Textile Manufacturing Industry in the USA Essay

Textile Manufacturing Industry in the USA - Essay Example The major companies belonging to the textile manufacturing industry operate mills that are used for the production of textiles and various textile products by processing natural and synthetic fibers. The major companies in the global textile industry include Toray Industries in Japan, International Textile Group, WL Gore and Associates, Guilford Mills, Unifi and Mohawk Industries which are based in the United States, Hyosung in South Korea and Weiqiao Textiles which operate in China. Â  The textile manufacturing industry is mainly based on the different fibers into yarn followed by fabric and textiles. The fibers which are converted into fabric and textiles are used for fabrication into clothes and the other different artifacts. Cotton is considered as the major natural fiber that is hugely processed and treated to be used in the textile industry. The processing and treatment of cotton constitute an extensive part of the textile manufacturing industry. The textile manufacturing industry employs a number of processes involved in the fabric forming and spinning phases. The textile manufacturing industry follows complex procedures to process and treat the different natural and synthetic fibers to produce a wide range of textile goods. Different techniques using machine and hand techniques are employed in this industry. Â  The demand in the textile industry is driven by the demand of the consumers as well as the different companies operating in the garments industry. The apparel industry is the major influencer of the demand levels in the textile manufacturing industry. The demand of the consumers for furnishings like curtains and carpets also influence the demand levels in the textile manufacturing industry.

Eating and Mermaids Poolside Grille Essay Example for Free

Eating and Mermaids Poolside Grille Essay We have all decided to go on a Carnival Cruise line costing us all $601. 36 apiece; together it will cost $2,405. 44, for seven nights in the Bahamas and Florida area. We will all drive up to Maryland, Baltimore using $50 in gas for both ways and leaving the houses at 1:00 pm. We will also eat about $4 to $5 a person worth of food on the way down there then on the way back we will spend probably the same amount in order to eat again. On the first day of the cruise we will unpack and relax until 7:30P. M. and eat in the Normandie Restaurant. After dinner we will relax on the deck till 11:30P. M. The next day we will go to the pool and swim. At lunch we will have room service then go back to the pool. At dinner we will go to the Mermaids Poolside Grille. After dinner we are all going to the dance club on the cruise. The third day will consist of a Cookie Decorating class and ice cream eating contest. By dinner we will eat at Pizzeria which is located in the Mermaids Poolside Grille. After dinner we will all just relax. On the fourth day we stop in Florida and relax on the beach soaking up the sun. At dinner time we are eating at the sushi bar and going to the butterflies lounge in the cruise after dinner. On the fifth day we stop at the Bahamas and go shopping with our left over money, which would be $350 per person. When we get back on the cruise we will have room service again. By the sixth day we will be watching a Broadway musical and listening to comedians. We will eat Normandie Restaurant again. On the last and final day we will be packing and playing a couple of games on the cruise like battle of the sexes. When dinner comes around we will eat at Your Time Dining. On the eighth day we will be sadly departing at 8:00am. All of these activities, excluding shopping, will be at no charge because we paid for all of it at the beginning.

Slavery During the Enlightenment and the Frech Revolution :: History Historical Slaves Enlightenment Essays

There were many views of the issue of slavery during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and the resolution of slavery affected economics, politics, and social order. The slave trade triangle between Europe, west Africa, and the Indies has a great affect on European economics during this time. The only way for this elaborate trade triangle to work is if there were black Africans available for export to the Indies as slaves. If they were not available, then the landowners in the new world weren't able to produce the sugar, coffee, and tobacco for export to Europe, and the circuit broken. These African slaves were convenient, according to Guillaume Raynal (document 6), because they were thought to be more comfortable working in the hot conditions of the Indies, because they had originally come from a very hot climate in Africa. In order to make the best use of the land, more efficient workers would be needed, and hence the slaves. The issue of slavery has extensive impacts on French politics during the Enlightenment and the revolution. Many colonists and landowners were confused over the appliance of The Declaration of Rights of Man to slaves and blacks (document 13). If it did apply to them then slavery would be abolished, which (according to document 10) would cause the colonies to loose commerce, essentially destroying them because French colonists had only profits from their trade to live on. Those who were against slavery (documents 9, 15) used The Declaration of Rights of Man as their main source, in that it declared equal rights to all men, not just to white men. Slavery affected European society also in many ways. Generally, in terms of European society, most people were against slavery, on the grounds that African slaves were people too, and they deserved the same basic rights declared in The Declaration of the Rights of Man. Most suggested the question of why blacks only were enslaved, sighting that skin color made no difference in the person (document 7). Others, like Voltaire, said that the luxuries that Europe now enjoyed, like sugar, cocoa, coffee, and tobacco, were not really sufficient to gratify the enslavement Slavery During the Enlightenment and the Frech Revolution :: History Historical Slaves Enlightenment Essays There were many views of the issue of slavery during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and the resolution of slavery affected economics, politics, and social order. The slave trade triangle between Europe, west Africa, and the Indies has a great affect on European economics during this time. The only way for this elaborate trade triangle to work is if there were black Africans available for export to the Indies as slaves. If they were not available, then the landowners in the new world weren't able to produce the sugar, coffee, and tobacco for export to Europe, and the circuit broken. These African slaves were convenient, according to Guillaume Raynal (document 6), because they were thought to be more comfortable working in the hot conditions of the Indies, because they had originally come from a very hot climate in Africa. In order to make the best use of the land, more efficient workers would be needed, and hence the slaves. The issue of slavery has extensive impacts on French politics during the Enlightenment and the revolution. Many colonists and landowners were confused over the appliance of The Declaration of Rights of Man to slaves and blacks (document 13). If it did apply to them then slavery would be abolished, which (according to document 10) would cause the colonies to loose commerce, essentially destroying them because French colonists had only profits from their trade to live on. Those who were against slavery (documents 9, 15) used The Declaration of Rights of Man as their main source, in that it declared equal rights to all men, not just to white men. Slavery affected European society also in many ways. Generally, in terms of European society, most people were against slavery, on the grounds that African slaves were people too, and they deserved the same basic rights declared in The Declaration of the Rights of Man. Most suggested the question of why blacks only were enslaved, sighting that skin color made no difference in the person (document 7). Others, like Voltaire, said that the luxuries that Europe now enjoyed, like sugar, cocoa, coffee, and tobacco, were not really sufficient to gratify the enslavement

Graduation Speech: We Are the Leaders of Tomorrow :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Anne Frank confided to her diary that, "Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands." And as we, the class of 2006, stand at the end of one path in our lives, and stare out at the field of possibilities before us, we are faced with awesome decisions. We have a wealth of knowledge behind us -- our parents and our families. We are at a point where we must decide where to go and what to do. One misstep now, even the slightest one, can cause a lifetime of regret. So as you and I set out on our chosen path, we must carefully consider where we are and where we want to go. Born in Tupelo, Miss. in 1935, one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century began his life in a humble setting. After a poverty-stricken childhood, this young man became a truck driver in Tennessee. Realizing he had tremendous musical talent, the musician visited Nashville and was able to secure a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1954. At the close of the performance, the manager, Jim Denny, fired him saying, "You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck." But did this young man give in? Did he listen to the professionals? No, he tried again and again until he found a venue for his music. Once he found his break the rest is history, today we remember Elvis as one of America's greatest musicians. Parents can give us advice, they can point and push us in a given direction, but the final authority lies with us. My parents have always encouraged me to challenge myself, but when it came time to create a schedule and choose classes, the decision was mine. The Byrds remind us that, "To everything ... there is a season ... and a time to every purpose under heaven." I would contend that there is a time for guidance and a time for independence. Just like Elvis, we will encounter people who will have a different view of where we should be. Whether that person is a manager, a parent, a friend, we must carefully weigh the advice they give. At times we may be deviating from the best path for us and we made need their loving correction, but at times the advice may not fit our goals.

Different Classes of Shares and the Benefits and the Disadvantages of Each Type of Shares.

