There are an infinite variety of attitudes to euthanasia, each individual response to the concept being influenced by many factors. Consequently there is a literature on the subject ranging from the popular article to papers in specialized journals. This study, however, has taken a well defined sample of people, inviting them to answer a questionnaire which was designed to elicit their attitudes to euthanasia in a way which could be analysed statistically. Nor surprisingly attitudes appeared to 'harden' as those answering (...) the questionnaire grew more experienced in dealing with patients and also more professionally established. Thus it was found that of the seven groups questioned practising physicians showed more positive attitudes to euthanasia and their responses did not differ significantly from those of senior medical students. It is these groups which actually or potentially have to resolve the clinical dilemma posed by the dying patient. (shrink)

31 October 2017 marked the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Reformation in Germany, West Europe. One of the most important legacies of the Reformation is the teaching concerning God’s gracious salvation, received and appropriated only through faith in Christ Jesus our Saviour. The current article seeks to focus on reflection on gratitude as a Christian lifestyle in response to God’s redemption. The article reflects on gratitude as recognition account, highlighting the importance of gratitude as a Christian virtue, as (...) a socioreligious phenomenon, and its importance in human happiness and well-being. This, as it shaped the life of Christians, is found especially in the African continent, in whose traditional life, gratitude was ubiquitous, known and practised even before conversion to the Protestant religion. The article also briefly highlights the fact that a relaxed attitude regarding the teaching on gratitude could result in Sunday or nominal Christianity and the demise of prophetic Christianity. Some concluding thoughts regarding gratitude are shared. (shrink)

In recent years, sociologists have been much concerned with the nature of communication and its consequences, but little attention, even in the sociology of religion, has been given to the idea of communication between human society and other worlds. Divine communication is sociologically interesting as a communication puzzle: authentic religious communication tends to be ineffable and hence it requires considerable intellectual work by experts to translate it into the effable domain. The ineffability of religious inspiration is associated with hierarchical structures (...) in societies with high illiteracy, because the untutored laity cannot readily interpret such messages expertly. The arrival of an information society and extensive literacy presupposes some degree of democratization and in particular an emphasis on — to conjure up a word strangely missing from modern English — effability. This transition from the hierarchical/ineffable to the horizontal/ effable implies a profound change in systems of authority in society and hence a transformation of the relationships between formal and popular religion. (shrink)