IAMS Matters September-December 2012 Out Now!

Dear colleagues, we would like to draw your attention to the most recent issue of the IAMS newsletter which can be accessed at http://missionstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/iams-matters-6-oct-2012.pdf.

The 2012 CEEAMS meeting and conference cancelled

Dear CEEAMS friends and colleagues, many greetings to all of you. We hope that you are doing well and succeeding to do all the responsibilities and tasks which the new semester has been challenging us with. As most of you would know, our annual CEEAMS meeting and conference was scheduled for 28-30 November 2012 in Budapest. However, we are very sorry to inform you that due to financial and organizational issues the meeting had to be cancelled. It means that there will be no annual CEEAMS conference this year. We apologize for this unfortunate development and for any inconveniences it may cause, but we hope very much that there will be a CEEAMS meeting/conference again next year. On the positive side, there has also been some encouraging development within CEEAMS. First of all, it seems that our journal, Acta Missiologiae (AM), is on the right track to become a full-fledged academic journal. Recently, it has been accepted for indexing in the ATLA Religion Database. Also, Scott Klingsmith, editor, and Valentin Kozhuharov, editor assistant, announced that they have already gathered enough material to have the next issue out early next year. The whole AM team has been working hard and they deserve our appreciation. Moreover, their work is bearing fruit. However, maintaining and further improving the good standard of AM is the responsibility of all of us as CEEAMS members. Therefore, we would like to encourage you to continue submitting your articles and book reviews to be published in AM. In addition, if you have colleagues and/or students, whose field of research is relevant for the scope of AM and who might be interested in publishing in our journal, please encourage them to contact the editor (Scott Klingsmith, sklingsmith@gmail.com; for book reviews, please contact the book review coordinator Pavol Bargár, bargarp@yahoo.com). Secondly, some of the CEEAMS members participated in the IAMS 2012 conference and general assembly in Toronto last August. It was a very fruitful and successful conference. We have established many new contacts and friendships. We hope we succeeded at least a tiny bit in giving our IAMS colleagues a better understanding of what is going on in missiology in CEE. In addition, we took about a dozen copies of AM to the conference to distribute to people, and we are happy to say that there was a great interest in it! We believe that this positive development will inspire and encourage all of you in your research and ministry. Once again, our apologies for the canceled conference this year, but we hope to meet all of you (and maybe some new colleagues) next year. In the meantime, please visit our website (www.ceeams.org), which we will try to keep updated. With all the best wishes and blessings, on behalf of the organizers, Pavol Bargár (Secretary of CEEAMS)

2012 IAMS Assembly in Toronto

Dear friends and colleagues, as you would know, a major missiological event took place a few months ago, namely the quadrennial IAMS assembly and conference (15-19 August 2012, Toronto). Some of the CEEAMS members also participated in this event. You can visit the Assembly website at https://sites.google.com/a/iams2012.org/toronto-2012/. There you can find some more information as well as photos from the Assembly. For the report of the Listening Committee, see http://missionstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/listeners-report.pdf. For further information on the Assembly as well as more general information on the IAMS, please visit http://www.missionstudies.org/.

IAMS Matters Newsletter Is. 5 out now!

Dear colleagues, we would like to draw to your attention the IAMS Matters newsletter, issue no. 5, which has just come out recently. You can read it at http://www.missionstudies.org/db/newsletter/iams_matters_05.html.

