Abstract. The government of Finland has set five-year National waste plan (2018–2023) with the theme "From recycling to circular economy" and the plan aims to sustainable waste management and waste prevention. Adapting circular economy shall bring three positives: economic growth, social development and lower environmental impact, when progressing towards sustainable development. The theory part defines and details the terms circular economy and how it is better than linear system; industrial ecology; cradle to cradle; low-carbon economy; nutrient cycle and the significance on closing the cycle; then defining fertiliser and the types of fertilisers and why to choose natural fertilizers over chemical fertilizers? Also, there is a mention of relevant EU regulations and directives for maintaining the quality and providing best living environment for all. Lastly the technologies that are used for managing the municipal bio-waste and the comparative advantages of anaerobic digestion (AD) over composting on the basis of sustainability are defined. In the experimental part, the current situation of separately collected bio-waste in Puolanka municipality in Kainuu (Status quo: transported to Kajaani for composting in Majasaari waste center) was compared with the other possible scenarios: — Scenario I: If separately collected bio-waste were transported to Oulu to be treated in existing biogas plant — Scenario II: If separately collected bio-waste were treated in Puolanka locally in new biogas plant The aim was to recommend best suitable management-option for long-term sustainability of source separated bio-waste in Puolanka municipality based on closing the nutrient cycle and boosting circular economy. The data were collected and appropriate calculations for sizing and feasibility studies were made. The Sustainability Assessment tests were performed using RECENT project's sustainability assessment templates based on calculations and collected information. It was observed from sustainability outcomes that Status quo would be the least preferred option even though it was economical than Scenario I because the use of composting technology caused greenhouse gas emissions and didn't have long-term socio-economic benefits. Also, Scenario II had an advantage over Scenario I for an impact on environment and community since creating an own anaerobic digester provides community a privilege of clean renewable energy (biogas) and its energy output was possible to replace our dependency on fossil fuel consumption. It was found that Scenario II is totally attainable, with only 3,22 years of payback period. The calculative biogas energy output for a year with 165,478 t of bio-waste/year was 144,8 MWh that would be enough to replace the annual fuel demand of 10,9 petrol-based cars and 15,4 diesel-based cars. The value of annual digestate (sanitized co-product of biogas process) sales was 1 556,3 €; annual district heating revenue was 13 694 €; and reduction of 40,37 t of CO₂e per year. The economic boost with reduction of gate fee and transportation charges and increase in job or business opportunities at Puolanka itself makes it more evident that Scenario II, the proposed AD plant in Puolanka is the best solution for the source separated bio-waste management for closing nutrient cycle as well as in achieving circular economy through circulation of the waste as an input to convert into energy in maintaining long term benefits. Thus, this thesis is an intensive consolidation of theory and experiment to understand that circulation of resources boosts circular economy and closing the nutrient cycle in biosphere is important. The future recommendations would be a detailed study on the feasibility (in terms of investments) for Scenario II (maximum use of local bio-refineries). Also, co-digestion (adding two or more substrates) as feed-inputs would boost in the production of biogas contributing to high clean renewable energy output.Tiivistelmä. Suomen hallitus on tehnyt viiden vuoden (2018–2023) jätesuunnitelman "Kierrätyksestä kiertotalouteen", jonka tavoitteena on kestävä jätehuolto ja jätteiden synnyn ehkäiseminen. Kiertotalouden omaksuminen tuo mukanaan kolme positiivista asiaa: talouskasvun, sosiaalisen kehityksen ja ympäristövaikutusten pienenemisen, edeten samalla kohti kestävää kehitystä. Teoreettinen osa määrittelee ja täsmentää kiertotalouden termejä ja kuvaa sitä, miten kiertotalous on parempi kuin