Introduction First, we will mention about the purpose of this assignment, which is the benefit that we can gain from doing this project. From this project, it helps us to know the types of shares available in a company, definition of shares and the advantages and disadvantages of shares. From the information, this will enable a person who have interest invest in a company, purchase the shares that are suitable for them, based on the comparison between the advantages and disadvantages of each type of shares. Other than that, we can know the rights that attached to the shares. On the other hand, we will mention that under what relevant case law or relevant sections, the rights of the shareholders will be changed or affected. These circumstances are significant important to those shareholders who want their interest to be protected. For an example, when a company is going to winding up and under the normal situation, preference shareholders will have no right to participate in the surplus assets and profits but under when Section 66 Companies Act 1965, he has the right on it. Lastly, this project will give a fundamental or basic knowledge of each type of shares, the rights as being shareholders, which is useful in future, if we wish to success in our business field. Definition of shares According to Borlands Trustee v Steel Bros Co Ltd (1901), defines shares as the interest of a shareholder in the company measured by a sum of money, for purpose of a liability in the first place and of interest in the second but also consisting of a series of mutual covenants entered into by all the shareholders inter se. According to Section 4 Companies Act 1965 (hereinafter referred as CA’65) defines share as share in share capital of a corporation and includes stock except where a distinction between stock and shares is expressed or implied. In short, shares means that is the capital raised by a corporation, through the issuance and sale of shares. Section 98 CA’65 mentions the nature of share. The share or other interest of member in a company shall be moveable property, transferable in the manner provided by the articles, and shall not be of the nature of immovable property. It means that shares are movable properties, intangible in nature, chooses in action and transferable in nature unless the company is a private company. As according to Section 15 CA’65 private company has restriction of transferring share unless get the consent of all the members. There are various type of share in the market, such as ordinary share, preference share, deferred share, treasury share and others. However, the common one is ordinary share and preference share. Definition of Ordinary Share According to WorldReference. om Dictionary, ordinary share is share other than preferred share; entitles the owner to a share of the corporation's profits and a share of the voting power in shareholder elections. Definition of Preference Share Section 4 CA’65 defines preference share a share by whatever name called, which does not entitle the holder thereof to the right to vote at a general meeting or to any right to participate beyond a specific amount in any distributio n whether by way of dividend, or on redemption, in a winding up or otherwise. According to WorldReference. com Dictionary, preference share is share whose holders are guaranteed priority in the payment of dividends but whose holders have no voting rights. Benefits of Ordinary Share There are several advantages for subscribing the ordinary shares rather than preference shares. First, as an ordinary shareholder, he is a proprietor or owner of the company. A shareholder is entitled to membership rights of the company. It means that a shareholder as a member of the company has full voting rights at any general meeting. Through voting, a shareholder can participate in the management of the company. If the shareholder holds the majority rights (more than or equal to 51% of the rights) he can control the company financial and operating. Section 55 CA’65 says each member of a public company has one vote in respect of each ordinary share. Besides that, as a member of the company, he has the right to receive the notice of general meeting, to request the financial report, to attend and speak during the general meeting, to appoint the director during the general meeting. Moreover, he has the right to appoint proxies in the event that they cannot themselves attend the general meeting. As an ordinary shareholder, when the company is making a lot of profit, or in other word, in the event the company is prosperous, he stand to gain the most than preference shareholder as their dividend is higher compare to the fixed rate dividend received by preference shareholder. Furthermore, in the scenario of company winding up, an ordinary shareholder has the right to participate a share in any surplus assets of the company plus the repayment of his capital. Besides that, the Articles of Association require the company to offer any further shares it proposes to issue to the ordinary shareholders before offering them to outsiders, and usually the new shares are offered to the existing shareholders at a lower price than they would be offered to the outsiders. Disadvantages of Ordinary Share As a member of the company, ordinary shareholder is the main risk bearer of the company. It means that these shares carry a right to a dividend limited only by the size of the profit made by the company and are paid after the preference shareholders. They will be the last to receive the dividend. The dividend receive is in the form of non-cumulative dividend and the rate of dividend is not fixed, means when company did not declared dividends for this year, the dividends will not accumulated to next year and the amount is not secured. Under Section 365 CA’65, dividends are only payable out of the company’s profit. In the event that there are no profits, they will not receive any return of their investment. In fact, the company has no obligation to declare and pay dividend as the director can retain profits or capitalize the profits in the form of bonus share. However, when the company is making profit continuously for some years but director does not declare any dividend, the shareholders can apply to the court and sue the company under Section 33(1) CA’65 where Memorandum of Association and Article of Association constitute contractual effect between company and members, and where members right are affected, they can sue the company. In the scenario of winding up, ordinary shareholders will be the last to receive the repayment of capital. The next disadvantages of ordinary shares s that the issue of shares may result in diluting the shares held by the existing shareholders particularly directors who also are shareholders. It simply means the directors may lose control of the company unless they buy the new shares. Types of Preference Share There are several types of preference share: Cumulative preference share – If the dividends are cannot be paid in one year or the company does not pay the full dividend on preference shar es in any year the preference shareholder will be entitled to have the amount deficiency made up in later year before any dividend is paid on ordinary shares. Non-cumulative preference shares – the holder of such shares are only entitled to the specific rate of dividend out of the current year. If in a year the profits do not warrant payment of a dividend, the arrears are not carried forward to the subsequent year. Participating preference shares – the holders of such shares are entitled to a preferential dividend if the specified fixed rate before the ordinary shareholders. After the ordinary shareholder has received their dividends, the participating preference shareholder will participate further in any profit remaining together with the ordinary shareholders in the surplus assets. Moreover, they can also participate in surplus of assets with ordinary shareholders when the company is wound up. Redeemable preference shares – these shares may be redeemed by the company at a stated redemption price after a specified time. The redemption must be effected only on such terms and condition and in such manner provided by the Articles of Association. It means that the shares are not redeemable before the specific time and the company must buy back the shares at the price stated and at the specific time. Convertible preference shares – these shares carry the right to be made convertible, at the option of the holder, into another class of shares, normally into ordinary shares. General Advantages of Preference Shares Unless the Articles of Association or otherwise provided, generally, preference shares that are issued had the rights to a fixed dividend per share to be paid whenever there is sufficient profit, before any dividend is paid to any other member. The preference shareholders are more secured as ompare to ordinary shareholder as they have the priority to receive their return of investment than ordinary shareholder especially when the company is having ‘bad time’ where the profits is uncertain. Moreover, preference shares are presumed to carry a right to cumulative dividends where their dividends will become payable at the next year. Further more, preference shares are given the right to be repaid the nominal value of each share when the company is wound up before any capital is returned to other members. They are entitled to be repaid their capital of investment before the ordinary shareholders. General Disadvantages of Preference Shares Unless the Articles of Association or otherwise provided, generally, preference share does not entitle the holder to the rights to vote at a general meeting. Their voting rights to are often limited only during their dividends in respect of the share are in arrears, upon a proposal that affects rights attached to the share (variation of class rights), or upon a proposal to wind up the company. In short, they have limited right to vote, no right to attend general meeting, limited right to some of the company decision making. Thus, when a company is going to raise fund, they are willing to issue further preference share rather than ordinary share because of the limited voting rights. Even though directors issued more preference share to the stranger (public), they still maintained their majority voting and financial control of the company. Therefore, preference share are the best alternative for the directors of the company. The next disadvantage is they have no rights to participate beyond a specified amount in any distribution whether by way of dividend, or on redemption, in a winding up or otherwise. Different from the ordinary share, preference share is paid in a fixed dividend rate. They cannot participate in the surplus of profit or assets during the company are wound up. Thus, they have less return of investment especially during the company prosperous time. Rights of Holders of Preference Shares to be set out in the Memorandum of Association or Articles of Association Section 66(1) Companies Act 1965 mention no company shall allot any preference shares or convert any issued shares into preference share unless there is set out in its memorandum or articles the rights of the holders of those share with respect to: Repayment of capital – it should state that when the company is winding up, they would have the right to claim the nominal value of each share before any capital is returned to ordinary shareholder. Participation in surplus assets and profits – it should state that when the company is winding up and there is surplus of assets and profits, the preference shareholders entitled to have a share of it with the ordinary shareholders. Cumulative or non-cumulative dividends – it should state that the preference shareholders would receive either cumulative dividend as according to general rules or non-cumulative dividends as same as ordinary shareholders. Voting – it should state that either the preference shareholders would have the rights to vote in meeting or not. Priority of payment of capital and dividend in relation to other shares or other classes of preference shares – it should state that either the preference shareholders or ordinary shareholder have the priority to the issued or payment of capital or dividends or both of have the same priority? The purpose for such requirement is to enable the prospective and existing preferential shareholders to ascertain easily the rights attached to their shares. Section 66(2) CA’65 mention if default is made in complying with this section the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be guilty of an offence against this Act. Penalty: Two thousand ringgit CONCLUSION Our assignment topic is â€Å"explain the different classes of shares and the benefits and disadvantages of each type of shares. † In our presentation, we had discussed about the different classes of share that is – ordinary shares and preference shares. We had explained about the definition of ordinary share and preference share and their characteristics. Beside that, we also discuss about the benefits and disadvantages of them. In our opinion, both of them got their advantages and disadvantages. When company is decide whether to issue ordinary shares or preference shares are depending on the situation. If the director wishes to maintain the control over the company then they should issued preferences shares to raised capital rather than issuing ordinary shares. However, the company also needs to consider the ability of paying back the interest and capital if issued the preference shares as they deem as external creditors that have the priority of repayment of capital than ordinary shareholders.

Sample Case Brief Essays

Sample Case Brief Essays Sample Case Brief Paper Sample Case Brief Paper Kathryn Myrick Business Law 1 Professor McDonnell Case Brief A. 5 Braun v. Soldier of Fortune Magazine Inc. , 968 F. 2d 1110 (11th Cir. 1992) FACTS:In 1985 Michael Savage placed an ad in the Soldier of Fortune Magazine (â€Å"SOF†) advertising â€Å"Gun For Hire†. The ad ran from June 1985 to March 1986 generating an average of 30-40 call per week for jobs ranging from murder, kidnapping, assault and other criminal activity. After three previous failed attempts on his business partner Richard Braun’s life by Bruce Gastwirth , he contacted and hired Savage to commit the murder of Braun. Savage along with associates John Moore and Sean Doutre went to Braun’s home to carry out the act shot and killed Braun in front of his sixteen year old son Michael Braun who was also shot and wounded by the assailants. Michael and Ian Braun filed a lawsuit against â€Å"SOF† magazine alleging negligence. ISSUE(S): (1) Did Soldier of Fortune Magazine negligently advertised the ad breaching the duty of care? 2) Did SOF Magazine know of the potential risks by placing the ad in the magazine? (3) Did the ad contribute to the proximate cause of the murder of Richard Braun? HOLDING: The district court’s assertion that the publisher is liable for damages and negligently placed an advertisement that was apparent for substantial danger and potentially harmful to the public. The trial court’s langu age of the advertisement was the proximate cause of Braun’s injuries that he sustained. RULE OF LAW: To prevail in an action for negligence in Georgia a party must establish the following elements: (1) Legal duty to conform to a standard of conduct raised by the law for the protection of others against unreasonable risks of harm. (2) A breach of this standard. (3) A legally attributable causal connection between the conduct and the resulting injury (4) Some loss or damage flowing to the Plaintiff’s legally protected interest as a result of the alleged breach of the legal duty. CONCLUSION: The court AFFIRMS the district court’s judgment.

The Dangers and Risks of Flammable and Combustible Liquids and Gases

The Dangers and Risks of Flammable and Combustible Liquids and Gases Introduction The dangers and risks involved in handling flammable and combustible liquids and gases call for extra vigilance in the processes of packaging and transporting. Since harmful effects associated with careless handling are irreversible and longs of Storage Tanks Fixed roof tanks Fixed roof tanks are categorized as cone roof columns and dome roof tanks. These tanks are used for the storage of flammable liquids, and are designed with internal pressures of up to 1 bar. However, they can be used for storage of non-volatile or inflammable substances including water, pulp, and acids among others. Internal and Open-top Floating Tanks These tanks are provided with protection seals and emission control devices, which improve safety while handling flammable storage substances. Internal floating tanks are manufactured using steel, aluminum, or synthetic materials, and are easy to manufacture, erect, as well as maintain. On the other hand, external tanks are made of welded steel in ord er to sustain the high pressures from storage liquids. Other vessels Other than storage tanks, there exist other storage facilities such as container and portable storage facilities (National Fire Protection Association 11). However, only approved containers are used so as to maintain high levels of safety. Types of hazards and security measures An excellent plan for safety when using flammable liquids must feature some components, which include control of ignition sources, proper storage, fire control, as well as safe handling. Fire While proposing for security measures, one should first understand the causes of fires, and establish the best safety measures to follow. Ignition Sources Static electricity Formation of static electricity is dangerous since the tank can explode or a fire can start as a result of the electrostatic energy (â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety† 20). As such, it is important to prevent static energy from producing sparks: This requires that st orage containers are grounded or bonded to prevent sparking. Open flames As a regulation, storage areas are strictly nonsmoking zones because cigarette smoking is a source of open flame. Welding, lighting, and hot surfaces are also other sources of open flames (â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety† 32). Such activities must be a safe distance away from the operating environment of flammable liquids.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Electrical Spark On several occasions, sparks occur as a result of minor electrical faults such as short circuits, and may ignite other sources of energy. There are several sources of electrical spark generation such as in welding facilities, faulty electrical gadgets, and battery cells. As such, fire regulations stipulate that flammable liquids must be stored in airtight vessels that will protect flammable liquids from ignition. Suppression Systems Fire suppression systems are designed to control the spread of broken out fires. This minimizes on the destructive effects of fire since such fires are controlled and extinguished before they are fully grown. The following shows an example of fire suppression system for floating roof tanks. Figure 3: Fire Suppression systems Common Tank-type Hazards The following table shows the incidences of fire hazard with the use of various types of storage tanks. Figure 4: Common tank-Type Fire Hazards Overfill fires – Occur due to spillag es resulting from tank overfill. Vent Fires – Occur as a result of vent failure or blockages. Rim Seal Fires – Occur as a result of broken tank seals. Full Surface Fire – Occur due to surface ignition of storage liquids. Case Study Place: Delaware, USA. Date: July 17, 2001. Cause: Spark from maintenance work. Type: fixed roof. Losses: 8 injuries and 1 death. Outcome: Significant offsite environmental impact. Lesson Learned Intense procedures must be followed before conducting periodic maintenance works. Risk assessment should be conducted. Training and competence of personnel should be done. Elimination of flammable atmosphere should be done including isolation, purging, gas testing, as well as control of ignition sources. Adherence to minimum separation distances given in codes and standards. Adequate separation from tanks to site boundary, process equipment, loading areas, and buildings should be provided. Health hazards Many of these liquids are corrosiv e and undergo multiple reactions if exposed to other chemical components like oxidizing agents or when stored improperly. Therefore, people handling these liquids must be physically present and wear protective clothing (â€Å"Environmental Health and Safety Executive† 3). Eye contact with such liquids may result in a burning sensation, irritation and possibly eye damage (â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety† 10). Similarly, repeated exposures may result in target organ toxicity, which may result in the failure of such organs or death. Environmental hazards Spillages are a key pollution that threatens the ecosystem where the quantities are high enough. The liquids may result in chronic toxicity whereby they cause adverse effects on aquatic life when exposed in an aquatic ecosystem (â€Å"Environmental Protection Agency† 7). Improper disposal or accidental spillages are causes of soil and air pollution. General Use and Storage Considerations It is of paramou nt importance to understand that the handling of these liquids is not restricted to specialized firms or individuals. The substances are produce for use by the public, as well as other unspecialized individuals; therefore, safety regulations need to consider this factor (â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety† 22). In connection, protection from ignition sources is crucial during important processes like extraction, centrifuging, and grinding (â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety† 16). Conclusion As established, liquids are essential in the daily lives, but also pose a significant level of risk in people’s lives, as well as the environment. Therefore, it is important that all such risks are controlled so as to have a safe environment that is free from hazards associated with storage of liquids. In conclusion, liquids can be hazardous to both individuals and the environment; hence, it is necessary to take appropriate measures for preventing the creation of hazards. â€Å"Environmental protection Agency (EPA).† Release: 40 CFR 302. 116.4 (2010): n.pag. California Fire Code: Chapter 27. Web. Health and Safety Executive: Storage of Flammable Liquids 2002. Web. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): Code 30 2006. Web. â€Å"UNL: Environmental Health and Safety.† Environmental Health and Safety 402. 472  (2000): n.pag. UNL. Web.

