Spinoza, like the Judeo-Christian tradition, affirms divine omnipotence, but from a profoundly different perspective. Indeed, the traditional view that “God can do anything” assumes that God has the power to manipulate nature and circumstances as He pleases. This idea justifies the institution of worship by mankind in order to implore God’s mercy on their behalf. However, this interpretation of God’s power is no different from that of men of power, who can change a man’s situation at their pleasure. Spinoza criticises (...) this interpretation which attributes human behaviour to God. He starts from the idea of infinity, in the sense of that which cannot be hindered by anything else, to show that there is nothing outside of God capable of limiting it. The idea of infinity is supplemented by the understanding of the nature of God which determines the understanding of his power. This power, far from taking the form of an arbitrary action, follows the laws which are from the outset set by nature, of which it is the necessary, both complete and perfect, expression. (shrink)

The promise of language in the depths of hell: Primo Levi's Canto of Ulysses and Inferno -- The difference between difference and otherness: Il milione of Marco Polo and Calvino's Le città invisibili -- Traces of the Confucian/Mencian other: ethical moments in Sima Qian's Records of the historian -- War and the Hellenic splendor of knowing: Euripides, Hölderlin, Celan -- The saying, the said, and the betrayal of mercy in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice -- Nom de dieu, quelle race: (...) the saying, the said, and the betrayal of charity in Mongo Beti's Le pauvre Christ de Bomba -- Transcendent divinity and human responsibility in Mahfouz: "zaabalawi" and children of our alley -- That you might have my witness in your poem: Valéry, the symbolist tradition, and Edgar Bowers' later blank verse. (shrink)

The question of whether the ascended and glorified body of Christ retains the marks of the wounds first became an issue of theological importance in the fifth century with the writings of Cyril of Alexandria and it continued to be developed until the Reformation, when both Luther and Calvin rejected the idea. For the patristic and medieval theologians, the enduring reality of the wounds testify to the intimate connnection between the economy of God’s salvific work within the created order and (...) the eternal economy. It underscored God’s ongoing good intention for, and engagement with, fallen creation. However transformed in glory, the ascended Christ is not to be thought of as dehominised and the evidence of his history as the incarnate and suffering human being is not to be erased. Suffering and sinful humanity finds itself in the Son at the right hand of the Father and it can see there the evidence that the divine heart has and continues to beat with compassion for humanity in its continuing brokenness. It is the enduring presence of the marks of the wounds in heaven that testifies to the divine engagement with the sinful human condition, in both judgment and mercy, which in turn is the basis of humankind’s response of thankfulness. Résumé L’idée que le corps glorifié du Christ, lors de son Ascension, portait ou ne portait pas les stigmates de ses souffrances, devint une question théologique importante pour la première fois au ve siècle, dans les écrits de Cyrille d’Alexandrie, et continua d’être discutée jusqu’à la période de la Réforme, lorsque Luther et Calvin rejetèrent d’emblée cette idée. Aux yeux des Pères de l’Église et des théologiens de l’époque médiévale, la permanence des plaies ouvertes témoignait du rapport étroit entre l’économie salvifique de Dieu à l’intérieur d’un ordre créé et l’économie éternelle. Cela soulignait la continuité de la bienveillance de Dieu et son engagement envers la création déchue. Même glorifié, le Christ de l’Ascension ne doit pas être perçu comme non humain, et les preuves de son passage sur la terre, comme être humain ayant connu la souffrance, ne doivent pas être effacées. Une humanité pécheresse et souffrante se retrouve dans le Fils, à la droite du Père, et reconnaît la compassion du Coeur divin qui continue de battre pour l’humanité sans cesse brisée. La présence durable au ciel des plaies ouvertes témoigne de l’engagement de Dieu envers l’humanité pécheresse, dans son jugement ou sa clémence ; en retour, cet engagement s’avère être le fondement de la réponse de gratitude de l’humanité. (shrink)