lineaarinen järjestelmä; kuvaa, mitä ovat teollinen ekologia, vähähiilinen talous, ravinnekierto ja ravinteiden kierron sulkemisen tärkeys, tarkastelee erilaisia lannoitetyyppejä ja syitä miksi valita luonnonlannoitteet keinolannoitteiden sijaan. Myös asiankuuluvat EU:n säännökset ja direktiivit laadun ylläpitämiseksi ja hyvän elinympäristön turvaamiseksi kerrotaan. Lopuksi selvitetään biojätteiden käsittelyyn käytetyt tekniikat ja anaerobisen mädätyksen edut kompostointiin verrattuna kestävyyden kannalta tarkasteltuna. Kokeellisessa osassa Kainuussa sijaitsevan Puolangan kunnan nykyistä erilliskerätyn biojätteen käsittelyä (kuljetus ja kompostointi Kajaanin Majasaaren jätekeskuksessa) verrattiin muihin mahdollisiin skenaarioihin: — Skenaario I: Erilliskerätyt biojätteet kuljetetaan Ouluun käsiteltäväksi nykyisessä biokaasulaitoksessa — Skenaario II: Erilliskerätyt biojätteet käsitellään Puolangassa paikallisesti uudessa biokaasulaitoksessa Tavoitteena oli suositella parasta ja sopivinta vaihtoehtoa näiden kolmen vaihtoehdon väliltä yleisen kestävyyden kannalta tarkasteltuna sekä ravinnekierron sulkemisen ja kiertotalouden edistämiseksi. Tiedot kerättiin ja tehtiin asianmukaiset laskelmat biokaasureaktorin mitoittamiseen ja biokaasulaitoksen taloudelliseen kannattavuuteen liittyen. Kestävyysarviointi suoritettiin käyttäen RECENT-projektin kestävyydenarviointitemplaatteja tehtyihin laskelmiin ja kerättyyn tietoon perustuen. Kestävyysarvioinnin tulosten perusteella todettiin, että nykytilanne olisi vähiten suositeltava vaihtoehto, vaikka se olisi ollut skenaarioon I verrattuna taloudellisempaa, koska kompostointiteknologian käyttö aiheutti päästöjä eikä sillä ollut pitkäaikaisia sosioekonomisia hyötyjä. Skenaariossa II oli myös etu skenaarioon I verrattuna, sillä skenaario II vaikutti ympäristöön ja yhteisöön, koska oman biokaasulaitoksen hankkiminen tarjoaa yhteisölle etuoikeuden puhtaaseen uusiutuvaan energiaan (biokaasu) ja sen energiantuotannolla olisi mahdollista vähentää riippuvuutta fossiilisista polttoaineista. Todettiin, että skenaario II on täysin saavutettavissa, ja sen takaisinmaksuaika on vain 3,22 vuotta. Biokaasun laskennallinen energiantuotanto 165,478 tonnille biojätettä vuodessa vuodessa oli 144,8 MWh, joka riittää korvaamaan 10,9 bensiiniauton ja 15,4 dieselauton vuosittaisen polttoaineenkulutuksen. Biokaasuprosessista saatavan mädätteen vuosittainen arvo oli 1 556,3 €; vuosittainen kaukolämmön tuoton arvo 13 694 euroa; ja hiilidioksidipäästöjen väheneminen 40,37 t CO₂e vuodessa. Puolangan saamat taloudelliset edut porttimaksujen ja kuljetuskustannusten alenemisen sekä työpaikkojen tai liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien lisääntymisen myötä lisää selvyyttä siitä, että Skenaario II, Puolangan uusi biokaasulaitos, on paras vaihtoehto jätteenkäsittelylle Puolangan kunnassa ravinnekierron sulkemiseksi ja kiertotalouden aikaansaamiseksi jätteiden kierrätyksen kautta jätteen ollessa syötteenä energiantuotannossa pitkän aikavälin hyötyjen ylläpitämiseksi. Tämä diplomityö on intensiivinen teorian ja käytännön yhdistely sen ymmärtämiseksi, että resurssien kierrättäminen vahvistaa kiertotaloutta ja ravinnekierron sulkeminen biosfäärissä on tärkeää. Suosituksia jatkotutkimuksille ovat yksityiskohtainen selvitys (investointien osalta) skenaarion II toteutettavuudesta (paikallisten biojalostamojen mahdollisimman suuri käyttö). Myös yhteismädätys (kaksi tai useampi syötettä samalla laitoksella) lisäisi biokaasun tuotantoa, mikä puolestaan lisäisi puhtaan uusiutuvan energian tuotantoa.
Фундаментальной чертой современной эпохи является распад великих метанарративов. Одним из таких великих метанарративов было классическое естественное право и права человека. Преступления нацистского и сталинского режимов четко показали, что естественное право и права человека являются лишь рациональными допущениями, не имеющими онтологической основы. Однако и теоретический оппонент подобных учений, правовой позитивизм, казавшийся наиболее реалистичной и рациональной правовой доктриной, утратил свою репутацию вследствие многочисленных преступлений, совершенных тоталитарными режимами на основе норм действующего законодательства. Поэтому философы и теоретики права после Второй мировой войны пробовали возродить идею естественного права и прав человека путем их согласования с положениями новейших философских доктрин. Такие новые философские направления как феноменология, экзистенциализм, герменевтика