Read the Editor’s pick of archive content online for FREE

New to Cambridge in 2012, Episteme is a general journal of epistemology in the analytic tradition that invites both informal and formal approaches. Among its primary “traditional” topics are knowledge, justification, evidence, reasons, rationality, scepticism, truth, probability, epistemic norms and values, and methodology.

To mark the move to Cambridge, Editor Alvin Goldman has selected six articles from the digitised archive that best reflect the journal’s commitment to social and individual epistemology.

You can access them online today for FREE.*

Featured articles include:

• Powerlessness and Social Interpretation Miranda Fricker
• Science, Religion, and Democracy Philip Kitcher
• Why Should We Care About the Concept of Knowledge? Hilary Kornblith

The first 2012 issue of Episteme will publish in March. Keep up-to-date with the latest research by signing up for FREE Content Alerts.

Published alongside other new prayers for adults and children, and liturgical resources for use in the Church of England during Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee year, the new prayer is available online on the Church of England’s Diamond Jubilee web pages.

The Diamond Jubilee Prayer reads:

God of time and eternity,
whose Son reigns as servant, not master;
we give you thanks and praise
that you have blessed this Nation, the Realms and Territories
with ELIZABETH,
our beloved and glorious Queen.
In this year of Jubilee,
grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace
as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God
and in devoted service to her lands and peoples,
and those of the Commonwealth,
now and all the days of her life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Revd Christopher Woods, Secretary of the Liturgical Commission and National Worship Adviser, said: "The fact that Her Majesty has been our Queen for 60 years and is still full of enthusiasm and joy is the occasion for a great deal of celebration and thanksgiving to God. To this end, the Church of England is delighted to compile prayers, both traditional and modern, to be used in church services in 2012: on Monday, February 6th, to celebrate The Queen’s accession to the throne; on Sunday, June 3rd, during the Jubilee weekend; and at other times during the year."

The compilation, which all churches, groups and individuals may use, includes prayers which were said at Her Majesty’s Coronation service itself. There is even a short prayer which was written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but its words and sentiments are still very relevant.

The texts which are to be used on the day of Her Majesty’s Accession from The Book of Common Prayer are particularly suitable as 2012 is the 350th anniversary of the 1662 edition of the BCP.

The suggested Service of Thanksgiving is not the service that will be used in June at St Paul’s, but the Diamond Jubilee Prayer, composed by the Chapter of St Paul’s, will be used in the St Paul’s service.

Diamond Jubilee Prayer and liturgical resources released

Well done Fritton and the whole group for keeping the churches open and welcoming.

His award-winning programmes on the natural world follow evolutionary history and the teachings of Darwin.

Now, however, Sir David Attenborough has speculated that there may be a God – and insisted it would not be ‘inconsistent’ with the theory of evolution.

Speaking on Desert Island Discs, the  85-year-old naturalist told how recognising the possibility that God could exist meant he was an agnostic rather than an atheist.

Evolutionist David Attenborough says there could be a God as he claims the two beliefs are not incompatible | Mail Online

These resources from Churches Together in England are designed to help you prepare for your own celebration on or around Education Sunday, or on any other day during the year, such as the start or end of the academic year. You can use these resources in your church, in local schools, colleges and universities and in other places of learning.

Education Sunday 2012

Sermon or Homily Notes

Primary Collective Worship

Songs and Hymns

Secondary Collective Worship

Ideas for All Age Worship

New!

New PowerPoint for 2012 Primary collective worship – click here

You could also check out http://www.prayforschools.org/.

Next year Education Sunday will be on 27 January, 2013.

April 2012

978-0-521-86006-2
c.£140.00

 

LICC carried this review of the film version of War Horse, by Jason Gardner, which I found really interesting:

The Steven Spielberg film version of Michael Morpurgo’s renowned children’s book, War Horse – about the relationship between the titular animal and a faithful two-legged friend during the First World War – has had its own battle with the critics.

Some have applauded Spielberg, seeing echoes of grander days of Hollywood, drawing comparisons with westerns where the landscape played as great a part as the actors; and yes, there is schmaltz and melodrama aplenty, but it still manages to tug at the heart strings. Others have lambasted it for its idealised portrayal of rural England, cardboard acting, and the veteran director manipulating us to reach for the hankies during the horse’s plight. Even hardened film aficionados have been cursing Spielberg through their tears: ‘A horse?Caught in a war? Of course I’m going to cry!’
It’s not just critics reaching for the tissues. After seeing the film my wife found herself with a line of women in the loos having to readjust make-up because of tear damage.
Why do stories like this stir compassion within us? Perhaps because even though horses have been used for centuries to carry men into battle, in this film the horse is an innocent. The juxtaposition of that which is ‘pure’ surrounded by horror screams at us that something is wrong.
The horse isn’t the only innocent in the film. There’s the orphaned French girl and her protective grandfather, and a 14-year-old German soldier – lying about his age, too eager to be a man – and his protective older brother. And then there are the young Devonian men, ripped from the heart of the English countryside and thrown into war. This, in part, is why Spielberg overplays the rural landscape – to provide a stark contrast with the apocalyptic no man’s land of the Somme.
This instinct for outrage when innocence is attacked is arguably a trait inherited from our Father God. Time and again in the gospels when Jesus is faced with that which opposes God’s shalom, his intended wholeness for the world, he acts to help. The leper cries out, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean’, and Jesus, ‘filled with compassion’, responds ‘I am willing… be clean’.
May the sight, even the very thought, of innocence betrayed continue to upset and disturb us, and may we act with the instinct, immediacy, and heart of Christ in response.
Jason Gardner
Youth Pastor, St Peter’s West Harrow

Damaris Culturewatch carried an article by Sophie Lister on the same film, and has a discussion guide:

When his drunken father (Peter Mullan) brings home a thoroughbred horse, Devonshire farm boy Albert (Jeremy Irvine) falls in love at first sight. Joey, as he names the spirited animal, is completely unsuitable for farm work – but this doesn’t stop Albert from bonding with him, even training him to plough in an act of defiance against the family’s grabbing landlord (David Thewlis).

But bigger forces are about to tear boy and horse apart. The First World War breaks out, and Joey is sold to Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), a cavalry officer. Their ride into battle is only the beginning of Joey’s journey, and as the war rages on, he passes through many different hands on all sides of the conflict. Surrounded by chaos and death, it seems unlikely that he will survive – but somewhere in the trenches is his beloved Albert, who has come looking for him. [more...]

Sophie Lister

Read the discussion guide on the CultureWatch website

Published since 1911, Benezit is the most comprehensive bibliographic dictionary of its kind, covering artists from a wide rand of disciplines from across the globe. Now available online for the first time Benezit can be updated and accessed alongside the world-renowned Grove Art Online and other Oxford art titles, making it a vital resource for scholars, students, librarians, museum curators, art dealers, and collectors.

In addition to its scope and depth, two features make Benezit unique among art reference works: its superb coverage of obscure artists, and the inclusion of artists’ signatures, monograms, and stamps of sale.

Experience it for yourself:

While Benezit is only accessible to subscribers, OUP are offering access to the site for two weeks to allow you to explore the service, and evaluate its usefulness for your own research and teaching.

Visit Benezit and get free access for 14 days by entering the following details:
Username: trybenezit
Password: freetrial

A Foundational Tool for the Study of Art History:

•   Over 170,000 entries from the first English edition (2006), the largest edition to date, plus revisions and new biographies exclusively available online
•    More than 11,000 images of artists’ signatures, monograms, and stamps of sale are an excellent resource for provenance research and authentication
•    Detailed museum listings, bibliographies, exhibition information, and auction records support appraisals and acquisitions research
•    Ability to view Benezit results separately or alongside Grove Art and other Oxford art reference works
•    Comprehensive coverage on artists across all media, from painters and sculptors to calligraphers, ceramicists, illustrators, installation artists, and performance artists make this an essential source for research on artists outside the traditional canon

•    Updated three times per year to reflect new scholarship, additions to the bibliographies, and corrections; concurrent with Grove Art updates
Opportunities to Learn More:

Benezit is regularly updated with new articles, tools for navigating content, and improved functionality.
Want to learn more? Take a guided tour of the site, learn the story of Benezit, view an anatomy of an article, or read a letter from the editor.

The Church of England has just released its provisional stats for attendance and affiliation in 2010. Overall the picture is one of a church on the turn, growing again in some areas of the country and some aspects of its life, but not in others, with a headline figure of a very slight decline in Sunday attendance.

But in Ely Diocese the picture is one of growth not decline. Average weekly attendances rose from 19200 in 2009 to 19800 in 2010 with similar increases when other measures are used. Electoral roll aggregate numbers were up from 18900 to 19100, but the really striking growth is among children and young people, where average weekly church attendance is up nearly 10% from 3700 to 4000.

Parishes across the Diocese are also talking about significantly increased congregations at both Remembrance Sunday and Christmas, but the hard figures for these will only appear in a year’s time.

All this is by no means a matter for triumphalism. We obviously hope to see growing numbers coming to church because we do believe that the Christian Gospel is good news for people’s lives, and that what we call “church” can be a real strength in building local community. But we also fully respect people’s right to choose, and good news stops being good news if that is taken away.

Nor is this a moment to sit back and rest on our laurels. There is still a lot of work to do. But it will, I hope, be an encouragement to the hard-working women, men and youngsters who make up the life of our churches and chaplaincies, and another small sign that the tide is beginning to turn.