Semantical Mutation, Algorithms and Programs

This article offers an explanation of perhaps Wittgenstein’s strangest and least intuitive thesis – the semantical mutation thesis – according to which one can never answer a mathematical conjecture because the new proof alters the very meanings of the terms involved in the original question. Instead of basing our justification on the distinction between mere calculation and proofs of isolated propositions, characteristic of Wittgenstein’s intermediary period, we generalize it to include conjectures involving effective procedures as well

Theological ethics after MacIntyre : the significance of Alasdair MacIntyre's moral philosophy for Lutheran ethics.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN031701 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Liberian clergywomen and the women of Liberia mass action for peace : causal factors for clergywomen\u27s participation or nonparticipation and the impact on clergywomen\u27s leadership in the Liberian church

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1912/thumbnail.jp

Patriarchy and discordant discourses in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church : the voices of priests and women in parish settings

This thesis explores the sexual theology and contemporary teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and considers their implications for women and priests. It examines the salience and relevance of traditional teaching in the everyday lives of priests and women. It questions the link between a traditionally formed priesthood and the customary beliefs and practices of 'ordinary' English Catholics. Feminist scholarship has produced powerful insights into the ways in which organised religion has subordinated women through patriarchal structures and organisation, although there has been little exploration of the gendered nature of Catholic sexual theology. This thesis suggests that the negative construction of women's bodies in sexual theology, underpins the continued subordination of women in the Catholic Church. It argues that religious inscriptions on women's bodies are central to the continued control of women Al a patriarchal Church. This thesis uses patriarchy, sexual theology, and power and authority, as the main themes of discussion. An examination of the discourses of traditional sexual theology and contemporary teaching reveals that patriarchal inscriptions on women's bodies are central to each of these themes and they are mutually supportive and sustaining. Sociological research has demonstrated a disjuncture between contemporary teaching and the beliefs and practices of 'ordinary' English Catholics. This thesis adds a gender dimension by suggesting that the English parish is a place of contradictions in which differing attitudes towards women are a significant factor. It also examines the links between contemporary teaching and the beliefs and practices of English Catholic priests and women. The evidence suggests that traditional sexual theology has little relevance in the everyday lives of English Catholic priests and women. There is a lack of `fit' between the traditional teaching of the Church and social experience. Nevertheless patriarchal ideas and beliefs continue to exist and have value, both in contemporary teaching and in the day-to-day life of the parish, and contribute to the contradictions and conflict of contemporary parish life. The discourses of English Catholic the priests and women in this study suggest, that both have been affected not only by the dominant discourse of the Church , but also by the critical discourses of the surrounding world. Views of women are emerging, which are in contrast to the negative view of women in Catholic sexual theology. The discourses of women and priests have much in common with each other but little in common with either traditional sexual theology or the teaching of the current pope. Together these discourses represent a significant point of resistance to the negative view of women in Catholic sexual theology and to traditional power and authority in the Catholic Church. A 'customary Priesthood' with an affinity to the 'customary Catholicism' of English Catholics appears to be emerging. This calls to question the legitimacy of traditional teaching and papal authority

The role of the Board of Social Responsibility in the development and implementation of social work policy in Scotland

This thesis focuses on the role of the Church of Scotland's Board of Social Responsibility in the development and implementation of social work policy in Scotland. The thesis deploys a case study methodology and interpretive research methods to generate understanding of the Board of Social Responsibility and its intended purpose as a service-providing voluntary organisation. Links between the Board of Social Responsibility and significant social work policy developments are identified to determine the changing influence of both local authorities and central government upon the scope of voluntary social work service provision. The thesis identifies a process of incremental social work policy development in Scotland that has operated to encourage the contribution of service-providing voluntary organisations. The Board of Social Responsibility is identified as having operated as Scotland's largest voluntary provider of social work services throughout the period under review and to have implemented a changing pattern of social work service provision: first shifting from an innovative to a traditional model of participation, returning to an innovative model, and then, finally, shifting towards a developmental model of participation. The source of this changing pattern of participation is identified as individual agency allied. to interpretations of the organisation's faith-based ethos. The significant role of the Board of Social Responsibility in the development and implementation of social work policy in Scotland is established as that of provider of a range of replicative, alternative social work services. This role is related to Scotland's wider voluntary sector to establish that views of social work policy development existing within the Board of Social Responsibility are not indicative of views existing within other voluntary organisations. The Board of Social Responsibility's particular pattern of participation is also recognised to be distinctive. Ultimately the thesis finds that the approving model of governance adopted by the Board of Social Responsibility's higher-order collectives means the Church of Scotland has not exerted a significant influence upon the policy environment that has grown to control and regulate the social work undertaken by service-providing voluntary organisations operating in Scotland between 1948 and 2000

