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This article examines how historical narratives of the League in Brittany (1589–1598) contributed to the creation of a contradictory depiction of the war as it happened in the region. Focusing on the narratives of the three main historians who described these lesser-known events at length (Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre Victor Palma Cayet), this article shows that representations of the war in Brittany responded both to the political exigence of 'oubliance' and the philosophical exigence of transitioning from war to peace at the end of the sixteenth century. This article argues that early modern French historians negotiated these exigencies through the creation of a compensating fiction. They adopted similar rhetorical strategies which included blurring the lines of conflict, shifting the narrative focus away from the enemy victory and representing Mercœur as following a path of transgression, repentance and ultimately salvation. While these historians wrote independently, all three operated in similar ways, showing the extent of the 'oubliance' doctrine and the need, at the end of the sixteenth century, to provide a new historical narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1588) intricately explores the interplay of religious motifs, cosmic exploration, and themes related to Space, Heaven, Hell, and repentance. By incorporating biblical and Qur'anic references, Marlowe crafts a compelling narrative that deeply resonates with the human experience. The central character, Faustus, embodies the conflict between good and evil and between human ambition and spiritual limitation. The play's depiction of celestial realms parallels biblical narratives like the 'Tower of Babel' and Qur'anic visions, emphasizing humanity's persistent quest for knowledge and divine understanding. This study examines how Marlowe integrates religious concepts, andangelic and cosmic themes with theological and moral conflicts, highlighting the thematic parallels with sacred narratives from the Bible and the Qur'an. To conclude, Faustus' mythology remains a poignant and thought-provoking narrative that resonates across different cultural and religious contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an early warning system predicting first‐year undergraduate student academic performance is developed for higher education institutions. The significant factors that affect first‐year student success are derived and discussed such that they can be used for policy developments by related bodies. The dataset used in experimental analyses includes 11,698 freshman students' data. The problem is constructed as classification models predicting whether a student will be successful or unsuccessful at the end of the first year. A total of 69 input variables are utilized in the models. Naive Bayes, decision tree and random forest algorithms are compared over model prediction performances. Random forest models outperformed others and reached 90.2% accuracy. Findings show that the models including the fall semester CGPA variable performed dramatically better. Moreover, the student's programme name and university placement exam score are identified as the other most significant variables. A critical discussion based on the findings is provided. The developed model may be used as an early warning system, such that necessary actions can be taken after the second week of the spring semester for students predicted to be unsuccessful to increase their success and prevent attrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the phenomenon of sports abandonment among young scholars aged between 8 and 13 years. Regardless of the growing awareness of the importance of sport and physical activity during childhood and adolescence, this theme must be adequately explored in the scientific literature. Our study addresses this gap through a cross-sectional research design, tracking and analyzing data from a cohort of young athletes over one year. The main objective of our study is to identify the determinants leading to sports dropout in this specific age group. We looked at several possible causes through a multivariate analysis, including social pressures, parental expectations, time conflicts, physical and psychological stress, and lack of enjoyment. The results show a significant attrition rate, with psychosocial factors emerging as the most influential in determining whether a young person will continue or stop their participation in sport. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance of targeted interventions and preventive strategies that promote a positive, inclusive, and balanced sports environment for adolescents. These interventions can be particularly effective when implemented by coaches, parents and others involved in youth sports education. Finally, this paper discusses the implications of the findings for sports professionals, physical educators, and public policy makers. It highlights the need for more effective support policies and innovative pedagogical approaches to promote sporting persistence during adolescence. Our findings can serve as a starting point for further research in this field, helping to build a future where young people can enjoy the many benefits of sport and physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Order of St. Augustine, along with the Canons Regular of the Penitence of the Blessed Martyrs and the Canons Regular of the Lateran, constitutes "the family of St. Augustine" - religious congregations rooted in the Rule of St. Augustine and actively developing the spirituality inspired by the bishop of Hippo. This paper aims to explore the churches affiliated with these orders in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It seeks to address the question of whether the communal spirit is reflected in the formal solutions employed in these churches, and whether these orders adhered to typical architectural forms, or each order developed its own distinctive architectural character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been recognized that the syntactically incorrect phrase in the MT of Isa 2:6b (כִּי מָלְאוּ מִקֶּדֶם וְעֹנְנִים כַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים "for they are full from the east and soothsayers like the Philistines") suffers from a textual error involving the omission of a word. According to the commonly accepted conjecture, a derivative of the root קסם must be reconstructed, which, being graphically similar to מִקֶּדֶם , may have been dropped out due to haplography. Contrary to previous research that viewed Justin's version of the verse (ὅτι ἐπλήσθη ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν, ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, µαντειῶν καὶ κληδονισµῶν , Dial. 135.6.5) as a reflection of inner-Greek development, I argue that it may provide support for the emendation, being the only surviving witness to the original Hebrew text of Isa 2:6b. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Danya Ruttenberg's book "On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World" delves into the concept of repentance from a Jewish perspective, particularly focusing on the teachings of Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides). Ruttenberg explores the differences between American secular and religious views on repentance, emphasizing the importance of recognizing sins, remorse, desisting from sin, restitution, and confession. The book also addresses contemporary issues such as systemic racism, sexual violence, and indigenous land rights, highlighting the importance of personal and collective responsibility in seeking forgiveness and atonement. [Extracted from the article]

The death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement agents in 2020 and the racial tensions that followed it have again reignited the contentious debate about racism and society's inability to find an enduring solution. This article is a novel effort to situate the debate in an interreligious context and contribute meaningfully to the search for a solution. Drawing from the Joseph and Potiphar's wife story in Genesis 39 and Surah 12 of the holy Qur'an, the article shows the intersections of this patriarchal material with the axes of identity and marginality. Drawing from the multiple junctures of this intersectionality that include race, ethnicity, identity, and microaggressions, the article identifies in the scriptural texts seven resonances of contemporary racism that are often ignored or poorly understood in race discourse. Taking into consideration some meaningful solutions suggested by legal luminaries and behavioral scientists in their respective fields, the article augments these with a religious solution, pointing in the direction of a true penitential spirit, like the one demonstrated by Potiphar's wife in the Qur'an. The suggestion is that a genuine turnaround (conversion) is also in the spirit of the ecclesial repentance that was practiced in the early church before some medieval abuses crept in. The article concludes that human agencies aside, ultimately it is God's ability to bring good out of evil, the way God did with Joseph, that can bring an enduring solution to victims of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abuse, when committed by spiritual authority figures, can have far-reaching consequences for church communities well after perpetrators have been removed and held accountable. In attending to survivors, a host of issues may come to light, including but not limited to, organizational complicity in abuse, institutional marginalization of the vulnerable, and the revelation that worship spaces can be traumatically triggering. The work of scholars like Michelle Panchuk, Elaine Heath, and Katharina von Kellenbach all point to the challenging reality that ecclesial repentance- may demand dramatic changes to restore a safe environment and righteous expressions of worship that honour God's intentions for all. Glen Kinoshita's 'ministry of reconciliation' and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's 'preparing the way' and 'religionless Christianity' are texts that on the surface address this type of process; however, it is not clear that either scholar fully reckons with the issue of a worshipping community or space that has been so marred by abuse as to become an impediment to a survivor's participation in liturgy. In this article, I modify Bonhoeffer's work to move beyond his claims and make recommendations for further steps towards repentance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the genre of prayer in Chronicles possesses a unique rhetorical impetus. It invites readers to join in the prayer and persuades them to follow the prayer's messages, which ultimately enables readers to transform their identity in accordance with the Chronicler's desired future. This article focuses on David's prayer in particular. David's prayer and its related context could serve to shape the members of the Yehud community as supplicants by p ortraying David as a model petitioner. The prayer persuades readers to perceive the specific aspects that David's penitential prayer communicates: 1) sin results in negative consequences, and 2) repentance should include a sacrifice since the external ritu al reverses Yhwh's anger and sym bolizes an offerer's devoted worship. The prayer functions to warn the post exilic members, as active supplicants, to be aware of their sinful situation and encourage s them to stand as sincere worshipers before Yhwh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the group of ninth-century Zoroastrian philosophers I call the 'Dēnkard School' and sketches the way they do philosophy. It presents their argument against substance dualism, which the Zoroastrians argue is in tension with the belief in repentance. From an analysis of this polemic, there follows a reconstruction of the Dēnkard School's own doctrine of the consubstantiality of body and soul. To understand these arguments, I describe some background eschatological and ontological beliefs upheld by the Dēnkard School and their specific conception of substance, which includes the notions of ownership and responsibility. Overall, the argument can be seen as a new position on a traditional problem, and so increasing the scope of philosophy in a more global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Seven Victories is one of the most influential works in Catholic literature from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The seven victories spiritual cultivation contained therein is the result of the localization of the practice of the Christian faith in the West. It is still a living tradition in the Christian religion and even in Western culture. Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, The Seven Victories has aroused significant repercussions in the ecclesiastical and academic worlds. Some scholars converted to Catholicism because of The Seven Victories and wrote preambles in response to it; some scholars wrote essays criticizing the ethical ideas of The Seven Victories; and some scholars were inspired by The Seven Victories to write about Confucian ideas of sin, the work of reform, and the liturgy of repentance. Together, these constitute the history of the reception of The Seven Victories in China. Through Confucian culture integration, Chinese Christian scholars have developed a localized interpretation of the seven victories spiritual cultivation, resulting in a localized Chinese spiritual cultivation of sin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes the case that Hos 14:2–3 is the earliest positive call to return (שׁוב) to YHWH in the Hebrew Bible and asks why it is precisely here that repentance is spoken of no longer negatively in reproach but positively in exhortation. First, it argues for a pre-exilic dating of Hos 14:2–5 by referring to Jer 2:35; 3:22; 4:8; 23:20, and 30:24. These passages in Jeremiah quote or allude to Hos 14:5, which speaks of the divine wrath being turned away from Israel. Second, the study argues that it was in the reflection on the fall of the Northern Kingdom that the words of Hosea were collected and expanded upon. In doing so, the scribes sought to make the downfall of the Northern Kingdom understandable as YHWH’s responsibility and to shake up the people: for the divine wrath to disappear, Israel must now return to YHWH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preface to the book April 2024 issue of "Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought & Culture" is presented.

This essay examines the Holy Monday sermon by Boules George, a senior priest at St. Mark Church in Cairo, that was preached the day after the Palm Sunday suicide bomb attacks against St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Tanta and St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria in Egypt in 2017, which left forty-four people dead and more than one hundred injured. The sermon addressed Coptic Orthodox Christians in Cairo as well as the wider Coptic Orthodox community in Egypt and throughout the world through a live video broadcast. The sermon is remarkable for presenting a radical call to nonviolence and Christian love. Notably, the preacher speaks to "those who are killing us", and says "thank you" for the opportunity to die as Christ died, for "this is the greatest honor that we could have". This essay analyzes the sermon in light of the work of Walter Brueggemann and Alexander Schmemann, and argues that the sermon is an example of daring speech that offers divine empowerment to the suffering and the fearful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a film review of Punishment (2024), directed by Øystein Mamen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The penitence congruity effect observed in adults suggests that people may assess wrongdoers more leniently when they exhibit guilt and deontological beliefs. It means that judgments about one's morality are influenced not only by their actions but also by their expressed moral emotions and beliefs. To determine whether children also exhibit this effect, we studied N = 250 children aged 10 and 11. We presented them with six vignettes: four depicting morally questionable actions (cheating on an exam, lying about homework, fighting with another student, stealing money found in a school hallway) and two displaying socially undesirable behaviors (attending school in pajamas, being late to school). Children also received information about the wrongdoer's emotions (presence or absence of guilt) and beliefs (deontological stance or its absence) or were provided with no additional information on emotions or beliefs. Participants were then asked to assess a wrongdoer's morality for each story. Our findings not only confirm the presence of the penitence congruity effect in children but also demonstrate its applicability to non-conventional behaviors. Specifically, when a wrongdoer expresses guilt and acknowledges wrongdoing, children are more lenient in their evaluations than in the control condition when no insights into the wrongdoer's emotions or beliefs are provided. The results align with the person-centered theory, which posits that individuals assess overall character rather than isolated actions, considering all available information about the person in question. The findings hold potential applications, e.g., in moral education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a comment on a research paper by Mariia Atanasia Smetaniak titled "The main aspects of asceticism and repentance in the work of Pratum by John Moschus." The research focuses on the analysis of the work Pratum by John Moschus, which explores the themes of penance and asceticism. The work is considered an enduring literary masterpiece that recounts the exploits of ascetic monks from the 6th to 7th centuries. The author of the book, John Moschus, was a strict anchorite monk and a mentor to Saint Sophronius. The article discusses the significance of asceticism and repentance in early Christian monasticism and highlights the importance of the work Pratum in understanding this period. [Extracted from the article]

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This encyclopaedia article aims to provide an exhaustive investigation of the concept of Teshuva in Jewish thought, with a focus on its historical trajectory and multifaceted interpretations. The term teshuva in Hebrew etymologically means ‘return’, suggesting a journey back to an original state or condition or to the divine. Originating from biblical precepts, Teshuva has undergone substantive elaboration in Rabbinic literature and further intellectual treatment in subsequent Jewish writings. This article underscores the theological gravitas of Teshuva. To bring depth and nuance to this investigation, it integrates the contributions of four seminal Jewish scholars – Moses Maimonides, Nachman of Breslov, Abraham Isaac Kook, and Joseph B. Soloveitchik – each offering a unique conceptual framework of Teshuva. Their divergent viewpoints serve as a prism through which the richness and complexity of Teshuva are elucidated.