Where to Find IB Chemistry Past Papers - Free and Official

Where to Find IB Chemistry Past Papers - Free and Official SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Taking the IB Chemistry exam will be a nerve-wracking experience, but having seen a real IB past paper before taking the actual test will be a huge advantage since you'll have experience with the test format, the length, and style of the test. In this article, I will show you where to find IB Chemistry past papers, both free and paid. I'll also share tips on how to study most effectively using these IB Chemistry past papers. Where to Find Free Tests The IB has been diligent about seeking out and destroying illegally uploaded official papers for the past few years, so a lot of sources that used to be out there are no longer readily available. Currently, the only free official IB Chemistry test legally available is this Chemistry HL paper 3. I have not been able to find any unofficial IB Chemistry past papers (ones created from scratch). If you find any, I strongly advise AGAINST using them, as they may be nothing like the actual IB Chemistry papers. Where to Find Paid Tests The IBO store sells IB Chemistry SL and HL past papers from May 2015 to November 2018. Navigate to the Diploma Program page, then click "Shop Exam Papers" to see all available papers, which can be narrowed by category and time frame. This is the only safe place to get IB Chemistry past papers to download. Each paper and each mark scheme costs $3.00. Buying all of the past papers and mark schemes can be costly, so if you are looking to spend as little as possible, I recommend just purchasing the most recent (November and May 2018) past papers as they will be closest to what you learned. 3 Tips for Using IB Chemistry Past Papers Productively Since each practice IB Chemistry exam will take you 3 hours for SL or 4.5 hours for HL, it's imperative that you get the most out of each test. Here are a few helpful practices to keep in mind when you're taking these papers: #1: Complete papers 1 and 2 in one sitting. The IB Chemistry SL and IB Chemistry HL papers are intense, forcing you to sit and concentrate for two hours for SL and 3 hours and 15 minutes for HL. You need to build up your mental strength so you don't make careless errors by the end of paper 2. By taking the practice tests in one session, you build up your mental strength in preparation for the real test. If you don't have time for a 2 hour or 3 hour 15 minute session, then you can take each paper on separate days. However, you need to obey the next rule: #2: Stick to the exact timing on each part of the exam. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you get used to the stressful timing of this test: IB Chemistry SL: IB Chemistry SL Paper 1- 45 minutes IB Chemistry SL Paper 2- 1 hour 15 minutes IB Chemistry SL Paper 3- 1 hour IB Chemistry HL: IB Chemistry HL Paper 1- 1 hour IB Chemistry HL Paper 2- 2 hours 15 minutes IB Chemistry HL Paper 3- 1 hour 15 minutes In this allotted time, you need to finish: IB Chemistry SL: Paper 1: 30 multiple-choice questions Paper 2: two parts, Section A: answer all of four short responses and Section B: pick one essay question (you choose between three options) Paper 3: Answer all of the questions for your two options: six short response questions that each can have between 2-5 parts IB Chemistry HL: Paper 1: 40 multiple-choice questions Paper 2: two parts, Section A: answer all of four short response questions that each can have between 3-10 parts and Section B: pick two essay questions (you choose between four options) Paper 3: Answer all of the questions for your two options: seven or more short response and essay questions (varies based on the options that you covered in your class) Do not practice with extra time- if you give yourself extra time, you can complete more questions and increase your score. We want to use these practice tests as realistic predictors of your exam score. #3: Check your answers. After you complete a practice exam, you need to review every error you made. Do not skip this step. If you do, you will not learn from your errors, and you will make the same ones on the IB Chemistry test. So make sure to spend at least 1.5 hours reviewing every full practice tests. This may seem like a lot of time, but emphasize quality of learning over quantity of learning. I'd rather see you take two tests with meticulous review than five tests with no review. What’s Next? Need help reviewing some chemistry concepts? Read up on how to balance chemical equations here. Learn more about IB Chemistry: The Complete IB Chemistry Syllabus: SL and HL The Best IB Chemistry Study Guide and Notes for SL/HL The Best IB Chemistry Books, Reviewed Looking for ways to apply your chemistry knowledge to your everyday life? 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The Station nightclub Fire Investigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Station nightclub Fire Investigation - Essay Example This paper covers The Station Nightclub fire, 9/11, and the Minneapolis bridge collapse. The recommendations presented in the final report of the disasters are then discussed, as well as how they relate to the overall point of the thesis. Then, two recommendations from the report are selected and related to the materials studied and learned in the course. Everyone desires for the country to be filled with safe buildings and a solid infrastructure. It is even natural for one to expect for a building to be safe to enter or for a bridge to be safe to cross. Most people do not even think twice about it when they are entering a structure or driving down the road—they just assume they are performing a safe activity and that the individuals responsible for constructing the structures they encounter have done their job in a safe and reliable manner. As one can tell from the following cases, however, this is not always a reality. As can be seen in the cases of The Station Nightclub, 9-11, and the Minneapolis bridge collapse—along with the recommendations from authorities following the disasters—the nation’s infrastructure is in bad need of repair. A fire occurred on the night of Feb. 20, 2003, in The Station nightclub at 211 Cowesett Avenue, West Warwick, Rhode Island. A band that was on the platform that night, during its performance, used pyrotechnics that ignited polyurethane foam insulation lining the walls and ceiling of the platform. The fire spread quickly along the walls and ceiling area over the dance floor. Smoke was visible in the exit doorways in a little more than one minute, and flames were observed breaking through a portion of the roof in less than five minutes. Egress from the nightclub, which was not equipped with sprinklers, was hampered by crowding at the main entrance to the building. One hundred people lost their lives in the fire. On Feb. 27, 2003, under the

Multinational Acquisition (MICROSOFT acquired NOKIA Essay

Multinational Acquisition (MICROSOFT acquired NOKIA - Essay Example With this concern, the essay intends to elaborate the acquisition strategy of Microsoft Corporation over Nokia Oyj. Microsoft recently underwent strategic acquisition of different brands of Nokia. The company opt for patent acquisition specifically of certain mobile phones that were traded by Nokia previously. Microsoft acquired patents of around 8500 designs that were previously traded by Nokia. However, Microsoft did not opt for replacing the existing brand name that Nokia is using for branding its products (Singh, 2014). Thus, the essay will analyse the different acquisition techniques followed by the organisation i.e. Microsoft when acquiring Nokia. The type of acquisition, which Microsoft underwent, is patent acquisition. In order to describe the acquisition, it can be inferred that the company acquired nearly 8500 patents of designing certain brands of Nokia. Patent is duly considered to be an intellectual property for the companies. The acquisition of the patent rights eventually provided Microsoft with an added advantage to develop an authority to deal with certain authorities. It is worth mentioning that with the recent development of different phones that designed by Apple and Samsung, the well-developed market of Nokia fell drastically. Furthermore, as the Android technology based smart phones took over the market and developed its leadership over Windows software, Microsoft even faced a massive downturn. The giants of their respective areas of operations faced severe backlogs and developed a huge turmoil during this convergence of the market. Thus, Microsoft went with strategic development of acquiring the 8500 design p atents of Nokia specifically in the field of smart phones (Ali-Yrkko et al., 2013). The acquisition that took place between the two companies was mostly based on the intellectual properties, which are owned by Nokia. Microsoft eventually acquired the business units that

Employee Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Employee Relations - Essay Example The Union disagreed with the Company’s decision to use a different criteria of determining eligibility for promotion and transfers instead of the one agreed upon during the collective bargaining agreement. The third grievance was about a discriminatory action by the company on its allocation of the parking lots. The union argued that the plant workers were allocated the farthest lots from the entrance. 2. What sections of the Wagner Act are in question here? Explain In all the three grievances touched a number of Wegner act sections particularly with regard to the regulation of collective bargain agreement engagements. For example, section 8(a) 3 of the act prohibits employees against discriminatory acts such as assigning them less desirable conditions as was witnessed in the allocation of parking slots in the company. The section also stipulates that matters of promotion or transfers should be solely based on seniority, merit and other criteria of determining eligibility sign ed in the collective bargaining agreement (Budd, 234). In this regard the second grievance will also be handled using section 2 of the act. ... In my opinion, all the three grievances of the union against the company were genuine. In the first grievance, I would rule that the company breached the contract by making changes in the time schedules prior to a mutual agreement. In the second grievance, the company also violated the collective bargaining agreement by using different criteria of eligibility in giving a temporary transfer to a Janitor instead of Mr. Burn who best suitable according to the provisions of the collective bargain agreement. Finally, allocating park workers the farthest car park slots was also discriminatory since it ensured that the workers spent more time between the parking lot and their working stations and this reduced the amount of their monthly bonus. Case 2__ Does the Duty to Bargain Preclude Unilateral Wage Increases? In the case study, Winn Dixie Stores Company effected unilateral changes in the wages of the workers arguing that there was no impasse during the negotiations (Budd, 260). On the ot her hand, the Union’s position of argument was that the Company violated the provisions of section 8(a) 5 and 8(a)1 of Wagner act which states that it is an unfair labor practice for employers to refuse to bargain collectively with the employee representatives when making changes to the wage rates and other terms of employment. Questions 1. You are an administrative law judge who has to decide on this case. Which party do you agree with and why? As an administrative law Judge presiding over the case, I would support the position of the employee Union that the company’s action amounted to unfair labor practice as stated in section 8 of the

Marketing Strategy Text and Cases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marketing Strategy Text and Cases - Essay Example The firm’s versatility and diversity in terms of leadership and management have increased and maintained its client base to over 60 million users daily. This has been achieved through a leadership style that is characterized by decentralization, free-thinking, and delegation of duties and responsibilities as a culture within the organization (Lowry, 2005). As a multimedia sports entertainment company ESPN has had tremendous headways into profitability by entering into a contract with the National Football League (NFL). This deal has seen ESPN’s TV channels gain a massive following for screening live NFL games to millions of Americans (Green, Costa & Fitzgerald, 2002). Targeting the youth in their strategies have seen the firm increase its viewership base and bolster the loyalty of its customers for years to come. To keep up with the competition, ESPN has increasingly been paying higher prices to lock up new major league baseball and pro football rights from their competitors like Comcast (Ferrell, 2012). Competition has had to spend more money to deliver the same quality of sports entertainment to its customers due to increased competition. This threatens the firm’s envisaged growth because current expenditure leaves little resources to be invested in new projects (Subramani, & Rajagopalan, 2003). ESPN charges the higher fee for its cable services compared to other companies, which has generated a lot of ill will towards the company. ESPN risks losing a lot if its phone project does not gain attention in the market, which will translate to the idea being a white elephant for the firm. Adopting cross-platform strategies including the social media will bolster the firm’s advertisement field and help it reach audiences (Churchill Jr, & Iacobucci, 2009).

