Una testimonianza silenziosa.Storia della Chiesa cattolica in Tunisia dal Trattato del Bardo alla ‘rivoluzione dei gelsomini’

The work examines the change involving the Church in Tunisia from the period of the Protectorate to the present through the fundamental moments of independence (1956) and the signing of the ‘Modus vivendi’ (1964). In the first structure of the “modern” Church, a fundamental role was played by the complex figure of the French Cardinal Charles-Allemand Lavigerie who, while giving strong impulse to setting up disinterested charitable social initiatives by the congregations (Pères Blancs, Soeurs Blanches and others), also represented the ideal of the ‘evangelizing’ (as well as colonial) Church which, despite its declared will to avoid proselytism, almost inevitably tended to slip into it. During the French Protectorate (1881-1956) the ecclesiastic institution concentrated strongly on itself, with little heed for the sensitivity of its host population, and developed its activities as if it were in a European country. From the social standpoint, the Church was mostly involved in teaching, which followed the French model, and health facilities. In the Church only the Pères Blancs missionaries were sincerely committed to promoting awareness of the local context and dialogue with the Muslims. The Catholic clergy in the country linked its religious activity close to the policy of the Protectorate, in the hope of succeeding in returning to the ancient “greatness of the African Church”, as the Eucharistic Congress in Carthage in 1930 made quite clear. The Congress itself planted the first seed in the twentyfive- year struggle that led the Tunisian population to independence in 1956 and the founding of the Republic in 1957. The conquest of independence and the ‘Modus vivendi’ marked a profound change in the situation and led to an inversion of roles: the Catholic community was given the right to exist only on the condition that it should not interfere in Tunisian society. The political project of Bourguiba, who led the Republic from 1957 to 1987, aimed to create a strongly egalitarian society, with a separation between political and religious powers. In particular, in referring to the Church, he appeared as a secularist with no hostility towards the Catholics who were, however, considered as “cooperators”, welcome so long as they were willing to place their skills at the service of the construction of the state. So, in the catholic Community was a tension between the will of being on the side of the country and that of conserving a certain distance from it and not being an integral part of it. In this process of reflection, the role of the Second Vatican Council was fundamental: it spread the idea of a Church open to the world and the other religions, in particular to Islam: the teaching of the Council led the congregations present in the country to accept the new condition. This new Church that emerged from the Council saw some important events in the process of “living together”, of “cultural mixing” and the search for a common ground between different realities. The almost contemporary arrival of Arab bishops raised awareness among the Tunisians of the existence of Christian Arabs and, at the same time, the Catholic community began considering their faith in a different way. In the last twenty years the situation has continued to change. Side by side with the priests present for decades or even those born there, some new congregations have begun to operate, albeit in small numbers: they have certainly revitalized the community of the faithful, but they sometimes appear more devoted to service “within” the Church, than to services for the population, and are thus characterized by exterior manifestations of their religion. This sort of presence has made it possible for Bourguiba's successor, Ben Ali (president from 1987 to 2011), to practice forms of tolerance even more clearly, but always limited to formal relations; the Tunisians are still far from having a real understanding of the Catholic reality, with certain exceptions connected to relations on a personal and not structured plane, as was the case in the previous period. The arrival of a good number of young people from sub-Saharan Africa, most of all students, belonging to the JCAT, and personnel of the BAD has “Africanized” the Church in Tunisia and has brought about an increase in Christians' exterior manifestations; but this is a visibility that is not blatant but discreet, with the implicit risk of the Church continuing to be perceived as a sort of exterior body, alien to the country; nor can we say, lacking proper documentation, how it will be possible to build a bridge between different cultures through the “accompaniment” of Christian wives of Tunisians. Today, the Church is living in a country that has less and less need of it; its presence, in the schools and in health facilities, is extremely reduced. And also in other sectors of social commitment, such as care for the disabled, the number of clergymen involved is quite small. The ‘revolution’ in 2011 and the later developments up to the present have brought about another socio-political change, characterized by a climate of greater freedom, but with as yet undefinable contours. This change in the political climate will inevitable have consequences in Tunisia’s approach to religious and cultural minorities, but it is far too soon to discuss this on the historical and scientific planes.

Tolerance-based and Fuzzy-Rough Feature Selection.

R. Jensen and Q. Shen, 'Tolerance-based and Fuzzy-Rough Feature Selection,' Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE'07), pp. 877-882, 2007.

Family religious involvement and the quality of family relationships for early adolescents

Examination of association between the religious involvement (number of family religious activities, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and quality of family relationships with results indicating that religiously involved families of adolescents (ages 12-14) living in the U.S. are more like to have stronger family relationships than families that are not religiously active.

Family religious involvement and the quality of family relationships for early adolescents

Examination of association between the religious involvement (number of family religious activities, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and quality of family relationships with results indicating that religiously involved families of adolescents (ages 12-14) living in the U.S. are more like to have stronger family relationships than families that are not religiously active.

A Theological Challenge: Coordinating Biological, Social, and Religious Visions of Humanity

This paper attempts two tasks. First, it sketches how the natural sciences (including especially the biological sciences), the social sciences, and the scientific study of religion can be understood to furnish complementary, consonant perspectives on human beings and human groups. This suggests that it is possible to speak of a modern secular interpretation of humanity (MSIH) to which these perspectives contribute (though not without tensions). MSIH is not a comprehensive interpretation of human beings, if only because it adopts a posture of neutrality with regard to the reality of religious objects and the truth of theological claims about them. MSIH is certainly an impressively forceful interpretation, however, and it needs to be reckoned with by any perspective on human life that seeks to insert its truth claims into the arena of public debate. Second, the paper considers two challenges that MSIH poses to specifically theological interpretations of human beings. On the one hand, in spite of its posture of religious neutrality, MSIH is a key element in a class of wider, seemingly antireligious interpretations of humanity, including especially projectionist and illusionist critiques of religion. It is consonance with MSIH that makes these critiques such formidable competitors for traditional theological interpretations of human beings. On the other hand, and taking the religiously neutral posture of MSIH at face value, theological accounts of humanity that seek to coordinate the insights of MSIH with positive religious visions of human life must find ways to overcome or manage such dissonance as arises. The goal of synthesis is defended as important, and strategies for managing these challenges, especially in light of the pluralism of extant philosophical and theological interpretations of human beings, are advocated.

Across the prairie in a motor caravan; a 3,000 mile tour by two Englishwomen on behalf of religious education,

http://www.archive.org/details/acrosstheprairie00haseuoft

Modern religious movements in India.

http://www.archive.org/details/modernreligiousm025064mbp

Rambo's Interdisciplinary Approach to Religious Conversion: The Case of St. Augustine

This dissertation illustrates the merits of an interdisciplinary approach to religious conversion by employing Lewis Rambo’s systemic stage model to illumine the process of St. Augustine’s conversion. Previous studies of Augustine’s conversion have commonly explored his narrative of transformation from the perspective of one specific discipline, such as theology, history, or psychology. In doing so, they have necessarily restricted attention to a limited set of questions and problems. By bringing these disciplines into a structured, critical conversation, this study demonstrates how formulating and responding to the interplay among personal, social, cultural, and religious dimensions of Augustine’s conversion process may eventuate in the consideration of issues previously unarticulated and thus unaddressed. Rambo (1993) formulates a model of religious change that consists of what he calls context, crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment, and consequences. Change is explained by drawing upon the research and scholarship of psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and religionists, in conjunction with the contributions of theologians. This study unfolds in the following chapters: I. Introduction; II. Literature review of scholarship about conversion, with emphasis on explication of Rambo’s model; III. A description of the case of Augustine, drawn from a close reading of the Confessions; IV. Literature review of scholarship about Augustine’s conversion; V. Interdisciplinary interpretation of Augustine’s conversion; and VI. Implications for scholars of conversion, and for pastoral caregivers, as well as recommendations for future research. This dissertation demonstrates how Augustine’s conversion experience was deeply influenced by 1) psychological distress and crisis; 2) the quest to know himself and the divine; 3) interactions with significant others; 4) participation in Christian communities; 5) philosophical and cultural changes; and 6) the encounter with the divine. As such, this study reveals the value of interpreting Augustine’s conversion as an evolving process constituted in multiple factors that can be differentiated from one another, yet clearly interact with one another. It examines the implications of constructing an interdisciplinary approach to Augustine’s conversion narrative for both the academy and the Christian community, and recommends the use of Rambo’s model in studies of other cases of religious change.

Investigation of growth and stress tolerance characteristics of Cronobacter spp.

Cronobacter spp. are opportunistic pathogens which can be isolated from a wide variety of foods and environments. They are Gram negative, motile, non-spore forming, peritrichous rods of the Enterobacteriaceae family. This food-borne pathogen is associated with the ingestion of contaminated infant milk formula (IMF), causing necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis and meningitis in neonatal infants. The work presented in this thesis involved the investigation and characterisation of a bank of Cronobacter strains for their ability to tolerate physiologically relevant stress conditions that are commonly encountered in the gastrointestinal tract. While all strains were able to endure the suboptimal conditions tested, noteworthy variations were observed between strains. A collection of these strains were Lux-tagged to determine if their growth could be tracked in IMF by measuring bioluminescence. The resulting strains could be easily and reproducibly monitored in real time by measuring light emission. Following this a transposon mutagenesis library was created in one of the Lux-tagged strains of Cronobacter sakazakii. This library was screened for mutants with affected growth in milk. The majority of mutants identified were associated with amino acid metabolism. The final section of this thesis identified genes involved in the tolerance of C. sakazakii to the milk derived antimicrobial peptide, Lactoferricin B (Lfcin B). This was achieved by creating a transposon mutagenesis library in C. sakazakii and screening for mutants with increased susceptibility to Lfcin B. Overall this thesis demonstrates the variation between Cronobacter strains. It also identifies genes required for growth of the bacteria in milk, as well as genes needed for antimicrobial peptide tolerance.

Osmotic stress tolerance mechanisms in Lactococcus lactis

The response of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris NCDO 712 to low water activity (aw) was investigated, both in relation to growth following moderate reductions in the aw and in terms of survival following substantial reduction of the aw with NaCI. Lc.lactis NCDO 712 was capable of growth in the presence of ≤ 4% w/v NaCI and concentrations in excess of 4% w/v were lethal to the cells. The presence of magnesium ions significantly increased the resistance of NCDO 712 to challenge with NaCI and also to challenge with high temperature or low pH. Survival of Lc.lactis NCDO 712 exposed to high NaCI concentrations was growth phase dependent and cells were most sensitive in the early exponential phase of growth. Pre-exposure to 3% w/v NaCI induced limited protection against subsequent challenge with higher NaCI concentrations. The induction was inhibited by chloramphenicol and even when induced, the response did not protect against NaCI concentrations> 10% w/v. When growing at low aw, potassium was accumulated by Lc. lactis NCDO 712 growing at low aw, if the aw was reduced by glucose or fructose, but not by NaCI. Reducing the potassium concentration of chemically defined medium from 20 to 0.5 mM) produced a substantial reduction in the growth rate, if the aw was reduced with NaCI, but not with glucose or fructose. The reduction of the growth rate correlated strongly with a reduction in the cytoplasmic potassium concentration and in cell volume. Addition of the compatible solute glycine betaine, partially reversed the inhibition of growth rate and partially restored the cell volume. The potassium transport system was characterised in cells grown in medium at both high and low aw. It appeared that a single system was present, which was induced approximately two-fold by growth at low aw. Potassium transport was assayed in vitro using cells depleted of potassium; the assay was competitively inhibited by Na+ and by the other monovalent cations NH4+, Li+, and Cs+. There was a strong correlation between the ability of strains of Lc. lactis subsp. lactis and subsp. cremoris to grow at low aw and their ability to accumulate the compatible solute glycine betaine. The Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris strains incapable of growth at NaCI concentrations> 2% w/v did not accumulate glycine betaine when growing at low aw, whereas strains capable of growth at NaCI concentrations up to 4% w/v did. A mutant, extremely sensitive to low aw was isolated from the parent strain Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris MG 1363, a plasmid free derivative of NCDO 712. The parent strain tolerated up to 4% w/v NaCI and actively accumulated glycine betaine when challenged at low aw. The mutant had lost the ability to accumulate glycine betaine and was incapable of growth at NaCI concentrations >2% w/v or the equivalent concentration of glucose. As no other compatible solute seemed capable of substitution for glycine betaine, the data suggest that the traditional; phenotypic speciation of strains on the basis of tolerance to 4% w/v NaCI can be explained as possession or lack of a glycine betaine transport system.

Investigation of toll-like receptor tolerance in the regulation of inflammation

Inflammation is a complex and highly organised immune response to microbes and tissue injury. Recognition of noxious stimuli by pathogen recognition receptor families including Toll-like receptors results in the expression of hundreds of genes that encode cytokines, chemokines, antimicrobials and regulators of inflammation. Regulation of TLR activation responses is controlled by TLR tolerance which induces a global change in the cellular transcriptional expression profile resulting in gene specific suppression and induction of transcription. In this thesis the plasticity of TLR receptor tolerance is investigated using an in vivo, transcriptomics and functional approach to determine the plasticity of TLR tolerance in the regulation of inflammation. Firstly, using mice deficient in the negative regulator of TLR gene transcription, Bcl-3 (Bcl-3-/-) in a model of intestinal inflammation, we investigated the role of Bcl-3 in the regulation of intestinal inflammatory responses. Our data revealed a novel role for Bcl-3 in the regulation of epithelial cell proliferation and regeneration during intestinal inflammation. Furthermore this data revealed that increased Bcl-3 expression contributes to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Secondly, we demonstrate that lipopolysaccharide tolerance is transient and recovery from LPS tolerance results in polarisation of macrophages to a previously un-described hybrid state (RM). In addition, we identified that RM cells have a unique transcriptional profile with suppression and induction of genes specific to this polarisation state. Furthermore, using a functional approach to characterise the outcomes of TLR tolerance plasticity, we demonstrate that cytokine transcription is uncoupled from cytokine secretion in macrophages following recovery from LPS tolerance. Here we demonstrate a novel mechanism of regulation of TLR tolerance through suppression of cytokine secretion in macrophages. We show that TNF-α is alternatively trafficked towards a degradative intracellular compartment. These studies demonstrate that TLR tolerance is a complex immunological response with the plasticity of this state playing an important role in the regulation of inflammation.