Inglitest ja institutsioonidest

Anne Kull, On Angels and Institutions.Our individualistic and materialistic worldview does not make it easy to understand ancient texts. Yet, even we can understand the experiences behind otherwise incomprehensible designations, such as demons, angels or gods. Furthermore, these categories may help us to understand what is needed to initiate change in our institutions. I present an example of the possible use for the term “angel” as an inner aspect (or spirituality) of a congregation or any other institution (including educational system)

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COVID-19 pandeemia ja selle mõtestamine: usukogukondade vastused traumadele ja epideemiatele minevikus ja tänapäeva

Religioon ja sotsiaalne kontroll tänapäeva kultuuriruumis

Religion and Social Control in Contemporary Cultural SpaceIn this article we consider relationships between religion and social control from an anthropological perspective. The concept of culture - the learned and shared ideas, feelings, behaviors and norms - is central to anthropology. Anthropological studies of religion and culture focus on public and observable practices. The emphasis on the local is in service to say something about the general. All religions and cultures include behavioral exhortations and norms. We will survey the relation between religiously motivated practices and behavioral deviance in society. We also acknowledge that violations and transgressions are part of social reality. It is often assumed that religion is about how we should live, and that truly religious people are always law-abiding. Contemporary Western societies are largely secularized, thus we want to know if and when religion fulfills its function as a source of „ultimate sanctions“, and creates an integrated, cohesive and safe environment for individuals and societies.We will review the most important theories about social control and religion (by Hirschi, Stark, Tittle, Welch and others). The empirical studies tend to affirm that there is a relationship between religion and social order but the positive impact of religiosity is strong only in certain locations and under certain conditions. Research in this area needs to be developed further, especially as both religiosity and deviance are ambiguous concepts which can be defined and measured in different ways. Further individualization of religiosity in contemporary societies may indicate that the social order and religiosity may become disconnected for the people

HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT ART AND THEOLOGY? THE EXAMPLE OF PAUL TILLICH

This presentation titled “How to Ask Questions in Art and Theology? The example of Paul Tillich” was intended as an introduction of Paul Tillich (1886-1965), one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, for an audience of art historians to. Tillich was born in Germany, and as for many of his generation, the frst great upheaval in his life was caused by World War I. Tillich participated in the war as a chaplain. In 1933, the Nazi authorities suspended him from his academic position and soon he had to fee Germany. His friends invited him to the U.S. where he worked at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, after retirement, at Harvard University, and starting in 1962, at the University of Chicago. All his life he was concerned with the mediation of contemporary culture and Christianity. One of his favourite topics was art. Tillich was a very systematic thinker but his system was never totalitarian or oppressive – everybody could relate to his thinking. Tillich suggests that the human condition always raises fundamental questions, which human cultures express in various ways in the dominant styles of art. According to Tillich, existentialist elements exist in all thinking, but the second meaning of existentialism is as a revolt against the industrial society. In the 20th century, existentialism became a universal feeling. Art reveals some of the innermost motives of existentialism. Religion can be defned in the narrower sense, religion as a belief in the existence of a god, accompanied by intellectual and practical activities. But religion in the wider sense means being ultimately concerned. Based on this broad defnition, Tillich diferentiated the following four main ways of relating religion and art: 1) non-religious content and non-religious style; 2) non-religious content and religious style; 3) religious content and non-religious style; 4) religious content and religious style. He was always very critical of sentimental, beautifying naturalism and idealism and the taste of the petit bourgeoisie. He urged churches to search as seriously for the real questions of the present time as existentialist art did using artistic means. In this sense, he thought existentialist art has a tremendous religious function, namely, to rediscover the basic questions to which religious symbols can provide the answers. (As he was mainly discussing European and North-American art, the relevant religious symbols were Christian ones – at least during the 20th century). In his last lecture on art in 1965, he said that pure expressionism seems to have exhausted itself. It is impossible to return to the style of the 1900s after the extraordinarily rapid changes in societies, diferent academic disciplines and general experience of reality that had taken place. Thus, he also saw Pop and Op Art in a positive light, as honest artistic responses to those experiences. Better than any other theologian of his time Tillich knew that the visual arts, like the arts generally, provide with us facets of understanding that they alone cannot supply. Tillich’s thoughts are not the last word on the topic of art and religion, but they are certainly a very good starting point for continuing to read the signs of the times with the help of various arts

Cyborg and Religious? Technonature and Technoculture

We are all aware that our idea of natural/unnatural has been changing over the centuries. According to Donna Haraway, we must exit the maze of dualisms that has marred the relationships between human and non-human nature for centuries. Cyborg is a figure of speech and asymbol, but preeminently a description of our actual being in contemporary technonature. Her idea has been picked up by artists (e.g. Lynn Randolph, Patricia Piccinini) and philosophers and theologians. The cyborgian organism/human and the world cannot be articulated in terms of black-and-white, us and them, friend and foe, kin and alien, good and evil etc. Our technonatural creatures require our care and love, curiosity and investigation, and there will always be unexpected consequences

