Deus caritas est : more than papal lyricism

Deus caritas est: et qui manet in caritate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1John 4:16b).

Many believe in or claim that they believe and hold fast to Catholic doctrine on such questions as social authority... on the relations between Church and State, religion and country ... on the rights of the Holy See and the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff and the Episcopate, on the social rights of Jesus Christ, Who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord not only of individuals but of nations. In spite of these protestations, they speak, write, and, what is more, act as if it were not necessary any longer to follow, or that they did not remain still in full force, the teachings and solemn pronouncements which may be found in so many documents of the Holy See ... (Pope Pius XI, 1922). It is a mistake to state that political, economic, and social liberation coincide with salvation in Jesus Christ; that the regnum Dei is identified with the regnum hominis (Pope John Paul I, 1978).

Crusader churches in the Latin East : expressions of medieval theology

The Latin invaders of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th-14th Centuries were on a mission to retrieve and protect the Christian Holy Land from Muslim occupation. They encountered a consistent, Eastern approach to the architectural expression of the Christian faith which the physical remains of their churches show they adopted. Previously, I have shown how it can be deduced from the archaeological remains of churches from the 4th-6th C that early church architecture was influenced by the theological ideas of the period. This paper argues that the Eastern approach to church architecture as adopted by the Crusaders was compatible with the medieval European theological context and can be seen as a legitimate expression of medieval theology.

The empowerment process in people with diabetes : an Iranian perspective

Background: Empowerment and power are well-researched concepts concerning people with chronic diseases. However, few researchers have focused specifically on the process of empowerment in Iranian people with diabetes. Understanding the empowerment process could help health professionals facilitate empowerment.
Aim: To explore the empowerment process in Iranian people with diabetes.
Method: A grounded theory research design was used incorporating in-depth interviews to collect the data from men and women aged 21–73 years (n = 16). Data were collected between February and July 2007. Constant comparative analysis was undertaken to identify key categories.
Findings: Participants indicated being embarrassed by the diagnosis, thirsting to learn, living in the shadow of fear, accepting diabetes as reality, managing diabetes and feeling empowered were distinct but interconnected phases in the empowerment process. The empowerment process was influenced by cultural and religious beliefs including the concept of the doctor as holy man, accepting diabetes as God's will, caring for the body because it was God's gift, paying attention to symptomatic disease, and support from peers and family, especially daughters.
Conclusion: The empowerment process consists of several distinct but interconnected phases. The findings will help health professionals develop a deeper understanding of how Iranian people with diabetes become empowered.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, a multi-screen film and sound poetry presentation addressing issues of traumatic effect/affect.

What was the iconoclast controversy about?

Byzantine society of the eighth and ninth centuries experienced a vigorous and often violent dispute over the status of holy icons. 'Iconoclasts' were deeply suspicious of any pictorial representations of Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints, and they therefore unleashed a wave of persecution against the use of religious images, while 'iconophiles' fiercely defended the veneration of icons as an integral element of the life of the church. The extent and magnitude of this controversy indicates that it was more than a mere dispute over competing conceptions of religious art. A number of deeper issues and concerns were at play, and in this paper I seek to uncover some of these underlying concerns and hidden agendas. In particular, I argue that the opposing factions in the iconoclast crisis were, at bottom, concerned with issues relating to salvation, power, idolatry, tradition, and access to the divine.

Becoming children : the hidden meaning of the incarnation

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel“ – which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV)

Internet and competitive advantage in Australian professional sport organisations