John Dewey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

John Dewey - Essay Example The community as a whole, through formal laws and customs, codifies behavior that ultimately commits individuals to a specific course of action. Such predictable actions are required for community life. The schools function as socializing agencies, internalizing the child's recognition of social duties and the will to carry them out. Dewey insisted that social ties, like the parent-child relationship, are natural. The mutual responsibilities corresponding to these specific stations are therefore intrinsic and binding. By nurturing the social spirit of the child, an habitual disposition to act out of social service and for the common good will becomes manifest. Pursuit of self-advantage and infidelity to one's social responsibilities is a primary evil according to Dewey. Freedom and social responsibility are not incompatible. Social authority is natural and inevitable, not a necessary limitation on personal freedom. Throughout his writings, Dewey retained the Hegelian insight that man achieves human qualities and fulfillment by participating in the enhancement of community life. Individuals should identify the social good as their own true good by perceiving the values and common interests that bind people together. Their freedom and happiness ultimately depend upon it. Individuals should obey the la... However, in advocating policy changes, they must persuade others voluntarily. The burden of proof is upon them to demonstrate how a specific law or practice fails to serve the common good. Dewey's theory of democracy was designed to reconcile freedom with authority, social stability with the need for reform, and universal standards with specific circumstances. He substantively refined Lockean individualism, which is popularly associated with the modern liberal tradition. Dewey comprehensively applied these insights to the reform of education. Once again, many critics mistakenly identify him with the radical, subjectivist approach of progressive education. Dewey denounced the progressive educator's romantic fetish for the "natural child." The child-centered school provided no standards at all; logically it culminated in anarchy. Proper teacher authority and a well-structured curriculum were indispensable. Dewey argued that, "to fail to assure them guidance and direction is not merely a permit to operate in a blind and spasmodic fashion, but it promotes the formation of habits of immature, undeveloped, and egoistic activity." (Dewey, 1930) Indulging a child's selfish whims would lead to an arrest of growth and the disintegration of personality. The development of mental powers follows certain laws of growth. The fact that a child might desire something does not mean that it is in fact desirable. That judgment can be determined only after critical reflection. (Dewey, 1929) The glorification of the spontaneous and immediately enjoyable also stunted the child's capacity to understand contemporary social life. These students were not socially responsible or cognizant of the forces of industrial civilization. While

Marketing Strategy Text and Cases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marketing Strategy Text and Cases - Essay Example The firm’s versatility and diversity in terms of leadership and management have increased and maintained its client base to over 60 million users daily. This has been achieved through a leadership style that is characterized by decentralization, free-thinking, and delegation of duties and responsibilities as a culture within the organization (Lowry, 2005). As a multimedia sports entertainment company ESPN has had tremendous headways into profitability by entering into a contract with the National Football League (NFL). This deal has seen ESPN’s TV channels gain a massive following for screening live NFL games to millions of Americans (Green, Costa & Fitzgerald, 2002). Targeting the youth in their strategies have seen the firm increase its viewership base and bolster the loyalty of its customers for years to come. To keep up with the competition, ESPN has increasingly been paying higher prices to lock up new major league baseball and pro football rights from their competitors like Comcast (Ferrell, 2012). Competition has had to spend more money to deliver the same quality of sports entertainment to its customers due to increased competition. This threatens the firm’s envisaged growth because current expenditure leaves little resources to be invested in new projects (Subramani, & Rajagopalan, 2003). ESPN charges the higher fee for its cable services compared to other companies, which has generated a lot of ill will towards the company. ESPN risks losing a lot if its phone project does not gain attention in the market, which will translate to the idea being a white elephant for the firm. Adopting cross-platform strategies including the social media will bolster the firm’s advertisement field and help it reach audiences (Churchill Jr, & Iacobucci, 2009).

The Barnes Collection As A Cultural Jewel Of Extraordinary Nature Essay

The Barnes Collection As A Cultural Jewel Of Extraordinary Nature - Essay Example The Barnes Foundation was formed in Merion, PA as an educational facility by Barnes and John Dewey, an educational philosopher. However, unlike the majority of art collections, this was neither a public museum nor a private museum and was primarily used to teach adult and youth students. While the foundation allowed public visitors at least twice a week, these were treated as second-class citizens in comparison to students. Barnes’ vision for the entire collection was contained in his will, which stated that the art could not be loaned, reproduced, sold, or traveled and that the school was to continue (Kennicott 1). However, leaders in Philadelphia clamored for the collection to be made more accessible by moving it to the city, which was finally achieved by Pew Charitable Trusts, Annenberg Foundation, and Lenfest Foundation. The documentary identifies various ways in which Barnes’ will have been subverted, as well as the development of a highly public and new home for Barnes’ collection, which the film states Barnes sought to avoid and despised. In successfully challenging the will of Mr. Barnes and its original intent, Pew Charitable Trusts, Annenberg Foundation, and Lenfest Foundation used two basic arguments. First, they argued that the Barnes Foundation was financially struggling and that a move to a venue that was more accessible in Philadelphia would help in dramatically increasing attendance, bolstering the Foundation’s finances (Steinberg 1). Secondly, they also argued that the collection was an incredible artifact of culture that should be accessed by more people. In this case, they posited that demand exceeded availability in Merion for public hours, as well as the fact that demand was a valid concern for the public that the foundations found necessary to address (Steinberg 1). However, these arguments do not stand under close scrutiny as will be seen.

The Holeâ€A look into the prisons within the prisons Essay Example for Free

The Hole—A look into the prisons within the prisons Essay In the United States today at least 80,000 prisoners are being held in some sort of isolation unit, commonly called solitary confinement. Prisoners in solitary are isolated in a 6X8 foot concrete room for 23 hours a day. This is how the United States government chooses to regulate the prisons, by locking prisoners in this cell for weeks, months or even years on end. Most prisoners are allowed 1 hour a day for â€Å"recreation† where they are allowed to go outside, alone, in a fenced area about the size of their cell. It is a dirty, cold, concrete room with only a metal slot in the door that they receive meals through. The room contains a bed, shower, and toilet, as well as a very small amount of personal items. They receive no educational classes, rehabilitative programs or other transitional services to help them prepare for their return to society, even when they are going to be released soon. They have absolutely no structure to their day. Since I was a child I have always been interested in the Criminal Justice System. I have long hoped to become a prosecutor and have always been curious about prisons and criminals. My original curiosity with solitary confinement specifically came from a Law and Order episode I saw. The main detective asked to be put in solitary confinement for a weekend to prove that the criminal’s defense was fake (the criminal was claiming he pushed the detective off the roof because of the psychological suffering he endured in solitary confinement). Throughout the episode I watched, as the detective slowly started hallucinating and got very anxious and angry. I assumed that the show was exaggerating for entertainment value however I wanted to find out whether that was true. Throughout my research process I have found that the symptoms the detective displayed are the same symptoms that thousands of real prisoners have. Through out my quest to learn more about the practice of Solitary confinement, my opinion has changed dramatically. At the beginning of this project I thought of this topic the same way I think about almost everything else, very black and white. I had little sympathy for prisoners, even those held in solitary confinement. I didn’t think of it as torture and didn’t understand what the problem was. Throughout my research my opinion has started becoming grayer, creating an internal tension for me between two conflicting views. I have a strong held belief that prisons provide justice and safety. I hope to become a prosecutor to execute law and order. However, I have become conflicted throughout this assignment because I have found that this way of punishment has been clearly shown to be immoral and inhuman. For my â€Å"site visit† I visited the Valhalla county jail. I was struck by the number of wives, parents, teenagers and young children who were there to visit loved ones. I listened in on defense attorney KL’s conversations with two of his clients and was shocked to find that I really did feel that one of them was being charged too harshly. I am of course not defending what the prisoners did, and many of them deserve to be locked up, but the thought these people are treated so inhumanly, I feel disgraces our country and what it stands for. America, which supposedly stands for freedom, justice and the pursuit of happiness, locks up thousands and thousands of men, women, and teenagers sometimes as young as 14, in a cage. How could America, the land of freedom and opportunity, take part in such an appalling practice? Most of us wouldn’t treat our dogs the way the prisons treat the criminals, especially those in solitary confinement. Solitary Confinement was first used in the Auburn state prison during a two-year experiment in 1821, during which scientists observed people in extreme isolation. They housed a group of prisoners in individual cells â€Å"without any labor or other adequate provisions for physical exercise.† Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont reported, â€Å"This trial, from which a happy result had been anticipated, was fatal to the greater part of the convicts: in order to reform them, they had been submitted to complete isolation; but this absolute solitude, if nothing interrupt it, is beyond the strength of man; it destroys the criminal without intermission and without pity; it does not reform, it kills. The unfortunates, upon whom this experiment was made, fell into a state of depression, so manifest, that their keepers were struck with it; their lives seemed in danger, if they remained longer in this situation.† This experiment was done almost two hundred years ago and although the results were horrendous, solitary is still used today. It is sometimes necessary however. According to solitarywatch.com, Solitary confinement is used for three main reasons: protection, punishment and rehabilitation. Through out my research I have found very little data to suggest solitary confinement is the least bit rehabilitative, so I have come to the conclusion that it is really only used for punishment and as a protective measure. Certain inmates such as former police officers and child molesters are more likely to be attacked by other inmates while in prison and are therefore put there for their own protection. Solitary confinement is also used as a way to regulate the prisons. When a prisoner gets into a fight with another inmate or violates a prison rule, they are put in solitary confinement, or what the guards call, â€Å"the bing†, as punishment. It is called â€Å"the bing† because many of the prisoners start going crazy when placed in solitary confinement. Some common side affects are: hallucinations, hypersensitivity to noise and touch, insomnia, paranoia, feelings of rage and fear, distortions of time and perception, depression, anxiety, PTSD and an increased risk of suicide. When these side affects occur, the prisoners often start screaming and become very incoherent and manic. In 2009, Robert Foor, an Illinois inmate with mental illness, was placed in isolation and â€Å"became more mentally ill, mutilating himself by cutting and biting, and [attempted] to hang himself.† He ultimately died in solitary confinement at Tamms Correctional Center. Another Tamms inmate whose mental health had been notably declining, faced increasing isolation and longer sentences, due to incidents of throwing feces and urine at guards. One study even found that the people held in solitary developed were more likely to become psychopaths than those in the general population (28% vs. 15%). â€Å"The isolation unit at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois has been described as consisting of â€Å"gray walls, a solid steel door, no window, no clock, and a light that was kept on twenty-four hours a day.† Living in those kinds of conditions, it’s hard to imagine someone not going crazy. Another comparison I made to my own life was that I realized that when I spend even 5 hours in my room alone, I become anxious and sometimes depressed. My room is clean, not made of concrete and has a bed, light, desk, laptop and phone. Although I choose to keep my door closed I could come out at any time I want, I just choose not to. If I become anxious and depressed after only several hours alone in a small room, with conditions much nicer then the solitary cells, then I can’t even begin to imagine how the prisoners in solitary feel. Furthermore, I have found that solitary confinement is not only harmful for the prisoners, but for our society as a whole. It is detrimental for our society for two main reasons. The first is that it is much harder for prisoners who spend a prolonged period in solitary confinement to reintegrate into society. Many of the prisoners suffer from PTSD and other mental conditions because they have very limited human contact for months or even years. This makes it dangerous for them to then be released into the general population, especially when they have very little guidance before being released or after. Many prisoners are released directly into society from solitary confinement. Research done by the human rights watch, show that prisoners in solitary have a much higher rate of re-incarceration because of their anger and depression. With little education, classes or skill training, it is difficult for them to become productive members of society. They are unable to get jobs because of their limited skills and because of their arrest record. People are judgmental; very few people want former criminals working for them. I have found that many people don’t realize that people make mistakes and go to jail only to suffer, probably more then than the suffer they once caused. Prisoners are beaten, raped, and isolated, causing severe physical and psychological damage. Another disadvantage for the society as whole is that housing prisoners in solitary confinement cost approximately three times as much as it does to house a prisoner in the general prison population. According to a news article published by the Daily News, it costs American taxpayers $75,000 per inmate in solitary confinement per year as opposed to $25,000 dollars per inmate in the general population per year. It also came to my attention that solitary confinement has long been called a â€Å"human rights violation†. America is violating the Geneva Convention by putting people in solitary confinement. The psychological harm that the prisoners undergo in solitary is considered torture. Sister Marion Defeis who worked as a Chaplain for 23 years at Rikers Island wrote, â€Å"When I would make visits, walking cell by cell, I was overwhelmed by the lethargy and depression of the inmates. That’s not how our system is supposed to work. We have prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.† While this is true, no alternative to solitary has so far been put to action. I conducted a phone interview with Marion Defeis who was explaining her work at Rikers as well as her current work at a non-profit organization in Brooklyn for single mothers previously incarcerated. The alternative she proposed was that when there is an altercation in the prison the prisoner should be separated to a different area and should receive psychological help to try to improve their mental state, instead of locking them up which will ultimately worsen the situation. She also felt that the punishments that the prisons use do not always fit the crime committed. The chart below shows how many isolation sentences there were because of different violations. During an interview with Mr. L he explained that a lot of times when there is an altercation it is the victim of the abuse that is put in solitary confinement. Although it is for their own protection, he feels that it is unjust for the victim to have a worse penalty when it was the offenders that committed the violation. A lot of times minors are also put there to protect them from the adult prisoners which he felt was unfair that they should get a worse penalty just because they were younger and therefore more vulnerable. These two instances both dramatically changed my views on solitary confinement and made me more sympathetic to what the prisoners held in solitary go through. Although Mr. Lawrence did feel solitary confinement is overused, he did clearly find it necessary in some situations. This was surprising because as a defense attorney I expected him to be very against it. Another essential moment throughout my research process was during my conversation with former prosecutor Mrs. Levine. She really only dealt with solitary as a protective measure, when there was a witness that was going to be put in jail with the person they were testifying against, they would need to be separated to insure they would not be injured or killed in jail. She explained that when she was going through the training to become a prosecutor she had to visit a solitary cell. She told me that she would really have to feel that she was in serious danger to be willing to be put in those kinds of horrible conditions. One researcher who took part in a report conducted by the New York Civil liberties union stated, â€Å"It doesn’t take half a brain to realize we’re not going to get a good product out of this.† This was a very powerful quote for me that landmarked a shift in my thinking. When a single researcher can so clearly see the affects of solitary confinement after only one study, how can the rest of the country not see the detrimental affects after all the research collected? Not only are thousands of people held in solitary confinement, but so many different kinds of people are put in solitary as well. Prisoners as young as 14 years old to as old as 70, men and women, whites, blacks and Hispanics as well as a lot of times, the mentally ill. According to the American Friends service committee, â€Å"An independent investigation from 2006 reported that as many as 64 percent of prisoners in SHUs were mentally ill, a much higher percentage than is reported by states for their general prison populations.† Frequently, mentally ill prisoners who are placed in the general prison population commit crimes and are put in solitary, which only exacerbates the problem. Once their punishment is over they are put back into the general prison population but at that point they have even more severe mental problems and once again end up in solitary. Furthermore, it has been reported that a disproportionate number of black people are in jail or in solitary compared to the NYS population. This is represented in the chart below. For the community service portion of this project I volunteered at the Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry NY with boys ages 8-12, many of whom have parents currently detained. I spoke with several staff members who explained that incarceration is an everlasting cycle. The staff works hard to break this cycle by helping to teach the boys necessary skills to succeed in life. It was shocking to me to realize that jail and solitary confinement would ever relate so directly to my life. When I found out that many of the parents of these children who I have been tutoring for the last three years are in jail, I thought differently of the children. I became more sympathetic and understanding of what they have lived through and realized that they weren’t just out of control kids who didn’t feel like learning their multiplication table. Their parents were living in cages. That’s why they were so angry and depressed and refused to learn. It also discovered that just 10 minutes away from my house was a maximum-security prison called the Bedford Correctional Facility. Not only are their hundreds of women housed there, but about 25 of them are held in solitary confinement. Their children come to visit them with their foster parents and have to kiss their mothers through glass. My struggle throughout this assignment has been withholding judgment about the topic. If I were not required to keep an open mind, this would have been a very different process. There is still much to be learned about the practice of solitary confinement. I have now recognized how harmful solitary confinement is to the prisoners, country and society as a whole, however it is hard to put an end to solitary confinement without coming up with an alternative solution. This project has also made me wonder why they call prisons â€Å"correctional facilities†. I have found no evidence to show that these â€Å"facilities† help â€Å"correct† anything. Sister Marion Defeis’s alternative is certainly a possibility, however it would require a lot of time, effort and certainly money that I am not sure society would be willing to pay for people who have been found to have committed such horrific offenses.