How can suffering and injustice be reconciled with the idea that God is good, that he loves humans and is merciful to them? Job's question runs through the history of the three monotheistic religions. Time and again, philosophers, theologians, poets, prophets and laypersons have questioned their image of God in the light of a reality full of hardship. Some see suffering as proof of God's existence, others as a demonstration that there can be no God, while others still respond by (...) rebelling against Him. In this remarkable book Navid Kermani - a distinguished Islamic scholar of Iranian origin - sees this revolt against God as the central motif of one of the great but neglected works of literature: _The Book of Suffering _by the thirteenth-century Persian poet Faridoddin Attar. Through the prism of Attar's text Kermani tells the story of a religious faith that knows God but is angry with Him: a counter-theology that runs through many religions and connects Judaism, Islam and modernity. With astonishing range and stylistic brilliance Kermani brings Attar to life as one of us, enabling the great Persian poet to speak directly to us today despite the time that separates us. (shrink)

If God is good, then why did he do that? Violent wars, harsh laws, pronounced judgments. Christianity proclaims God's goodness, yet the Bible is filled with passages that seem to paint a different picture. On the surface, such depictions can hinder our confidence in God's goodness. But when we're willing to look deeper, we discover a consistent purpose behind everything God does--and that he is greater than we could ever imagine. Alongside bestselling author Josh McDowell, Matthew Tingblad invites you to (...) discover how a good God has good reasons for his challenging actions in the Bible. Throughout, you will uncover the reality of God's consistent motives and purposes: holiness, justice, and radical mercy. Whether you have your own questions about God or are ministering to those who do, Matthew and Josh will guide you through these difficult passages and ideas, all the while pointing to God's power and redeeming love. Find confidence and joy in discovering that God is good--always good--even in the passages of Scripture that appear to convey otherwise." - back cover. (shrink)

Calls for society to reconnect with nature are commonplace in environmental discourse. The expression ‘Interconnectedness with Nature’ has a place in African eco-philosophy. The departure from this...

While it is generally assumed that large corporations today give rhetorical support for basic human rights in public relations documents, skepticism continues toarise about the behavior of these firms. Do company actions support their rhetoric? This paper provides the initial analysis of our study of both rhetoric and practice regarding human rights in a small sample of large U.S. firms. At this point in the analysis, UNGC membership does not appear to have much influence on corporate rhetoric, but may be (...) partially correlated with several measures of corporate performance on human rights issues. (shrink)

President Barack Obama ordered federal regulatory agencies to engage in a retrospective regulatory review process in early 2011. This paper reports the initial results of an analysis of participation in the notice and comment process by business and public interest groups. The focus of the analysis is on comments given to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Some attention is given to the EPA’s identification of regulations to be reviewed, as a result of this process.

L’architecture carcérale présente les actes d’un colloque organisé en décembre 2010 à l’occasion du dixième anniversaire de la délocalisation, à Agen, de l’Ecole nationale d’administration pénitentiaire (ENAP). L’ouvrage est illustré de nombreux documents iconographiques provenant du fonds de plans d’architectes et de collections photographiques sur les établissements pénitentiaires conservés au Centre de ressources sur l’histoire des crimes et des peines (CRHCP) de l’ENAP. Comme l’indique le..

Drawing from contemporary social science studies on the shifting regime of research governance, this paper extends the literature by utilizing a metaphoric image—research is a game—observed in a field engagement with 82 American, British, and Danish crop and plant scientists. It theorizes respondents’ thinking and practices by placing the rules of the research game in dynamic and interactive tension between the scientific, social, and political-economic contingencies that generate opportunities or setbacks. Scientists who play the game exploit opportunities and surmount setbacks (...) by adopting strategies and reinventing tactics in order to maximize their winnings and to minimize their losses. Winners become superstars who decree what is open, closed, or doable science for the majority of the scientific community. (shrink)

