Missional Insights: Exploring the Foundations of Mission in the Southeastern European Context

Our participation in God’s mission to the world is a mandate for all followers of Jesus Christ - however, our understanding of thewhat, why, and how of God’s mission is often viewed through the lens of immediate historical precedent and personal experience. As mission is intrinsically related to how we understand God, who we are as God’s people, and how we think about God’s purposes in our particular contexts, it is therefore important to reflect upon its Biblical, theological, and historical foundations. In light of this, the article will explore the qualitative nature of God’s mission and suggest some ways in which to think about our participation in God’s mission in a Southeastern European context

Mission and the Reformation: Lessons from the Reformers and the Anabaptists

Scholarly interaction has ranged from arguing that the Reformers were indifferent toward mission to asserting that both Luther and Calvin had theologies of mission embedded in their understanding of the gospels and emphasis on preaching the word of God. On the other hand, during the same time period, the Anabaptists emerged as a movement with a radical and deliberate mission praxis. How can strains of a new and emerging Protestantism, in similar socio-political contexts, develop such different mission praxis? This paper explores this discrepancy between these two movements and then offers implications and questions for the 21st century church-in-mission

Missional Insights: Exploring the Foundations of Mission in the Southeastern European Context

Our participation in God’s mission to the world is a mandate for all followers of Jesus Christ - however, our understanding of thewhat, why, and how of God’s mission is often viewed through the lens of immediate historical precedent and personal experience. As mission is intrinsically related to how we understand God, who we are as God’s people, and how we think about God’s purposes in our particular contexts, it is therefore important to reflect upon its Biblical, theological, and historical foundations. In light of this, the article will explore the qualitative nature of God’s mission and suggest some ways in which to think about our participation in God’s mission in a Southeastern European context

“Discerning the Body” in Cross-Cultural Relationships: A Critical Analysis of Missional Partnership in Southeastern Europe

21st century mission, now recognized as being from “everywhere to anywhere,” has increasingly focused on the concepts of mission partnerships and interdependence. However, all too often, mission partnerships in Southeastern Europe seem entrenched in narratives of dysfunctional relationships. Is the power and impact of the global Church as it participates in God’s mission directly related to how we function together across the boundaries of ethnicity, tradition, and socio-economic status? If so, how can both national Christians and foreign missionaries step out of repeating negative relational patterns? In order to explore some of the foundational issues rooted in this question, this paper will first discuss a missiological reading of 1 Corinthians 11:17- 34. Secondly, this paper will critically analyze a Croatian case study, which highlights a past successful partnership between nationals and Western missionaries, focusing on three pertinent concepts that emerge: organic teams, economic paradigms, and the foundation for true power in mission. Finally, in light of both Paul’s directives and the issues raised in the case study, the paper will offer missiological implications for future cross-cultural relationships in Southeastern Europe

Multi-Modal Human-Machine Communication for Instructing Robot Grasping Tasks

A major challenge for the realization of intelligent robots is to supply them with cognitive abilities in order to allow ordinary users to program them easily and intuitively. One way of such programming is teaching work tasks by interactive demonstration. To make this effective and convenient for the user, the machine must be capable to establish a common focus of attention and be able to use and integrate spoken instructions, visual perceptions, and non-verbal clues like gestural commands. We report progress in building a hybrid architecture that combines statistical methods, neural networks, and finite state machines into an integrated system for instructing grasping tasks by man-machine interaction. The system combines the GRAVIS-robot for visual attention and gestural instruction with an intelligent interface for speech recognition and linguistic interpretation, and an modality fusion module to allow multi-modal task-oriented man-machine communication with respect to dextrous robot manipulation of objects.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Misija i reformacija: Lekcije iz iskustva reformatora i anabaptista

Znanstvena interakcija kretala se od rasprave da su reformatori bili indiferentni prema misiji do tvrdnje da su Luther i Calvin imali misijsku teologiju ugrađenu u njihovo razumijevanje Evanđelja i davanje naglaska na propovijedanje Božje riječi. S druge strane, tijekom istoga vremenskog razdoblja anabaptisti su se pojavili kao pokret s radikalnom i promišljenom misijskom praksom. Kako strujanja novonastaloga protestantizma u sličnim socio-političkim kontekstima mogu razviti toliko različitu misijsku praksu? Ovaj članak istražuje taj raskorak između dva pokreta, a zatim nudi implikacije i pitanja relevantna za misijsku Crkvu 21. stoljeća

Misijski uvidi: istraživanje misijskih temelja u kontekstu Jugoistočne Europe

Sudjelovanje u Božjoj misiji u svijetu nalog je svim sljedbenicima Isusa Krista – međutim, razumijevanje onoga što podrazumijeva što, zašto i kako u Božjoj misiji, često biva promatrano kroz objektiv neposrednih povijesnih primjera i osobnog iskustva. Budući da je misija bitno povezana s načinom našeg razumijevanja Boga, našim postojanjem kao Božjim narodom i načinom na koji promišljamo Božje svrhe u našim specifičnim kontekstima, vrlo je važno, dakle, razmotriti biblijske, teološke i povijesne temelje misije. U svjetlu toga, ovaj će članak istražiti kvalitativnu narav Božje misije i predložiti promišljanje sudjelovanja u Božjoj misiji u kontekstu Jugoistočne Europe

Hemoglobin Mass and Blood Volume in Patients With Altitude-Related Polycythemia

Patients with chronic mountain sickness (CMS) have a high hemoglobin concentration [Hb] due to increased hemoglobin mass (Hbmass) and possibly reduced plasma volume (PV). The values of Hbmass, PV and blood volume (BV) have been described differently, and the relationships between [Hb] and Hbmass or PV are poorly understood. This study obtained representative Hbmass, PV and BV data from healthy, high-altitude residents and CMS patients and quantified the dependency of [Hb] on Hbmass and PV. Methods: Eighty-seven subjects born at high altitude (∼3,900 m) were enrolled. Thirty-four had CMS (CMS), 11 had polycythemia without CMS (intermediate, IM), 20 were healthy highlanders (HH), and 22 living near sea level (SL, 420 m) served as the sea level (SL) control group. Hbmass, PV and BV were determined using a CO-rebreathing method modified for assessing polycythemia patients. Furthermore, [Hb], hematocrit (Hct), plasma erythropoietin concentration [EPO] and blood gas and acid–base status were determined. Results: In the HH group, Hbmass was 27% higher (940 ± 105 g) than in the SL group (740 ± 112 g) and 72% (1,617 ± 265 g) lower than in the CMS group. The PV in the HH group was similar to that in the SL group (−6%) and 15% higher than that in the CMS group (p < 0.001). In the HH group, the BV (5,936 ± 673 ml) did not differ from that in the SL group and was 28% lower than in the CMS group (7,606 ± 1075 ml, p < 0.001). Log [EPO] was slightly increased in the CMS group relative to the HH group (p < 0.01). All values in the IM group were between those in the HH and CMS groups. Hbmass and BV were positively correlated, and PV was negatively correlated with peripheral O(2) saturation. Increased Hbmass and decreased PV contributed approximately 65 and 35%, respectively, to the difference in [Hb] between the HH (17.1 ± 0.8 g/dl) and CMS (22.1 ± 1.0 g/dl) groups. Conclusions: In CMS patients, the decrease in PV only partially compensated for the substantial increase in Hbmass, but it did not prevent an increase in BV; the decrease in PV contributed to an excessively high [Hb]