A Review of John Rists\u27 Augustine on Free Will and Predestination

In this paper I seek to summarize and critique John Rist’s article “Augustine on Free Will and Predestination.” Rist treats Augustine with honesty. When someone is as prominent, loved, and recognized as Augustine, when someone has as much authority as he does, the temptation to manipulate his writings into saying things which agree with one’s own position is strong. Rist resists this temptation, even concluding that Augustine holds a position on free will and predestination which Rist finds highly objectionable. But in his objections to Augustine’s position, Rist does not do justice to the whole system of Augustine’s thought. In my critique I will focus on two points where Rist takes issue with Augustine: 1) Augustine’s lack of an account of how God acts justly in election and 2) the demeaning of man to the level of a “puppet.” I will attempt to demonstrate that Rist’s criticisms are accounted for by extending Augustine’s teachings of, regarding 1), causality and the will and, in regard to 2), the solidarity of humanity with Adam. The aim of this paper is not to prove that Augustine’s articulation of free will and God’s predestination is the correct one but only that his position can withstand the criticisms Rist brings against it

Differentiating Averroes’ Accounts of the Metaphysics of Human Epistemology in his Middle and Long Commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima

Averroes (an Islamic Andalusian philosopher in the 12th century) discusses the metaphysics of human epistemology extensively, and his socio-religious context sheds light on this discussion. Several of his works, most prominently his three commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima, attempt to explain how finite, particular minds interact with universal, eternal intelligibles. Current scholarship focuses on the two longer commentaries, the Middle Commentary and the Long Commentary, but there is no consensus regarding which of these presents Averroes’ final articulation of the metaphysics of human epistemology. Those who maintain that Averroes wrote the Middle Commentary last tend to minimize the differences between the two accounts. This paper does not take a position on the chronology of Averroes’ works. Rather, it seeks to demonstrate that, even if Averroes wrote the Middle Commentary last, in light of Averroes’ socio-political environment, it is evident that the accounts of the metaphysics of human epistemology in the Middle and Long commentaries differ substantively

The Hebraic Monarchy as God’s Redemptive Response to Israel’s Unfaithfulness

The first portion of this paper will argue that the Old Testament portrays the monarchy neither as God’s chosen method of relating to his people, nor as an intrinsically evil institution, but as God’s redemptive response to Israel’s unfaithfulness. The second portion addresses a potential objection to this portrayal by arguing that Moses serves primarily as a type for Samuel, not the monarchy

Race and Christian Interpersonal Relationships

Unfortunately no one seems to have a workable and effective plan to resolve societal racial tension that continues to exist in America and in the rest of the world. However, the Bible gives clear instructions as how to resolve racial conflicts. Having grown up in Hawaii, Caleb Brown shares his experiences about racial differences in that state and proposes biblical solutions to all interpersonal conflicts

Research on the effects of altered gravity and other factors on the growth and development of higher plants

The establishment, maintenance and use of the NASA-UCSC Botanical Centrifuge is discussed. The broad goals of this project were: (1) to establish facilities for conducting experiments under conditions of sustained centrifugation; (2) to pursue research on the gravitational physiology of higher plants; (3) to develop experimental hardware suitable for studies of plant development in the weightless condition; and (4) to accommodate visiting investigators whose researches are of interest to the NASA Biomedical Program and who may require for some limited time, the use of a medium size centrifuge with associated facilities appropriate for plant physiological studies

Reversal Modes of Simulated Iron Nanopillars in an Obliquely Oriented Field

Stochastic micromagnetic simulations are employed to study switching in three-dimensional magnetic nanopillars exposed to highly misaligned fields. The switching appears to proceed through two different decay modes, characterized by very different average lifetimes and different average values of the transverse magnetization components.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Local Distributional Effects of Government Cash Transfers in Chile

Despite rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, inequality in Chile has remained high and remarkably constant over the last 20 years, prompting academic and public interest in the subject. Due to data limitations, however, research on inequality in Chile has concentrated on the national and regional levels. The impact of cash subsidies to poor households on local inequality is thus not well understood. Using poverty mapping methods to asses this impact, we find heterogeneity in the effectiveness of regional and municipal governments in reducing inequality via poverty-reduction transfers, suggesting that alternative targeting regimes may complement current practice in aiding the poor.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57252/1/wp872 .pd