The electronic revolution has proven to be a powerful stimulus for change in business practice. As a business tool however, the Internet must endure the same scrutiny under which other business activities are placed. If the use of the Internet in business is a sound strategy, then it must contribute toward competitive advantage. The sport business industry has not been isolated from the vagaries of Internet applications. Moreover, as the industry has become more competitive, forcing sporting organisations towards unprecedented levels of accountability and business practice, the Internet has been increasingly seen as a potential 'holy grail' for sport organisations struggling for revenue (Stewart & Smith, 1999). This research is a response to these pressures. It seeks to identify Internet based opportunities for competitive advantage, and to provide strategies and recommendations for the successful use of the Internet in Australian professional sport organisations. In realising this objective, a newly developed and integrated Business Activity Model has been constructed. The model assists in the identification of specific Internet based competitive advantage strategies, and provides a theoretical framework for this research. The Business Activity Model conceptualises, for the first time, the relationships between the value chain, constituents of electronically enabled competitive advantage, and the Internet. With Australia's limited group of fully professional sports capable of sustaining the human resources and budgets necessary to implement comprehensive e-commerce strategies, the organisations selected to participate in this research represent the pinnacle of Australian professional sport clubs. Specifically, the 55 clubs competing in the Australian Football League (A.F.L.), National Basketball League (N.B.L.), National Rugby League (N.R.L.), and National Soccer League (N.S.L.) constituted the research sample and population. In concert with the 87% participation rate, sampling approached a census. A telephone-administered survey, based primarily on the rigorously tested instrument developed by Sethi and King (1994), was employed for data collection. This research employs a comprehensive set of descriptive statistics, and is bolstered by a confirmatory and an exploratory factor analysis, undertaken on one component of the data. The outcome of this research was the identification of seven practical recommendations for Australian professional sport organisations seeking to improve competitive advantage via the Internet. These recommendations were based on an inventory of the 'gaps' between the strategies proposed by the literature, and the practices of the sample, and relate to both overall Internet strategy, and specific web site applications. The development of the new Business Activity Model and the identification of key online strategy themes support and complement these recommendations. An examination of variations in the practices of participating organisations, and some comparisons against United States sporting organisations, also provides depth and context to the findings. This research provides a platform for sport managers to effectively harness the potential of the Internet, through their web sites in particular, and realise significant competitive advantages. The Business Activity Model provides managers in all industries with a tool for the detection and understanding of potential elements of competitive advantage, and incorporates all activities critical to business in the new digital economy. Seven practical recommendations for improved online performance based on identified competitive advantage and strategies fulfils the primary objective of this research. E-commerce continues to grow at astronomical rates, and with the Internet poised to become the life-blood of 21st century sporting organisations, these recommendations will assist managers in their ongoing search for competitive advantage.

Unfree associations : inside psychoanalytic institutes

In an age of managed care and new biological therapies for mental illness, psychoanalysis is generally seen as a 'profession on the ropes' whose hour is up. What went wrong? While external factors have played their part in the fall of psychoanalysis, psychoanalysts have generally disregarded their own crucial role in creating this decline. This thesis examines this role as played out through their own institutions, the freestanding psychoanalytic institutes. Freud was an explorer but he also codified his ideas. His work has been taken as an inspiration to explore without presuppositions but also as Holy Writ. Psychoanalysis deals with emotions and excites passions. Like religion, psychoanalysis asks big questions, and, like religion, is easily influenced and seduced by dogmatic answers to these difficult questions. Psychoanalytic institutes have been notable as closed shops. Their solid walls have kept them sealed off and mysterious to the outside world, including the mental health professions and the academy. Authoritarian cliques, power struggles and intrigues have predominated inside the institutes. Institute life has been secret, the subject of rumour rather than knowledge. Insiders often know little about of other institutes (unless they are involved in site visits to particular institutes). Sometimes, insiders have a limited view of their own institutions because they see them through the vantage points of their own experience and that of some close colleagues. I have interviewed central participants of the dramas of the histories of some key psychoanalytic institutes in the US. For the first time, this thesis recounts the intricate inside history of these organizations. The thesis reveals the detailed inner political histories of arguably the four most important and varied psychoanalytic institutes affiliated with the APsaA. The New York Psychoanalytic Institute was the first and for decades the prestigious institute which set the model for many others. It became pre-eminent on a world scale with the immigration of leading European analysts fleeing the Nazis. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute are quite varied in their organization and histories. The cultures are often quite different yet many of the problems will be found to be similar at base. I first examine the detailed political history of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute which provides a quintessential example of analytic anointment in practice, together with its pitfalls. I then examine a split that occurred in the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, which demonstrates some of the tensions and ambiguities that seem inherent in psychoanalytic organizations, especially where society and institute are part of the same institution. I move on to investigate a very different history in the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, which is quite differently organized: in Chicago, the institute with a lay Board of Trustees is quite separate from the society, and has for most of its history been headed by a powerful director. Then I look at the very complex history of the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute which in the 1970s came very close to being closed down by the APsaA. The Los Angeles Institute history is especially colourful and informative, given the introduction of Kleinian and object relations ideas into the institute and the reactions to them. These histories provide dramatic insights into what psychoanalysts and their institutions have contributed to what has gone wrong with psychoanalysis from the basis of a critique. A major aspect of the problem, in my view, is that a basically humanistic discipline has conceived and touted itself as a positivist science while organizing itself institutionally as a religion. I argue that psychoanalysts approach psychoanalysis with an inappropriate paradigm, 'as if it were a science. Their systemic misconception of their own discipline, and the resultant, widespread creation of what Christopher Bollas calls a 'false expertise' contributes to their present-day decline. I argue that qualification from an institute assumes the transmission of a body of knowledge which has not really been established as knowledge. This presumed knowledge is then transmitted by means of anointment reminiscent of the Bible. There is no unified body of knowledge within the psychoanalytic field nor is there a unified practice that can be readily empirically tested. Therefore, by default, psychoanalytic education has become a process of anointment, transmission through a subjective process akin to consecration. The large gap between the small knowledge base of psychoanalysis and the high level of 'pretend' knowledge which is inculcated during training and upon which qualification is based entrench conditions which themselves make real knowledge in this complex field more and more difficult to attain. This argument has implications not only for psychoanalysis but for many other professions where knowledge and qualification have unrealistic and inappropriate bases.