Conference on the Unity of the Church

Invitation and Call for Papers INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH: ECUMENICAL THEOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS IN THE POST-MODERN AGE 17–20 October 2012 Bose, Italy THEME OF THE CONFERENCE This year we celebrate 50 years since the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, an epochal event in the history of modern Christianity. The restoration of unity among all Christians was proclaimed one of the principal concerns of the Council. This new attitude towards other Churches clearly expressed by Vatican II, opened the door to active development of ecumenical theology – not only in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the Ancient Oriental, the Orthodox and the Protestant Churches. Closely related to ecumenical theology is ecumenical hermeneutics. As is stated in one of the key documents issued by Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, each local church “is called to be a hermeneutical community, that is, a community within which there is a commitment to explore and interpret anew the given texts, symbols and practices.” But as the churches engage in ecumenical dialogue, each church and tradition opens itself also to being interpreted by other churches and traditions. “The ecumenical movement provides particular opportunities for the churches to reflect together on issues of interpretation and communication for the sake of ecclesial unity and the renewal of human community.” However, as Cardinal Walter Kasper, former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted in 2003, “after the first rather euphoric phase of the ecumenical movement which followed the Second Vatican Council, the last decade has seen us experiencing signs of tiredness, disillusionment and stagnation.” Unfortunately, the situation does not seem to have changed much today, almost ten years since then. The aim of the forthcoming Conference is to reflect on the ways of interpretation of texts, symbols and practices in Eastern and Western Christian traditions; to identify current impediments to further development of ecumenical dialogue; and to discuss the possibility of new theological and hermeneutical approaches which could be applied in the situation of contemporary, “post-modern” world and would allow to overcome existing obstacles and to establish better mutual understanding between different churches. The Conference is dedicated to the memory of Bishop Pierre Duprey (1922-2007) whose 90th anniversary is commemorated this year. Bishop Duprey has contributed a lot of effort into development of ecumenical dialogue serving as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He was the founder and later President of the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration with the Orthodox Churches and the Ancient Churches of the East; he was also Patron and a good friend of St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute. PAPERS AND PUBLICATION Those who wish to present a paper should send a summary (500 words at most) by email to St. Andrew’s Institute by 1 August 2012. The Organizing Committee selects papers for the Conference and sends invitations to the speakers. The full text of all the papers selected will have to be submitted by 1 October 2012. The working language of the conference will be English. Upon arrival at the conference every participant will receive summaries of all the papers presented and the conference programme. Papers are scheduled for 30 minutes each. Selected papers will be published in St. Andrew’s quarterly Pages: Theology, Culture, Education. Registration form can be found on St. Andrew’s website www.standrews.ru. Registrations, summaries and papers should be sent to: Mikhail Tolstoluzhenko St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute Jerusalem St. 3, Moscow, 109316, Russia Tel/Fax: +7 495 6702200; +7 495 6707644 Email: info@standrews.ru, standrews@yandex.ru ORGANIZATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS The Conference will assemble on Wednesday, 17 October for the opening ceremony in the evening. Participants will depart after breakfast on Saturday, 20 October. The Conference will be held in the recognised spiritual and academic centre – the Monastery of Bose. Accommodation and meals will be provided by the organizers. ____________________________________________ St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute PATRONS: METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS OF DIOKLEIA, BISHOP RICHARD HARRIES, PROFESSOR HANS KÜNG, VERY REV. LEONID KISHKOVSKY, PROFESSOR VALENTIN L. YANIN, PROFESSOR ANATOLY A. KRASIKOV, REV. DR JOHN BINNS

THEOLOGY OF DIALOGUE CONFERENCE

St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute (Moscow, Russia) Novi Sad Theological Seminary (Serbia) DELM - Development of Ecumenical Leadership in Mission Network with the support of ICCO - Kerk in Actie (Utrecht, Netherlands) Invitation and Call for Papers INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE THEOLOGY OF DIALOGUE 7-10 November 2012 Novi Sad, Serbia THEME OF THE CONFERENCE The dialogue between Christians of different confessions has become very important in the contemporary world. This dialogue presupposes as its ultimate aim restoration of full communion between separated churches. This aim however is not something that could be easily and quickly achieved and requires a lot of work to be done for its realization. However, even first steps in this direction show that inter-Christian dialogue bears a lot of good fruits for those who are engaged in it. Communication between representatives of different traditions leads to a better understanding of each other and to mutual enrichment. Furthermore, our awareness of the other brings about a change of our own mind. This leads us from the dialogue for understanding to the dialogue for change. An important part of this dialogue is reassessment of the past, especially of the events that caused disagreements and divisions between churches, which were often accompanied by condemnations and anathemas. Purification of memory thus becomes a very important aspect of any interconfessional dialogue. The same applies to any interreligious dialogue which has also become very important today. Neither of these however can be made possible without genuine and authentic love towards the other. It is love that lies at the very heart of any true dialogue, which therefore can properly be called the dialogue of love. ‘He who does not love does not know God; for God is love’ (1John 4:8). It is with this point that any theological reflection on the dialogue should begin before it turns to the discussion of different aspects and levels of dialogue, both theoretical and practical. The concept of dialogue, due to the works of 20th century thinkers such as Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, Mikhail Bakhtin etc., has taken an important place in the contemporary philosophical and theological discourse. It seems however that this often remains at the level of scholarly talks about ‘dialogue in general’, full of fascinating and exciting ideas but without any significant realization in terms of praxis. In this sense, any theology of dialogue should be ultimately orientated towards concrete work in the field of inter-Christian and inter-religious relations. The aim of the forthcoming conference is to discuss the ways in which theology of dialogue can be developed and how this can be applied on the practical level, in the dialogue between religious communities and persons in different cultural contexts. PAPERS Those who wish to present a paper should send a summary (500 words at most) by e-mail to St. Andrew’s by 15 September 2012. The Organizing Committee selects papers for the Conference and sends invitations to the speakers. The full text of all selected papers will have to be submitted by 1 November 2012. The working language of the conference will be English. Upon arrival at the conference every participant will receive summaries of all the papers and the conference programme. Papers are scheduled for 30 minutes each. Summaries and papers should be sent to: Mikhail Tolstoluzhenko St. Andrew’s Biblical Theological Institute Jerusalem St. 3, Moscow, 109316, Russia Tel/Fax: +7 495 6702200; +7 495 6707644 E-mail: standrews@yandex.ru, info@standrews.ru ORGANIZATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS The conference will assemble on 7 November 2012 for a reception and opening ceremony in the evening. Participants will depart after breakfast on 10 November. Accommodation and meals will be provided by the organizers. REGISTRATION Numbers are limited and early registration is strongly advised. Registration forms can be found on St. Andrew's website www.standrews.ru and must be sent to the above address.