Ground vegetation monitoring in Swiss forests: comparison of survey methods and implications for trend assessments

At Swiss long-term forest ecosystem research sites, ground vegetation was assessed during the period 1994-2003/2008 following two approaches: (1) visual assessment of the cover of species occurring in sixteen 1m2 quadrats, distributed over a 43 × 43m area, and (2) phytosociological relevés in concentric circular plots of 30, 200, and 500m2. We first compared the two approaches with respect to diversity assessment. The number of species recorded in the 16 quadrats was in general higher than in the 30m2 plot and it represented 42% to 108% of the number of species recorded in the 500m2 plot. In a second step, we tested whether any temporal trends were apparent. In a few cases, a decrease or increase in Landolt's mean indicator values for light, nitrogen availability, soil pH, soil moisture, or temperature was found to be significant. However, these changes were usually restricted to one approach or one area. The only clear trend was detected in an unmanaged former coppice beech stand, for which all survey approaches indicated canopy closure. At another site, vegetation reacted to the local opening of the canopy following windthrow. In a third step, we compared the leaf area index (LAI), measured with an LAI-2000 instrument (Licor, Inc.) over each quadrat, with the indicator value of the vegetation for light (L). Within a site, there was no clear relationship between LAI and L values per quadrat. In contrast, across all sites, the relationship between LAI and L, averaged per site for all available years, was highly significan

SustainBaltic. ICZM Plans for Sustaining Coastal and Marine Human-ecological Networks in the Baltic Region

Project partners: LP - University of Turku, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Finnish Environment Institute, Tallinn University, Regional Council of Satakunta.SustainBaltic i.e. ICZM Plans for Sustaining Coastal and Marine Human-ecological Networks in the Baltic Region project is implemented for 27 months during 2016–2018. SustainBaltic (CB354) is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Central Baltic Programme 2014–2020. SustainBaltic is a cooperation project of the University of Turku, the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Regional Council of Satakunta, and Tallinn University. The project aims to improve the share of the managed coastal networks in the Central Baltic area by the cross-border preparation of the ICZM plans for a total of four case areas with their public assessment in Estonia and Finland. This was planned to be achieved by 1) integrating multidisciplinary human-ecological data on the whole project area: in Finland – the regions of Satakunta and Southwest Finland and in Estonia – the areas of Lääne, Harju, and Lääne-Viru county with their land-sea interfaces; 2) selecting the themes of ICZMs and case study areas which are located along the coast of Lääne and Lääne-Viru county in Estonia and in the region of Satakunta in Finland; 3) making four digital ICZM plans, which were first tested with the current regional land use of the project area; 4) public assessment of the plans using both e-platforms and arranging working groups with the stakeholders and end-users directed by the project members; and 5) as the final results of SustainBaltic, the updated completed ICZM plans can be downloaded from the websites of the partner organisations and at http://www.utu.fi/SustainBaltic, also beyond the life span of the project. In addition, the interim results and the other activity phases of the preparation of the first ICZM drafts are found at https://blogit.utu.fi/sustainbaltic/. This ICZM plan covers the spatial development plan and land use zoning for the Läänemaa case area (from Ristinina peninsula in Keibu bay to Hara peninsula in Hara bay). This ICZM plan is an indicative document that municipalities can use in the preparations of general plans or other local development documents (development plans, projects), as well as in the preparation of national-level marine spatial plans.Project SustainBalitic is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020

On a productive dialogue between religion and science

Searching for common ground in philosophy, science and theology, it seems to us that it would be reasonable to maintain the position of realistic pragmatism that Charles Sanders Peirce had called pragmaticism. In the pragmaticist manner, we typify the knowledge and select the types of knowledge that might be useful for understanding the problems that are of interest to us. We pose a question of how it would be possible to obtain practically useful information about reality, first from the perspective of natural sciences, and then from that of theology; that is, to diversify the ways of knowledge and just maybe, to move toward a productive dialogue between science and religion

A New Class of Inhibitors of the AraC Family Virulence Regulator Vibrio Cholerae ToxT

Vibrio cholerae is responsible for the diarrheal disease cholera that infects millions of people worldwide. While vaccines protecting against cholera exist, and oral rehydration therapy is an effective treatment method, the disease will remain a global health threat until long-term solutions such as improved sanitation and access to clean water become widely available. Because of this, there is a pressing need for potent therapeutics that can either mitigate cholera symptoms, or act prophylactically to prevent the virulent effects of a cholera infection. Here we report the design, synthesis, and characterization of a set of compounds that bind and inhibit ToxT, the transcription factor that directly regulates the two primary V. cholerae virulence factors. Using the folded structure of the monounsaturated fatty acid observed in the X-ray structure of ToxT as a template, we designed ten novel compounds that inhibit the virulence cascade to a greater degree than any known inhibitor. Our findings provide a structural and functional basis for the development of viable antivirulence therapeutics that combat cholera and, potentially, other forms of bacterial pathogenic disease