Este artículo recorre sucintamente la historia de la evangelización en África y los procesos de inculturación de la fe actualmente en curso en el continente. Tal recorrido nos revela la necesidad de una figura bantú actualizada delMesías-Antepasado, modelo de plenitud humana para este mundo y paradigma para la salvación escatológica. El recorrido se introduce con un repaso sucinto de la comprensión de la salvación divina en el Antiguo y en el Nuevo Testamento. Sigue luego con un análisis de cómo esa (...) experiencia judeocristiana se presentó el siglo pasado en el mundo africano a través del programa de la «evangelización ». La reflexión continúa con una presentación de la actividad de los movimientos reaccionarios, las Iglesias Independientes de África, ante una evangelización abanderizada, y cierra con algunas propuestas para asumir como auténticamente africano (bantú) la plenitud propuesta por el mesianismo cristiano. Todo gira, por lo tanto, en torno a la relación del mundo tradicional bantú con el cristianismo católico y protestante, religiosidad ésta dominante hoy en día en los países de mayoría bantú. (shrink)

Urban dwellers’ food and nutritional wellbeing are both dependent on infrastructure and can be indicative of wider wellbeing in urban contexts and societal health. This paper focuses on the multiple relationships that exist between food and infrastructure to provide a thorough theoretical and empirical grounding to urgent work on urban food security and nutrition in the context of rapid urban and nutrition transitions in the South. We argue that urban systems and food systems thinking have not been well aligned, but (...) that such alignment is not only timely and overdue but also fruitful for both thematic areas of research and policy. We draw in particular on work within wider urban political economy and political ecology that can be classified as part of the ‘infrastructural turn’ that is influential with urban studies but little acknowledged within food studies. Drawing on these literatures helps us to better understand the interrelationships between people, things and ideas that make up both infrastructure and food systems. Policy, planning and research relating to both food and urban systems cannot afford to ignore such interlinkages, though much policy still operates on the neat assumptions of progressive connectivity to ‘the grid’ and formal food retail. Instead we argue how in many urban governance systems, a variety of hybrid mechanisms—on and off the grid, public and private formal and informal—better represent how urban residents, particularly the most marginalised, meet their everyday food and infrastructural needs along a continuum of gridded and off-grid access. (shrink)

Nurses play a key role in the provision of services in relation to sexuality in both primary and sexual and reproductive health‐care. Given the intersection of sexualities with a range of social injustices, this study reviews research on nursing practice concerning sexuality from an emancipatory/social justice perspective. A systematic review of English articles published in nursing journals appearing on the Web of Science database from 2009 to 2014 was conducted. Thirty‐eight articles met the inclusion criteria. Analysis consisted of a descriptive (...) phase (types and location of studies, aspects of sexualities focused on, target health users and aspects of nursing practice focused on) and a critical/emancipatory phase. In terms of practice, our analysis revealed that: barriers exist to the integration of issues relating to sexuality in nursing practice; the social location of nurses and their personal feelings regarding sexuality influence their practice; content that addresses gendered norms and media that assist in communication underpin some emancipatory practices. Few studies locate analyses of nursing practice within gendered, cultural and social norms; consider advocacy as part of the practice of nurses; or analyse the promotion of health user participation in health services and structures. The implications for emancipatory practice are drawn out. (shrink)

