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This article is a response to Lupton (1998). It is not in the tradition of a critical response, but rather a complementary and extended exploration of the issues raised in the earlier paper. It draws on the authors' respective experiences as innovator and researcher in the field of child welfare and youth justice and presents, within the overall debate, new material both from child welfare initiatives and from the recently completed study into the use of family group conferences in youth justice. It concludes that some of the key tenets of family group conferences are in danger of being neglected by professional and political agendas if urgent attention is not given to the primary purpose of family empowerment and to adequate resourcing of FGC plans.

For the church historian, there is perhaps no more baffling problem than to account for the union that was effected between Christianity and the Roman State. The acceptance of this new religion by a government bound up with the heritages and customs of a thousand years of heathenism would be an astounding phenomenon were it not already so familiar to the historian. Scarcely less perplexing is the corresponding transformation in the attitude of Christians toward the Roman government. It seems almost inconceivable that a religious movement, which began with the conviction that “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” were the proper possession of Satan, should ultimately hail with approval a union of Church and State. There is no need to rehearse the course of events that marked the gradual rapprochement of Christianity and the Roman State. That story has been well and frequently told. But the genetic forces operating in that ancient society to bring about this remarkable result, still await further analysis. It is in this particular field of research that our present study falls.

To divide Christians by appeal to theological differences in these days savors of disloyalty. We need unity of religious spirit if our national morale is to be strong and hopeful. But the present crusade of premillenarians is not a matter of mere theology. It strikes at the heart of our religion if not of our patriotism. For this reason we discuss it. An assault upon our faith in a God who works through human ideals and national sacrifice for the sake of a better world is too dangerous to be permitted without protest and exposure. Professor Case writes with the facts before him, without bitterness but with warning. Since his paper has been put in type the newspapers report that several of the leaders of one of these movements have been found guilty of disloyal utterances and sentenced to imprisonment.

One of the first questions that early Christianity faced was that of the actual humanity of Jesus. Was he truly man as well as the incarnation of the Logos or was his humanity only an appearance? The early church settled that question and in the great formula of the Council of Chalcedon built his true humanity into orthodoxy by the phrase: "of the same substance with us as to his humanity." Our present age is facing the same question from a different angle, for as we come to see that to be a man is not only to have a human body and soul but is to participate in the social conditions of one's time, on the one side is developing a school which denies any real historicity to Jesus and on the other is a tendency to deny to Jesus everything that is not to be accounted for by an appeal to conditions in which he lived. The former school, like the old Docetic movement, speaks of a "Jesus God," while the second, like the Ebionites, would make him only a Jew among Jews. For our own part we have no doubt as to the o...

No subject is more vital to Christian civilization than the family. A study of statistics as regards both marriage and illegitimacy is likely to prove very discouraging. Many teachers, in despair of other regulation, are looking to a literal application of the words of Jesus. Just how far the movement is justified may be inferred from the accompanying paper, in which the vital question as to the precise words of Jesus is raised and discussed.

"That he might gather together in one all things in Christ." That is Paul's interpretation of God's cosmic plan. It is an interpretation of human history that breeds religious enthusiasm. Our religion is not an isolated, appended device, but the supreme phase of God's dealings with his world. With this Pauline philosophy in view we should expect to find in Christianity exactly what we do find, viz., survivals of other religions, bits of Grecian philosophy, the Hebrew theology, and the passionate religious hope of the Orient. True, taken all together they do not make Christianity any more than bits of matter make a human personality, but to understand Christianity it is necessary to understand something of this marvelous "gathering together of all things in Christ." Recent study in the mystery religions is one of such methods. Professor Case's article narrates facts which will be of great value to the student of Christianity.

The Graeco-Roman philosophers viewed sickness primarily as a misfortune due to natural causes. But to the vast majority sickness seemed to be a calamity abnormally brought upon humanity by some external power. It might be the result of a deity's anger or might be due to direct possession by a demon. Accordingly the remedy was sought in an appeal to deity, and particularly in exorcisms. Hence the popularity of various healing cults and of the magician as a physician. In such an environment Christians who healed in the name of Jesus met a very important demand of the time.