John Calvin's Impact on Church and Society, 1509-2009. Essays for the 500th birthday of Calvin

A tribute to the monumental influence of John Calvin in the 500 years since his birth. / What legacies, still enduring today, have John Calvin and Calvinism given to the church and society in Europe and North America? An international group of scholars tackles that question in this volume honoring Calvin's 500th birthday. These chapters together provide a comprehensive and accessible introduction to Calvin's life and thought, the history of the Reformation in Switzerland and worldwide, and his continuing relevance for ecclesial, social, and political questions today. / Contributors: Philip Benedict, James D. Bratt, Emidio Campi, Wulfert de Greef, Christopher Elwood, Eva-Maria Faber, Eric Fuchs, Ulrich H. J. Krtner, Christian Link, Christian Moser, Andrew Pettegree, Christoph Strohm, Mario Turchetti./ The essays in this book fit beautifully together to provide a solid, complete work that gives precise insight into the many different facets of Calvin and Calvinism. The high-level research found here clearly shows the great impact that Calvin has had on both church and society. It is a great pleasure to see Calvin here anew. Eberhard Busch / University of Gttingen / That John Calvin made a deep and lasting impact on many aspects of history is common knowledge but the character of the man and the nature of his influence are perhaps as controversial as any that can be named. It is thus a challenge to examine even a fraction of the many ways that Calvins life and thought have contributed to the shaping of later ages in both church and society. This volume offers essays on key points from an appropriately international group of authors appreciative but critical, drawing on a rich range of recent scholarship, presented in a pleasing and accessible form. It is a fine place for the new reader of Calvin to get a glimpse of his impact, while offering a fresh summary of some significant issues for more advanced students of the Reformer. Elsie Anne McKee / Princeton Theological Seminary / Hirzel and Sallmann have succeeded in gathering essays by an illustrious circle of experts both historians and theologians on important areas of Calvins thought and impact. Ranging from an insignificant city at the edge of the Swiss Confederation in the 1530s to the Accra Confession of 2004, these essays will serve to correct popular misconceptions. A fine introduction for a broader readership that wants more than mere armchair theology. Peter Opitz / University of Zurich

The Function of Norms and Values in the Construction of Social Identity in Groups who experienced intergroup Conflicts

I present my explorative research about conflict and social identity. The Social Identity Approach of Henri Tajfel and John Turner is used as theoretical frame in the study. The main question is how the construction of social identity of group members is influenced by an inter-group conflict. The research project consists of two parts: 1. An empirical study conducted with qualitative research methods to investigate a today’s congregation of the Swiss reformed Church who experienced a conflict about twenty years ago. This conflict ended by the separation of a sub-group from the congregations. This group forms an independent community today. Members of both congregations where interviewed about the meaning which membership has for them and about their interpretation of the conflict. 2. An analysis of the Gospel of Matthew with questions who where developed out of the empirical study and the Social Identity Approach to better understand the separation conflict between the Matthean community and the synagogue.

Estimation of the risks of thermal stress due to the microclimate for manual fruit and vegetable harvesters in central Italy

Agricultural workers are exposed to various risks, including chemical agents, noise, and many other factors. One of the most characteristic and least known risk factors is constituted by the microclimatic conditions in the different phases of work (in field, in greenhouse, etc). A typical condition is thermal stress due to high temperatures during harvesting operations in open fields or in greenhouses. In Italy, harvesting is carried out for many hours during the day, mainly in the summer, with temperatures often higher than 30 degrees C. According to ISO 7243, these conditions can be considered dangerous for workers' health. The aim of this study is to assess the risks of exposure to microclimatic conditions (heat) for fruit and vegetable harvesters in central Italy by applying methods established by international standards. In order to estimate the risk for workers, the air temperature, radiative temperature, and air speed were measured using instruments in conformity with ISO 7726. Thermodynamic parameters and two more subjective parameters, clothing and the metabolic heat production rate related to the worker's physical activity, were used to calculate the predicted heat strain (PHS) for the exposed workers in conformity with ISO 7933. Environmental and subjective parameters were also measured for greenhouse workers, according to ISO 7243, in order to calculate the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT). The results show a slight risk for workers during manual harvesting in the field. On the other hand, the data collected in the greenhouses show that the risk for workers must not be underestimated. The results of the study show that, for manual harvesting work in climates similar to central Italy, it is essential to provide plenty of drinking water and acclimatization for the workers in order to reduce health risks. Moreover, the study emphasizes that the possible health risks for greenhouse workers increase from the month of April through July.

