Physical activity and hypertension in South African adults

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa LicenseEstimates suggest that approximately 6-million South Africans have hypertension, with half classified as stage 1 (mild). Mindful of the cost of lifelong drug therapy, the South African Hypertension Society guidelines suggest delaying drug therapy through lifestyle modification (increased physical activity and weight management) in all but those with the highest risk. This pilot study examined the relationship of BP with physical activity and bodyweight in black South African adults employed in physical occupationsNon peer reviewe

Conflict and religion : secularity as a standard for authentic religion

Peer reviewedResearch Institute for Theology and Religio

Evolution and emergence : a paradigm shift for theology

Peer reviewedSince the time of Darwin the conception of evolution has devel-oped beyond the boundaries of science to include philosophy and now theology in its scope. After noting the positive reception of the evolutionary idea by theologians even in Darwin’s time, the article traces its philosophical development from Hegel to the work of Karl Rahner. It then uses the philosophical anthropology developed by Rahner to reformulate the essentials of Christian faith (“Christology within an evolutionary view of the world”) in a way that is consonant with a scientific and secular world view. It is the author’s view that secularity—understood as in the recent work of Charles Taylor—is the result of an evolution in the sphere of culture and provides both a standard for truth in religion and a basis for dialogue between the religions of the world.Research Institute for Theology and Religio

Perichoresis and Ubuntu within the African Christian context

This article is about the juxtaposition of the notion of perichoresis in the work and theology of the Cappadocian Fathers and the notion of Ubuntu in the African Traditional Religion (ATR). Perichoresis was a result of an attempt to understand and to resolve the relationships within the Trinity. The issue at hand was how to make sense between the one and the many at the same time. The Cappadocian Fathers understood the oneness of God as unity in plurality, not a singularity. One Ousia and three hypostases were based on the understanding of the relationships within the trinity. The question of three yet one God (the church in Jerusalem continued worship of God the Father and Jesus Christ in the Power of the Holy Spirit), the apostles according to the information we have never question nor try to resolve the position and status of Jesus within the oneness. It appears as though they celebrated the tension rather than resolving it. They heard from Jesus, who said to them ‘you believe in God believe also in me’ and ‘if you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him … whoever has seen me has seen the Father’. They also heard him when he said ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’. The article is going to investigate and analyse the two notions, Perichoresis and Ubuntu, within the African Christian context. Yet there is a tension between Jesus and the ancestors. Can this tension be resolved? The notion of Ubuntu is based upon the understanding that a person becomes fully a person in the presence of other persons. It is a notion that deals with the relationships from an individual to the community and from physical to spiritual perspectives. The article shall also attempt to analyse any categories of thinking that are within the ATR that may better explain the relationship within the Trinity

Model insights into energetic photoelectrons measured at Mars by MAVEN

Photoelectrons are important for heating, ionization, and airglow production in planetary atmospheres. Measured electron fluxes provide insight into the sources and sinks of energy in the Martian upper atmosphere. The Solar Wind Electron Analyzer instrument on board the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft measured photoelectrons including Auger electrons with 500 eV energies. A two-stream electron transport code was used to interpret the observations, including Auger electrons associated with K shell ionization of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. It explains the processes that control the photoelectron spectrum, such as the solar irradiance at different wavelengths, external electron fluxes from the Martian magnetosheath or tail, and the structure of the upper atmosphere (e.g., the thermal electron density). Our understanding of the complex processes related to the conversion of solar irradiances to thermal energy in the Martian ionosphere will be advanced by model comparisons with measurements of suprathermal electrons by MAVEN

Narratives of difference and sameness

As an Afrikaner man doing research on ubuntu, what are the possibilities for meaningful research? In this article, some aspects of the difficulties and possibilities that may be encountered in such a research programme will be explored. Within a postmodern worldview, and framed within postfoundational practical theology, social-constructionism, a narrative hermeneutic metaphor and autoethnography will be used as tools to explore some difficulties and possibilities of such a research undertaking.This article was written as part of the research for a MTh degree that was done under supervision of Prof Julian C. Muller, Department of Practical Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.http://www.ve.org.za/am201