While it has often been recognised that the development of Christian orthodoxy was stimulated by the speculations of those who are now called heretics, it is still widely assumed that their ...contribution was merely catalytic, that they called forth the exposition of what the main church already believed but had not yet been required to formulate.
This book maintains that scholars have underrated the constructive role of these “heretical” speculations in the evolution of dogma, showing that salient elements in the doctrines of the fall, the Trinity and the union of God and man in Christ derive from teachings that were initially rejected by the main church. Mark Edwards also reveals how authors who epitomised orthodoxy in their own day sometimes favoured teachings which were later considered heterodox, and that their doctrines underwent radical revision before they became a fixed element of orthodoxy.
The first half of the volume discusses the role of Gnostic theologians in the formation of catholic thought; the second half will offer an unfashionable view of the controversies which gave rise to the councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon. Many of the theories advanced here have not been broached elsewhere, and no synthesis on this scale had been attempted by other scholars. While this book proposes a revision in the scholarly perception of early Christendom, it also demonstrates the essential unity of the tradition.
Economic growth is a two‐edged sword. Expanding economies and industries create wealth and employment, but global economic expansion is having unprecedented deleterious impacts on vital planetary ...systems. Despite this, the core strategic goal of all economies and many businesses continues to be the pursuit of ongoing economic growth. To resolve this paradox, a reconceptualization of firm‐level growth is presented. I describe and discuss the organizational characteristics of the growth paradox and follow this with a metatheoretical review of economic, organizational, and ecological perspectives on growth. From this review, a typology of firm‐level strategy is developed that radically reconceptualizes business growth as developmental activity primarily concerned with social–ecological flourishing. The features of this typology and its implications for business strategy are discussed according to three principles that emerged from the analysis: multidexterity, resilience thinking for design, and inclusive balance (embeddedness). Together, these strategy principles form the prerequisite management competencies needed for the development, implementation, and evaluation of sustainable business strategies. Transformative firm‐level responses to the growth paradox are needed if sustaining forms of organizational growth are to be achieved and this paper presents a novel integrative framework for informing those strategies.
Variants of perioperative cardiac output-guided haemodynamic therapy algorithms have been tested over the last few decades, without clear evidence of effectiveness. Newer approaches have focussed on ...individualisation of physiological targets and have been tested in early efficacy trials. Uncertainty about the benefits remains. Adoption of novel trial designs could overcome the limitations of smaller trials of this complex intervention and accelerate the exploration of future developments.
In this Essay, Mark Edwards argues that the plight of people with functional neurological disorder within healthcare highlights a general problem with a broken paradigm of modern medicine. He argues ...that the passivity of the traditional sick role needs replacing with a participatory, rehabilitative medical practice.
Summary Functional (psychogenic) movement disorders (FMD) are part of the wide spectrum of functional neurological disorders, which together account for over 16% of patients referred to neurology ...clinics. FMD have been described as a “crisis for neurology” and cause major challenges in terms of diagnosis and treatment. As with other functional disorders, a key issue is the absence of pathophysiological understanding. There has been an influential historical emphasis on causation by emotional trauma, which is not supported by epidemiological studies. The similarity between physical signs in functional disorders and those that occur in feigned illness has also raised important challenges for pathophysiological understanding and has challenged health professionals' attitudes toward patients with these disorders. However, physical signs and selected investigations can help clinicians to reach a positive diagnosis, and modern pathophysiological research is showing an appreciation of the importance of both physical and psychological factors in FMD.
Christianity proclaims Christ and the incarnate word of God; the Bible is described as the Word of God in both Jewish and Christian tradition. Are these usages merely homonymous, or would the ...ancients have recognized a more intimate relation between the word incarnate and the word proclaimed? This book investigates the concept of logos in pagan, Jewish and Christian thought, with a view to elucidating the polyphonic functions which the word acquired when used in theological discourse. Edwards presents a survey of theological applications of the term Logos in Greek, Jewish and Christian thought from Plato to Augustine and Proclus. Special focus is placed on: the relation of words to images in representation of divine realm, the relation between the logos within (reason) and the logos without (speech) both in linguistics and in Christology, the relation between the incarnate Word and the written text, and the place of reason in the interpretation of revelation. Bringing together materials which are rarely synthesized in modern study, this book shows how Greek and biblical thought part company in their appraisal of the capacity of reason to grasp the nature of God, and how in consequence verbal revelation plays a more significant role in biblical teaching. Edwards shows how this entailed the rejection of images in Jewish and Christian thought, and how the manifestation in flesh of Christ as the living word of God compelled the church to reconsider both the relation of word to image and the interplay between the logos within and the written logos in the formulation of Christian doctrine.
Functional cognitive disorder (FCD) describes cognitive dysfunction in the absence of an organic cause. It is increasingly prevalent in healthcare settings yet its key neuropsychological features ...have not been reported in large patient cohorts. We hypothesised that cognitive profiles in fibromyalgia (FM), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and functional neurological disorders (FNDs) would provide a template for characterising FCD.
