The Nativity Census: What Does Luke Actually Say?

1979 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Thorlev

The first two verses of Chapter 2 of Luke's Gospel are amongst the best known of the whole Bible, and historically amongst the most controversial. Luke refers to a census decreed by Augustus, of which we appear to have no other record, and implies that P. Sulpicius Quirinius was governor of Syria at some time around 6–5 B.C, the possibility of which has been much debated. This is all very odd, particularly since Luke is usually so careful with political background, if not with exact chronology, and is clearly trying in his account of the Nativity to place the event in its historical context, as well as to explain why Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not at the family home in Nazareth. One must assume that the details about the Nativity which Luke gives did at least make some sort of historical sense to his earliest readers, and yet the versions which we read so frequently can hardly be said to do so. But what exactly does Luke say? If we are to doubt the accuracy of his statements we should first be certain that we understand precisely what it is that he is saying.

Author(s):  
Zoé Faubert ◽  
Georgette Goupil

ABSTRACTWith the increase in life expectancy, many people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are living in the family home with their parents. This research focuses on the experience of 17 fathers of adults with ID. These fathers answered a questionnaire including open and closed questions. During the individual interview, fathers described their motivations to cohabit with their son or daughter, cohabitation benefits and constraints, housing options considered and planning for the future. Results indicate that fathers chose this cohabitation. However, they experience anxiety because they do not know who will support the adult with ID when they can no longer do so. Postparental planning considerations include legal concerns and informal discussions with siblings or the extended family. These results describe a complex parental situation in which there is interaction between their emotions, their attachment to the adult with ID and their previous experiences with residential, social or rehabilitation services.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Clarke ◽  
Sarah Wydall

This article describes an exploratory study of the Making Safe Scheme, which is a multi-agency initiative designed to provide a coordinated and integrated response to domestic violence by focusing on both victims and perpetrators. A key feature of the intervention is that it enables victims to remain in their own homes, provided it is considered safe to do so, and re-houses perpetrators. Consequently, the wrong-doer leaves the home and practitioners can work with families in their established communities to prevent further abuse. In 2008, the project was awarded the Butler Trust Public Protection Award for its innovative work with victims and offenders. The findings from this study focus on a number of themes: perpetrator accountability, the changing balance of power in abusive relationships and the increased opportunities for victims and their families to engage in recovery work whilst remaining in the family home.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadiehezka Paola Palencia Tejedor

This work focuses on a compared analysis of the South Afri- can decision related to the “peace and reconciliation act” of this country’s Parliament, and the Colombian decision regarding the amendment of the constitution called “The juridical framework for the peace.” Turning to the structure, it is developed in three major topics: 1. It provides a brief of the historical context, political background and an overview of the two decisions.2. It gives a structural analysis of the powers that each Court has and the nature of the constitutional mechanism through which both Courts decided the constitutionality of the said norms 3. It presents a critical analysis on the similarities and differences between the two systems and judgments. It presents some con- clusions. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-133
Author(s):  
Hamid Mavani

The polyvalent Qur’anic text lends itself to multiple interpretations, dependingupon one’s presuppositions and premises. In fact, Q. 3:7 distinguishesbetween muḥkam (explicit, categorical) and mutashābih (metaphorical, allegorical,symbolic) verses. As such, this device provides a way for reinterpretingverses that outwardly appear to be problematic – be it in the area ofgender equality, minority rights, religious freedom, or war. However, manyof the verses dealing with legal provisions in such areas as devotional matters,marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and bequest, and specific punishmentsappear to be unequivocal, categorical, and explicit. As such, scholarshave devised certain hermeneutical strategies to situate and contextualizethese verses in a particular socio-historical context, as well as to emphasizethat they were in conversation with the society to which the Qur’an was revealedand thereby underlining the “performative” (p.15) nature of the relationshipbetween the Qur’an and the society.No verse is more problematic, in the sense that it offends contemporarysensibilities and is quite difficult to reconcile with an egalitarian worldviewwhen dealing with gender issues, than Q. 4:34, which allows the husband todiscipline his wife if he deems her guilty of nushūz (e.g., disobedience, intransigence,sexual lewdness, aloofness, dislike or hatred of himself). AyeshaChaudhry undertakes a study of this challenging verse by engaging the corpusof literature in Arabic from the classical period to the seventeenth century; shealso includes Urdu and English sources for the post-colonial period.She starts off by relating her personal journey from a state of discomfortand puzzlement when she first came across this verse in middle school to adefensive posture in trying to convince herself by invoking the Prophet’scompassion toward his wives and in cherishing the idea that the Qur’an gavemore rights to women than either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament.She began a more rigorous and nuanced study of this verse after equippingherself with the necessary academic tools and analytic skills during her universitystudies. Frustrated with the shallow responses and the scholars’ circumspectionas regards any creative and novel reading of the verse for fearof losing their status in the community, she decided to do so herself with thehope of discovering views that would promote an egalitarian reading ...


Inclusion ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 279-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan M. Burke ◽  
Chung eun Lee ◽  
Moon Y. Chung ◽  
Kristina Rios ◽  
Catherine K. Arnold ◽  
...  

Abstract With recent policy changes and case-law decisions, there are more opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to live independently in inclusive settings. It is necessary to identify malleable correlates of community living options to develop interventions to increase inclusive, independent living. To this end, 546 parents and siblings of adults with IDD responded to a national survey. According to parent and sibling report, adults with IDD were more likely to live outside of the family home when the family engaged in future planning, the individual had more informal supports and more functional abilities and had parents with fewer caregiving abilities. Among the 187 adults with IDD who lived outside of the family home, individuals with more problem behaviors and fewer functional abilities were more likely to live in larger group homes (versus independently with or without supports). Further, when the family engaged in more future planning activities, adults with disabilities were more likely to live in a group home (versus independently). When parents had fewer caregiving abilities, adults with disabilities were more likely to live in bigger group homes (versus independently). Implications for policymakers, practitioners, and research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 263300242110244
Author(s):  
Alice M. Greenwald ◽  
Clifford Chanin ◽  
Henry Rousso ◽  
Michel Wieviorka ◽  
Mohamed-Ali Adraoui

How do societies and states represent the historical, moral, and political weight of the terrorist attacks they have had to face? Having suffered in recent years from numerous terrorist attacks on their soil originating from jihadist movements, and often led by actors who were also their own citizens, France and the United States have set up—or seek to do so—places of memory whose functions, conditions of creation, modes of operation, and nature of the messages sent may vary. Three of the main protagonists and initiators of two museum-memorial projects linked to terrorist attacks have agreed to deliver their visions of the role and of the political, social, and historical context in which these projects have emerged. Allowing to observe similarities and differences between the American and French approach, this interview sheds light on the place of memory and feeling in societies struck by tragic events and seeking to cure their ills through memory and commemoration.


Author(s):  
Joanna Senderska ◽  
Iwona Mityk ◽  
Ewa Piotrowska-Oberda

AbstractThe article discusses the image of the family and the family home in a series of novels for young people by the popular Polish writer Małgorzata Musierowicz in the context of literary conventions and stereotypes about the family in contemporary Polish society. The novels, which cover a period of over 40 years, generally fit contemporary Polish realities; however, the didactic function of the novels results in the author creating an idealized image of the Polish intellectual family, filling the readers with optimism. The picture created by the writer, on the one hand, fits perfectly into the stereotype of the family, which is one of the values highly esteemed by Poles. On the other hand, it adapts to the conventions of novels for girls. In this article, the stereotype of the family is reconstructed on the basis of language data and surveys. We present the meanings and contexts of family as a noun and family as an adjective. We also present the results of our survey, the aim of which was to determine an essence of a stereotypical family and how the traditional family model is comprehended by respondents coming from various groups. We also present the respondents’ attitude to the patriarchal family model and the division of roles into male and female. In our opinion, the correspondence between the family picture created in the novels and the image of the family operating in social consciousness is the reason for the popularity of the series.


1997 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna de Groot

This piece uses a feminist approach to explore various aspects of ‘commodification’ in the lives and work of those teaching and researching in UK universities, and in particular its gender dimensions. After setting a historical context for the radical transformation of UK universities during the 1980s, it considers how this transformation was experienced by academics in terms of alienation, anxiety and accountability. Key features of that experience are loss of autonomy and control to the external power of competition and managerialism, insecurity and casualization in employment, and exposure to increasing judgemental scrutiny. For women academics job insecurity and discrimination continue to be disproportionately important, although some of the challenges to old established academic convention and practice have opened up real possibilities to progress more pro-women agendas. In the future they will confront quite depressing developments in the reconstruction of academic identities and labour, but have the legacy of the gains/insights of feminist analysis and politics over the last twenty years with which to do so.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 545-569

Keith Stewartson, one of the most mathematically profound of this century’s great applied mathematicians active in the mechanics of fluids, was brought up in Billingham, County Durham , where his father was a master baker. Keith was the youngest of three children, two boys and a girl, but his sister died very young and he was not subsequently able to remember her. Later on, an eminent academic career was nearly smothered at its inception when the eleven-plus examiners failed Keith Stewartson. Fortunately, however, they put him on a reserve list, from which he was in the end selected for entry to Stockton Secondary School. After a brilliant performance in the School Certificate Keith was encouraged to enter only a year later, in 1942, for the Higher School Certificate. Immediately after his extremely distinguished examination achievement leading to a State Scholarship and Kitchener Memorial Scholarship to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, the family home received a direct hit from a German bomb. Happily, however, the Stewartsons escaped owing to their air-raid shelter’s robust construction.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 543-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean M Bruce

This article argues that the property television programme, Love It or List It (2008–), employs conventions from the classic screwball comedy to both consolidate its position within the lucrative realty TV market – especially in response to the recent (2008) recession – and negotiate modern gender dynamics within the home. Its Depression-era (1930s) financial and aesthetic resonances are not incidental. And, as with much contemporary culture, this modern iteration of the screwball comedy is not discretely contained by medium or genre of influence: Love It or List It also borrows flourishes from documentary, tabloid TV, melodrama and the gothic novel. In keeping with its reference to a kind of baseball pitching style that is difficult for hitters to anticipate, the screwball’s tendency to suddenly switch course has been identified as its central means for engaging in cultural critique. Love It or List It as an exemplar of reality TV’s recombinant style is still very much like its cinematic predecessor: it has the adeptness to say many things to many audiences. This article makes no claims for Love It or List It’s progressive politics; rather, as with some classic screwball comedies, it explores the possibility that equivocating, shifting course or otherwise abandoning narrative logic register a profound ambivalence about marriage, coupledom and the family home as sacrosanct loci of modern life.


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