Late Holocene summer temperatures in the central Andes reconstructed from the sediments of high-elevatin Laguna Chepical, Chile (32° S)

High-resolution reconstructions of climate variability that cover the past millennia are necessary to improve the understanding of natural and anthropogenic climate change across the globe. Although numerous records are available for the mid- and high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, global assessments are still compromised by the scarcity of data from the Southern Hemisphere. This is particularly the case for the tropical and subtropical areas. In addition, high elevation sites in the South American Andes may provide insight into the vertical structure of climate change in the mid-troposphere. This study presents a 3000 yr-long austral summer (November to February) temperature reconstruction derived from the 210Pb- and 14C-dated organic sediments of Laguna Chepical (32°16' S, 70°30' W, 3050 m a.s.l.), a high-elevation glacial lake in the subtropical Andes of central Chile. Scanning reflectance spectroscopy in the visible light range provided the spectral index R570/R630, which reflects the clay mineral content in lake sediments. For the calibration period (AD 1901–2006), the R570/R630 data were regressed against monthly meteorological reanalysis data, showing that this proxy was strongly and significantly correlated with mean summer (NDJF) temperatures (R3 yr = −0.63, padj = 0.01). This calibration model was used to make a quantitative temperature reconstruction back to 1000 BC. The reconstruction (with a model error RMSEPboot of 0.33 °C) shows that the warmest decades of the past 3000 yr occurred during the calibration period. The 19th century (end of the Little Ice Age (LIA)) was cool. The prominent warmth reconstructed for the 18th century, which was also observed in other records from this area, seems systematic for subtropical and southern South America but remains difficult to explain. Except for this warm period, the LIA was generally characterized by cool summers. Back to AD 1400, the results from this study compare remarkably well to low altitude records from the Chilean Central Valley and southern South America. However, the reconstruction from Laguna Chepical does not show a warm Medieval Climate Anomaly during the 12–13th century, which is consistent with records from tropical South America. The Chepical record also indicates substantial cooling prior to 800 BC. This coincides with well-known regional as well as global glacier advances which have been attributed to a grand solar minimum. This study thus provides insight into the climatic drivers and temperature patterns in a region for which currently very few data are available. It also shows that since ca. AD 1400, long-term temperature patterns were generally similar at low and high altitudes in central Chile.

The Early Spörer Minimum – A Period of Extraordinary Climate and Socio-economic Changes in Western and Central Europe

Throughout the last millennium, mankind was affected by prolonged deviations from the climate mean state. While periods like the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century have been assessed in greater detail, earlier cold periods such as the 15th century received much less attention due to the sparse information available. Based on new evidence from different sources ranging from proxy archives to model simulations, it is now possible to provide an end-to-end assessment about the climate state during an exceptionally cold period in the 15th century, the role of internal, unforced climate variability and external forcing in shaping these extreme climatic conditions, and the impacts on and responses of the medieval society in Central Europe. Climate reconstructions from a multitude of natural and human archives indicate that, during winter, the period of the early Spörer Minimum (1431–1440 CE) was the coldest decade in Central Europe in the 15th century. The particularly cold winters and normal but wet summers resulted in a strong seasonal cycle that challenged food production and led to increasing food prices, a subsistence crisis, and a famine in parts of Europe. As a consequence, authorities implemented adaptation measures, such as the installation of grain storage capacities, in order to be prepared for future events. The 15th century is characterised by a grand solar minimum and enhanced volcanic activity, which both imply a reduction of seasonality. Climate model simulations show that periods with cold winters and strong seasonality are associated with internal climate variability rather than external forcing. Accordingly, it is hypothesised that the reconstructed extreme climatic conditions during this decade occurred by chance and in relation to the partly chaotic, internal variability within the climate system.