We conducted a systematic review of studies with cognition-related outcomes in FM, CFS and FND.
We selected 52 studies on FM, 95 on CFS and 39 on FND. We found a general discordance between high rates of subjective cognitive symptoms, including forgetfulness, distractibility and word-finding difficulties, and inconsistent objective neuropsychological deficits. Objective deficits were reported, including poor selective and divided attention, slow information processing and vulnerability to distraction. In some studies, cognitive performance was inversely correlated with pain, exertion and fatigue. Performance validity testing demonstrated poor effort in only a minority of subjects, and patients with CFS showed a heightened perception of effort.
The cognitive profiles of FM, CFS and non-cognitive FND are similar to the proposed features of FCD, suggesting common mechanistic underpinnings. Similar findings have been reported in patients with mild traumatic brain injury and whiplash. We hypothesise that pain, fatigue and excessive interoceptive monitoring produce a decrease in externally directed attention. This increases susceptibility to distraction and slows information processing, interfering with cognitive function, in particular multitasking. Routine cognitive processes are experienced as unduly effortful. This may reflect a switch from an automatic to a less efficient controlled or explicit cognitive mode, a mechanism that has also been proposed for impaired motor control in FND. These experiences might then be overinterpreted due to memory perfectionism and heightened self-monitoring of cognitive performance.
Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have impairment of facial expressivity (hypomimia) and difficulties in interpreting the emotional facial expressions produced by others, especially for aversive ...emotions. We aimed to evaluate the ability to produce facial emotional expressions and to recognize facial emotional expressions produced by others in a group of PD patients and a group of healthy participants in order to explore the relationship between these two abilities and any differences between the two groups of participants.
Twenty non-demented, non-depressed PD patients and twenty healthy participants (HC) matched for demographic characteristics were studied. The ability of recognizing emotional facial expressions was assessed with the Ekman 60-faces test (Emotion recognition task). Participants were video-recorded while posing facial expressions of 6 primary emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and anger). The most expressive pictures for each emotion were derived from the videos. Ten healthy raters were asked to look at the pictures displayed on a computer-screen in pseudo-random fashion and to identify the emotional label in a six-forced-choice response format (Emotion expressivity task). Reaction time (RT) and accuracy of responses were recorded. At the end of each trial the participant was asked to rate his/her confidence in his/her perceived accuracy of response.
For emotion recognition, PD reported lower score than HC for Ekman total score (p<0.001), and for single emotions sub-scores happiness, fear, anger, sadness (p<0.01) and surprise (p = 0.02). In the facial emotion expressivity task, PD and HC significantly differed in the total score (p = 0.05) and in the sub-scores for happiness, sadness, anger (all p<0.001). RT and the level of confidence showed significant differences between PD and HC for the same emotions. There was a significant positive correlation between the emotion facial recognition and expressivity in both groups; the correlation was even stronger when ranking emotions from the best recognized to the worst (R = 0.75, p = 0.004).
PD patients showed difficulties in recognizing emotional facial expressions produced by others and in posing facial emotional expressions compared to healthy subjects. The linear correlation between recognition and expression in both experimental groups suggests that the two mechanisms share a common system, which could be deteriorated in patients with PD. These results open new clinical and rehabilitation perspectives.
Epidemiology and burden of osteoarthritis Litwic, Anna; Edwards, Mark H; Dennison, Elaine M ...
British medical bulletin,
03/2013, Volume:
105, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease involving the cartilage and many of its surrounding tissues. Disease progression is usually slow but can ultimately lead to joint failure with pain ...and disability. OA of the hips and knees tends to cause the greatest burden to the population as pain and stiffness in these large weight-bearing joints often leads to significant disability requiring surgical intervention.
The article reviews the existing data on epidemiology of osteoarthritis and the burden of the disease.
Symptoms and radiographic changes are poorly correlated in OA. Established risk factors include obesity, local trauma and occupation. The burden of OA is physical, psychological and socioeconomic.
Available data does not allow definite conclusion regarding the roles of nutrition, smoking and sarcopenia as risk factors for developing OA.
Variable methods of diagnosing osteoarthritis have significantly influenced the comparability of the available literature.
Further research is required to fully understand how OA affects an individual physically and psychologically, and to determine their healthcare need.
This paper considers three recent studies on the negative theology of the Neoplatonists and Dionysius the Areopagite. The first is that of Lloyd Gerson, who argues that the One in Plotinus does not ...lack transcend existence but only definite existence; the second is the contrary thesis of Eric D. Perl that not only the One of Plotinus but the God of Dionysius transcend all being in such a way that they cannot be credited with existence. After some criticism of both the paper turns to the argument of Timothy D. Knepper that even the ineffability of the divine cannot be stated on our present plane of knowledge; it concludes with some reflections on the appeal to present or future experience as alternatives to epistemology as this is commonly understood in the analytical tradition of philosophy.
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