Shifting the Universe: Early Dark Energy and Standard Rulers

The presence of dark energy at high redshift influences both the cosmic sound horizon and the distance to last scattering of the cosmic microwave background. We demonstrate that through the degeneracy in their ratio, early dark energy can lie hidden in the CMB temperature and polarization spectra, leading to an unrecognized shift in the sound horizon. If the sound horizon is then used as a standard ruler, as in baryon acoustic oscillations, then the derived cosmological parameters can be nontrivially biased. Fitting for the absolute ruler scale (just as supernovae must be fit for the absolute candle magnitude) removes the bias but decreases the leverage of the BAO technique by a factor 2.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

A New Project in Systematic Theology

The article explores the possibility of a new collaborative venture in systematic theology based in the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran. A prospectus is offered of five volumes intended as texts to be used at the level of MA and MDiv students

Actual Grace and the Elevation of the Secular

This paper develops and integrates several strands of thought represented in recent contributions that the author has tried to make to the secularization-sacralization debate.1 That debate is both ecclesial and theological, and the two contexts are related. The theological debate will not be resolved short of discovering the key to discerning grace everywhere. Resolution of the ecclesial debate will take much longer, if not in the sensus fidelium at least in magisterial attitudes. This paper proposes a central element in the relevant discernment

Adolescent Literacy Programs: Costs of Implementation

Reviews the literature on implementation of educational reforms and compares implementation processes and costs at schools that have adopted one of three literacy reforms. Includes recommendations for detailed resource planning and cost accounting