Did Jesus Possess the Beatific Vision During His Incarnation?: A Comparative Essay on the Perspectives of Thomas Joseph White and Thomas G. Weinandy

The idea that Jesus possessed the beatific vision during his earthly life had traditionally been upheld by Catholic theologians. However, in the last century or so, this idea has become heavily scrutinised by some of the biggest names in contemporary theology. This paper examines the works of two particular contemporary theologians on the issue, Thomas Joseph White and Thomas G. Weinandy. Thomas White defends the belief that Jesus, during his earthly life, possessed an immediate vision of the Father. White believes that the beatific vision is necessary for the Incarnate Son to know with certainty his own identity as the Son of God. Without the beatific vision, Jesus would have to have had faith in his own divine Sonship, an understanding which runs contrary to the portrayals of Christ in Scripture. White also argues that the beatific vision is the only means by which the Incarnate Son can know, with certitude, his own divine will. Only in this way can Jesus maintain unity in his theandric actions. Thomas Weinandy, on the other hand, rejects the notion of Jesus’ beatific vision. Weinandy argues that the question itself is inherently flawed, giving rise to a conception of Jesus that is implicitly Nestorian. Thus, to believe that Jesus possessed the beatific vision would result in a violation of the Christological declarations of the Council of Chalcedon. Weinandy instead promotes a ‘hypostatic’ or ‘filial’ vision, whereby the Son comes to humanly know himself as Son in relation to the Father, and not in relation to his own divinity

The Bochner formula for Riemannian flows

In this paper, we consider a Riemannian manifold (M, g) endowed with a Riemannian flow and we study the curvature term in the Bochner-Weitzenb{\"o}ck formula of the basic Laplacian on M. We prove that this term splits into two parts. The first part depends mainly on the curvature operator of the underlying manifold M and the second part is expressed in terms of the O'Neill tensor of the flow. After getting a lower bound for this term, depending on these two parts, we establish an eigenvalue estimate of the basic Laplacian on basic forms. We then discuss the limiting case of the estimate and prove that when equality occurs, the manifold M is a local product. This paper follows mainly the approach in [21]

Determination of biogeochemical properties of marine particles using above water measurements of the degree of polarization at the Brewster angle

Retrieval of biogeochemical parameters from remotely sensed data in optically complex waters such as those found in coastal zones is a challenging task due to the effects of various water constituents (biogenic, nonalgal and inorganic particles, dissolved matter) on the radiation exiting the ocean. Since scattering by molecules, aerosols, hydrosols and reflection at the sea surface introduce and modify the polarization state of light, the polarized upward radiation contains embedded information about the intrinsic nature of aerosols and suspended matter in the ocean. In this study, shipborne above water angularly resolved visible/near infrared multiband measurements of the degree of polarization are analysed against their corresponding in-situ biogeochemically characterized water samples for the first time. Water samples and radiometric data were collected in the English Channel along an inshore-offshore transect. Angular variations in the degree of polarization P are found to be consistent with theory. Maximum values of P are observed near the Brewster viewing angle in the specular direction. Variations in the degree of polarization at the Brewster angle (PB) with water content revealed that the suspended particulate matter, which is mainly composed of inorganic particles during the experiment, contributes to depolarise the skylight reflection, thus reducing PB. An empirical polarization-based approach is proposed to determine biogeochemical properties of the particles. The concentration of inorganic particles can be estimated using PB to within ±13% based on the dataset used. Larger sets of polarized measurements are recommended to corroborate the tendency observed in this study

A two parameter ratio-product-ratio estimator using auxiliary information

We propose a two parameter ratio-product-ratio estimator for a finite population mean in a simple random sample without replacement following the methodology in Ray and Sahai (1980), Sahai and Ray (1980), Sahai and Sahai (1985) and Singh and Ruiz Espejo (2003). The bias and mean square error of our proposed estimator are obtained to the first degree of approximation. We derive conditions for the parameters under which the proposed estimator has smaller mean square error than the sample mean, ratio and product estimators. We carry out an application showing that the proposed estimator outperforms the traditional estimators using groundwater data taken from a geological site in the state of Florida.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 4 table

(Why) Do Self-Employed Parents Have More Children?

We provide a theory whereby non-benevolent, self-employed households increase their expected family size to raise the likelihood that an inside family member will be a good match at running the business. Hence, having larger family sizes raises the self-employed household’s expected return to their business. Using data from the General Social Survey, we find that respondents have approximately .2 to .4 more actual and expected number of children if they are self-employed as compared to if they are not self-employed. This empirical relationship is established across a broad array of sub-samples using a simple differences in means test. As well, the empirical relationship holds using a regression framework, including the use of instrumental variables estimation to allow for the possibility of endogeneity of the respondent’s self-employment status and whether the respondent’s spouse stays at home.self-employed, children, familiy business, matching

Do Worker Remittances Reduce Output Volatility in Developing Countries?

Remittance inflows have increased considerably in recent years and are large relative to the size of many recipient economies. The theoretical and empirical effects of remittance inflows on output growth volatility are, however, ambiguous. On the one hand, remittances have been a remarkably stable source of income, relative to other private and public flows, and they seem to be compensatory in nature, rising when the home countryÂ’s economy suffers a downturn. On the other hand, the labor supply effects induced by altruistic remittances could cause the output effects associated with technology shocks to be magnified. This paper finds robust evidence for a sample of 70 remittance-recipient countries, including 16 advanced economies and 54 developing countries that remittances have a negative effect on output growth volatility, thereby supporting the notion that remittance flows are a stabilizing influence on output.Remittances, output volatility, developing countries