стали новой методологической основой для философии права. Одной из подобных попыток помыслить право по-новому, как экзистенциально-онтологический феномен – стали работы выдающегося немецкого правоведа Вернера Майхофера. В отличие от классической правовой мысли, когда естественное право понималось как чисто деонтологическая идея, Вернер Майхофер пытается мыслить право как онтологический феномен, который укоренен не в идеальном измерении Должного, но в нашем совместном бытии-с-Другими в мире. Подобным образом права человека из чисто рациональной конструкции превращаются в экзистенциальные возможности человека. Источником подобного, экзистенциального права является не официальная правовая норма, изданная государственной властью, и не некие «естественные» закономерности. Лишь ответственное человеческое существо в пограничной ситуации свободного выбора способна решить, чем является естественное право как право экзистенциальное. Тем самым на место абсолютного законодателя, такого как Бог, Природа либо Государство приходит сам человек, который свободен как номиналистский Бог-отец, однако в отличие от него является ответственным за последствия своего выбора. В подобном случае в правовой ситуации человек обречен на свободу, когда его предназначением является не только самоосуществление, но и осуществление права. В данном случае экзистенциальные возможности бытия-с-Другими не являются трансцендентальными условиями нашего бытия-в-мире, но выявляются как живое естественное право – экзистенциальное право. ; The fundamental feature of the contemporary époque is the destruction of the great metanarratives. One of these great metanarratives was the classic natural law and human rights. The crimes of the Nazi's and Stalinist's powers have shown us evident, that the named phenomena were only rational presuppositions without any ontological core. But the opposite trend, the legal positivism as the most realistic and rational doctrine also has loose its reputation due to the outnumbered crimes, which were committed by the totalitarian power in accordance with the current legislation. In its turn, the legal theorists and legal philosophers after the II-nd World War tried to restore the ideas of natural law and the human rights by the way of its reconciliation with the new philosophical doctrines. The philosophical trends of phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics became the new methodological grounds of the legal philosophy. One of the such attempt – to think the law in the new way, as the existential-ontological phenomenon – is the work of the famous German legal philosopher Werner Maihofer. His works are dedicated to the new reasoning of the natural law. In contrast with the classical legal thought, when the natural law was understood as the pure deontological idea, Werner Maihofer tries to think law as the ontological phenomenon, which is rooted not in the ideal dimension of Ought, but in our Being-with-Others in the common world. In the similar way, human rights from the pure rational construction turn into the existential possibilities of the human Being. The origin of the similar – existential – law is not the official legal norm, which is issued by the state power. Also, the existential natural law is not derived from the laws of the Nature. Only responsible Human Being in the border situation of the free choice is able to decide, what the natural law as existential law is. So, on the place of the absolute legislator – God, Nature, State or something else arrives the Human Being as such, which is free as the Nominalist`s God Father. But in contrast to the God Father he is also responsible for the consequences of its choice. In this case, in the similar legal situation the human Being is "destined" for the freedom. And the destination of the human Being is to realize itself and at the same time to realize law. In the other words, the self-realization of the human Being is closely connected with the realization of the law. In this case, the existential possibilities of the common Being-with-Others are not just the transcendental conditions of our Being-in-the world, but present itself as the living natural law – existential law. ; Фундаментальною рисою сучасної епохи є розпад великих метанарративів. Одним із подібних великих метанаративів було класичне природне право та права людини. Злочини нацистського та сталінського режимів чітко показали, що природне право та права