The effects of research ethics training on medical students' attitudes about clinical research are examined. A preliminary randomized controlled trial evaluated 2 didactic approaches to ethics training compared to a no-intervention control. The participant-oriented intervention emphasized subjective experiences of research participants (empathy focused). The criteria-oriented intervention emphasized specific ethical criteria for analyzing protocols (analytic focused). Compared to controls, those in the participant-oriented intervention group exhibited greater attunement to research participants' attitudes related to altruism, trust, quality of relationships with researchers, desire (...) for information, hopes about participation and possible therapeutic misconception, importance of consent forms, and deciding quickly about participation. The participant-oriented group also agreed more strongly that seriously ill people are capable of making their own research participation decisions. The criteria-oriented intervention did not affect learners' attitudes about clinical research, ethical duties of investigators, or research participants' decision making. An empathy-focused approach affected medical students' attunement to research volunteer perspectives, preferences, and attributes, but an analytically oriented approach had no influence. These findings underscore the need to further examine the differential effects of empathy-versus analytic-focused approaches to the teaching of ethics. (shrink)

The effects of research ethics training on medical students' attitudes about clinical research are examined. A preliminary randomized controlled trial evaluated 2 didactic approaches to ethics training compared to a no-intervention control. The participant-oriented intervention emphasized subjective experiences of research participants. The criteria-oriented intervention emphasized specific ethical criteria for analyzing protocols. Compared to controls, those in the participant-oriented intervention group exhibited greater attunement to research participants' attitudes related to altruism, trust, quality of relationships with researchers, desire for information, hopes about (...) participation and possible therapeutic misconception, importance of consent forms, and deciding quickly about participation. The participant-oriented group also agreed more strongly that seriously ill people are capable of making their own research participation decisions. The criteria-oriented intervention did not affect learners' attitudes about clinical research, ethical duties of investigators, or research participants' decision making. An empathy-focused approach affected medical students' attunement to research volunteer perspectives, preferences, and attributes, but an analytically oriented approach had no influence. These findings underscore the need to further examine the differential effects of empathy-versus analytic-focused approaches to the teaching of ethics. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D We see in Mark's Gospel an interest in Jesus reaching out beyond the Jewish people to bring the good news to other peoples as well. One of the issues associated with that is the extent to which these other people need to adopt Jewish ways in order to become followers of Jesus. That is why, even though we are in a section of Mark's Gospel that deals with Jesus and the disciples, we have today's passage about (...) Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D As a seminary student I was taught that a homily ought to end with a eucharistic link. Mature reflection leads me to conclude that the entire homily is itself the eucharistic link. It joins together the interplay of the life of the assembly and the Scriptures, on the one hand, and the great prayer of thanksgiving on the other. My reflections are missing the element of the life of the assembly, which can be supplied only by (...) individual preachers in touch with their communities, but hopefully they provide something of the reason why, on this particular occasion, the assembly can move on to offer God thanks. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D In the past two weeks we have heard of covenants God made with people: the covenant with Noah symbolised by the rainbow and the covenant with Abraham symbolised by the stars in the night sky. God made fantastic promises and it would seem that God asked for little in return. Perhaps that is unfair. Noah had to suffer seeing the rest of humanity destroyed and Abraham endured the torment of preparing his son for sacrifice. They both (...) offered a significant display of faith and their descendants enjoyed the benefits. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D One of my philosophy professors told me there were two sets of alternatives at the heart of philosophy, which is another way of saying that there are two fundamental choices between two different ways at the heart of understanding life. The years have proven, at least as far as I am concerned, just how insightful this observation was. The two sets of alternatives are one and many, and being and flux. The solemn feast of Pentecost, the (...) last day of our Easter season, gives us the opportunity to reflect on the first set: one and many. When we look out at the world, are we the kind of persons who see what we have in common with others and see what unites us, or are we the kind of persons who first notice the differences between us and other people: either our gender, or our skin colour, or our language, or our religion, or our social status, or our nationality, or our education, or our occupation? There are so many things that make us different from one another that it is a rare person who is able to focus on what makes us one. (shrink)

It is not specified in Mark's Gospel where the ascension of Jesus takes place, although the last location specified is Jerusalem. Nor are we given a time frame for how long after the resurrection it occurred. In Matthew we also have no time frame, but the ascension is located in the north, in Galilee. In the second half of Luke we are told that the ascension took place forty days after the resurrection, and in the first half we are told (...) that it took place at Bethany, a small village just outside of Jerusalem. In the last words Jesus speaks to his followers he connects his ascension back to his death and resurrection. He also connects the mission of the church, in bringing the message of forgiveness to the world and the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, to his death and resurrection. (shrink)

