'And a sword will pierce your soul also’: reflections on the holy mother and the holy child

This article explores themes of maternal purification and the separation of mother and child through close attention to the presentation narratives in Luke 2. It draws upon cultural theory, artistic representations of the narratives and theological reflection upon experience to address the ambiguities of the maternal relation. It suggests that a recovery of this ambiguity is a necessary not only for understanding this particular biblical event but also our relations with the divine

A theopoetics of practice: re-forming in practical theology

This article articulates a challenge to discern what form theopoetics might take within practical theology and, further, to engage with the construction of modes of theopoetic making appropriate to the discipline. To date there has been little conceptual engagement with theopoetics by practical theologians. In order to begin to address this lack Catherine Keller’s work is taken as indicative of the potential significance of this project. An examination of theopoetics within constructive theology highlights the necessity for practical theologians to create their own distinctive forms of theopoetical reflection honouring their disciplinary heritage. It is suggested that a ‘theopoetics of practice’ might be created in the manner of a bricolage from neglected cultural resources. The work embodies in its writing style the creative work it advocates

'And a sword will pierce your soul also’: reflections on the holy mother and the holy child

This article explores themes of maternal purification and the separation of mother and child through close attention to the presentation narratives in Luke 2. It draws upon cultural theory, artistic representations of the narratives and theological reflection upon experience to address the ambiguities of the maternal relation. It suggests that a recovery of this ambiguity is a necessary not only for understanding this particular biblical event but also our relations with the divine

We have never been theologians: postsecularism and practical theology

This article makes a clear challenge to portrayals of secularism and secularity that have become hugely influential within contemporary theology. It demonstrates how the theological concepts of immanence and transcendence have been mobilised as ciphers in cultural debate and argues that this has perpetuated unhelpful binary thinking about faith and culture. Drawing upon the work of Bruno Latour it constructs a case for an alternative mode of theological engagement with the way we live now. This will present a radical agenda for practical theology which has yet to make its own distinctive response to the challenges of postsecular enchantment. Practical theologians are urged to draw upon the traditional strengths of their discipline and combine creative new thinking with a recovery of insights from the arts of ministry

Theology in the way we live now: a theopoetics of life writing

No abstract available

Theological Teflection : Methods

Reviewed by Rev. Susan Conra

The Intersection of HIV Infection with HIV/AIDS Beliefs among African Americans

This dissertation describes a qualitative study of 15 African American, HIV-positive individuals who were clients in a day treatment program at an HIV clinic in the Washington, DC, area. Data were collected through semistructured interviews; grounded theory methodology was used to generate a theory of how the participants gave meaning to HIV. The theoretical model included Personal Context, Support and Education, Socio-cultural Meaning, and Personal Meaning, all of which related to the formation of a global meaning regarding HIV. The emergent theoretical model and its components are presented, and the implications of the study for research, practice, and advocacy are discussed

Development and Validation of the Behaviors Toward Gays and Lesbians Scale (B-GAL)

This thesis discusses the current state of research regarding attitudes and behaviors toward lesbians and gay men and outlines the development and testing of the Behaviors Toward Gays and Lesbians Scale (B-GAL). Establishment of internal consistency reliability and construct validity (convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, as well as factor analysis) was determined on a sample of 175 female and male heterosexual college students. Results suggested a highly internally consistent and valid behavioral measure consisting of three factors. The thesis also discusses the use of the B-GAL in providing a preliminary assessment of college students' behaviors toward lesbians and gay men

Gaia transient detection efficiency: hunting for nuclear transients

We present a study of the detectability of transient events associated with galaxies for the Gaia European Space Agency astrometric mission. We simulated the on-board detections, and on-ground processing for a mock galaxy catalogue to establish the properties required for the discovery of transient events by Gaia, specifically tidal disruption events (TDEs) and supernovae (SNe). Transients may either be discovered by the on-board detection of a new source or by the brightening of a previously known source. We show that Gaia transients can be identified as new detections on-board for offsets from the host galaxy nucleus of 0.1--0.5,arcsec, depending on magnitude and scanning angle. The Gaia detection system shows no significant loss of SNe at close radial distances to the nucleus. We used the detection efficiencies to predict the number of transients events discovered by Gaia. For a limiting magnitude of 19, we expect around 1300 SNe per year: 65% SN Ia, 28% SN II and 7% SN Ibc, and ~20 TDEs per year.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRA

Gene family encoding the major toxins of lethal \u3ci\u3eAmanita\u3c/i\u3e mushrooms

Amatoxins, the lethal constituents of poisonous mushrooms in the genus Amanita, are bicyclic octapeptides. Two genes in A. bisporigera, AMA1 and PHA1, directly encode α-amanitin, an amatoxin, and the related bicyclic heptapeptide phallacidin, a phallotoxin, indicating that these compounds are synthesized on ribosomes and not by nonribosomal peptide synthetases. α-Amanitin and phallacidin are synthesized as proproteins of 35 and 34 amino acids, respectively, from which they are predicted to be cleaved by a prolyl oligopeptidase. AMA1 and PHA1 are present in other toxic species of Amanita section Phalloidae but are absent from nontoxic species in other sections. The genomes of A. bisporigera and A. phalloides contain multiple sequences related to AMA1 and PHA1. The predicted protein products of this family of genes are characterized by a hypervariable ‘‘toxin’’ region capable of encoding a wide variety of peptides of 7–10 amino acids flanked by conserved sequences. Our results suggest that these fungi have a broad capacity to synthesize cyclic peptides on ribosomes