людини є лишень раціональним припущенням без онтологічної бази. Однак і теоретичний опонент зазначених вчень, правовий позитивізм, як нібито найбільш реалістична та раціональна правова доктрина, втратив власну репутацію внаслідок численних злочинів, вчинених тоталітарними режимами згідно норм діючого законодавства. Тому філософи і теоретики права після Другої світової війни спробували відродити ідею природного права і прав людини шляхом їх узгодження з положеннями новітніх філософських доктрин. Такі філософські напрями як феноменологія, екзистенціалізм, герменевтика стали новим методологічним підґрунтям правової філософії. Одною з таких спроб – помислити право новим чином, як екзистенційно-онтологічний феномен – є роботи видатного німецького правознавця Вернера Майхофера. На відміну від класичної правової думки, коли природне право розумілося як чисто деонтологічна ідея, Вернер Майхофер намагається мислити право як онтологічний феномен, який вкорінено не в ідеальному вимірі Належного, але у нашому спільному бутті-з-Іншими у світі. Подібним чином права людини з чисто раціональної конструкції перетворюються на екзистенційні можливості людської істоти. Джерелом подібного, екзистенційного права є не офіційна правова норма, видана державною владою, і не певні «природні» закономірності. Лише відповідальна людська істота у межовій ситуації вільного вибору здатна вирішити, чим є природне право як право екзистенційне. Відтак на місце абсолютного законодавця, такого як Бог, Природа чи Держава приходить сама людина, яка є вільною подібно до Бога-батька номіналізму однак на відміну від нього є відповідальною за наслідки свого вибору. У подібному випадку, у правовій ситуації людина є приреченою на свободу, коли призначенням людини є здійснити себе і одночасно право. У даному випадку екзистенційні можливості буття-з-Іншими є не трансцендентальними умовами нашого буття-у-світі, але постають як живе природне право – екзистенційне право.
Фундаментальной чертой современной эпохи является распад великих метанарративов. Одним из таких великих метанарративов было классическое естественное право и права человека. Преступления нацистского и сталинского режимов четко показали, что естественное право и права человека являются лишь рациональными допущениями, не имеющими онтологической основы. Однако и теоретический оппонент подобных учений, правовой позитивизм, казавшийся наиболее реалистичной и рациональной правовой доктриной, утратил свою репутацию вследствие многочисленных преступлений, совершенных тоталитарными режимами на основе норм действующего законодательства. Поэтому философы и теоретики права после Второй мировой войны пробовали возродить идею естественного права и прав человека путем их согласования с положениями новейших философских доктрин. Такие новые философские направления как феноменология, экзистенциализм, герменевтика стали новой методологической основой для философии права. Одной из подобных попыток помыслить право по-новому, как экзистенциально-онтологический феномен – стали работы выдающегося немецкого правоведа Вернера Майхофера. В отличие от классической правовой мысли, когда естественное право понималось как чисто деонтологическая идея, Вернер Майхофер пытается мыслить право как онтологический феномен, который укоренен не в идеальном измерении Должного, но в нашем совместном бытии-с-Другими в мире. Подобным образом права человека из чисто рациональной конструкции превращаются в экзистенциальные возможности человека. Источником подобного, экзистенциального права является не официальная правовая норма, изданная государственной властью, и не некие «естественные» закономерности. Лишь ответственное человеческое существо в пограничной ситуации свободного выбора способна решить, чем является естественное право как право экзистенциальное. Тем самым на место абсолютного законодателя, такого как Бог, Природа либо Государство приходит сам человек, который свободен как номиналистский Бог-отец, однако в отличие от него является ответственным за последствия своего выбора. В подобном случае в правовой ситуации человек обречен на свободу, когда его предназначением является не только самоосуществление, но и осуществление права. В данном случае экзистенциальные возможности бытия-с-Другими не являются трансцендентальными условиями нашего бытия-в-мире, но выявляются как живое естественное право – экзистенциальное право. ; The fundamental feature of the contemporary époque is the destruction of the great