Contemporary Styles of Preaching

Contemporary Styles of Preaching Chapter Five Impact, event, and context in contemporary preaching 5.1 Mapping the commonalities. The diversity of the trends identified in the earlier review (sections 2.4 to 2.8) presents a particular challenge to the analysis of justifiable generalizations about homiletic theory and practice in the last half-century. As Edwards observes, there seem to be more forms of preaching today than in all previous Christian centuries put together (2004: 835). Furthermore, Edwards judges that preachers during the late-twentieth century tried to accomplish a greater variety of things through their sermons than any of their predecessors attempted (2004: 663). Allen, Blaisdell and Johnston similarly describe the current homiletical scene as a smorgasboard of approaches and cite no less than eleven identifiable contemporary styles of preaching (1997: 171). According to Edwards two developments account for this diversity: namely, the sheer number of people who designate themselves as Christians (in the 20th century Christianity became the most extensive and universal religion in history (Barratt, 2001: 3)), and the huge proliferation of organizational bodies within which preachers are operative (2004: 835). The work of the statisticians Barratt, Kurian and Johnson supports Edwards judgement; in their World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) they estimate that in the year 2000 Christians of all kinds numbered 2 billion people in 33,820 distinct denominations (2001: 10). They observe that there are today Christians and organized Christian churches in every inhabited country on earth (2001: 3). The impact of this globalization is significant even in the much narrower geographical confines of this thesis, and it is inconceivable that an accurate appraisal of preaching practice and theory could be made apart from a ready acknowledgement of the fo rces and influences that are properly termed global. The indicators of institutional decline apparent in the churches of the Western world have to be set against rapid and continuing growth in other parts of the globe. This shift of numerical strength inevitably has consequences for preaching as for other aspects of church practice and faith. The presence in the UK of Christian personnel from the southern parts of the world, increased congregation to congregation contact made possible by cheap air travel, and the development of Internet usage, all offer new understandings and strategies from elsewhere in the global church in ways much more directly influential than even in the immediate past. The practice of preaching, like most other human endeavours in the early twenty-first century, takes place within a pluriform social environment in which many and diverse influences from the widest possible arenas of human activity have a bearing. That said, preaching, in social terms, remains predominantly a locally-focused activity, and sermon style and content are usually closely related to the specifics of the sub-cultural frames in which the life and self-understanding of the congregation is set. Consequently, the power of the local context is another factor underlying Edwards observation of the immense diversity of contemporary sermon styles. As Edwards puts it, such diversity shows how radically ad hoc all Christian preaching is (2004: 835). That is not to say, however, that such enormous diversity denies the possibility of any sensible generalization. In particular, as was suggested in the earlier review, three aspects are identifiable within contemporary preaching practices that have particular significance for collective memory-namely, awareness of a sermons psychological engagement, communicative salience and contextual pertinence. In other words, those aspects of preaching that deal with a sermons impact on the hearer; its purposefulness as an event in its own terms; and its relationship to the context in which it is delivered and heard. In order to establish an analytical framework that is not too unwieldy three texts that are in some sense representative documents will be analysed closely. Other texts that develop, challenge, or amplify the issues disclosed will be added to the discussion as the argument requires. The representative texts have been selected as indicative of three prominent strands in the ongoing discussion of homiletic practice: firstly, continuity in terms of issues of concern and of practice methodology; secondly, change in practice and the philosophical and technical components that undergird it; and thirdly, reorientation that aims to subtly change the locus of practice itself. The first text will utilize a perspective from prior to the 1955 to 2005 period under review that still has currency, albeit in terms significantly altered from earlier years. The second will analyse a perspective of more recent origin that signifies contemporary concerns with philosophy and communications theory and the technical practice that flows from them. And the third will examine a perspective that sees the local context of preaching as fundamental to homiletic activity rather than just the arena in which it takes place. The first text is Phillips Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures of 1877, last reissued in book form as recently as 1987, and described by Killinger as one of the most readable and inspiring volumes on preaching ever penned (1985: 207). The version used here will be the 1904 edition, published in London under the title Lectures on Preaching. No attempt will be made to alter the gender specificity of Brooks words since, although this study readily acknowledges that the preaching task belongs as much to women as to men, the assumptions of his text in this area are a clear marker of changes that have taken place even under the cover of longstanding common concerns. David Buttricks 1987 book Homiletic: Moves and Structures is the second focus. At more than 500 pages, this is a monumental work in size, as well as scope and influence. Edwards (2004: 806) describes Buttricks work as being as influential and significant as Fred Craddocks pioneering of the New Homiletic, and Lischer (2002: 337) credits him with the first homiletic in theory and practice geared to our [present day] culture of images. The final representative text is Leonora Tisdales 1997 work Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art, which asks preachers to become ethnographers of their congregations in order to understand the human nature of their hearers from the inside as it were. Tisdale is one of a new movement of homiletic practitioners and theoreticians at home with anthropological and sociological models in Christian ministry and alert to cultural-linguistic issues. Her work provides a way into the insights of those who acknowledge that preachings former authority has all but evaporated, but who see a radical social re-encounter as being a real possibility for a reshaped sermon practice. 5.2 Continuities of concerns and practice: Brooks and contemporary preaching. As was noted earlier (Section 2.5), Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures remained much used as a guide to homiletic practice well into the period under review. Indeed such has been the influence of his insistence on preaching as the bringing of truth through personality (1904: 5) that Brooks expression continues to be repeated in exactly the same terms in contemporary works, such as those of Day (1998: 6) and Killinger (1985: 8). In dwelling on the preachers personality Brooks managed to encapsulate what, in the 1870s, was a new and burgeoning interest in the human psyche. It was hardly coincidence that his lectures were delivered in the same decade in which William James became Americas first professorial-level teacher of psychology (Harvard in 1875) and G. Stanley Hall the countrys first PhD in psychology. Unwittingly no doubt, Brooks reflected on novel intellectual ideas of his own day and, in doing so, identified within preaching practice what was to become a major preoccupation in many areas of discourse in the twentieth-century: namely, the human psyche and its relationship to action and truth. It is pertinent, therefore, to examine what Brooks understood by personality and its relationship to Christian truth in order to appreciate how his ideas were developed by homiletic practitioners in the period under review. What might appropriately be termed personalist (i.e. an emphasis in preaching on the personal religious experience of the hearer somehow addressed very directly by the preacher) has been, and continues to be, a major component in sermon delivery and design. Brooks concept of preaching as truth through personality became a kind of slogan for many preachers in the twentieth-century, and indeed remains a very influential mantra for many practitioners to this day. In Brooks lectures that sloganized thought had a rather more nuanced definition: Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative statement of Gods, communicated in any other way than through the personality of brother man to men is not preached truth. Suppose it written on the sky, suppose it embodied in a book which has been so long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of it; in neither of these cases is there any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. (1904: 5) For Brooks, the two components of truth and personality had to stand together, since their meeting was the point at which the universal and the particular met. It would be an exaggeration to say that Brooks viewed religious truth as essentially something that can only be known in personal experience; but he did believe that truth was at its most effective and powerful when known and expressed in personal terms. He understood the truth of the Christian faith to be universal and invariable, with personality as the site where it was realized through variable and particular understanding and appropriation (1904: 15). Thus although he was clear gospel truth was a message to be transmitted, he insisted that it could only be transmitted via the voice of a witness, i.e. someone for whom it had become an indispensable part of that persons own experience (14). In terms of memory maintenance, Brooks approach assumes that the preacher is deeply cognizant of the Christian tradition and is, as it were, a bearer of it in his or her own person. 5.2.1 The personal characteristics of the preacher. Being such a bearer of the tradition required of the preacher exacting personal characteristics. The rigour Brooks brought to the personal qualities required of the preaching witness continues to be challenging reading for anyone pursuing such a role. Alongside a deep personal piety (1904: 38), Brooks listed mental and spiritual unselfishness (39), hopefulness as against judgmental fear (40), a vigorous commitment to physical health along with the offering of the whole of life in ministerial service (40), and an enthusiasm that made for a keen joy in preaching (42). Brooks saw the task of preaching as always needing an essential grounding in the very personhood of the preacher, by which he meant truth communicated through personality in an absolutely literal sense. The second of his Lyman Beecher Lectures, entitled The Preacher Himself, amplified the point in this enumeration of the qualities necessary for success in preaching: purity and uprightness of character; lack of self-consciousness founded on absolute trust in God; genuine respect for those preached to; thorough enjoyment of the task; gravity of intent in all things; and courage to speak out (1904: 49-60). At first sight the list appears remote from more recent homiletic theorys concern with techniques and philosophical issues, and therefore it might appear as less accessible and relevant to practitioners since the 1950s watershed in preaching identified earlier. Such personal qualities can seem to be more easily related to an era when the person of the preacher was regarded as carrying more authority than nowadays. Although in terms of wider social recognition the preacher is no longer a star of oratory, similar attributes are still sought after-but for rather different reasons. Killinger (1985), for example, stresses the importance of the physical and mental health of the preacher as an aspect of communication, since troubles in those areas are signalled subconsciously to an audience and work towards undermining the intended message. He writes: Suppose we are preaching about wholeness and reconciliation but actually conveying a message about fragmentedness and despondency. The words may sound right, but there is something about the tune, about the look in our eyes, about the tension in our faces, that counters what we are saying. At best, people get a double message. It is very important, therefore, for the preacher to be as healthy and joyous as possible. Anything less impedes his or her message about the life-giving community of God. We are working at our preaching, for this reason, even when we are taking care of ourselves. (1985: 198-199) Although the point is expressed in the idiom of late twentieth-century communications theory the reasoning is clearly akin to that of Brooks. For both, emphasis on the physicality of the preacher is an aspect of how the message will be received in the light of how the hearers perceptions of the speaker. The body of the preacher, as well as his or her mental and spiritual capabilities, is, in this sense, a tool in the preaching witness. Contemporary women homileticians have also emphasized physicality; but from a perspective that radicalizes it by making the woman preachers bodily experience a site of homiletic resource. In Walton and Durber (1994), the negative, indeed destructive, consequences of a profound prejudice in the Christian tradition against womens bodies are highlighted. They note that in the light of this shameful history and despite occasional counter-tradition movements, the advent of more widespread preaching by women with the rise of Nonconformity did not generally challenge the unembodied nature of homiletic practice. Until the rise of the Womens Movement, women preachers, like their male counterparts, stressed a common rationality and a universal human nature that was blind to the particularities of embodied experience (Walton and Durber, 1994: 2). In more recent years, however, some women homileticians have striven to speak from their bodily experience and utilize both the negative and positive aspects of femininity, conception, pregnancy, birth, health and nurture in their theology of preaching (for example, Ward, Wild and Morley, (1995); Gjerding and Kinnamon, (1984); Riley, (1985); By Our Lives, (1985); Maitland, (1995); and Marva Dawn in Graves, (2004)). According to Walton and Durber, such efforts are part of a new emphasis that is fuelling developments across the whole spectrum of theological enquiry. They write: Sexuality and suffering are still rarely named within a Christian tradition that prefers to speak of the spirit rather than the body, light rather than darkness and a God who creates life but bears no responsibility for pain and dying. Women who have begun to preach from their bodies are not merely redressing an existing imbalance and enriching the storehouse of Christian metaphors and symbols but are also provoking new theological debates close to the very heart of the faith. (1994: 4) This emphasis on the body as a resource for preaching content rather than solely the necessary vehicle of delivery as it were, certainly takes Brooks focus on personhood further than