Chastity or procreation? Models of sanctity for Byzantine laymen during the Iconoclastic and Post-Iconoclastic period

This article presents evidence for married saints, which can be dated to the early ninth century, and compares such material with hagiographical data about chaste laymen from the tenth century. This approach makes it possible to define more clearly the different concepts of sanctity that were current at these times and thus to gauge the changes that occurred during the intervening years. The article concludes with a brief discussion of possible reasons for the changes in the discourse about sainthood that set the eighth and early ninth centuries apart from both the preceding and the following periods

Risk management and managerial efficiency in Chinese banks: a network DEA framework

Risk Management in Chinese banks has traditionally been the Cinderella of its internal functions. Political stricture and developmental imperative have often overridden standard practice of risk management resulting in large non-performing loan (NPL) ratios. One of the stated aims of opening up the Chinese banks to foreign strategic investment is the development of risk management functions. In recent years NPL ratios have declined through a mixture of recovery, asset management operation and expanded balance sheets. However, the training and practice of risk managers remain second class compared with foreign banks operating in China. This paper evaluates bank performance using a Network DEA approach where an index of risk management practice and an index of risk management organisation are used as intermediate inputs in the production process. The two indices are constructed from a survey of risk managers in domestic banks and foreign banks operating in China. The use of network DEA can aid the manager in identifying the stages of production that need attention

Arbitrage bounds and the time series properties of the discount on UK closed-end mutual funds

In a dataset of weekly observations over the period since 1990, the discount on UK closed-end mutual funds is shown to be nonstationary, but reverting to a nonzero long run mean. Although the long run discount could be explained by factors like management expenses etc., its short run �uctuations are harder to reconcile with an arbitrage-free equilibrium. In time series terms, there is evidence of long memory in discounts consistent with a bounded random walk. This conclusion is supported by explicit nonlinearity tests, and by results which suggest the behaviour of the discount is perhaps best represented by one of the class of Smooth-Transition Autoregressive (STAR) models

Environmental governance in the EU

The goal-directed interventions typical of EU environmental management strategies are increasingly taking place alongside a new network governance approach. While much of what is called ‘new governance’ is little more than old wine being poured into new bottles, nevertheless there is some evidence of change, even if it is difficult to pin down in concrete cases. The new approach involves making use of the principle of partnership and shared responsibility and of new instruments for environmental policy (NIEP). The promotion of sustainable development provides the organising framework within which this new approach is situated. The development of a new mode of governance at the EU level is leading to a new process of governing. This throws up the problem of relating new models of governance to methods and practices of traditional government. Even if this problem could be solved, the fact remains that the environment is also a normative political issue, that it, it is a ‘wicked’ problem. As such, the EU will continue to find that, despite its new approach, environmental governability will remain difficult

The Big Society: a socio-theological perspective

The response of the Churches to the Government’s espousal of The Big Society has been somewhat guarded. The fear is that it may simply be an attempt to shift responsibility for social care from government to civil society. While the Churches (and the Abrahamic faiths generally) set great store by community and mutual obligation, there remains an unresolved tension between social action and the need to act in accordance with theological principle – as the Catholic Care case demonstrates. The problem is ultimately one of clashing rights

A social theory exploration of responsibility for long term futures

In this paper I am concerned with contemporary industrial societies’ ability to extend themselves into the far future by economic, scientific and political means on the one hand and their inability to know the potential, diverse and multiple outcomes of this produced futurity on the other. I focus on this discrepancy between the future extension of action and knowledge in order to consider how we (as citizens and academics) may be better able to take responsibility for such long-term and often unknown and unknowable effects. I want to explore what strategies are available for situations where the industrial way of life creates long-term futures but our conceptual tools to know those outcomes are woefully inadequate. I seek to a) establish the status quo by outlining current practices and b) explore today’s available options for forethought and moral action. In the process I revisit historical approaches to the future on the assumption that the past may well hold vital clues for today’s dilemma

A Christian Qur’ān? A study in the Syriac background to the language of the Qur’ān as presented in the work of Christoph Luxenberg

The present article is a contribution to the public debate surrounding the controversial thesis of an anonymous scholar known as Christoph Luxenberg. The thesis that a Syriac Christian literary source lies behind the text of the Qur’ān is not entirely new, but Luxenberg has presented it in a more forceful and comprehensive manner than ever before. The manifold responses to his work have mostly come from the arena of Islamic and Qur’ānic studies whereas the present article seeks to explore Luxenberg’s work from the standpoint of Syriac philology. It demonstrates that his method is severely lacking in many areas, although he may on occasion have hit upon a useful emendation. Thus although the hypothesis as a whole is faulty, the individual textual suggestions ought to be treated on a case-by-case basis

The rhetoric of antiquity: politico-religious propaganda in the Nestorian stele of Chang'an

This article proposes a new reading of the Nestorian stele of Chang’an, a Christian monument from the ancient Chinese capital dating from the eighth century AD, which covers the history of Nestorianism in China from its introduction in 635 to the date of its erection. Since its (re-) discovery by western missionaries in the 17th century this document has been repeatedly translated and studied as a witness for an early Christian presence in China, also with a view to legitimise Christian missionary activity in China. In turn its authenticity was called in question by enlightenment critics like Voltaire. This article acknowledges the authenticity of the document but points out that the content of the stele cannot be understood narrowly from a western ‘History of Christianity’ angle. Rather, it must be seen as a Chinese religious document with its own specific rhetoric using official terminology and concepts recognisable in the context of mainstream imperial religious policy. A significant insight in this context is that many of the Chinese concepts used in the stele to explain Christian teaching are not originally Christian, but were previously related to other religions, including Buddhism and Zoroastrianism

A discovery of meaning: the case of C. G. Jung’s house dream

Jung’s work is a serious attempt to engage psychology with ‘meaning’, comparable with narrative psychology, though the two emerged in different cultural and historical settings. Whereas narrative psychologists typically study autobiographical stories, Jung studied images such as appearing in dreams and myths. This study turns the question on Jung, examining a dream that Jung had regarded as the birth moment of his ‘collective unconscious’ theory. The dream’s contents vary when retold after many years in ways that mirror the interim development of his theory. Representations of the dream as a biographical event in others’ writings reflect contrasting attitudes towards him. His use of the dream’s image as heuristic in the dissemination of his theory is counterweighted by the dream’s effect on him as a poetic image. The psychological function of the image for Jung is considered