From periphery to partnership: a critical analysis of the relationship of baptists in Hong Kong with the colonial government in the post-World War II era

Baptists in Hong Kong, originally a peripheral denomination before the World War II, had become the largest Protestant community by the time of the handover of the colony to China in July 1997. This study aims to narrate and explicate the formation of the church-state practice of Baptists in Hong Kong in the period of 1949 to 1984. The thesis is focused on the question of the extent to which the British colonial policy contributed to the rise of the Baptist community in Hong Kong. The thesis will uncover the roots of the British colonial strategy in the post-World War II era and how the Baptist denomination happened to be part of the scheme. The thesis will also attempt to account for the formation of the Baptist church-state practice. The thesis finally will employ John Howard Yoder's criticism of Constantinianism to critique the Baptist church-state practice in the post-World War II period, and the core concepts of Yoder's Jeremianic model will serve as an alternative of the Baptist church-state practice in the post-colonial era.The study will be based upon a theological and empirical research. The socio-political- ecclesiological context of Hong Kong in the post-World War II period and the British colonial policy in the territory will be scrutinised. The uniqueness of Baptist polity that has led to the emergence of the Baptist lay-leaders and the interactions between the laity and the pastors on the issue of Baptist educational institutions accepting the government subsidy, embodying the formalisation of the church-state practice, will be examined. The rationale behind the Baptist leaders' willingness to become a partner with the government will be explored, by investigating the patron-client relationship between the colonial government and Baptists and kuan-hsi (network), a prominent feature of the Chinese cultural heritage.The practice of Baptist worship service will be investigated as it is regarded as the principal factor of the formation of spirituality. I will suggest that pietistic individualism focusing on personal religious and spiritual experience contributes to a problematic church-world dichotomy in the minds of Chinese Christians. A review of Chinese theology in the first half of the twentieth century will disclose a solid heritage of pietism among Chinese Christians. The factor of "state control of religion" in Chinese culture fosters and enhances their uncritical attitude toward government. Additionally, order and contents of Baptist worship service have also been shaped by the pietistic tradition so that sermons in worship mainly focus on such topics as personal relationship with God as deepened through Bible reading, prayers, fellowship, sin, etcThe existing models explicating Hong Kong's church-state situation offered by Hong Kong local scholars will be analysed. A literature review of the discourse on church-world relations by the post-World War II theologians in the West, including Oliver O'Donovan, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Howard Yoder, will be introduced. Yoder's model will be considered as a better one among them, and its strengths as well as its applicability will be examined. "Effectiveness" and "faithfulness," two key features of Yoder's Jeremianic model, will be singled out as the main criteria to expound the church-state practice of Baptists in Hong Kong. The thesis will also explore the question of the extent to which the church-state model adopted by Baptists in Hong Kong relied on a Constantinian model which in the post-colonial era is now shown to be problematic, and the suggested solutions to the dilemma of Baptists will be offered. The practice of "the church as a worshipping community" will lead Baptists to a faithful church-state practice in the post-colonial era. The thesis will conclude with an examination of the Jeremianic model of church-state relations in dialogue with Yoder's political theology. At the end of the thesis, it will be pointed out that the Home Church in China after 1949 has been the most rapid-growing group within the Christian community despite acute persecutions by the Communist government. This example will serve as a model of church-state practice for Baptists in the present day Hong Kong -the city that has taken on a new configuration with increasing strong presence of Mainland China's political and ideological influence