he could possibly have imagined. That said, even here there is a certain congruence between what Brooks said and these very contemporary concerns. He did, after all, insist that the needs and preoccupations of no one sex or age should monopolize the life of the congregation, and that ministrations to it must be full at once of vigour and of tenderness, the fathers and the mothers touch at once (1904: 207). Brooks could not have possibly foreseen the Womens Movement and its repercussions for preaching, but his unease with a domineering and authoritarian style in the pulpit-mediated through his lasting influence-at least readied some preachers for a message that needed to be heard. The physical and personal qualities of the practitioner described neither in terms of communication theory nor embodied theology, but in ways even more reminiscent of Brooks own characterization of the preacher, have reasserted themselves through organization theory and the study of leadership. As the authority of the church, in terms of rules and obligations, has ebbed away, and the legitimacy of power based on tradition more and more questioned, it is perhaps the case that authority based on exemplary character has increased in relative importance. Certainly in the world of commerce and business the significance of the personal qualities of leaders and managers has been extensively theorized and debated. In the use of terms such as sapiential authority and referent power, organization theorists have pointed up the crucial importance of a personal knowledge and skill that readily communicates itself to others, and a personality-based ability to influence by attracting loyalty (Rees and Porter, 2001: 82). Other theorists, e.g. Charles Handy, talk in terms of the invisible but felt pull that is described as magnetism (1985: 135). Handy writes: Aspects of magnetism, the unseen drawing-power of one individual, are found all the time. Trust, respect, charm, infectious enthusiasm, these attributes all allow us to influence people without apparently imposing on them. The invisibility of magnetism is a major attraction as is its attachment to one individual. (1985: 136) Brooks himself used the very term magnetism and described it as: the quality that kindles at the sight of men, that feels a keen joy at the meeting of truth and the human mind, and recognizes how God made them for each other. It is the power by which a man loses himself and becomes but the sympathetic atmosphere between the truth on one side of him and the man on the other side of him. (1904: 42) Excluding the gender specificity, Handy might have written in very similar terms. (Comparable thoughts, although using other nomenclature, can also be found, for example in Schein, 1992: 229; Zohar and Marshall, 2000: 259; and Nelson, 1999: 76). The significance of the personal charisma of the preacher is, perhaps, in the process of rehabilitation via business practices that readily recognize the importance of personal as well as systemic qualities in the effective functioning of organizations. With the support of such an appreciation, a contemporary homiletician, such as Day, can assert, without risking suspicion and disapprobation, that the hope of the sermon lies in the authenticity of the preacher (1998: 147). As regards the maintenance of tradition as collective memory, the resurgence of individualized authority raises the question whether organizational structures within the churches are strong enough to prevent intentional or unintentional abuse of that corporate memory bearin g responsibility. 5.2.2 The preacher as learner and as pastor. Before leaving issues associated with personhood, two of Brooks themes regarding the preachers actions are worth considering since, again, they are things that continue to be widely discussed in the literature; namely, the preacher as learner and the preacher as pastor. After considering the dangers to the preachers personality of self-conceit, over-concern with failure, self-indulgence, and narrowness, Brooks brings his second lecture to a close with a vigorous plea for what would now be called lifelong learning. He writes: In [Christian ministry] he who is faithful must go on learning more and more for ever. His growth in learning is all bound up with his growth in character. Nowhere else do the moral and intellectual so sympathize, and lose or gain together. The minister must grow. His true growth is not necessarily a change of views. It is a change of view. It is not revolution. It is progress. It is a continual climbing which opens continually wider prospects. It repeats the experience of Christs disciples, of whom their Lord was always making larger men and then giving them larger truth of which their enlarged natures had become capable. (1904: 70) What Brooks discerned as an essential component of the preachers disposition has nowadays been widened to embrace all who claim to be faithful believers. Discipleship as lifelong learning is a concept in wide contemporary currency in the churches, and is discussed, for example, in documents such as the published strategies of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church for training, detailed in the reports Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church (2003) and Shaping the Future: New patterns of training for lay and ordained (2006). The notion of Christian leaders needing to be exemplars in this ongoing commitment to learning and personal growth figures in much of the literature on congregations and pastoral ministry, such as Mead (1994), Baumohl (1984), Hawkins (1997), and Anderson (1997); albeit these and numerous other authors, make it plain that the goal of such action is the enhancement of learning in the whole church. In the preaching literatu re, allied perspectives are expressed in such concepts as local theology (Tisdale, 1997), conversational preaching (Rose, 1997), listening to or with sermon preparation (Van Harn, 2005), embodying the scriptures communally (Davis and Hays, 2003), and interactive preaching (Hunter, 2004). Through these and other mechanisms, Brooks call for continuous learning on the part of the preacher finds its contemporary expression in practices that aim to widen that learning to include the whole body of people who are party to the sermon and the preachers and their own wider ministry. As Anderson puts it, every act of ministry teaches something about God (1997: 8). That is a sentiment to which Brooks would have been sympathetic given his emphasis on the absolute core of preaching as the widest of concern for souls. Learning, in collective memory theory, is often associated with the changing of the meanings and understandings of memories, and the processes by which traditions are appropriated by individuals. As aspects of learning clearly related to relationships they echo contemporary concern in the church about whole body learning. In Brooks description of the preacher as pastor this analysis reaches very familiar territory, in that such a description probably remains the pre-eminent designation of the homiletician within the churches. Brooks thought on this matter was absolutely unequivocal: The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty. Never be content to let men truthfully say of you, He is a preacher, but no pastor; or, He is a pastor, but no preacher. Be both; for you cannot really be one unless you also are the other. (1904: 77) The conviction remains no less powerful more than a century after Brooks lectures: for example, Eric Devenport writing in 1986 could assert, without fear that his opinion would be controversial: Preaching and pastoral work go hand in hand. This is one of those truths that has to be proclaimed time after time, for unless it is heard, then most preaching will not only be dull but dead. (in Hunter, 2004: 145) Clearly, at different times and in different church structures, the nature of pastoral practice has been viewed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it has been mutual support in discipleship, and at other times psychotherapeutic intervention. In some circumstances it has been ad hoc care and conversation, and in others programmatic structures of community creation. Amongst these and many other activities, those who would preach have frequently seen such pastoral practice as a fundamental adjunct to the homiletic task. Although the influence of the problem centred preaching method of Henry Emerson Fosdick, mentioned above (section 2.5), has waned in recent decades, the notion that preaching must somehow relate to the felt life-concerns of those in the congregation is still the key to good practice for many preachers. Whether the emphasis is Tisdales (1997) preacher as the caretaker of local theology, Willimons (1979) or Longs (1989) straightforward emphasis on the role of pastor, Pasquare llos (2005) preaching as the development of communal wisdom, Buechners (1977) telling the truth in love, or Van Harns (2005) insistence on listening in preaching, the overarching perspective is that of pastoral care to individuals and groups. The tradition as collective memory must, in these circumstances, serve pastoral needs. Here the link to the presentist character of collective memory appears strong. 5.2.3 Preachings first purpose and the style appropriate to it. Returning to the issue of preaching as art. From Brooks paramount concern with personhood and themes that flow from it, this discussion now turns to two other aspects of his lectures that remain significant concerns in homiletic literature: style of language, and preachings first purpose. In his emphasis on preaching as witness, Brooks made a distinction that continues to figure prominently in homiletic texts to this day: namely, the difference between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ (1904: 20). Preachers, Brooks insisted, should announce Christianity as a message and proclaim Christ as a Saviour not-discuss Christianity as a problem (1904: 21). He asserted: Definers and defenders of the faith are always needed, but it is bad for a church when its ministers count it their true work to define and defend the faith rather than to preach the Gospel. Beware of the tendency to preach about Christianity, and try to preach Christ. (1904: 21) This distinction continues to be vigorously promoted, particularly amongst the New Homiletic advocates of an inductive sermon methodology. From the distinction there comes an emphasis in sermonic style on a demonstrably engaging, emotionally affective, and inclusivist presentation, rather than a detached, analytical or objective stance. Brooks would have undoubtedly concurred with David Bartletts worries about sermon style that appears to make sin more interesting than grace, and evil more lively than goodness (in Graves, 2004: 25). Bartlett suggests that sermons too often misdirect their hearers by putting active or abstract language and thoughts in the wrong places. He writes, For the most part we show evil and then tell about goodness. We show judgment and then talk about the doctrine of mercy (in Graves, 2004: 25). Yet again, Brooks lectures were extraordinary prescient of a concern that has become commonplace these many years later. Likewise, Brooks conviction that a sermon is essentially a tool and not an end in itself is also a perspective that continues to be vigorously debated (Brooks, 1904: 110). Unlike Browne (1958), Brooks was insistent that preaching is not an art form. He wrote: The definition and immediate purpose which a sermon has set before it makes it impossible to consider it as a work of art, and every attempt to consider it so works injury to the purpose for which the sermon was created. Many of the ineffective sermons that are made owe their failure to a blind and fruitless effort to produce something which shall be a work of art, conforming to some type or pattern which is not clearly understood but is supposed to be essential and eternal. (1904: 109) In many ways, Brownes advocacy of the sermon as art-form (1958: 76) was a reaction to those who had taken Brooks evident pragmatism and utilitarianism as regards technique and turned it into a bald instructionalism that claimed too much for itself and was simply tedious. That was not Brooks intention, however, as his aim was an absolute focus on the tumultuous eagerness of earnest purpose (1904: 110). His overriding concern was that sermons should engage and communicate in such a way as to affect and mark personalities at their most profound level. As such, his understanding of the nature of sermonic engagement serves the purposes of collective memory. His objection to preaching as an art-form was the tendency he saw for art to be an end in itself-over concerned with pure forms and the abstractions of principles (see, for example, pages 110 and 267 of the 1904 edition). These many years later, art operates, and is applied within immensely diverse environments wholly unknown when Brooks lectured: so his criticism is, perhaps, no longer apposite. On the other hand, how far and in what ways artistic expression relates to and uses tradition is a question rather more vexed now than in Brooks day. The one aspect of artistic endeavour Brooks was willing to concede was art in the sense of an awesome appreciation of the mysteriousness of life. This was something Brooks regarded as an essential component of the preachers outlook, and was the reason for his advocacy of the preacher as, at least in some measure, a poet (1904: 262). Preaching as art form brings to the forefront of homiletic awareness the sermons place in the imaginative construal of engaging gospel alternatives to commonplace understandings and outlooks. Collective memory theory suggests that affiliation to group identity is an essential element in the continuity of memory. What the emphasis on preaching as art form does is alert the preacher to the need to create in preaching that sense of engagement, creativity and exploration that aims beyond utilitarian instruction. Here, preaching is seen as genuinely performative. Like the repeated performances of a classic drama, a sermon hearer can become intensively engaged again and again with material that, although familiar, becomes in the engagement surprisingly new. Likewise the preacher as performer or artist, works with familiar texts in order to render then creatively new in a sermon. From both sides of the sermon event collective memory is supported via the performative interaction. The discussion of art related issues in contemporary homiletic literature largely supports this assessment. Morris, in his Raising the Dead: The Art of the preacher as Public Performer, makes performance the guiding principle of all homiletics and insists that preaching should delight and enrich in ways similar to other mediums (1996: 19). Gilmore, in his Preaching as Theatre (1996) shares the same concern with performance, and designates preaching as a dramatic event that happens. He writes: As long as preaching is seen as lecturing or teaching, then, in order for it to be effective, listeners have to go away and do something about it. If it is art, they dont. By the time it is over something has happened, or has failed to happen. This is what makes preaching as an art distinctive, more exciting and satisfying when it works, more depressing and worrying when it doesnt. (1996: 7) Other homileticians are a little more reserved and tend to use the idea of art or artistic endeavour as but one tool the preacher can employ. For example, in Allen (1998), the appreciation of works of art and artistic frames for sermons are advocated as ways to create spheres of perception i Contemporary Styles of Preaching Contemporary Styles of Preaching Chapter Five Impact, event, and context in contemporary preaching 5.1 Mapping the commonalities. The diversity of the trends identified in the earlier review (sections 2.4 to 2.8) presents a particular challenge to the analysis of justifiable generalizations about homiletic theory and practice in the last half-century. As Edwards observes, there seem to be more forms of preaching today than in all previous Christian centuries put together (2004: 835). Furthermore, Edwards judges that preachers during the late-twentieth century tried to accomplish a greater variety of things through their sermons than any of their predecessors attempted (2004: 663). Allen, Blaisdell and Johnston similarly describe the current homiletical scene as a smorgasboard of approaches and cite no less than eleven identifiable contemporary styles of preaching (1997: 171). According to Edwards two developments account for this diversity: namely, the sheer number of people who designate themselves as Christians (in the 20th century Christianity became the most extensive and universal religion in history (Barratt, 2001: 3)), and the huge proliferation of organizational bodies within which preachers are operative (2004: 835). The work of the statisticians Barratt, Kurian and Johnson supports Edwards judgement; in their World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) they estimate that in the year 2000 Christians of all kinds numbered 2 billion people in 33,820 distinct denominations (2001: 10). They observe that there are today Christians and organized Christian churches in every inhabited country on earth (2001: 3). The impact of this globalization is significant even in the much narrower geographical confines of this thesis, and it is inconceivable that an accurate appraisal of preaching practice and theory could be made apart from a ready acknowledgement of the fo rces and influences that are properly termed global. The indicators of institutional decline apparent in the churches of the Western world have to be set against rapid and continuing growth in other parts of the globe. This shift of numerical strength inevitably has consequences for preaching as for other aspects of church practice and faith. The presence in the UK of Christian personnel from the southern parts of the world, increased congregation to congregation contact made possible by cheap air travel, and the development of Internet usage, all offer new understandings and strategies from elsewhere in the global church in ways much more directly influential than even in the immediate past. The practice of preaching, like most other human endeavours in the early twenty-first century, takes place within a pluriform social environment in which many and diverse influences from the widest possible arenas of human activity have a bearing. That said, preaching, in social terms, remains predominantly a locally-focused activity, and sermon style and content are usually closely related to the specifics of the sub-cultural frames in which the life and self-understanding of the congregation is set. Consequently, the power of the local context is another factor underlying Edwards observation of the immense diversity of contemporary sermon styles. As Edwards puts it, such diversity shows how radically ad hoc all Christian preaching is (2004: 835). That is not to say, however, that such enormous diversity denies the possibility of any sensible generalization. In particular, as was suggested in the earlier review, three aspects are identifiable within contemporary preaching practices that have particular significance for collective memory-namely, awareness of a sermons psychological engagement, communicative salience and contextual pertinence. In other words, those aspects of preaching that deal with a sermons impact on the hearer; its purposefulness as an event in its own terms; and its relationship to the context in which it is delivered and heard. In order to establish an analytical framework that is not too unwieldy three texts that are in some sense representative documents will be analysed closely. Other texts that develop, challenge, or amplify the issues disclosed will be added to the discussion as the argument requires. The representative texts have been selected as indicative of three prominent strands in the ongoing discussion of homiletic practice: firstly, continuity in terms of issues of concern and of practice methodology; secondly, change in practice and the philosophical and technical components that undergird it; and thirdly, reorientation that aims to subtly change the locus of practice itself. The first text will utilize a perspective from prior to the 1955 to 2005 period under review that still has currency, albeit in terms significantly altered from earlier years. The second will analyse a perspective of more recent origin that signifies contemporary concerns with philosophy and communications theory and the technical practice that flows from them. And the third will examine a perspective that sees the local context of preaching as fundamental to homiletic activity rather than just the arena in which it takes place. The first text is Phillips Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures of 1877, last reissued in book form as recently as 1987, and described by Killinger as one of the most readable and inspiring volumes on preaching ever penned (1985: 207). The version used here will be the 1904 edition, published in London under the title Lectures on Preaching. No attempt will be made to alter the gender specificity of Brooks words since, although this study readily acknowledges that the preaching task belongs as much to women as to men, the assumptions of his text in this area are a clear marker of changes that have taken place even under the cover of longstanding common concerns. David Buttricks 1987 book Homiletic: Moves and Structures is the second focus. At more than 500 pages, this is a monumental work in size, as well as scope and influence. Edwards (2004: 806) describes Buttricks work as being as influential and significant as Fred Craddocks pioneering of the New Homiletic, and Lischer (2002: 337) credits him with the first homiletic in theory and practice geared to our [present day] culture of images. The final representative text is Leonora Tisdales 1997 work Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art, which asks preachers to become ethnographers of their congregations in order to understand the human nature of their hearers from the inside as it were. Tisdale is one of a new movement of homiletic practitioners and theoreticians at home with anthropological and sociological models in Christian ministry and alert to cultural-linguistic issues. Her work provides a way into the insights of those who acknowledge that preachings former authority has all but evaporated, but who see a radical social re-encounter as being a real possibility for a reshaped sermon practice. 5.2 Continuities of concerns and practice: Brooks and contemporary preaching. As was noted earlier (Section 2.5), Brooks Lyman Beecher Lectures remained much used as a guide to homiletic practice well into the period under review. Indeed such has been the influence of his insistence on preaching as the bringing of truth through personality (1904: 5) that Brooks expression continues to be repeated in exactly the same terms in contemporary works, such as those of Day (1998: 6) and Killinger (1985: 8). In dwelling on the preachers personality Brooks managed to encapsulate what, in the 1870s, was a new and burgeoning interest in the human psyche. It was hardly coincidence that his lectures were delivered in the same decade in which William James became Americas first professorial-level teacher of psychology (Harvard in 1875) and G. Stanley Hall the countrys first PhD in psychology. Unwittingly no doubt, Brooks reflected on novel intellectual ideas of his own day and, in doing so, identified within preaching practice what was to become a major preoccupation in many areas of discourse in the twentieth-century: namely, the human psyche and its relationship to action and truth. It is pertinent, therefore, to examine what Brooks understood by personality and its relationship to Christian truth in order to appreciate how his ideas were developed by homiletic practitioners in the period under review. What might appropriately be termed personalist (i.e. an emphasis in preaching on the personal religious experience of the hearer somehow addressed very directly by the preacher) has been, and continues to be, a major component in sermon delivery and design. Brooks concept of preaching as truth through personality became a kind of slogan for many preachers in the twentieth-century, and indeed remains a very influential mantra for many practitioners to this day. In Brooks lectures that sloganized thought had a rather more nuanced definition: Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative statement of Gods, communicated in any other way than through the personality of brother man to men is not preached truth. Suppose it written on the sky, suppose it embodied in a book which has been so long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of it; in neither of these cases is there any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. (1904: 5) For Brooks, the two components of truth and personality had to stand together, since their meeting was the point at which the universal and the particular met. It would be an exaggeration to say that Brooks viewed religious truth as essentially something that can only be known in personal experience; but he did believe that truth was at its most effective and powerful when known and expressed in personal terms. He understood the truth of the Christian faith to be universal and invariable, with personality as the site where it was realized through variable and particular understanding and appropriation (1904: 15). Thus although he was clear gospel truth was a message to be transmitted, he insisted that it could only be transmitted via the voice of a witness, i.e. someone for whom it had become an indispensable part of that persons own experience (14). In terms of memory maintenance, Brooks approach assumes that the preacher is deeply cognizant of the Christian tradition and is, as it were, a bearer of it in his or her own person. 5.2.1 The personal characteristics of the preacher. Being such a bearer of the tradition required of the preacher exacting personal characteristics. The rigour Brooks brought to the personal qualities required of the preaching witness continues to be challenging reading for anyone pursuing such a role. Alongside a deep personal piety (1904: 38), Brooks listed mental and spiritual unselfishness (39), hopefulness as against judgmental fear (40), a vigorous commitment to physical health along with the offering of the whole of life in ministerial service (40), and an enthusiasm that made for a keen joy in preaching (42). Brooks saw the task of preaching as always needing an essential grounding in the very personhood of the preacher, by which he meant truth communicated through personality in an absolutely literal sense. The second of his Lyman Beecher Lectures, entitled The Preacher Himself, amplified the point in this enumeration of the qualities necessary for success in preaching: purity and uprightness of character; lack of self-consciousness founded on absolute trust in God; genuine respect for those preached to; thorough enjoyment of the task; gravity of intent in all things; and courage to speak out (1904: 49-60). At first sight the list appears remote from more recent homiletic theorys concern with techniques and philosophical issues, and therefore it might appear as less accessible and relevant to practitioners since the 1950s watershed in preaching identified earlier. Such personal qualities can seem to be more easily related to an era when the person of the preacher was regarded as carrying more authority than nowadays. Although in terms of wider social recognition the preacher is no longer a star of oratory, similar attributes are still sought after-but for rather different reasons. Killinger (1985), for example, stresses the importance of the physical and mental health of the preacher as an aspect of communication, since troubles in those areas are signalled subconsciously to an audience and work towards undermining the intended message. He writes: Suppose we are preaching about wholeness and reconciliation but actually conveying a message about fragmentedness and despondency. The words may sound right, but there is something about the tune, about the look in our eyes, about the tension in our faces, that counters what we are saying. At best, people get a double message. It is very important, therefore, for the preacher to be as healthy and joyous as possible. Anything less impedes his or her message about the life-giving community of God. We are working at our preaching, for this reason, even when we are taking care of ourselves. (1985: 198-199) Although the point is expressed in the idiom of late twentieth-century communications theory the reasoning is clearly akin to that of Brooks. For both, emphasis on the physicality of the preacher is an aspect of how the message will be received in the light of how the hearers perceptions of the speaker. The body of the preacher, as well as his or her mental and spiritual capabilities, is, in this sense, a tool in the preaching witness. Contemporary women homileticians have also emphasized physicality; but from a perspective that radicalizes it by making the woman preachers bodily experience a site of homiletic resource. In Walton and Durber (1994), the negative, indeed destructive, consequences of a profound prejudice in the Christian tradition against womens bodies are highlighted. They note that in the light of this shameful history and despite occasional counter-tradition movements, the advent of more widespread preaching by women with the rise of Nonconformity did not generally challenge the unembodied nature of homiletic practice. Until the rise of the Womens Movement, women preachers, like their male counterparts, stressed a common rationality and a universal human nature that was blind to the particularities of embodied experience (Walton and Durber, 1994: 2). In more recent years, however, some women homileticians have striven to speak from their bodily experience and utilize both the negative and positive aspects of femininity, conception, pregnancy, birth, health and nurture in their theology of preaching (for example, Ward, Wild and Morley, (1995); Gjerding and Kinnamon, (1984); Riley, (1985); By Our Lives, (1985); Maitland, (1995); and Marva Dawn in Graves, (2004)). According to Walton and Durber, such efforts are part of a new emphasis that is fuelling developments across the whole spectrum of theological enquiry. They write: Sexuality and suffering are still rarely named within a Christian tradition that prefers to speak of the spirit rather than the body, light rather than darkness and a God who creates life but bears no responsibility for pain and dying. Women who have begun to preach from their bodies are not merely redressing an existing imbalance and enriching the storehouse of Christian metaphors and symbols but are also provoking new theological debates close to the very heart of the faith. (1994: 4) This emphasis on the body as a resource for preaching content rather than solely the necessary vehicle of delivery as it were, certainly takes Brooks focus on personhood further than he could possibly