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)

New work ethics? Foucault and the spirit of 21st century capitalism

In a corporate environment that is changing at warp speed, performing consistently at high levels is more difficult and more necessary than ever. Narrow interventions simply aren't sufficient anymore. Companies can't afford to address their employees' cognitive capacities while ignoring their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. On the playing field or in the boardroom, high performance depends on how much people renew and recover energy as on how they expend it, on how they manage their lives as much as on how they manage their work. When people feel strong and resilient - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - they perform better, with more passion, for longer. They win, their families win, and the corporations that employ them win. (Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (2001) The Making of a Corporate Athlete, p.128)

Sveta Bogorodica (The Church of the Holy Mother), Zavoj, Macedonia : writing about an insignificant vernacular building

Sveta Bogorodica (Church of the Holy Mother), Zavoj, is a small church built in 1934 in a village in the Republic of Macedonia. It presented a quintessential architectural division between a richly ornamented interior and a pure white formal exterior. The paper will examine the question of tradition in relation to architecture. What of the formal Byzantine architectural tradition is inherited in this folk vernacular church building? Secondly, tradition as an inherited liturgical ritual and ceremony. How are these two forms of tradition autonomous or intertwined, and how the question about transcendence in architecture pursued in the 2005 paper on Hagia Sofia might be understood within the parameters offered by this church building, will be explored in the paper .

Protecting the spirit of Hutong : a case study of Nanchizi Precinct, Beijing

This paper uses a case study of Nanchizi precinct to assess the impact of the spirit of hutongs in Beijing. The renewal of historic precincts rejuvenates old quarters on the one hand, on the other, it may pose threats not only to the built fabric but also to the spirit of historic precincts. Hutong is a living cultural landscape in Beijing representing of unique characteristics, complex historical layers as well as the way of life of its citizens. The recent decade witnesses the renewal of historic precincts in Beijing, which has greatly changed the historic vernacular landscape. How to accommodate changes while retain the spirit of Beijing’s traditional habitat is a question facing the heritage management. This paper argues that continuity and change of the landscape are inter-related, and that an effective conservation regime needs the enhanced awareness of the history of interaction between people and place.

Spirit of enterprise

Remittances from Fijian workers overseas are the nation’s largest income – exceeding that of tourism and sugar. Fijian bodies have become a valuable export commodity in the increasingly privatised economy of war. Coco Fusco writes that from the 18th Century, texts have “reduced people of colour to the corporeal, whiteness was understood as a spirit that manifests itself in a dynamic relation to the physical world. Whiteness, then, does not need to be made visible to present an image; it can be expressed as the spirit of enterprise, as the power to organise the material world, and as an expansive relation to the environment.” This work asks where black and white bodies fit within this new economy of war…who is visible and who is invisible? Whose bodies are commodities and who embodies the spirit of enterprise?

The holy grail : the search for the optimal gaar

The sustainability of a taxation system relies in part in reducing effective tax avoidance as far as is possible. Tax avoidance impacts on the economy both because it results in revenue loss and because it diverts people into devising, marketing and implementing avoidance arrangements, rather than engaging in economically productive activities. Revenue losses in turn weaken the government's ability to formulate and implement fiscal policies. Moreover, the very integrity of a tax system, necessary for its long-term sustainability, is attacked by tax avoidance. The goal of equity is undermined by tax avoidance as typically these schemes are accessed by the wealthy. Thus, tax avoidance results in an unfair shift in the tax burden to the less wealthy in society. As one commentator recently noted, combating 'tax avoidance ... will serve to lessen the overall burden on all taxpayers'. Further, legislative responses to tax avoidance increase the complexity of a taxation scheme. Tax avoidance schemes also undermine the neutrality of a taxation system by distorting trade and investment decisions. Thus, tax avoidance attacks every aspect of a fair, and hence, sustainable, taxation system.

In search of the tendon holy grail : predictable clinical outcomes

What is your first reaction when you find out your next patient has a long-term tendinopathy? I suspect you want to hide or get an urgent phone call that drags you away from the practice. You know that the person will have tried multiple interventions, probably had several injections, read all the literature about treatments for tendinopathy on the internet and want an immediate and lifelong cure. You also know that your assessment will take well into your next patient’s time allotment and even then it will remain difficult to prioritise treatments and to explain the rationale behind your plan to the patient. Even as a tendon researcher and part-time clinician whose practice consists solely of tendinopathy patients, my reactions to chronic tendinopathy patients are similar.

Holy days after migration

In Zavoj, a mountainous village in the Republic of Macedonia, the Day of the Holy Mother is the most significant day in the village's ritual calendar. Over the last two decades the festival has been transformed due to emigration, but importantly, many Zavoj emigrants return to the village for the festival. Added to this are several other celebrations related to holy days that take place in the village. The focus of this paper will be the Mala Sveta Bogorodica (minor Holy Mother) festivity, and the sacred sites on the Old Zavoj Road. A very active church committee draws together the emigrants and produces a new type of village community and new types of social practices. Parallel to this, is the dramatic transformation of the architecture of the village. From data of recent field work, this paper will explore the emigrant gathering in Zavoj, and why the village becomes a place for the celebration of holy days after migration.

Sacred time after emigration : a study of the Holy Mother Festival in Zavoj

In Zavoj, a mountainous village in the Republic of Macedonia, the Day of the Holy Mother is the most significant day in the village's ritual calendar. The Day of the Holy Mother, like other holy days associated with saints, is a religious festival in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar; and Zavoj, like other villages, identifies with a particular holy day, in this case that of the Holy Mother. Festival is historically and etymologically linked to feast, a celebration in honour of gods, and the Day of the Holy Mother, like the two principal feasts in the Christian calendar, the Feast of Nativity of our Lord (Christmas) and the Feast of Resurrection (Easter), is a religious celebration that includes a feast in honour of the saint, traditionally as a breaking of a fast. Importantly, many Zavoj emigrants return to the village for the festival on the Day of the Holy Mother. Over recent years both village and the festival have been transformed, due to large and continuing emigration and the demise of the resident peasant generation. This chapter will examine the changes in the festival, comparing that of 1988, when the village was inhabited, with that of 2007, when there were only a few people resident and by which time many of the peasant generation had passed on. As a result of emigration the village is emptied of its inhabitants, yet it remains the site of, and destination for, the continuity of the annual festival.