Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus on Gnomic Will (γνώμη) in Christ: Clarity and Ambiguity

For years I have been perplexed as to why Maximus the Confessor, in his articulate christological formulations in the seventh century, ultimately decided that Jesus Christ, as fully human, had only a natural human will (θέλημα φυσική), and so forcefully ruled against the possibility that he also had a "gnomic" (or "deliberative") will (γνώμη) in the manner of fallen human beings. In the words of Maximus' own beloved predecessor, Gregory Nazianzen, "what is not assumed is not healed." Though not alone in this concern, I’ve made a regular pest of myself broaching this issue in numerous patristics conferences (most recently the 2011 Oxford Patristics Conference) anytime an essay on Maximus would even remotely touch on the matter. The answer I get represents a fairly hardened scholarly consensus. Accordingly, Maximus, in working out his understanding of the Chalcedonian definition, still required a certain asymmetry in the composite hypostasis of Christ, since it is the divine hypostasis of the Son who united with and divinized the humanity of Jesus. In this case only a "natural" human will could be truly deified, not a gnomic will prone to vacillation. I agree with this consensus in general, and it has been strengthened all the more in an excellent recent study by Ian McFarland comparing Maximus’ doctrine of the will with that of Augustine. McFarland has cogently argued the plausibility of Maximus' denial of γνώμη in Christ as a function of his strong sense that "natural" human will, as modeled in Christ, is not antecedently "constrained" by the will of the divine Creator but a manifestation of the gracious stability of human will in concert with deifying divine grace. Indeed, Christ has effectively liberated human willing from the disastrous illusion of "autonomy" that characterizes human existence after the fall

Spatial trends on an ungrazed West Cumbrian saltmarsh of surface contamination by selected radionuclides over a 25 year period

Long term spatial and temporal variations in radionuclide activity have been measured in a contaminated ungrazed saltmarsh near Ravenglass, Cumbria. Over a twenty–five year period there has been a decrease in activity concentration with 106Ru and 137Cs showing the highest rate of change followed by Pu alpha and 241Am. A number of factors contribute to the reduction with time; including radiological half lives, discharge and remobilisation. For 241Am the lower reduction rate is partially due to ingrowth from 241Pu and partially as a result of transport of sediment from the offshore Irish Sea mud patch. Considerable spatial variation for the different radionuclides was observed, which with time became less defined. The highest activity concentrations of long-lived radionuclides were in low energy areas, typically where higher rates of sedimentation and vegetation occurred. The trend was reversed for the shorter lived radionuclide, 106Ru, with higher activity concentrations observed in high energy areas where there was frequent tidal inundation. Surface scrape samples provide a pragmatic, practical method of measuring sediment contamination over large areas and is a sampling approach adopted by most routine environmental monitoring programs, but it does not allow for interpretation of the effect of variation in sedimentation rates. This paper proposes a method for calculating indicative sedimentation rates across the saltmarsh using surface scrape data, which produces results consistent with values experimentally obtained

Spatial trends on an ungrazed West Cumbrian saltmarsh of surface contamination by selected radionuclides over a 25 year period

Long term spatial and temporal variations in radionuclide activity have been measured in a contaminated ungrazed saltmarsh near Ravenglass, Cumbria. Over a twenty–five year period there has been a decrease in activity concentration with 106Ru and 137Cs showing the highest rate of change followed by Pu alpha and 241Am. A number of factors contribute to the reduction with time; including radiological half lives, discharge and remobilisation. For 241Am the lower reduction rate is partially due to ingrowth from 241Pu and partially as a result of transport of sediment from the offshore Irish Sea mud patch. Considerable spatial variation for the different radionuclides was observed, which with time became less defined. The highest activity concentrations of long-lived radionuclides were in low energy areas, typically where higher rates of sedimentation and vegetation occurred. The trend was reversed for the shorter lived radionuclide, 106Ru, with higher activity concentrations observed in high energy areas where there was frequent tidal inundation. Surface scrape samples provide a pragmatic, practical method of measuring sediment contamination over large areas and is a sampling approach adopted by most routine environmental monitoring programs, but it does not allow for interpretation of the effect of variation in sedimentation rates. This paper proposes a method for calculating indicative sedimentation rates across the saltmarsh using surface scrape data, which produces results consistent with values experimentally obtained

Implications of widespread algal biofuels production on macronutrient fertilizer supplies: Nutrient demand and evaluation of potential alternate nutrient sources

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Biofuels from microalgae are currently the subject of many research projects to determine their feasibility as a replacement for fossil fuels. In order to be a successful candidate, there must be enough fertilizers available to support large scale production. Commercial fertilizers are available for biofuel production from the world fertilizer surplus, but due to nitrogen and phosphorus future production limitations, biofuels would ideally not use any of these resources to be a long term sustainable fuel. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium requirements were determined for two algal species, Chlorella and Nannochloropsis, to produce 19 billion. l per year (BLPY). At this scale, both algal species would use 32-49%, 32-49% and less than 1% of the world surplus values of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, respectively. Nutrient recycling options and alternative sources of nutrients were evaluated to determine their potential contribution of lowering the synthetic fertilizer requirement. Results show that all of the recycling scenarios reduce the nutrient requirements, but catalytic hydrothermal gasification has the largest reduction of 95% of the nitrogen and 90% of the phosphorus. Contributions from all alternative sources can also provide only 5% or less of the required nitrogen when produced in the gulf region. For phosphorus in the same region, poultry concentrated animal feeding operations can provide up to 28% of the requirement of Chlorella. To find the least amount of nitrogen that may be used, catalytic hydrothermal gasification was combined with all of the alternative nutrients available in the gulf region. The maximum amount of biofuels that could be produced in this location without using any synthetic fertilizers is 50. ±. 20 BLPY from Chlorella and 45. ±. 19 BLPY from Nannochloropsis. This study shows that the nutrient requirement for biofuel production from microalgae will not be a limitation if recycling methods within the process chain and alternative sources of nutrients are utilized