This paper applies a proposed modified stochastic fractal search algorithm (MSFS) for dealing with all constraints of optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) and finding optimal solutions for three different cases including power loss optimization, voltage deviation optimization, and L-index optimization. The proposed MSFS method is newly constructed in the paper by modifying three new solution update mechanisms on standard stochastic fractal search algorithm (SSFS). The first modification is to keep only one formula and abandon one formula in the diffusion process (...) while the second modification and the third modification are used in the first update and the second update. In two updates of SSFS, solutions with low quality are updated with high probability while other solutions with high quality do not get chances to be updated. This manner results in the fact that some promising solutions around the high quality solutions can be missed. In order to tackle this restriction, the second modification of MSFS is to newly update the worst solutions in the first update and the best solutions in the second update. In the third modification, all existing formulas of SSFS in the two updates are abandoned and the same new proposed technique is used for updating such solutions in two updates. Compared to SSFS, the three modifications can bring advantages to MSFS such as using smaller number of produced solutions per iteration, spending shorter execution time, finding better optimal solutions, and owning more stable search ability. Furthermore, the proposed method also sees its effectiveness and robustness over SSFS by testing on IEEE 30-bus system and IEEE 118-bus system with three different single objectives for each system. The proposed method can find less minimum, average, and maximum for all the cases in addition to faster search speed. Besides, the proposed method is also compared to other methods such as PSO-based method group, GA-based method group, DE-based method group, and other recent methods. Result comparisons also indicate that the proposed method can be more efficient than almost all these methods with respect to less minimum and smaller values of control parameters. As a result, evaluation of the performance of the proposed method is that it should be used for seeking solutions of ORPD problem. (shrink)

La réalisation libre de soi présuppose chez Ricoeur une juste articulation des notions d'autonomie et de dépendance dans les registres multiples d'une existence fragile, vulnérable et mortelle. Pour fonder en raison cette affirmation, je me suis au préalable employé à reconstruire la compréhension particulière de l'être du soi qui préside à la réflexion éthique de Ricoeur. Au cœur même de l'analyse phénoménologico-herméneutique de la conscience, le sujet humain est compris comme un être en devenir libre. La liberté est une création (...) dont l'initiative revient à deux instances : l'altérité de la conscience et l'ipséité, créditée de la capacité de s'approprier l'initiative de l'altérité de la conscience. Seul un être capable, dans son intériorité, du libre jeu de cette double initiative, est aussi capable d'une éthique qui, au plan historique, requiert d'articuler la médiation de l'altérité d'autrui et des institutions justes avec la capacité de reprise du soi. A partir de cette thèse de Ricoeur, cette étude rend compte du remembrement qu'il opère entre l'ontologie de l'acte, l'éthique interpersonnelle et l'éthique de la légitimation du lien social. Autant l'ontologie du soi agissant et souffrant conduit à l'éthique de la vie bonne avec et pour autrui dans des institutions justes, autant une telle éthique présuppose une telle ontologie au niveau basique et l'accomplit au plan historique. (shrink)

Results: We analyzed 1,402 surveys and 15 in-depth interviews. Many (32%) CL participants reported greater difficulty refilling medications and a minority (14%) reported greater difficulty accessing HIV care during the pandemic. Most (99%) Opt4Mamas participants reported no difficulty refilling medications or accessing HIV/pregnancy care. Among the CL participants, older women were less likely (aOR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92–0.98) and women with more children were more likely (aOR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.00–1.28) to report difficulty refilling medications. Only 2% of (...) CL participants reported greater difficulty managing FP and most (95%) reported no change in likelihood of using FP or desire to get pregnant. Qualitative analysis revealed three major themes: (1) adverse organizational/economic implications of the pandemic, (2) increased importance of pregnancy prevention during the pandemic, and (3) fear of contracting COVID-19. (shrink)