'Listen, I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot; I'll punch it as long as I've got a fist; I'll butt it as long as I've got a head; and I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth' (Billy Sunday). Billy Sunday was a revivalist preacher in the early half of the twentieth century. I take it that Billy's approach to sin will be taken by most to be more theologically acceptable than the following. 'I figure I'll go for the life of sin, followed by the presto-change-o deathbed repentance' (Bart Simpson). Bart Simpson is a character in the animated TV Show, The Simpsons. In the vignette from which this quotation of Bart's is abstracted, Bart is actually in conversation with a Billy-Sunday-like preacher. The preacher, on hearing of Bart's theology (Bartian theology, we may call it; not, NB Barthian theology), replies in a slightly stunned way, as if he had never himself considered Bartianism prior to that particular moment, ' Wow ! That is a good angle...' However, he quickly collects himself and adds definitively, 'But it's not God 's angle.' In this article, I wish to explore Bart's angle; could it, or something like it, after all, be a prudent angle? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ethiopian Jews of the Beta Israel community are unique in the annals of Jewish history. The community maintained its Jewish identity and devotedly upheld observance of the mitzvot, even in the face of grave physical and spiritual difficulties and unrelenting attempts to persuade them to abandon their religion. Yet, their traditions diverge significantly from the accepted Rabbinic halakhic tradition that is the norm in Israel. This paper examines Yom Kippur observances and describes key differences between the Beta Israel tradition, which reflects the centrality of atonement, and the Rabbinic tradition, which reflects the centrality of repentance. These distinctions stand as manifestations of a set of profound differences within the very consciousness that animates the two traditions. Discussion, using the works of thinkers like Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik, his disciple, Prof. Rabbi David Hartman, and Ethiopian sages, will focus on the more theocentric Beta Israel tradition, in which individuals are perceived, and perceive themselves, as a part of a collective, in contrast to the Rabbinic tradition, which places a greater emphasis on the agency of the individual and human reason. We will highlight the difference between the concepts of "repentance" and "atonement" that are at the root of the two communities' theologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over time, special education teacher shortages have worsened, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 63% of schools nationwide reporting being understaffed in special education. Multiple variables including declining enrollments in traditional teacher preparation programs and teacher attrition have caused the shortage. Addressing special educator shortages will require a multifaceted approach across federal, state, regional, and local levels. We provide specific solutions from research and practice for how educational leaders can ameliorate shortages in their local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this reflection, I respond to Anthony Reddie's reflections and assertions about the sacramentality of black flesh in a world shaped by white supremacy. I locate myself as Korean American and refer to my experience of ministering to university students during the rise of Black Lives Matter in the US. Instead of offering cognate claims for the sacramentality of Asian flesh, I ask what theological repentance should look like in light of the historical profaning of the black body. Using the work of two black American artists, jazz musician Robert Glasper and painter Titus Kaphar, I offer beginning reflections on how our liturgies and practices need to change as part of theological repentance—including lament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In five experiments with a total N = 1558, we studied to which extent the perception of wrongdoers' morality depends on wrongdoers' cognitive and emotional penitence on the example of deontological beliefs and guilt. Both types of penitence improved the target's moral impressions to a similar degree. We established a penitence congruity effect, whereby jointly signaling cognitive and emotional penitence amplifies the strength of each of these types of penitence. The penitence congruity effect was visible when participants compared several wrongdoers (Studies 1, 2, and 5) but disappeared when participants judged them independently (Studies 3 and 4). In a pre-registered Study 5, we showed how the credibility of the statements explained the penitence congruity effect: incongruent penitence (e.g. wrongdoer felt guilt but thought a murder could be justified) decreased the credibility of the positive statements and reduced its impact on the wrongdoer's moral perception. Taken together, people who judge transgressors do incorporate information about their cognitive and emotional penitence and expect this information to be congruent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temptation of prosperity and immediate success at any price, that which intrinsically contains a demonic