Feminist poetics : symbolism in an emblematic journey reflecting self and vision

My thesis tilled Feminist Poetics: Symbolism in an Emblematic Journey Reflecting Self and Vision, consists of thirty oil paintings on canvas, several preparatory sketches and drawings in different media on paper, and is supported and elucidated by an exegesis. The paintings on unframed canvases reveal mise en scčnes and emblems that present to the viewer a drama about links between identities, differences, relationships and vision. Images of my daughter, friends and myself fill single canvases, suites of paintings, diptyches and triptychs. The impetus behind my research derives from my recognition of the cultural means by which women's experience is excluded from a representational norm or ideal. I use time-honoured devices, such as, illusionist imagery, aspects of portraiture, complex fractured atmospheric space, paintings and drawings within paintings, mirrors and reflective surfaces, shadows and architectural devices. They structure my compositions in a way that envelops the viewer in my internal world of ideas. Some of these features function symbolically, as emblems. A small part of the imagery relies on verisimilitude, such as my hands and their shadow and my single observing eye enclosed by my glasses. What remains is a fantasy world, ‘seen’ by the image of my other eye, or ‘faction’, based on memories and texts explaining the significance of ancient Minoan symbols. In my paintings, I base the subjects of this fantasy on my memories of the Knossos Labyrinth and matristic symbols, such as the pillar, snake, blood, eye and horn. They suggest the presence of a ritual where initiates descended into the adyton (holy of holies) or sunken areas in the labyrinth. The paintings attempt a ‘rewriting’ of sacrality and gender by adopting the symbolism of death, transformation and resurrection in the adyton. The significance of my emblematic imagery is that it constructs a foundation narrative about vision and insight. I sought symbolic attributes shared by European oil painting and Minoan antiquity. Both traditions share symbolic attributes with male dying gods in Greek myths and Medusa plays a central part in this linkage. I argue that her attributes seem identical to both those of the dying gods and Minoan goddesses. In the Minoan context these symbols suggest metaphors for the female body and the mother and daughter blood line. When the symbols align with the beheaded Medusa in a patriarchal context, both her image and her attributes represent cautionary tales about female sexuality that have repercussions for aspects of vision. In Renaissance and Baroque oil painting Medusa's image served as a vehicle for an allegory that personified the triumph of reason over the senses. In the twentieth century, the vagina dentata suggests her image, a personified image of irrational emotion that some male Surrealists celebrated as a muse. She is implicated in the male gaze as a site of castration and her representation suggests a symbolic form pertaining to perspective. Medusa's image, its negative sexual and violent connotations, seemed like a keystone linking iconographic codes in European oil painting to Minoan antiquity. I fused aspects of matristic Minoan antiquity with elements of European oil paintings in the form of disguised attribute gestures, objects and architectural environments. I selected three paintings, Dürer's Setf-Portrait, 1500, Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1630 and Velazquez's Las Meniruis, 1656 as models because 1 detected echoes of Minoan symbolism in the attributes of their subjects and backgrounds. My revision of Medusa's image by connecting it to Minoan antiquity established a feminist means of representation in the largely male-dominated tradition of oil painting. These paintings also suggested painting techniques that were useful to me. Through my representations of my emblematic journey I questioned the narrow focus placed on phallic symbols when I explored how their meanings may have been formed within a matricentric culture. I retained the key symbols of the patriarchal foundation narratives about vision but removed images of violence and their link to desire and replaced it with a ritual form of symbolic death. I challenged the binary oppositional defined Self as opposed to Other by constructing a complex, fluid Self that interacts with others. A multi-directional gaze between subjects, viewers and artist replaces the male gaze. Different qualities of paint, coagulation and random flow form a blood symbolism. Many layers of paint retaining some aspects of the Gaze and Glance, fuse and separate intermittently to construct and define form. The sense of motion and fluidity constructs a form of multi-faceted selves. The supporting document, the exegesis is in two parts. In the first part, I discuss the Minoan sources of my iconography and the symbolic gender specific meanings suggested by particular symbols and their changed meanings in European oil painting, I explain how I integrate Minoan symbols into European oil paintings as a form of disguised symbolism. In the second part I explain how my alternative use of symbolism and paint alludes to a feminist poetic.

