The future of welfare: a Theos collection

Adrian Pabst and John Milbank argue against the social and economic liberalism that has dominated post-war Britain, in favour of a more mutualist vision. The welfare settlement, they argue, has tended to function as a substitute for high employment, decent jobs, and widespread asset ownership – the statist model effectively (and ironically) propping up the free market one. In its place, they call for “responsible reciprocity”, a mutualised welfare settlement that is personal, local and participatory. This would demand a renewal and extension of Attlee’s original idea of a unified insurance-based social security system alongside a ‘preferential option for the poor’, moving away from means-testing, putting in place what they call a Mutual Jobs Fund, and developing locally-based welfare schemes that embed people in meaningful relationships of reciprocity

A contemporary perspective on mission: the blue flower

Alison Milbank offers an aesthetic approach to models of mission and evangelism, arguing for a model which is responsive to cultural production. Drawing on Romanticism, particularly the work of Novalis, she challenges some current understandings of mission and suggests an alternative approach through philosophical dialogue.Publisher PD

Sacral Citizenship: Philosophies of the City from Plato to Augustine

This thesis offers a detailed examination of the ideas of the city and of citizenship in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Augustine in their historical contexts. Aristotle is considered as a critic of Plato and Augustine of Cicero, with Cicero considered as poised between Plato and the Stoic legacy. The aim of this examination is to test certain still dominant assumptions about ancient citizenship, defined as active participation in government. These assumptions are that ancient citizenship was primarily political, secular, adult and male; that it is best articulated by Aristotle; that it is compromised by Rome in practice and by Cicero in theory and finally abandoned by Augustine through a Christian denigration of the importance of political life in time. Cicero and Augustine are rather thought to inaugurate an alternative modern idea of citizenship as the non-participatory receiving of rights and protection from the sovereign state. I conclude instead that ancient citizenship was primarily by birth, was first to do with religious rather than political participation and included women and children. Aristotle’s purely political picture of civic origins and of citizenship is therefore misleading. Moreover, Aristotle’s views on citizenship turn out to be contradictory and incoherent, just because he has lost the primary religious referent. Individual virtue oriented ultimately towards the eternal therefore comes into conflict with collective justice. By contrast, Plato’s theory of metaphysical participation is exactly suited to conceiving political participation and retaining a continuum of citizenship across the human ages and classes. Cicero is caught between this Platonic vision and a Stoic, proto-liberal one, and the same goes for Rome itself. Its aspects of empire and monarchy can be seen as according with Platonic mixed constitution and universalising ambition. Augustine, by virtue of his Christian outlook, perfects a Platonic version of Rome, just as his Trinitarian grounding of participation, including political participation, perfects the Platonic metaphysics of the super-forms of the One, the Dyad and their interaction

Theology and the Idea of University

This article analyses the genealogy of the university from the perspective of its three defining characteristics: freedom, self-government and universality. The Author suggest that the universalising tendency of university is theologically derived, while the tradition of autonomy is of relatively secular origin. Hence, in addressing the question of the current crisis of theology within the university, we may be addressing the question of the current crisis of the university as such

“What a tale we have been in”: Emplotment and the Exemplar Characters in The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter Series

Linda Zagzebski's theory of moral exemplarity emphasizes the importance of admiration in developing ethical behavior. This essay argues that admiration involves wonder and distance and is best evoked by mixed or flawed characters; it demonstrates this through discussion of the characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Using Paul Ricoeur's taxonomy of prefiguration, configuration, and refiguration in narrative work, it discerns a self-reflexivity in the protagonists of these fantasy novels, which is echoed by that of the readers, who are brought to realize their own emplotment in larger narratives. Features in Tolkien and Rowling that aid this exploratory reading include the length and depth of the novels, the decentering of the reader's own reality, and their open endings, which offer an invitational role to further interpretation. Virtue is viewed more teleologically than in Zagzebski, for moral realism is woven into the metaphysics of these novels, which allows mimesis of flawed characters to be ethically productive