have imagined. That said, even here there is a certain congruence between what Brooks said and these very contemporary concerns. He did, after all, insist that the needs and preoccupations of no one sex or age should monopolize the life of the congregation, and that ministrations to it must be full at once of vigour and of tenderness, the fathers and the mothers touch at once (1904: 207). Brooks could not have possibly foreseen the Womens Movement and its repercussions for preaching, but his unease with a domineering and authoritarian style in the pulpit-mediated through his lasting influence-at least readied some preachers for a message that needed to be heard. The physical and personal qualities of the practitioner described neither in terms of communication theory nor embodied theology, but in ways even more reminiscent of Brooks own characterization of the preacher, have reasserted themselves through organization theory and the study of leadership. As the authority of the church, in terms of rules and obligations, has ebbed away, and the legitimacy of power based on tradition more and more questioned, it is perhaps the case that authority based on exemplary character has increased in relative importance. Certainly in the world of commerce and business the significance of the personal qualities of leaders and managers has been extensively theorized and debated. In the use of terms such as sapiential authority and referent power, organization theorists have pointed up the crucial importance of a personal knowledge and skill that readily communicates itself to others, and a personality-based ability to influence by attracting loyalty (Rees and Porter, 2001: 82). Other theorists, e.g. Charles Handy, talk in terms of the invisible but felt pull that is described as magnetism (1985: 135). Handy writes: Aspects of magnetism, the unseen drawing-power of one individual, are found all the time. Trust, respect, charm, infectious enthusiasm, these attributes all allow us to influence people without apparently imposing on them. The invisibility of magnetism is a major attraction as is its attachment to one individual. (1985: 136) Brooks himself used the very term magnetism and described it as: the quality that kindles at the sight of men, that feels a keen joy at the meeting of truth and the human mind, and recognizes how God made them for each other. It is the power by which a man loses himself and becomes but the sympathetic atmosphere between the truth on one side of him and the man on the other side of him. (1904: 42) Excluding the gender specificity, Handy might have written in very similar terms. (Comparable thoughts, although using other nomenclature, can also be found, for example in Schein, 1992: 229; Zohar and Marshall, 2000: 259; and Nelson, 1999: 76). The significance of the personal charisma of the preacher is, perhaps, in the process of rehabilitation via business practices that readily recognize the importance of personal as well as systemic qualities in the effective functioning of organizations. With the support of such an appreciation, a contemporary homiletician, such as Day, can assert, without risking suspicion and disapprobation, that the hope of the sermon lies in the authenticity of the preacher (1998: 147). As regards the maintenance of tradition as collective memory, the resurgence of individualized authority raises the question whether organizational structures within the churches are strong enough to prevent intentional or unintentional abuse of that corporate memory bearin g responsibility. 5.2.2 The preacher as learner and as pastor. Before leaving issues associated with personhood, two of Brooks themes regarding the preachers actions are worth considering since, again, they are things that continue to be widely discussed in the literature; namely, the preacher as learner and the preacher as pastor. After considering the dangers to the preachers personality of self-conceit, over-concern with failure, self-indulgence, and narrowness, Brooks brings his second lecture to a close with a vigorous plea for what would now be called lifelong learning. He writes: In [Christian ministry] he who is faithful must go on learning more and more for ever. His growth in learning is all bound up with his growth in character. Nowhere else do the moral and intellectual so sympathize, and lose or gain together. The minister must grow. His true growth is not necessarily a change of views. It is a change of view. It is not revolution. It is progress. It is a continual climbing which opens continually wider prospects. It repeats the experience of Christs disciples, of whom their Lord was always making larger men and then giving them larger truth of which their enlarged natures had become capable. (1904: 70) What Brooks discerned as an essential component of the preachers disposition has nowadays been widened to embrace all who claim to be faithful believers. Discipleship as lifelong learning is a concept in wide contemporary currency in the churches, and is discussed, for example, in documents such as the published strategies of the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church for training, detailed in the reports Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church (2003) and Shaping the Future: New patterns of training for lay and ordained (2006). The notion of Christian leaders needing to be exemplars in this ongoing commitment to learning and personal growth figures in much of the literature on congregations and pastoral ministry, such as Mead (1994), Baumohl (1984), Hawkins (1997), and Anderson (1997); albeit these and numerous other authors, make it plain that the goal of such action is the enhancement of learning in the whole church. In the preaching literatu re, allied perspectives are expressed in such concepts as local theology (Tisdale, 1997), conversational preaching (Rose, 1997), listening to or with sermon preparation (Van Harn, 2005), embodying the scriptures communally (Davis and Hays, 2003), and interactive preaching (Hunter, 2004). Through these and other mechanisms, Brooks call for continuous learning on the part of the preacher finds its contemporary expression in practices that aim to widen that learning to include the whole body of people who are party to the sermon and the preachers and their own wider ministry. As Anderson puts it, every act of ministry teaches something about God (1997: 8). That is a sentiment to which Brooks would have been sympathetic given his emphasis on the absolute core of preaching as the widest of concern for souls. Learning, in collective memory theory, is often associated with the changing of the meanings and understandings of memories, and the processes by which traditions are appropriated by individuals. As aspects of learning clearly related to relationships they echo contemporary concern in the church about whole body learning. In Brooks description of the preacher as pastor this analysis reaches very familiar territory, in that such a description probably remains the pre-eminent designation of the homiletician within the churches. Brooks thought on this matter was absolutely unequivocal: The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty. Never be content to let men truthfully say of you, He is a preacher, but no pastor; or, He is a pastor, but no preacher. Be both; for you cannot really be one unless you also are the other. (1904: 77) The conviction remains no less powerful more than a century after Brooks lectures: for example, Eric Devenport writing in 1986 could assert, without fear that his opinion would be controversial: Preaching and pastoral work go hand in hand. This is one of those truths that has to be proclaimed time after time, for unless it is heard, then most preaching will not only be dull but dead. (in Hunter, 2004: 145) Clearly, at different times and in different church structures, the nature of pastoral practice has been viewed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it has been mutual support in discipleship, and at other times psychotherapeutic intervention. In some circumstances it has been ad hoc care and conversation, and in others programmatic structures of community creation. Amongst these and many other activities, those who would preach have frequently seen such pastoral practice as a fundamental adjunct to the homiletic task. Although the influence of the problem centred preaching method of Henry Emerson Fosdick, mentioned above (section 2.5), has waned in recent decades, the notion that preaching must somehow relate to the felt life-concerns of those in the congregation is still the key to good practice for many preachers. Whether the emphasis is Tisdales (1997) preacher as the caretaker of local theology, Willimons (1979) or Longs (1989) straightforward emphasis on the role of pastor, Pasquare llos (2005) preaching as the development of communal wisdom, Buechners (1977) telling the truth in love, or Van Harns (2005) insistence on listening in preaching, the overarching perspective is that of pastoral care to individuals and groups. The tradition as collective memory must, in these circumstances, serve pastoral needs. Here the link to the presentist character of collective memory appears strong. 5.2.3 Preachings first purpose and the style appropriate to it. Returning to the issue of preaching as art. From Brooks paramount concern with personhood and themes that flow from it, this discussion now turns to two other aspects of his lectures that remain significant concerns in homiletic literature: style of language, and preachings first purpose. In his emphasis on preaching as witness, Brooks made a distinction that continues to figure prominently in homiletic texts to this day: namely, the difference between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ (1904: 20). Preachers, Brooks insisted, should announce Christianity as a message and proclaim Christ as a Saviour not-discuss Christianity as a problem (1904: 21). He asserted: Definers and defenders of the faith are always needed, but it is bad for a church when its ministers count it their true work to define and defend the faith rather than to preach the Gospel. Beware of the tendency to preach about Christianity, and try to preach Christ. (1904: 21) This distinction continues to be vigorously promoted, particularly amongst the New Homiletic advocates of an inductive sermon methodology. From the distinction there comes an emphasis in sermonic style on a demonstrably engaging, emotionally affective, and inclusivist presentation, rather than a detached, analytical or objective stance. Brooks would have undoubtedly concurred with David Bartletts worries about sermon style that appears to make sin more interesting than grace, and evil more lively than goodness (in Graves, 2004: 25). Bartlett suggests that sermons too often misdirect their hearers by putting active or abstract language and thoughts in the wrong places. He writes, For the most part we show evil and then tell about goodness. We show judgment and then talk about the doctrine of mercy (in Graves, 2004: 25). Yet again, Brooks lectures were extraordinary prescient of a concern that has become commonplace these many years later. Likewise, Brooks conviction that a sermon is essentially a tool and not an end in itself is also a perspective that continues to be vigorously debated (Brooks, 1904: 110). Unlike Browne (1958), Brooks was insistent that preaching is not an art form. He wrote: The definition and immediate purpose which a sermon has set before it makes it impossible to consider it as a work of art, and every attempt to consider it so works injury to the purpose for which the sermon was created. Many of the ineffective sermons that are made owe their failure to a blind and fruitless effort to produce something which shall be a work of art, conforming to some type or pattern which is not clearly understood but is supposed to be essential and eternal. (1904: 109) In many ways, Brownes advocacy of the sermon as art-form (1958: 76) was a reaction to those who had taken Brooks evident pragmatism and utilitarianism as regards technique and turned it into a bald instructionalism that claimed too much for itself and was simply tedious. That was not Brooks intention, however, as his aim was an absolute focus on the tumultuous eagerness of earnest purpose (1904: 110). His overriding concern was that sermons should engage and communicate in such a way as to affect and mark personalities at their most profound level. As such, his understanding of the nature of sermonic engagement serves the purposes of collective memory. His objection to preaching as an art-form was the tendency he saw for art to be an end in itself-over concerned with pure forms and the abstractions of principles (see, for example, pages 110 and 267 of the 1904 edition). These many years later, art operates, and is applied within immensely diverse environments wholly unknown when Brooks lectured: so his criticism is, perhaps, no longer apposite. On the other hand, how far and in what ways artistic expression relates to and uses tradition is a question rather more vexed now than in Brooks day. The one aspect of artistic endeavour Brooks was willing to concede was art in the sense of an awesome appreciation of the mysteriousness of life. This was something Brooks regarded as an essential component of the preachers outlook, and was the reason for his advocacy of the preacher as, at least in some measure, a poet (1904: 262). Preaching as art form brings to the forefront of homiletic awareness the sermons place in the imaginative construal of engaging gospel alternatives to commonplace understandings and outlooks. Collective memory theory suggests that affiliation to group identity is an essential element in the continuity of memory. What the emphasis on preaching as art form does is alert the preacher to the need to create in preaching that sense of engagement, creativity and exploration that aims beyond utilitarian instruction. Here, preaching is seen as genuinely performative. Like the repeated performances of a classic drama, a sermon hearer can become intensively engaged again and again with material that, although familiar, becomes in the engagement surprisingly new. Likewise the preacher as performer or artist, works with familiar texts in order to render then creatively new in a sermon. From both sides of the sermon event collective memory is supported via the performative interaction. The discussion of art related issues in contemporary homiletic literature largely supports this assessment. Morris, in his Raising the Dead: The Art of the preacher as Public Performer, makes performance the guiding principle of all homiletics and insists that preaching should delight and enrich in ways similar to other mediums (1996: 19). Gilmore, in his Preaching as Theatre (1996) shares the same concern with performance, and designates preaching as a dramatic event that happens. He writes: As long as preaching is seen as lecturing or teaching, then, in order for it to be effective, listeners have to go away and do something about it. If it is art, they dont. By the time it is over something has happened, or has failed to happen. This is what makes preaching as an art distinctive, more exciting and satisfying when it works, more depressing and worrying when it doesnt. (1996: 7) Other homileticians are a little more reserved and tend to use the idea of art or artistic endeavour as but one tool the preacher can employ. For example, in Allen (1998), the appreciation of works of art and artistic frames for sermons are advocated as ways to create spheres of perception i