This essay explicates a structural theory of the historical evolution of world-systems. Rather than using societies as the unit of analysis the authors use intersocietal interaction networks (world-systems). This enables them to take theoretical account of the systemic development processes that are regional and inter-regional in scope and to formulate a more powerful theory that explains how thousands of egalitarian small-scale world-systems evolved, expanded and merged to become the hierarchical and global world-system of today.

Powerful conversations between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and leading scientists on the most pressing issue of our time. Engage with leading scientists, academics, ethicists, and activists, as well as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness the Karmapa, who gathered in Dharamsala, India, for the twenty-third Mind and Life conference to discuss arguably the most urgent questions facing humanity today: What is happening to our planet? What can we do about it? How do we balance the concerns of (...) people against the rights of animals and against the needs of an ecosystem? What is the most skillful way to enact change? And how do we fight on, even when our efforts seem to bear no fruit? Inspiring, edifying, and transformative, this should be required reading for any citizen of the world. (shrink)

Augustine’s Epistulae 23A*, 23*, and 22*, written in late 419 and early 420, present his involvement in the dispute concerning the translation of Honorius to Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell), a city Augustine had visited in September 418 while fulfilling a commission from Zosimus of Rome. The translation of bishops from one church to another had been condemned by the 325 Council of Nicaea. The three letters are difficult to interpret because the information to his three correspondents (Possidius of Calama, Renatus, (...) a monk of Caesarea Mauretaniae, and Alypius of Thagaste, who was in Italy at the time) seems to differ. A careful reading reveals that not only did Augustine’s knowledge of the situation change over time, but that the stress he placed on differing elements of that situation also changed depending upon the correspondent. The letters also disclose the involvement of Boniface I of Rome, Zosimus’ successor, and the complex relationship of the African churches with the bishop of Rome, especially in the matter of judicial appeal. What is suggested here is that Augustine, without saying so, seemed to be aware of the criteria Boniface had employed in another translation controversy, which was the approved translation of Perigenes as bishop of Corinth, and that, if applied to Honorius, this would lead the Roman bishop to reach a very different conclusion. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D Older Catholics would have grown up hearing about the sacrifice of the Mass, while in the last fifty years we have increasingly spoken of the celebration of the eucharist. Of course, the eucharist is sacrifice, but it is other things besides, like meal and celebration, and the word 'sacrifice' is easy to misinterpret. For many of us the word 'sacrifice' conjures up thoughts of the killing and slaughter of animals or even people. It is true that (...) the word can mean this, but it has a much broader meaning. To sacrifice something is to remove it from the realm of the everyday and hand it over or dedicate it to some other purpose. Thus, a bloodless sacrifice, like the libation or pouring out of wine, is the offering up of something for someone else's use rather than one's own. Naturally, the killing of a living victim ensures that one cannot change one's mind later on and take it back, especially when the burnt sacrificial animal has often then been eaten by those who had participated in or witnessed the ritual slaughter. (shrink)

Dunn, Geoffrey D Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. It developed during the fourth century as a time when sinners, who could no longer participate as full members of the church due to the serious and public nature of their offences, prepared for reconciliation with the church through penance, and adult catechumens, who were seeking to join the church as new members, prepared for initiation into the church. The season is a time of renewal of relationships for (...) the community, of renewal of our relationship with God and of renewal of our relationships with others. The central theme is conversion: a conversion as radical as reorienting one's whole life according to the gospel of Jesus, and as total as requiring the surrender of life. We surrender our old way of life and allow the Spirit to conform us to the new way of life as a disciple of Jesus. The Year A readings have a particular focus on the initiation of catechumens, who, at the start of Lent, celebrate the rite of election and enter the final period of purification and enlightenment before initiation at Easter. On the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays the elect celebrate the scrutinies, when the community examines their readiness for initiation. The symbols of the Easter liturgy feature in the readings of these three Sundays: water, light, and life. (shrink)

As with the last two years' reflections, it is my intention to give a distinctly patristic flavour to what I write, drawing upon the rich tradition of the church in the youthful flush of its earliest centuries, a time also of great challenge, to see the enduring relevance and beauty of the insights of the earliest Christian preachers, commentators, and authors.

We continue where we left off from last Sunday with Jesus establishing the ethical foundations of the new Israel. Hypocrisy is really one of the most distasteful of human characteristics and in today's gospel passage Jesus confronts it head on. Hypocrisy is the real 'fake news', for it is nothing other than a sham and a pretence that we are something that we really are not, a contrivance that we are better than others when we are not, a sanctimonious false (...) virtue that we have the right to point out the faults of others while leaving our own failings untouched. When we are the victim of someone else's hypocrisy we feel the injustice and unfairness, we feel the betrayal and deception, we feel the put-down and rejection. (shrink)

As my time writing scripture reflections for this journal has drawn to an end, it is a good opportunity to reflect more theoretically about the nature of homiletic preaching today. My first peer-reviewed publication was on this topic. Since then I have returned on occasion to investigate preaching in the early Christian centuries both on its own terms qua preaching and as source material for theological expression. It is a matter worthy of fresh reflection, because in the twenty years since (...) the publication of the article in 'Worship' there have been new documents issued from Rome, which in turn have given rise to fresh statements from bishops' conferences. The question is: has there been much change in the way the nature of a homily is understood over those past twenty years, and how does that align with the 'Worship' article? The argument advanced here is that these recent documents reveal a multiplicity of understandings of the purpose of the Sunday liturgical homily. (shrink)

The essays that follow grew out of a workshop held at the Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley, in March 2018, on the topic of conceptuality and non-conceptuality in Buddhist philosophy. Discussions at the workshop focused specifically on the tenability of the claim made by the two Buddhist epistemologists Dignāga and Dharmakīrti that perceptual cognitions are non-conceptual and yet also contribute to the contents of conceptual thought. The four contributions collected here present just a few of the resulting (...) reflections.This essay explores the Dharmakīrtian1 notion of a "concept" in the specific context of a "pseudo-perception", that is, cognitive events that... (shrink)

Biblical descriptions of Christ's second coming are diverse and metaphorical. To read them literally is to diminish the resilient power of Christian hope, which is centered in the revelation of Christ already given.

Dunn, Geoffrey D As with last year's reflections, it is my intention to give a distinctly patristic flavour to what I write, drawing upon the rich tradition of the church in the youthful flush of its earliest centuries, a time also of great challenge, to see the enduring relevance and beauty of the insights of the earliest Christian preachers, commentators and authors.

Evan Thompson’s Waking, Dreaming, Being is an outstanding work that richly deserves the widespread praise that it is receiving. The book exhibits exquisite balance between various poles: science and philosophy, “East” and “West,” the accessible and the specialized, the physical and the emergent, and so on. It is also a remarkably readable book, and since academic literature is littered with many unreadable must-read tomes, I am grateful for the change of pace. In short, those who have not yet read Waking, (...) Dreaming, Being should be heartily encouraged to do so. They will find the task a pleasant and edifying one.Much more could be said in praise of Waking, Dreaming, Being, but the task here is to offer some... (shrink)

In chapter 14 of Luke's Gospel we have several stories about table fellowship put together and several sayings of Jesus that are added as maxims to conclude the stories, even though originally they were probably used in a different context. We find the first maxim about those who exalt themselves being humbled and those who humble themselves being exalted attached to different material in Matthew 23. We have just heard the first of those two table fellowship stories, which are found (...) in Luke only, but the third is going to be left out of our liturgy readings entirely. (shrink)

Innocent I (402-417) addressed Epistula 38 to two Bruttian bishops, Maximus and Severus, in response to a complaint from Maximilianus, an agens in rebus,that these southern Italian bishops had failed to take action against presbyters who fathered children contrary to the requirements of celibacy after ordination and claimed to be ignorant of any policy on this matter. Innocent reminded the two bishops that they needed to attend to their duties. This letter is among the earliest evidence for how the Roman (...) bishop operated in practice as metropolitan of Suburbicarian (and possibly Annonarian) Italy and so this article examines the growth of Rome’s metropolitan authority and concludes from an examination of both context and content of the letter that Innocent did not refer to any formal authority,which grew over time but seems to have been limited to presiding over synods, approving the election and ordination of new bishops, and hearing appeals from deposed bishops outside his province, but was exercising a practical authority as the leading bishop of the area, which he expressed in surprised tones, to direct them to do their duty. (shrink)