Pavel Florensky and the Future of Thought

The article examines the legacy of priest Pavel Florensky in the context of European culture from antiquity to the present day. The dialogue in which Florensky is a perceiving and continuing comrade-in-arms is conducted with Plato, Aristotle, with the Fathers of the Church and Neoplatonists of different eras, with Nicholas of Cusa, Leibniz, with mathematicians — from the Pythagoreans to Kantor; Florensky’s thought echoes Kant’s constructions and builds on them. Belonging to the culture of the “Silver Age”, Father Pavel meets Nietzsche at a philosophical crossroads, becomes friends with Andrei Bely, becomes the object of criticism from Fr. Georgy Florov­sky. In the space of Florensky’s creative dialogue and polemics with philosophers and theologians, the essence of his trinitology and sophiology is revealed. The most important property of the heritage of Fr. Pavel Florensky is a combination of traditionalism, consisting in strict adherence to the teachings of the church fathers and the Orthodox tradition as a whole, and freshness of ideas (up to the coincidence with the understanding of contemporary political trends), which is urgently needed in the modern Christian world both in the East and in the West

A contemporary perspective on mission: The blue flower

Alison Milbank offers an aesthetic approach to models of mission and evangelism, arguing for a model which is responsive to cultural production. Drawing on Romanticism, particularly the work of Novalis, she challenges some current understandings of mission and suggests an alternative approach through philosophical dialogue

The Reliability and Predictive Ability of the Movement Competency Screen in a Military Population

Purpose: Musculoskeletal injuries in the United States Armed Forces impacts operational readiness. Therefore, a reliable, valid screening tool that identifies injury risk and predicts performance is needed. The purpose of this study was to: (1) establish the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Movement Competency Screen (MCS) using a cohort of United States Naval Academy fourth class Midshipmen, (2) identify if a correlation exists between average total MCS scores and injury rates during training, and (3) identify if a correlation exists between 1/16 average total MCS score and performance on the Physical Readiness Test (PRT). Methods: Five raters independently evaluated 41 digital recordings of subjects who performed the MCS. An intraclass correlation (ICC) of 0.9 (95% CI) was used to determine raters’ reliability and a Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient examined relationships between average initial total MCS score with both (1) injury data and (2) PRT scores. Results: Raters demonstrated good inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.81-0.93), and moderate to good intra-rater reliability (ICC = 0.63-0.89) for total MCS scores. The average total MCS scores did not correlate with the total number of injuries sustained. However, a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.48; p = 0.003) was observed between average total MCS score and overall PRT scores for all subjects. For only female subjects, a very strong correlation was observed between average total MCS score and (1) overall PRT scores (r = 0.83; p = 0.00), (2) increased number of push-ups (r = 0.76; p = 0.001), and (3) slower runtimes (r = – 0.84; p = 0.00). These relationships were non-significant for male subjects. Conclusions: The high reliability reported is similar to Reid et al. 2015. The initial MCS score correlates with PRT performance for female subjects, but not males. However, the MCS score did not predict injury incidence in this cohort. Practical Application: Given the high reliability, the MCS may be a useful screening tool for the U.S. Armed Forces to identify recruits with poor movement competency, likely impacting poor performance on the PRT. Future research will examine the relationship, if present, between total MCS score and injury risk in this cohort

The use of molten salts as a media for the nitration of organic compounds.

In recent years research activity on molten salt systems has increased rapidly due to technological advances which have made it possible to carry out experiments at progressively higher temperatures under controlled atmospheres, or in the presence of extremely corrosive materials

The Politics of Virtue: Post-liberalism and the Human Future

Contemporary politics is dominated by a liberal creed that champions ‘negative liberty’ and individual happiness. This creed undergirds positions on both the right and the left – free-market capitalism, state bureaucracy and individualism in social life. The triumph of liberalism has had the effect of subordinating human association and the common good to narrow self-interest and short-term utility. By contrast, post-liberalism promotes individual fulfilment and mutual flourishing based on shared goals that have more substantive content than the formal abstractions of liberal law and contract, and yet are also adaptable to different cultural and local traditions. The book apply this analysis to the economy, politics, culture, and international affairs. In each case, having diagnosed the crisis of liberalism, it proposes post-liberal alternatives, notably new concepts and fresh policy ideas. The book demonstrates that, amid the current crisis, post-liberalism is a programme that could define a new politics of virtue and the common good