Within the research community, it is generally accepted that consent processes for research should be culturally appropriate and tailored to the context, yet researchers continue to grapple with what valid consent means within specific stakeholder groups. In this study, we explored the consent practices and attitudes regarding essential information required for the consent process within hospital-based trial communities from four referral hospitals in Vietnam. We collected surveys from and conducted semi-structured interviews with study physicians, study nurses, ethics committee members, and (...) study participants and family members regarding their experiences of participating in research, their perspectives toward research, and their views about various elements of the consent process. In our findings, we describe three interrelated themes related to the consent process: words and regulation; reimbursement, suspicions, and joining; and responsibilities. In general, stakeholders had highly varied perspectives of nghiên cứu and researchers used varying levels of detail regarding all aspects of the study in the consent process to build trust with and/or promote potential research participants’ choices about taking part in research. Findings additionally highlight how researchers felt that offering financial reimbursements in a hospital setting, where payment for services was routine, would be unfamiliar to participants and could raise suspicions about the research. Participants, however, focused their discussions on reimbursement or alternative reasons for joining the study, such as health related benefits or altruism. Finally, participants often relied on their physician to help them decide about joining a study or not. Further research is needed to understand how researchers and participants make sense of and practice consent, and how that impacts participants’ decision-making about research participation. To promote valid consent within this context, it is important to engage with hospital-based trial communities as a whole. The data from this study will inform future research on consent, guide the revisions of consent related policies within our research sites and point to several larger issues surrounding researcher-participant expectations, communication, and trust. (shrink)

As scholars have shown, acceptance is key to the success of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme. While many studies adopt a static cost-benefit perspective, few address the social process leading to acceptance. Drawing on Suchman (1995), this article examines the legitimacy process underlying the acceptance of a PES in agriculture. In particular, the role of collective action in the legitimisation process is analysed, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of discourse analysis. Data from an agro-environmental PES scheme (...) in France on water quality shows that acceptance depends on the normative and cognitive legitimacy that actors confer upon a public policy. (shrink)

This research proposes a modified metaheuristic optimization algorithm, named as improved stochastic fractal search, which is formed based on the integration of the quasiopposition-based learning and chaotic local search schemes into the original SFS algorithm for solving the optimal capacitor placement in radial distribution networks. The test problem involves the determination of the optimal number, location, and size of fixed and switched capacitors at different loading conditions so that the network total yearly cost is minimized with simultaneous fulfillment of operating (...) constraints. Also, the hourly on/off scheduling plans of switched shunt capacitors considering a modified cost objective function are obtained. The proposed ISFS algorithm has been tested on two IEEE 69-bus and 119-bus RDNs and a practical 152-bus RDN. For clarifying the effectiveness and validation of the ISFS, the simulated results have been compared with those of other previously utilized solution approaches in the literature as well as the original SFS. From result comparison, the proposed ISFS outperforms other previous approaches regarding solution quality and statistical performance for the compared cases, especially in the complex and large-scale networks. Notably, compared with the original SFS, the proposed ISFS shows a significantly better performance in all the tested cases. (shrink)

Dans mon exposé je traite de la parenté imaginaire comme elle apparaît chez la persona de l�empereur byzantin. Il s�agit d�une parenté en palindrome, puisque, d�une part, l�empereur, au moment de son couronnement, devient Fils de Dieu par la grâce divine et, d�autre part, au même moment et de la même manière, il devient Père de son peuple. Le système impérial byzantin est donc calqué sur la relation «familiale» des trois personnes de la Trinité divine : le Père, le (...) Fils et le Saint Esprit. Le fils imite son père. Les qualités paternelles existent chez le souverain terrestre : la justice, la piété, la prudence, l�absence de passions et surtout la philanthropie. Et ce sont ces qualités qui font du souverain un modèle pour ses sujets. L�empereur est absolument digne d�être imité par son peuple. C�est ainsi qu�à Byzance le modèle politique le plus ancien, celui de la parenté, survit au sein du nouveau modèle des hiérarchisations. (shrink)

Brentano, dans son ouvrage consacré à la question de l’existence de Dieu, intitulé Vom Dasein Gottes, anticipe les thèmes principaux avec lesquels la philosophie analytique de la religion est aux prises. Non seulement l’ouvrage anticipe ces questions, mais il le fait selon des méthodes, et notamment un contrôle logique et une proximité avec les sciences qui permettent de parler d’une filiation, non seulement thématique, mais aussi méthodologique, entre Brentano et la philosophie analytique contemporaine de la religion lorsqu’elle aborde la (...) question de l’existence divine. (shrink)