The crucial role of proof--a classical defense against mathematical empiricism

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-137).by Catherine Allen Womack.Ph.D

Who are Church Schools For? Towards an Ecclesiology for Church of England Voluntary Aided Secondary Schools

There is a mismatch between the Church of England's own self-conception and the realities of modern post-Christian England, which consists in a failure to recognise the vestigial nature and redundancy of a 'church for the nation' ecclesiology in an age when the CE is clearly, in classical sociological terms, a denomination-type. This impacts on the practice and perceived function of Anglican Christianity, and although baptism is treated as illustrative, the principle focus is the role and purpose of CE secondary schools, viewed theoretically within a spectrum of ecclesiological modelling, and more practically as responding to recent ecclesio-political imperatives, notably the Dearing Report of 2001, and the rhetoric and debate surrounding its release and subsequent mutation. The first section (Chapters 1 and 2) is diagnostic of the current state of the church, reviewing sociological and cultural theory, and arguing on ecclesiological grounds that the CE now has the status of one denomination among many, which implies a more modest and realistic role in its affairs, particularly in the education system, than the traditional ecclesia (church)/establishment model might have entailed. The second section (Chapters 3 - 6) traces the history of the CE's educational role, and examines the crucial issue for understanding the purpose of church schools: admissions policies. In this discussion the links between admission to the church (baptism) and admission to the church school are drawn out and explored. The framework established in the first section is used to illuminate the argument of the third section (Chapters 7 and 8) which provides a detailed account of the church's current role in education represented by the appearance and reception of the Dearing Report in 2001. The contention is that the attachment to the 'church for the nation' model has led to complicity with contemporary political expedients at the cost of a meaningful identity for church schools. The conclusion is that recognition of the more modest status of the CE would provide a clear rationale for its schools in particular, and Faith Schools in general. Chapter 8 offers an alternative voice to 'Dearing'. The final chapter, having investigated wider yet germane issues, provides an ecclesiological model of the 'single Faith nurture' school

Tithing: A Biblical Principle for the Sustenance of Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia

Tithing: A Biblical Principle for the Sustenance of Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia Dapaye, Simon Tenyen, “Tithing: A Biblical Principle for the Sustenance of Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia.” Master of Arts Thesis. Concordia Seminary, 2016. 115pp. This thesis discusses the implication of Numbers 18:22–32 and Malachi 3:6–12 regarding the sustenance of the priesthood and its bearing on New Testament stewardship and giving with an emphasis on a pastor\u27s sustenance. These Old Testament texts set the basis for the Levite tithe, instituted for the sustenance of the priests and Levites, whose function was to lead Israel in its ritual duties before the Lord. These passages are used to examine the theological, biblical, and historical function of the Levite tithe in order to lay a foundation for a closer study of stewardship and generous giving for the sustenance of pastors and ministers in the New Testament and the church today. An exegetical study of Old Testament texts (Num. 18:19–32, Mal 3:6–12) that highlight the sustenance of the priesthood through the Levite tithe was accomplished. In like manner, similar studies of New Testament texts (Matt. 23:23–24, Heb. 7:1–10, Matt. 10:1–15, 1 Cor. 9:1–18, 2 Cor. 8:1–6, Gal. 6:1–10) were also carried out. Both Old and New Testament passages support the Levite tithe as a biblical principle which parallels the New Testament teaching on stewardship/generous giving for the sustenance of those who teach the faith. Through a broad analysis of the lack of sustenance of pastor and clergy members of the ELCL, its causes, and possible solutions, this paper proposes useful ways to teach and enlighten people on tithing so as to improve the desperate situation in Liberia depicted above. A proposal of a stewardship committee is recommended to help the church organize and manage its resources of time, talent and treasure. In addition, a bible study that will teach from scriptural perspective further details of the tithe, and generous giving has also been highlighted in this paper. This researcher is of the conviction that adherence to all of the aforesaid will allow the ELCL to unwaveringly teach and preach the gospel with minimum struggle over pastor’s sustenance, mission and evangelism