An analysis of Matthew Fox’s mystical immanence

The key objective of this research is to explore Matthew Fox’s mystical immanence, as developed in his panentheistic Creation-centred theology. Focussing on the key theme in his thought, the relationship between prayer and social justice, this thesis provides what is essentially an auteur critique. That is to say, his theology is excavated by means of biographical analysis, exploring his principal formative influences. In Chapter One the thesis seeks to identify and chronicle his spiritual odyssey, from his home environment via his seminary training within the Dominican Order to his acceptance into the Episcopal priesthood in 1994. Chapter Two focuses on the main influences on Fox’s thought, particularly: Marie-Dominique Chenu, who transformed Catholic thought in the twentieth century; Jewish spirituality, as developed by Martin Buber, Abraham Heschel, and Otto Rank; and Robert Bly, the American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement. Turning specifically to the principal developments in his theology, the third chapter, analyses Fox’s mysticism. His consistent use of the term ‘Creation’ is an indication of the cosmic orientation of this thinking, while his ‘creation spirituality’ is undergirded by his embrace of Thomas Aquinas, the Rhineland mystics and his rejection of Augustine. This chapter also evaluates the diverse scholarly critiques which have attempted to classify his work as New Age, pantheist, and monist. The fourth chapter turns to his complex understanding of the historical Jesus and his quest for the ‘Cosmic Christ’ in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Church Fathers. The thesis concludes with an examination of, firstly, Fox’s understanding of ‘Wisdom’, focussing on the ‘sophiological problem’ within the Russian religious consciousness and, secondly, his interpretation of liberation theology and social justice, as developed in his theology of work, Gaia, and eco-feminism

To Buy or Not to Buy: Family Dynamics and Children's Consumption

This article draws on data from a qualitative study of children living in families with either low or high levels of household income and outlines the intrafamilial dynamics that surround young children's relationships to contemporary consumer culture. The motivation for parents to provide their children with particular commodities, how parents prioritised children's requests and the rationale they used to buy or not to buy certain items was much more complex than parents simply 'giving in' to pester power. In the main, parents were making very considered judgements based on a range of factors. Wider social changes were seen as being contributory to new forms of consumption and thus new experiences of childhood which meant parents having to deal with an aspect of their children's lives that was much more problematic than they had experienced in their own childhoods.Children, Consumption, Families, Inequalities, Pester Power

Teacher Mentorship Program’s Influence on Novice Teachers’ Decision to Stay: A Case Study

Public schools are faced with dealing with high teacher turnover and low job satisfaction indicators, particularly from novice teachers in their first 5 years of service. To combat the problem, schools have designed and developed a variety of mentorship programs aimed at providing support for the novice teachers and thereby increasing job satisfaction. The purpose of this qualitative case study program evaluation was to examine a specific school district’s current mentorship program in order to determine how participation in the program influences new teachers’ decision to leave the school district. Using the narratives from interviews and surveys, the researcher examined the differences in the teachers’ individual perceptions of the mentorship program and its influence on teachers’ decision to stay or leave. The narratives were coded to reveal themes in the individual groups and those that were common across the three groups surveyed. The results indicated three prevailing themes that contributed to the perceptions of the staff members who participated: relationships, scheduled time, and mentor/mentee matching practices. Keywords: mentorship program, relationships, scheduled time, matching practices, mentor, mente

The Perceptions of New Middle School Teachers Regarding Teacher Job Satisfaction

Teacher attrition has been a problem for school systems for more than 30 years. Large numbers of new teachers leave the profession within their first 5 years of service, creating a significant cost associated with hiring and training of replacement teachers. Attrition is problematic for a middle school in the state of Georgia. New teachers at the school have disclosed that induction did not meet their needs. In addition, the district has experienced budget cutbacks and demographic shifts in the student population, increasing the rate new teachers have left the school. The purpose of this study was to explore and give voice to the new teachers\u27 perceptions about the profession, their preparation for classroom teaching, and their understanding of the school\u27s climate and culture. Using Herzberg\u27s theory of motivation, a qualitative case explored perceptions of 10 teachers who had fewer than 5 years teaching experience. The research questions were focused on perceived satisfaction with teaching, preparedness for classroom teaching, and satisfaction with the climate and culture of the school. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using an interview protocol. Findings revealed that novice teachers were satisfied with the teaching profession, but satisfaction changed over time as they became more immersed in the daily routines necessary for students and classroom management. The data showed that novice teachers were dissatisfied with the climate and culture of the school. In response to the findings, a professional development support group project for novice teachers was developed. This project contributes to positive social change by providing a safe and trusted environment for new teachers to help each other manage challenges and assimilate into their new school environment

Religious Accommodation in the Workplace: Can We Strike a Balance?