influence, often always gives man the capacity to be autonomous, selfish, envious and unable to open up to people. Meditating on how to escape this temptation and aspiring to offer an adequate response, we’ve compiled the present book, in which we aim to navigate through the important chapters of Christian dogmatics including: hristology, pnevmatology, mariology, soteriology and eschatology, Thus, discovering four elements: the relationship of fragility with grace, the necessity of fragility awareness and its activation for salvation, the positive and negative risks of fragility awareness, and the future face of pnevmatized fragility. The work is conceived from the perspective of a theology of exception concept, for only existential exceptions can reveal the things that come thereafter, as well as the edges of the road leading to them. They tend to reveal what is usually not seen, while placing everything in crisis, under the divine judgment that is to be, and constitute the only space of a possible Christian esotericism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repentance is central to the message of Christianity. Yet, repentance has received little analysis in recent scholarship despite being emphasized by the church fathers. In particular, there has been minimal effort to understand the necessity of repentance in light of Christ's atoning work. With this as the background, I explore fundamental questions such as repentance's definition, scope, and role in salvation history. Furthermore, I attempt to more precisely outline repentance's role in Christ's salvific work. Underpinning the project is my view that repentance should be understood as metanoia or transformation. This transformation of repentance is ordered toward divine metanoia – participation in Christ. In developing repentance, I put forward a synthesis of Thomas Aquinas's framework of penance and John McLeod Campbell's account of Christ's vicarious repentance. Through this synthesis, I attempt to make sense of the relationship between repentance and atonement. I finish by suggesting that it would be appropriate to conclude that Thomas would endorse a vicarious repentance account of the atonement and hint at how it might fit into broader soteriologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Julia Lahaye (1886-1978), a Belgian nurse who worked for the Barcelona Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War, was considered by peers and patients as one of the most outstanding figures of local society for her sense of sacrifice, her spirit of organization, and her humanitarian work. But that is only one part of her life story. In 1921, Lahaye had been convicted in absentia of spying for the German Reich during World War I and fled to Spain. Her story illustrates the complexity of human character and makes us ponder the question of whether humanitarian action can be motivated by repentance and the desire to atone for the crimes of the past. It also helps to deconstruct gender stereotypes of women nurses who have been traditionally depicted as "angels of mercy" and to rethink how the experiences of care receivers can shape the identity of caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers literary criticism on temporality and slavery in novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Topics include the deprivation of time for slaves, Stowe's depiction of slave temporality in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the shift in scholarly views toward the novel's significance in understanding slavery's impact on humanity.

Confession and repentance, being the sacrament of the Church, constitute a place of meeting between God’s grace and human freedom, which is thus transformed into the true freedom of God’s sons and daughters. A man who loves the beauty and purity of graceful, sacramental, and virtuous life cannot live without confession. Just like any Christian who does not participate in the communion of Christ, in the liturgical gifts of Christ’s Body and Blood, cannot call himself by this holy name, the neglect of the grace by which those who confess educate themselves represents spiritual death. The correct and salvific life in freedom, as given in the Church, cannot actualize if one neglects repentance and confession. Modern man, sick from the consequences of sin, cannot get better without the salvific confession. Many psychological and somatic disorders stem from reducing the confession to mere “custom” and obligation. Rediscovering the pure spring of the graceful life in Christ and renovating graceful freedom through the tears of repentance and honest confession represent a way threaded by the Church’s Fathers. If we want to show the graceful perspective of freedom and God’s love to modern humanity, we are obliged to personally and communally approach Christ through confession and repentance, so we might be transformed into gods by grace. A cleansed and Christ-bearing man is truly free and capable of living as God has intended – in eternal joy and grace of God’s Kingdom. This cleansing and transfiguration begin in time and continue in eternity. The education for eternal life is based on confession and our decision to follow Christ and fulfill his commandments. We rise if we fall and stumble, all thanks to Christ, who brings us into eternal life.

