Oosterbaan identified a tradition of Anabaptist christology running from Ziegler in Strassborg in the 1520s to Menno Simons in the 1550s. I demonstrate that this tradition continued until at least around 1700, first amongst the Waterlander Mennonites in the Netherlands, and then amongst the English General Baptists. I sketch the development and diversity of the tradition, and then ask whether it might be considered ‘orthodox’, and whether reflecting on the scholarly reception of this tradition might help academic theologians to engage better with marginalised Christian communities today.

Bermúdez persuasively argues that framing effects are not as irrational as commonly supposed. In focusing on the reasoning of individual decision-makers in complex situations, however, he neglects the crucial role of the social-communicative context for eliciting certain framing effects. We contend that many framing effects are best explained in terms of basic, rational principles of discourse processing and pragmatic reasoning.

A terrestrial (lacustrine and fluvial) palaeoclimate record from Hoxne (Suffolk, UK) shows two temperate phases separated by a cold episode, correlated with MIS 11 subdivisions corresponding to isotopic events 11.3 (Hoxnian interglacial period), 11.24 (Stratum C cold interval), and 11.23 (warm interval with evidence of human presence). A robust, reproducible multiproxy consensus approach validates and combines quantitative palaeotemperature reconstructions from three invertebrate groups (beetles, chironomids, and ostracods) and plant indicator taxa with qualitative implications of molluscs and small vertebrates. Compared with the present, interglacial mean monthly air temperatures were similar or up to 4.0°C higher in summer, but similar or as much as 3.0°C lower in winter; the Stratum C cold interval, following prolonged nondeposition or erosion of the lake bed, experienced summers 2.5°C cooler and winters between 5°C and 10°C cooler than at present. Possible reworking of fossils into Stratum C from underlying interglacial assemblages is taken into account. Oxygen and carbon isotopes from ostracod shells indicate evaporatively enriched lake water during Stratum C deposition. Comparative evaluation shows that proxy-based palaeoclimate reconstruction methods are best tested against each other and, if validated, can be used to generate more refined and robust results through multiproxy consensus.

It has been commonplace for over a century to argue that the distinctively Lutheran form of the communicatio idiomatum leads naturally to kenotic christology, divine passibility, or both. Although this argument has been generally accepted as a historical claim, has also been advanced repeatedly as a criticism of ‘classical theism’ and has featured significantly in almost all recent defences of divine passibility, I argue that it does not work: the Lutheran scholastics had ample resources drawn from nothing more than ecumenical trinitarian and christological dogma to defend their denial of the genus tapeinoticum. I argue further that this defence, if right, undermines a remarkably wide series of proposals in contemporary systematic theology.

We analysed the supportive social networks associated with the conservation of six threatened Australian bird taxa, in one of the first network analyses of threatened species conservation programmes. Each example showed contrasting vulnerabilities. The Alligator Rivers yellow chat Epthianura crocea tunneyi had the smallest social network and no real action was supported. For the Capricorn yellow chat Epthianura crocea macgregori the network was centred on one knowledgeable and committed actor. The orange-bellied parrot Neophema chrysogaster had a strongly connected recovery team but gaps in the overall network could limit communication. The recovery teams for the swift parrot Lathamus discolor and Baudin's black-cockatoo Calyptorhynchus baudinii had strong links among most stakeholders but had weak ties to the timber industry and orchardists, respectively, limiting their capacity to manage threatening processes. Carnaby's black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris seemed to have the most effective social network of any of the taxa studied but may be vulnerable to skill shortages. In each case the network analysis pointed to gaps that could be filled to enhance the conservation effort, and highlighted the importance of recovery teams. The research suggests that formal network analysis could assist in the design of more effective support mechanisms for the conservation of threatened species.

Chemical insecticides have been an important tool in the management of forest insect pests in Canadian forests. Aerial application of insecticides began in the 1920s and expanded greatly after World War II with the widespread adoption of DDT primarily for the suppression of spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana Clemens (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), and other defoliating insects. Significant progress was made in the development of new chemical insecticides and formulations including fenitrothion and tebufenozide, as well as technology for the application of insecticides against various insect pests. However, widespread opposition to the use of chemical insecticides in forest management has led to significant reductions in the number of insecticides registered for use in Canadian forests. Developments in the past 20 years have focussed on new insecticides, formulations, and technologies that seek to limit the impacts on non-target organisms and subsequent ecosystem effects. These developments have resulted in significant improvements in the management of traditional management targets, such as the spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens); Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) but also the management of invasive species, especially wood-boring beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae, Cerambycidae).

Scholarly attention to the popular style of contemporary worship has so far been infrequent, and generally dismissive. Dismissive attitudes have generally been based on claims that individual contemporary worship songs are lacking in theological development, and that contemporary worship merely apes the mores of pop culture, replacing a proper liturgical event with something akin to a rock concert. In this paper I suggest that both these criticisms are false. The first is a misunderstanding of the nature of the liturgical tradition of contemporary worship, in which the crucial liturgical event is the ‘time of worship’, constructed out of a number of songs and other liturgical elements, which together construct a liturgical narrative with theological and pastoral depth; criticising individual songs is therefore largely irrelevant. The second fails to pay attention to the nuanced negotiation with popular culture that is evident in the tradition of contemporary worship, when observed carefully; dominant cultural practices are not unreflectively adopted, but modified and, if embraced, embraced critically and put to use. I demonstrate these two points by offering readings of two (video recordings of) contemporary worship events, Matt Redman's Facedown DVD and Tim Hughes's Happy Day DVD; in each case I explore the ways in which cultural practices are modified and effectively subverted in pursuit of a liturgical goal, and offer a theological reading of the narrative of the time of worship. I propose that, whilst there are significant differences, both can be seen to be liturgically responsible and theologically deep experiences of worship.

In 1926 the Revd James Houston Baxter, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of St Andrews, wrote in the Records of the Scottish Church History Society: ‘The attempts of modern Roman Catholics to describe the Roman Church in Scotland have been, with the exception of Bellesheim’s History, disfigured not only by uncritical partisanship, which is perhaps unavoidable, but by a glaring lack of scholarship, which makes them both useless and harmful.’ The same issue of the journal makes it clear that Roman Catholics were not welcome as members of the society. This essay will look at the historiography of the Scottish Reformation to see how the Catholics ‘fought back’ against the aspersions cast on them, and how a partisan Protestant view was dethroned with the help of another society founded ten years before the Ecclesiastical History Society, the Scottish Catholic Historical Association (SCHA).