Symbolic and Literal Interpretations of Eschatological Passages: Reconsidering Biblical Language

The lessons of the history of exegesis serve as the primary resource in addressing the question of problematic eschatological passages of Scripture and the challenge of rightly discerning the correct reading. Our goal is a hermeneutic that is adequate for our understanding of the text. If our understanding of the text – and the reality to which it refers - is multivalent, then our hermeneutic must be adequate to account for multivalent meaning. Neither endlessly plural, nor narrowly referential, historical exegesis approaches the text as rich with inherent, but multivalent meaning. When asked if the text should be understood literally or figuratively, the historical exegete’s answer would be, “yes.” The most significant contribution to us from the Church’s long history of biblical exegesis may be its understanding of the nature of biblical language and meaning, offering us a different place to begin, and perhaps leading us to a hermeneutic that is adequate for the text we seek to understand

Prophezei: A Reformation Model for Interpretation of Scripture

The topic of this meeting – The Future of Scripture – is not new. The nature of the authority and interpretation of Scripture has been a recurrent question throughout the history of the church. Ulrich Zwingli’s creation of Prophezei in 1525 provides a useful historical precedent and point of traditional reference. At the very least, Zwingli’s Prophezei calls out to us that the way forward should involve an integrative synergy that values critical scholarship, affirms the spiritual character of Scripture and its interpretation, embeds the task of interpretation within the church, and purposefully envisions the end of Scriptural interpretation in effecting the redemptive work of a redeeming God

Signs and Providence: A Study of Ulrich Zwingli\u27s Sacramental Theology

This dissertation considers the role of the doctrine of divine providence in the sacramental theology of Ulrich Zwingli. This is done by treating Zwingli in the context of his personal history, his broader sacramental thought, including his treatment of the Word and preaching, and his historical development in his writings on the Lord \u27s Supper. The attempt is made to understand the personal importance of this doctrine for Zwingli and the way it functions within his theology of the sacraments. Each subject area and document is considered in the light of three questions. What is the relationship between human action and divine action? What is the relationship between Christ’s presence and the sacrament? What is the role and function of the sacrament? This study concludes that Zwingli’s affirmation of absolute providence consistently functions as a determinative principle in his sacramental theology, defining his foundational understanding of the sacraments and establishing the parameters of his sacramental thought

Symbolic and Literal Interpretations of Eschatological Passages: Reconsidering Biblical Language

The lessons of the history of exegesis serve as the primary resource in addressing the question of problematic eschatological passages of Scripture and the challenge of rightly discerning the correct reading. Our goal is a hermeneutic that is adequate for our understanding of the text. If our understanding of the text – and the reality to which it refers - is multivalent, then our hermeneutic must be adequate to account for multivalent meaning. Neither endlessly plural, nor narrowly referential, historical exegesis approaches the text as rich with inherent, but multivalent meaning. When asked if the text should be understood literally or figuratively, the historical exegete’s answer would be, “yes.” The most significant contribution to us from the Church’s long history of biblical exegesis may be its understanding of the nature of biblical language and meaning, offering us a different place to begin, and perhaps leading us to a hermeneutic that is adequate for the text we seek to understand

Methodological standards in non-inferiority AIDS trials: moving from adherence to compliance: Response

A response to Parienti JJ, Verdon R and Massari V: Methodological standards in non-inferiority AIDS trials: moving from adherence to compliance. BMC Med Res Meth 2006, 6:4

Did evolution create a flexible ligand-binding cavity in the urokinase receptor through deletion of a plesiotypic disulfide bond?

The urokinase receptor (uPAR) is a founding member of a small protein family with multiple Ly6/uPAR (LU) domains. The motif defining these LU domains contains five plesiotypic disulfide bonds stabilizing its prototypical three-fingered fold having three protruding loops. Notwithstanding the detailed knowledge on structure-function relationships in uPAR, one puzzling enigma remains unexplored. Why does the first LU domain in uPAR (DI) lack one of its consensus disulfide bonds, when the absence of this particular disulfide bond impairs the correct folding of other single LU domain-containing proteins? Here, using a variety of contemporary biophysical methods, we found that reintroducing the two missing half-cystines in uPAR DI caused the spontaneous formation of the corresponding consensus 7–8 LU domain disulfide bond. Importantly, constraints due to this cross-link impaired (i) the binding of uPAR to its primary ligand urokinase and (ii) the flexible interdomain assembly of the three LU domains in uPAR. We conclude that the evolutionary deletion of this particular disulfide bond in uPAR DI may have enabled the assembly of a high-affinity urokinase-binding cavity involving all three LU domains in uPAR. Of note, an analogous neofunctionalization occurred in snake venom α-neurotoxins upon loss of another pair of the plesiotypic LU domain half-cystines. In summary, elimination of the 7–8 consensus disulfide bond in the first LU domain of uPAR did have significant functional and structural consequences

Enhancing semantic congruity effects with category-contingent comparative judgments

In each of two experiments the direction of a binary comparison was contingent on the category of the stimulus pair. In one experiment, participants had to compare the size of animals from memory. On congruent trials, they had to select the smaller animal if both were small and the larger if both were large and on incongruent trials they selected the larger if both were small and the smaller if both were large. In a second experiment, participants had to compare visual extents and the direction of the comparison was contingent on whether the lines were short or long. RTs were increased and semantic congruity effects were greatly amplified with the category contingent instructions relative to the conventional non-contingent instructions, precisely as predicted by the class of evidence accrual models of decisional processing and contrary to the single sample stage models of the semantic congruity effect