Catholicism has long been hostile towards Jews. It has even been claimed that its anti-Judaism was the matrix of twentieth-century anti-Semitism. This contribution sets out to show that the pontificate of John Paul II marks a break in the history of the Church in this respect. A relative break perhaps: the Polish Pope is following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose major texts, the declaration Nostra aetate (1965), revokes the idea of the Jewish people's guilt in Christ's death sentence and accepts that the Jews are still part of the Alliance with God. However, there was one decisive break: influenced by his education between the wars, which brought him into contact with nineteenth-century literature favourable to an inclusive nationalism, he accentuated the “philo-Judaism” of the conciliar period by developing a new approach to the Jewish community, linking recognition of the State of Israel with a request for forgiveness for the sins of Christians addressed to the “Jewish People”.

Considerable social science research has illuminated religion's profound and predominantly positive impact on individuals and families. Nevertheless, numerous noteworthy aspects of religion, including repentance, have not been explored in-depth from a social science perspective to understand their psychological and relational processes and implications. Further, the emphasis and importance of repentance across the Abrahamic faiths, combined with calls from social scientists to better understand processes of repentance and seeking divine forgiveness, indicate the benefit of repentance-focused research. Subsequently, we used team-based systematic qualitative coding to conduct secondary analyses of repentance processes in interviews with 127 exemplar US Jewish, Christian, and Muslim families (N = 218). Analyses explored the: (a) motivations and antecedents of repentance, (b) processes of repentance, (c) resources to aid in repentance, and (d) perceived outcomes of repentance. Additionally, some participants described repentance as negative, neutral, or ineffective. The article discusses psychological and relational benefits of repentance in religious families despite some potentially adverse consequences, highlights implications for practitioners and interventions that incorporate repentance, and suggests topics for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human beings are intrinsically equipped with capability to do good and inclination to commit sin (The Qur’an, 91:7-8). Due to human nature of forgetfulness and love for change, men and women may fall victim to their propensity to act sinfully. This situation calls for amelioration through the process of repentance comprising several dimensions and stages. This article represents a humble endeavor to reflect on definition, significance, dimensions, conditions, and ways of execution of repentance. The methodology applied in the discussion is critical analysis. The conclusion reached in the discussion is that opportunity to repent and reform is the only opportunity to get connected with Allah, the Superbly Magnanimous (al-Rahman), the Sublimely Gracious (al-Rahim) and the only way to do away with corruption on earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 7 years of administrative data from North Carolina public schools (NCPS), we track changes in teacher and principal attrition and mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess how attrition is related to characteristics of educators and schools. We find that educator attrition and mobility increased sharply between Fall 2020 and Fall 2022. Data from the pandemic period indicate that educators of color and more effective educators have experienced larger increases in attrition than their White and less effective peers. Gaps in teacher attrition have narrowed between schools educating many versus few historically marginalized students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Churn in e-learning refers to learners who gradually perform less and become lethargic and may potentially drop out from the course. Churn prediction is a highly sensitive and critical task in an e-learning system because inaccurate predictions might cause undesired consequences. A lot of approaches proposed in the literature analyzed and modeled churn prediction using learner's personal attributes from learner profiles and their overall performance. The major concern with existing approaches is that the accuracy of prediction is not satisfactory as the model is built on the sample data with limited features. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a distributed iterative classifier that deploys an ensemble learning algorithm to generalize the model for predicting potential churn from personal attributes. Predictions from the base classifier are obtained using a distributed iterative classification algorithm that deploys a map-reduce framework. Iterative classification algorithm predicts signs of attrition in the learners through their online interactions. It can also process a very large network, which was lacking in the existing solution. The proposed system is evaluated using the features of five students and results are reported. Experimental results show that the proposed ensemble classifier not only improves the performance of churn prediction significantly but also runs faster than the other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2 Chronicles 32:24–31 provides an early reading of Isa 38–39, but the brevity of the account in Chronicles makes its interpretation challenging. There is an additional motif of pride that is not easy to interpret (32:25–26). In this article I suggest that it might have been added by the Chronicler because he had noticed the admission of fault by the sick king in the psalm in Isa 38. Building on the portrait of Hezekiah found in Isa 38, the Chronicler depicts Hezekiah acknowledging that he was not worthy of the benefit received and humbling himself. Hezekiah models for the reader the Chronistic ethic of repentance. When Hezekiah is tested by God (32:31), the statement that "God left him to himself" reflects the Chronicler's interpretation of what is found in Isa 39, where the king responded as best he could to the arrival of Babylonian envoys without the benefit of prophetic guidance. The glowing depiction of Hezekiah's achievements in the surrounding verses implies that the Chronicler believed that Hezekiah passed this test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to read Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe from an Islamic perspective, arguing that the novel ‒ though set in a Western context ‒ is rich with the foundational principles of Islam. The study uses the comparative analytical method to compare and contrast the presence of these principles prevalent in Christianity and Islam and portrayed in the novel through the disobedience, repentance, solace in spirituality, and ultimately, the triumph of the individual, the protagonist, Robinson Crusoe. The paper thus demonstrates the extent to which an Islamic reading of Defoe’s classic text fosters greater consciousness of the close affinity between Christianity and Islam, breaking the wall and bridging the divide. The analysis, in other words, highlights a range of Christian ethics, such as sin/disobedience, repentance and providence, that the story presents and are also the basic principles in Islam. In this sense, the study further reveals that Crusoe, as is evident in these readings from a new perspective, is not a unique man, he is rather representative of mankind which is also the case with religion and literature that use man as an epitome of God’s will which ensures poetic justice, though it may come after much suffering.

Abstract: This essay considers the question of conversion unto repentance, as an act of cognition and volition, by the separated soul in the post‐mortem state. It primarily explicates and interrogates Thomas Aquinas's various attempts to rule out this possibility for the damned. Since Thomas's arguments for such impossibility feature his commitment to the radical immateriality of the human soul—and, like it, the angelic spirit—the essay highlights the ontological and moral tensions within that account. The case is thus made for the ontological, logical, and moral inconsistencies of his position, in pursuit of a more holistic anthropology across the soul's various states and a more rationally and coherent eschatology—namely, an affirmation of the irreducible mutability of the created soul on its way towards likeness to God, perhaps, if not certainly, towards universal salvation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates for a shift from insular paternalism to developmental paternalism in education, contending that students' engagement with erroneous ideas is crucial for building the ability to resist harmful notions and support democracy. The proposed inoculative approach exposes students to problematic ideas, guiding them through the process of overcoming these beliefs using the pedagogy of relation. The author employs behavioral economics to explore the shortcomings of insular paternalism and the early Christian notion of metanoia to explain the importance of changing one's mind. This developmentally-informed approach fosters rational thinking and curbs extremist ideologies. The paper asserts that prioritizing an inoculative approach over an insulatory one equips students to navigate the complexities of the modern world and uphold democratic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retention, attrition, induction, professional development, nonteaching teachers, teacher emotions : Unpacking Teacher Attrition/Retention as an Educational Issue. [Extracted from the article]

In the 11th–12th centuries, extreme ascetic practices reappeared in Western Europe, in particular, the wearing of hauberks and heavy iron chains, associated with penitence and eremitism. This article discusses the charisma of three ascetic saints of the 12th century: Bernard the Penitent (d. 1182), Wulfric of Haselbury (d. 1154/55), and Godric of Finchale (d. 1170). Their hagiographies were written shortly after their death. The authors emphasize that they were revered as holy men already in their lifetime. Their charismatic power was revealed by miracles of healing and prophecy, sometimes in visions. The manifestations of their charisma continued and even increased after their death and were transmitted and spread through their relics. Their mortifications and the signs of their holiness are comparable to those of the stylites and other hermits of Syria of late Antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]