An increasing diverse workforce and 24/7 manufacturing demands are contributing to religious conflicts between employee and employer. Today workers are increasingly requesting not work on certain days of the week in observance religious holidays, displaying religious articles in their cubicles and even requesting to use the companies’ conference room for prayer meetings. How does a company address these requests? After conducting research, included are some useful recommendations to help employers understand how to handle these requests

Herschel Observations of the T Cha Transition Disk: Constraining the Outer Disk Properties

T Cha is a nearby (d similar to 100 pc) transition disk known to have an optically thin gap separating optically thick inner and outer disk components. Huelamo et al. recently reported the presence of a low-mass object candidate within the gap of the T Cha disk, giving credence to the suspected planetary origin of this gap. Here we present the Herschel photometry (70, 160, 250, 350, and 500 mu m) of T Cha from the "Dust, Ice, and Gas in Time" Key Program, which bridges the wavelength range between existing Spitzer and millimeter data and provide important constraints on the outer disk properties of this extraordinary system. We model the entire optical to millimeter wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) of T Cha (19 data points between 0.36 and 3300 mu m without any major gaps in wavelength coverage). T Cha shows a steep spectral slope in the far-IR, which we find clearly favors models with outer disks containing little or no dust beyond similar to 40 AU. The full SED can be modeled equally well with either an outer disk that is very compact (only a few AU wide) or a much larger one that has a very steep surface density profile. That is, T Cha's outer disk seems to be either very small or very tenuous. Both scenarios suggest a highly unusual outer disk and have important but different implications for the nature of T Cha. Spatially resolved images are needed to distinguish between the two scenarios.DIGIT Herschel Open Time Key ProgramNASAAlexander von Humboldt FoundationEuropean CommissionAgence Nationale pour la Recherche of France PERG06-GA-2009-256513, ANR-07-BLAN-0221, ANR-2010-JCJC-0504-01CNRS/INSU, FranceAstronom

The Herschel Digit Survey Of Weak-Line T Tauri Stars: Implications For Disk Evolution And Dissipation

As part of the "Dust, Ice, and Gas In Time (DIGIT)" Herschel Open Time Key Program, we present Herschel photometry (at 70, 160, 250, 350, and 500 mu m) of 31 weak-line T Tauri star (WTTS) candidates in order to investigate the evolutionary status of their circumstellar disks. Of the stars in our sample, 13 had circumstellar disks previously known from infrared observations at shorter wavelengths, while 18 of them had no previous evidence for a disk. We detect a total of 15 disks as all previously known disks are detected at one or more Herschel wavelengths and two additional disks are identified for the first time. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of our targets seem to trace the dissipation of the primordial disk and the transition to the debris disk regime. Of the 15 disks, 7 appear to be optically thick primordial disks, including 2 objects with SEDs indistinguishable from those of typical Classical T Tauri stars, 4 objects that have significant deficit of excess emission at all IR wavelengths, and 1 "pre-transitional" object with a known gap in the disk. Despite their previous WTTS classification, we find that the seven targets in our sample with optically thick disks show evidence for accretion. The remaining eight disks have weaker IR excesses similar to those of optically thin debris disks. Six of them are warm and show significant 24 mu m Spitzer excesses, while the last two are newly identified cold debris-like disks with photospheric 24 mu m fluxes, but significant excess emission at longer wavelengths. The Herschel photometry also places strong constraints on the non-detections, where systems with F-70/F-70,(*) greater than or similar to 5-15 and L-disk/L-* greater than or similar to 10(-3) to 10(-4) can be ruled out. We present preliminary models for both the optically thick and optically thin disks and discuss our results in the context of the evolution and dissipation of circumstellar disks.NASA through JPL/CaltechNASA through the Sagan Fellowship ProgramEuropean Commission PERG06-GA-2009-256513Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR) of France ANR-2010-JCJC-0504-01CFHT 11AH96Astronom

An analysis of Matthew Fox's mystical immanence

The key objective of this research is to explore Matthew Fox’s mystical immanence, as developed in his panentheistic Creation-centred theology. Focussing on the key theme in his thought, the relationship between prayer and social justice, this thesis provides what is essentially an auteur critique. That is to say, his theology is excavated by means of biographical analysis, exploring his principal formative influences. In Chapter One the thesis seeks to identify and chronicle his spiritual odyssey, from his home environment via his seminary training within the Dominican Order to his acceptance into the Episcopal priesthood in 1994. Chapter Two focuses on the main influences on Fox’s thought, particularly: Marie-Dominique Chenu, who transformed Catholic thought in the twentieth century; Jewish spirituality, as developed by Martin Buber, Abraham Heschel, and Otto Rank; and Robert Bly, the American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement. Turning specifically to the principal developments in his theology, the third chapter, analyses Fox’s mysticism. His consistent use of the term ‘Creation’ is an indication of the cosmic orientation of this thinking, while his ‘creation spirituality’ is undergirded by his embrace of Thomas Aquinas, the Rhineland mystics and his rejection of Augustine. This chapter also evaluates the diverse scholarly critiques which have attempted to classify his work as New Age, pantheist, and monist. The fourth chapter turns to his complex understanding of the historical Jesus and his quest for the ‘Cosmic Christ’ in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Church Fathers. The thesis concludes with an examination of, firstly, Fox’s understanding of ‘Wisdom’, focussing on the ‘sophiological problem’ within the Russian religious consciousness and, secondly, his interpretation of liberation theology and social justice, as developed in his theology of work, Gaia, and eco-feminism.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo