Developing a research framework for understanding the social realities, with special reference to Sri Lankan entrepreneurs

This paper identifies and examines issues of relevance for increasing effectiveness of entrepreneurial management research. These issues emerged from research into entrepreneurial behaviour and underlying motivations in Sri Lanka. Understanding of socially- and culturally-bound social actors, social actions and social outputs in entrepreneurial activity requires context-sensitivity, expressed through cognisance of institutional characteristics, the interface between cultural values and business, and historical and cultural forces which impact on entrepreneurship. We suggest that this requires exploration through bottom-up translations of actions consistent with the beliefs and values of the actors involved, employing qualitative methodology to ground the reality of human behaviour in deep-rooted cultural and social contexts. Thorough interpretation of holistic case studies that are capable of capturing the actors' viewpoints brings appropriate insights to the field of entrepreneurship.

Governance and Religious Diversity in Australia: Multifaith relations and religious instruction in the State of Victoria

Australia, like many societies, is grappling with the reality that its population is becoming at once increasingly religiously diverse and non-religious. This is evident in a number of contentious public and policy debates, including those centred on religion and education. At the turn of the twenty-first century, and particularly after the events of 9/11, religion has featured prominently in the global media and been frequently associated with violence. This had led to the development of a number of strategies by state actors and religious communities aimed at the ‘management’ (Bouma, 1999) or ‘governance’ (Bader, 2007) of religious diversity; sometimes in partnership and, at other times, at odds with one another. The Australian state of Victoria has implemented a number of progressive policies and practices promoting positive multifaith relations and community resilience. Yet, it is still struggling with how best to oversee religious instruction and provide education about diverse religions and non-religious worldviews in government schools.

Teaching or preaching — Max Charlesworth and religious education

In this essay I elaborate on the theoretical framework – that of Millian liberalism – that Max Charlesworth brought to many public issues, including that of the relation between education and religion. I will then apply this framework to a debate in which I have been recently involved myself: a debate around the provision of religious instruction in public schools. In the first section I expound Charlesworth’s rejection of secularism in education in a liberal pluralist state and his defence of faith-based schooling. In the second section I uncover the religious motivations behind the Victorian government’s 1950 amendments to the apparently secularist Victorian Education Act of 1872. In section three, I explore the notion of secularism more fully and suggest that the struggle between those who espouse religious instruction in state schools and those who oppose it while advocating a more general form of education about religion is a symptom of a deeper tension between liberalism and communitarianism within the culture of modernist, liberal states.

Impact of agricultural chemicals on the environment and human health in Asia: Are there solutions?

Modern commercial agricultural practices in Asia during the last three to four decades involving chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) have been associated with large increases in food production never witnessed before, especially under the Green Revolution technology in South Asia. This also involves large-scale increases in commercial vegetable crops. However, the high reliance on chemical inputs to bring about these increases in food production is not without problems. A visible, parallel correlation between higher productivity, high artificial input use and environmental degradation and human ill-health is evident in many countries where commercial agriculture is widespread. In this chapter, we focus on the impact of chemical inputs, in particular the impact of pesticides on the environment and on human health in South Asia with special reference to Sri Lanka...

"Politiikka on kirkossa" : Keskustapuolueen kirkkopoliittisten tavoitteiden muotoutuminen vuosina 1966–1978

This study in church history deals with the formation of aims in the church politics of the Centre Party during a period of extensive politicisation in Finnish society – 1966 to 1978. The focus is on the processes of creating political input within the party organisation. The most important source material consists of the records of the highest party organs as well as material from the party office and the party’s committee for church politics. In the late 1960s, at a time of leftist radicalism in Finnish society, issues concerning the Church were seldom dealt with in the highest party organs, even though informal discussion took place within the party. This phase was followed by a conservative reaction in society during the 1970s. The rightist trend as well as the ongoing politicisation process substantially strengthened the role of church politics in the party. An aim of great importance was to prevent those supporters who belonged to the Lutheran revival movements from moving into the Finnish Christian League. Therefore it became increasingly important to prove that the Centre Party was defending the Church as well as so-called Christian values in state politics, e.g., by advocating religious instruction in schools. The Centre Party also defended the independence and legal status of the Church, at the same time positioning itself against Finland’s Social Democratic Party. Many party members were of the opinion that the church politics should have been about defending the Church and Christian values in state politics instead of defending the proportional share of the party’s seats in the ecclesiastical decision-making system. Nevertheless, the struggle for hegemony between the Centre Party and the Social Democrats was reflected in the Evangelical Lutheran Church particularly since 1973. Thus the aims of church politics were increasingly directed towards ecclesiastical elections and appointments in the 1970s. To justify its activities in church elections, the party stressed that it was not politicising the Church. To the contrary, it was asserted that the church leaders themselves had politicised the Church by favouring the Social Democrats. These alleged efforts to affiliate the Church with one political party were strictly condemned in the Centre Party. But when it came to the political parties’ activity in church elections, opinions diverged. Generally, the issues of church politics resembled those of the party’s trade union politics in the 1970s.

Topeliaaninen usko : Kirjailija Sakari Topelius uskontokasvattajana

ABSTRACT The author Zacharias Topelius as a religious educator The present study concerns the author Zacharias Topelius (1818-98) as a religious educator. The study´s main questions are as follows: What is the theological and pedagogical content of Topelius books and how is his religious instruction linked with the history of his time. The primary sources are his educational books Naturens bok (The Book of the Nature, 1856), Boken om vårt land (The Book of our Land, 1875) and Evangelium för Barnen (Gospel for Children, 1893), as well as his storybooks Läsning för barn I-VIII (Reading for Children I-VIII, 1865-96). The dissertation concerns the his-tory of religious education. Its primary method is background-based systematic analy-sis. In Topelius children s books the view of God is characterised both as an omnipresent spirit and as Providence, who guides world history according to his plan. In addition to Lutheranism this view is also influenced by Nationalism and Romanticism. The theological content of the books emphasises instruction in Christian life that is natural to normative children s books. Topelius strongly expresses the importance of a personal relationship to God, an idealistic Christian view of one s fellow man and of one s own nation as well as the value of nature conservation. The books of Topelius were some of the first educational works on nature preservation in Finland. The didactic quality of Topelius children s books was high for 19th century Finland. Their main emphasis in terms of educational goals is on civilisation (Bildung), self-awareness, national solidarity and living idealism. The pedagogical argumentation is mostly based on theological, historical, social and rational reasoning. The primary principles in Topelius teaching are Christian nationalism, idealistic harmony and the agrarian bourgeois. Christian nationalism is the main element of Topelius religious education. He considers the fatherland as a God-given project and the taking care of it as a part of holy service. Idealistic harmony is seen as the comprehensive development of one s character in the sense of romantic idealism. The agrarian bourgeois principle combines the Finnish peasant tradition with the values of 19th century modern bourgeois culture. I have named Topelius vision of religious education the Christian national project of civilisation (Bildung). Its main theses are home, religion and fatherland. The author himself strongly believed in this vision and never questioned it despite its national chauvinism and theological inconsistency. The religious ideology represented in Topelius educational works and storybooks was popular among pedagogues during the whole era of the Finnish folk school. It fit per-fectly with the Christian national discourse stemming from 19th century ideological ten-dencies. Due to their appropriate content combined with their practical language and pedagogical methods, the books were popular both at school and in the home for a long period of time. Therefore the books of Topelius aptly symbolise the religious education of their time and manifest their author s pedagogical talent as a national religious educator and as a populariser of Christian nationalism. Topelius books have had a lasting influence on Finnish religiosity. Key words: Topelius, theology, religion, education, nationalism and national project

Beyond Myth: in Search of Archaic Greek Theology

The author examines several passages from Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns for content appropriate for religious instruction, a function both traditionally attributed to those works (by Herodotus) and denied them (at the earliest, by Xenophanes). The issues cover theodicy, the nature of deities and their honours, the efficacy of prayer and the meaning of sacrifices and food offering.

O relativismo do pensamento pós-moderno como legitimação para o ensino religioso na escola pública brasileira

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Del haereticus como enemigo externo al haereticus como cristiano imperfecto en el corpus de Cromacio de Aquileya

El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar acerca del significado que el término haereticus adquiere en el discurso de Cromacio de Aquileya. Se procurará demostrar que haereticus contiene en su corpus una doble dimensión semántica: por un lado, en su acepción más inmediata, designa al cristiano abiertamente disidente respecto de la ortodoxia local; por otro, la lectura atenta de los Sermones y del Tractatus in Mathaeum permite apreciar que Cromacio empleaba el concepto para referir a algunos miembros de la propia comunidad cristiana cuyas conductas y creencias acaso no se adecuaban a las exigencias de la nueva fe. Al mismo tiempo, pues, el término haereticus resultaba un útil instrumento para la catequesis, puesto que pretendía instruir a estos cristianos imperfectos en la especificidad de la identidad cristiana, y un instrumento coercitivo, ya que aspiraba a que el temor a merecer en vida y tras la muerte las sanciones destinadas al haereticus externo y arquetípico contribuyera a la completa asunción de las consecuencias del acto de conversión

Del haereticus como enemigo externo al haereticus como cristiano imperfecto en el corpus de Cromacio de Aquileya

El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar acerca del significado que el término haereticus adquiere en el discurso de Cromacio de Aquileya. Se procurará demostrar que haereticus contiene en su corpus una doble dimensión semántica: por un lado, en su acepción más inmediata, designa al cristiano abiertamente disidente respecto de la ortodoxia local; por otro, la lectura atenta de los Sermones y del Tractatus in Mathaeum permite apreciar que Cromacio empleaba el concepto para referir a algunos miembros de la propia comunidad cristiana cuyas conductas y creencias acaso no se adecuaban a las exigencias de la nueva fe. Al mismo tiempo, pues, el término haereticus resultaba un útil instrumento para la catequesis, puesto que pretendía instruir a estos cristianos imperfectos en la especificidad de la identidad cristiana, y un instrumento coercitivo, ya que aspiraba a que el temor a merecer en vida y tras la muerte las sanciones destinadas al haereticus externo y arquetípico contribuyera a la completa asunción de las consecuencias del acto de conversión

Del haereticus como enemigo externo al haereticus como cristiano imperfecto en el corpus de Cromacio de Aquileya

El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar acerca del significado que el término haereticus adquiere en el discurso de Cromacio de Aquileya. Se procurará demostrar que haereticus contiene en su corpus una doble dimensión semántica: por un lado, en su acepción más inmediata, designa al cristiano abiertamente disidente respecto de la ortodoxia local; por otro, la lectura atenta de los Sermones y del Tractatus in Mathaeum permite apreciar que Cromacio empleaba el concepto para referir a algunos miembros de la propia comunidad cristiana cuyas conductas y creencias acaso no se adecuaban a las exigencias de la nueva fe. Al mismo tiempo, pues, el término haereticus resultaba un útil instrumento para la catequesis, puesto que pretendía instruir a estos cristianos imperfectos en la especificidad de la identidad cristiana, y un instrumento coercitivo, ya que aspiraba a que el temor a merecer en vida y tras la muerte las sanciones destinadas al haereticus externo y arquetípico contribuyera a la completa asunción de las consecuencias del acto de conversión

The Quarterly Sunday school magazine.

The American Sunday School Magazine was devoted mainly to promoting the Sunday school movement and to keeping the reader up to date concerning the activities of Sunday school unions and societies in various states. It also included much Sunday school-related news, lessons for Sunday school teachers, and articles on religious instruction for children, as well as some book reviews and occasional poetry and anecdotes.

The century of the child,

"The present translation is from the German version of Frances Maro, which was revised by the author herself."--Publishers' note.

Education pamphlets

A collection of miscellaneous pamphlets.