Thin white women in advertising : deathly corporeality

This article examines the way that contemporary British women’s magazine advertising employs idealized images of thin white women to confer status on a range of beauty products and services. These lean, pure, radiant images of white women are imagined to be natural sources of light, beauty, and the entry point (with the product) to a higher state of female grace. However, the article also addresses what is argued to be the ‘absence’ effect and the lack of corporeal life that is also at the core of many of these ‘lacking’ images of white women. The article argues that such textual ruptures and contradictions, in turn, point to the way that thinness itself, as a self-willed body project, can be considered to be a resistant body practice, or one that draws attention to the life and death struggle at the heart of what it means to be a ‘good’ white woman in a patriarchal society

In the Syrian taste : crusader churches in the Latin East as architectural expressions of orthodoxy

This paper explores how the architectural expression of orthodoxy in the Eastern churches was transferred to Europe before the Crusades and then reinforced through the Crusaders’ adoption of the triple-apsed east end “in the Syrian Taste” in the Holy Land. Previously, I have shown how it can be deduced from the archaeological remains of churches from the 4th-6th C that early church architecture was influenced by the theological ideas of the
period. It is proposed that the Eastern orthodox approach to church
architecture as adopted by the Crusaders paralleled the evolution of medieval theology in Europe and can be seen as its legitimate expression.

Jane Campion

Jane Campion, one of the most celebrated auters of modern cinema, was the first female director to be awarded the prestigious Palme d'Or. In this first detailed account of Jane Campion's career, Verhoeven examines how contemporary film directors 'fashion' themselves as auters- through their personal interactions with the media, in their choice of projects, emphasis on particular filmmaking techniques and finally in the promotion of their films. Through analysis of key scenes from Campion's films such as The Piano, In the Cut, Sweetie and Holy Smoke, Verhoeven introduces the key debates surrounding this controversial and often experimental director. Features a career overview, a filmography and an extended interview with Campion on her approach to creativity.

Religion, faith and the empowerment process : stories of Iranian people with diabetes

Empowerment concerning people with diabetes is well researched. However, few researchers specifically focus on the barriers to and facilitators of empowerment in Iranian people with diabetes. Understanding the factors could help health professionals facilitate self-empowerment more effectively. This study aims to determine the barriers to and facilitators of empowerment in Iranian people with diabetes. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using in-depth interviews to collect the data from 11 women and men in 2007. Themes were identified using constant comparative analysis method. Common barriers to empowerment were similar to other chronic diseases: prolonged stress, negative view about diabetes, ineffective health-care systems, poverty and illiteracy. Diabetes education, fear of diabetes’ complications, self-efficacy and hope for a better future emerged as being crucial to empowerment. Facilitators specific to Iranians were: the power of religion and faith, the concept of the doctor as holy man, accepting diabetes as God’s will, caring for the body because it was God’s gift and support from families especially daughters. Empowerment was strongly influenced by cultural and religious beliefs in Iran and the power of faith emerged as an important facilitator of diabetes empowerment. The findings will help health professionals understand how Iranian people with diabetes view life and the factors that facilitate empowerment.

Key themes and research agendas in the sport-alcohol nexus

This article synthesizes the main themes and research agendas that have been explored in studies of sports-associated drinking. It identifies four themes in which sport and alcohol come together: (a) the commercial economy; (b) social practices and cultural identities; (c) crime and violence; and (d) health behaviors. The article highlights the paradoxical and contradictory nature of the sport-alcohol nexus, especially in relation to health behaviors and crime and violence, where sport is both a context for and a “solution” to health damaging and criminal behavior. The article also argues for the contribution that studies of sports-based drinking can make to the sociology of sport and alcohol use more broadly, particularly with regard to applying new theoretical perspectives such as “calculated hedonism” and “casual leisure” to drinking in sporting contexts. It also extends our analysis of the beer-sport-gender “holy trinity” to considering drinking by women as well as among less traditional forms of masculine identities.