CEEAMS 2012

From 28 - 30 th November the next annual CEEAMS meeting will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

Princeton Theological Seminary Digital Common Project

You may already know about the Princeton Theological Seminary Digital Common project. The huge collection is downloadable in pdf and kindle format. Congratulations and thanks to President Iain Torrance of PTSEM and the exemplary sharing of resources.

See http://diglib.ptsem.edu/?action=search&qtext=collection%3a%22theocom%22.

Accessibility has been a main concern for DABOH for many years. We discussed this briefly at Balaton in 2008, and hope to devote some time in Toronto to think through this matter in more structural ways, with Dr Dietrich Werner's input.

With kindest wishes in Christ,


Yours,


Michael
DABOH co-convener


Michael Nai Chiu Poon
CSCA Director & Asian Christianity Research Coordinator

Trinity Theological College
490 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 678093
Tel: (65) 6761 3627
www.ttc.edu.sg/csca/

Methodist digitization initiative with Internet Archive

A digital project that may interest some of you is the Methodist digitization initiative with Internet Archive. I've been involved with this project for the past two years and we currently have over 2,500 texts available for reading or download. You can access the portal at the following link:

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

There are several dozen texts on the history of Methodist missions. You can search by subject or keyword from the following link:

http://www.archive.org/browse.php?field=subject&mediatype=texts&collection=americanmethodism

Best wishes,

Chris

Christopher J. Anderson
Methodist Librarian & Coordinator of Special Collections
Drew University
36 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ, USA 07940
973.408.3910 (office)
973.408.3836 (fax)
cjanders@drew.edu

Teaching Students How to Read and Write Science: A Mandatory Course on Scientific Research and Communication in Medicine

Author Information

Dr. Ana Marušić is professor of anatomy and Dr. Matko Marušić is professor of physiology and immunology, both at the Zagreb University School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia.

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Ana Marušić, Zagreb University School of Medicine, šalata 3b, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; e-mail: 〈marusica@mef.hr〉.

The authors acknowledge the critical efforts of their colleagues from the Zagreb University School of Medicine in creating and running the course described here: Dr. Jelka Petrak, Dr. Mladen Petrovečki, Dr. Danka Grčević, Dr. Ivan Krešimir Lukić, Dr. Nataša Kovačić, Dr. Aleksandra Mišak, Dr. Vedran Katavić, Dr. Kristina Fišter, Mr. Darko Hren, and Mr. Marko Kljaković-Gašpić.

Abstract
The authors describe the development and introduction of a course on scientific methodology and communication into the medical curriculum in a country outside of the mainstream scientific world. As editors of a general medical journal in Croatia, they learned that their colleagues had important and interesting data but no skills for presenting them in a scientific article. To alleviate the lack of education in research methodology and writing, the authors developed and introduced a mandatory course in scientific methodology and communication into the medical curriculum of the largest Croatian medical school. The course is structured into lectures, medium-sized-group discussions, and problem-solving small-group work, and is focused on (1) principles of scientific research; (2) access to medical literature and bibliographic databases; (3) study design and analysis and presentation of data; (4) assessing and writing a scientific article; and (5) responsible conduct of research. The course has been running since 1995-96 and is already showing results, visible in the more positive attitude of students toward scientific research and evidence-based medicine, and a significant number of students working on research projects and publishing scientific papers. The authors and colleagues also run continuing education courses for young academic physicians and an annual advanced workshop on scientific writing, involving academic physicians from all of southeastern Europe. The long-term goal is to create a critical mass of academic physicians with critical appraisal skills needed for evidence-based medicine and with skills for effectively communicating their research to the international scientific community.

In this article, we describe the goals, development, and introduction of a course on scientific methodology and communication into the curriculum of the largest medical school in Croatia, a country outside of the mainstream scientific world.

Fulll article: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2003/12000/teaching_students_how_to_read_and_write_science__a.7.aspx