation to global understandings of these terms. It recommends that such a conference include all stakeholders within higher education. The Board would be pleased to arrange representative voices to make presentation on behalf of the confessional position of its members in an effort to create a climate of dialogue.

Education: Elementary Schools: There's a lot of Rouseavian nonsense in this video, but given what's out there ...

2011-02-15T01:12:00.000-08:00

Check out refWrite's YouTube channel, yUT2ube.

-- posted by Owlb

International Transforming Education conference, Darwin, Australia, July 12-14, 2k11

2011-02-13T22:20:00.000-08:00

Transforming Education conference website
International Conference, Darwin,
Northern Territory, Australia
keynoters:
Dr Os Guinness, Dr Samson Makhado, Dr Raquel Hatter, Dr John Dickson
July 12-14

Scholarly Symposium -- July 10-12
Finance/Development Symposium -- July 15
School Leadership Symposium -- July 15
Indigenous Education Symposium -- July 15

refWrite's YouTube channel carries this vid, yUT2ube. Check it out.

Here's some video-info from Australia's Christian schools teachers:

Here's a video giving a voice to parents of Christian school students, again in Australia, the host country for next summer's International Conference:

-- Conference materials and Christian school movement materials posted by Owlb

Exploring and reconfiguring the International Legal Community

2011-02-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with

the "International Community"? --

Reconfiguring the International Legal Order

from a Dooyeweerdian Standpoint *

by Romel Regalado Bagares

PhD candidate in Social and Political Theory, VU University, Amsterdam

Senior Associate at Roque & Butuyan Law Offices

Lecturer, public and private international law,
Lyceum Philippines University College of Law Manila, and
Executive Director, Center for International Law-Philippines

ABSTRACT OF PAPER:

Over the second half of the 20th century and well into the 21st century, international law has seen a tremendous shift in thinking on who makes law in the international legal order. Albeit states are still the primary actors in this system, there is now a broadening appreciation for non-state actors – especially civil society – in what one scholar has termed a dynamic “process of authoritative decision-making” in international law. Thus, Art. 48 of the Draft Articles of Responsibility has exploded the old concept of a state-dominated “international community” as to include individuals and other non-state actors, especially civil society groups, although the concept of an “international community” in international legal thinking remains a contested terrain in many ways.

The late Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd’s social ontology ably accounts for this, and more. In this paper – which draws from the fourth chapter of a proposed PhD project at the Faculty of Philosophy at the VU - I will discuss contemporary critiques of state-dominated international relations, which highlight both the erosion of the power of the territorial state as well as the calls for a more inclusive “international community”. Hence the tension between state

individuality and the notion of a wide-embracing international community that now includes non-state actors as active participants. I will discuss how much of contemporary international legal theory looks at this conflict of positions.

Then I will show in Dooyeweerdian social ontology, various associational spheres, along with individuals, are themselves bearers of rights. Important in this discussion is the need in international law to rethink notions of international legal personality as well as the sources of international law. Dooyeweerd’s social ontology offers a viable if truly radical account of the place of non-state actors in international law that is not available in contemporary international legal theory.

Thus, in this paper, I will attempt to extend the notion of sphere sovereignty to an enlarged realm where other actors find a place, contrasting this with current thinking on the idea of an “international community.”

Dooyeweerd spurns such an idea as a case of sociological infelicity, instead proposing to describe relations in the international plane as an “inter-communal legal order.” Dooyeweerd’s limited discussions of an “inter-communal legal order” seem to touch mainly on states in international relations but it can be argued that a necessary implication of his horizontal conception of sphere sovereignty is that in international relations, states can no longer have a monopoly on the discourse as various non-state actors now enter the picture. I will then discuss the Dooyeweerdian inter-communal legal order and the role of states and associational spheres in this task at the level of the intercommunal legal order.

On this point, I will show how Dooyeweerd’s notion of societal sphere sovereignty lays bare the misconceived foundations of an “international community.” Here, an examination of Dooyeweerd’s notion of an “inter-communal legal order” – albeit

admittedly preliminary in nature – comes to the fore.

Here, the following questions are relevant: What are the implications of Dooyeweerd’s social ontology for resolving the clash between individuality and community? How may his social ontology account for the rise of non-actors in international law? What are its implications for the debates on international legal personality? What is Dooyeweerd’s notion of an inter-communal legal order? What is the place of societal sphere sovereignty in such an order? How is such a notion different from contemporary notions of an “international community”? What are implications of Dooyeweerd’s inter-communal legal order for our understanding of the UN system? What is the place of non-state actors in the inter-communal legal order?

* for the Future of the Creation Order Conference,

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands,

August 16-19, 2011.

http://www.cpc2011.org/content/program

Federalist Society: Law Debate: Orin Kerr and Randy Barnett on individual mandate in healthcare law

2011-01-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

-- Lawt, refWrite frontpage columnist