metanarratives. One of these great metanarratives was the classic natural law and human rights. The crimes of the Nazi's and Stalinist's powers have shown us evident, that the named phenomena were only rational presuppositions without any ontological core. But the opposite trend, the legal positivism as the most realistic and rational doctrine also has loose its reputation due to the outnumbered crimes, which were committed by the totalitarian power in accordance with the current legislation. In its turn, the legal theorists and legal philosophers after the II-nd World War tried to restore the ideas of natural law and the human rights by the way of its reconciliation with the new philosophical doctrines. The philosophical trends of phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics became the new methodological grounds of the legal philosophy. One of the such attempt – to think the law in the new way, as the existential-ontological phenomenon – is the work of the famous German legal philosopher Werner Maihofer. His works are dedicated to the new reasoning of the natural law. In contrast with the classical legal thought, when the natural law was understood as the pure deontological idea, Werner Maihofer tries to think law as the ontological phenomenon, which is rooted not in the ideal dimension of Ought, but in our Being-with-Others in the common world. In the similar way, human rights from the pure rational construction turn into the existential possibilities of the human Being. The origin of the similar – existential – law is not the official legal norm, which is issued by the state power. Also, the existential natural law is not derived from the laws of the Nature. Only responsible Human Being in the border situation of the free choice is able to decide, what the natural law as existential law is. So, on the place of the absolute legislator – God, Nature, State or something else arrives the Human Being as such, which is free as the Nominalist`s God Father. But in contrast to the God Father he is also responsible for the consequences of its choice. In this case, in the similar legal situation the human Being is "destined" for the freedom. And the destination of the human Being is to realize itself and at the same time to realize law. In the other words, the self-realization of the human Being is closely connected with the realization of the law. In this case, the existential possibilities of the common Being-with-Others are not just the transcendental conditions of our Being-in-the world, but present itself as the living natural law – existential law. ; Фундаментальною рисою сучасної епохи є розпад великих метанарративів. Одним із подібних великих метанаративів було класичне природне право та права людини. Злочини нацистського та сталінського режимів чітко показали, що природне право та права людини є лишень раціональним припущенням без онтологічної бази. Однак і теоретичний опонент зазначених вчень, правовий позитивізм, як нібито найбільш реалістична та раціональна правова доктрина, втратив власну репутацію внаслідок численних злочинів, вчинених тоталітарними режимами згідно норм діючого законодавства. Тому філософи і теоретики права після Другої світової війни спробували відродити ідею природного права і прав людини шляхом їх узгодження з положеннями новітніх філософських доктрин. Такі філософські напрями як феноменологія, екзистенціалізм, герменевтика стали новим методологічним підґрунтям правової філософії. Одною з таких спроб – помислити право новим чином, як екзистенційно-онтологічний феномен – є роботи видатного німецького правознавця Вернера Майхофера. На відміну від класичної правової думки, коли природне право розумілося як чисто деонтологічна ідея, Вернер Майхофер намагається мислити право як онтологічний феномен, який вкорінено не в ідеальному вимірі Належного, але у нашому спільному бутті-з-Іншими у світі. Подібним чином права людини з чисто раціональної конструкції перетворюються на екзистенційні можливості людської істоти. Джерелом подібного, екзистенційного права є не офіційна правова норма, видана державною владою, і не певні «природні» закономірності. Лише відповідальна людська істота у межовій ситуації вільного вибору здатна вирішити, чим є природне право як право екзистенційне. Відтак на місце абсолютного законодавця, такого як Бог, Природа чи Держава приходить сама людина, яка є вільною подібно до Бога-батька номіналізму однак на відміну від нього є відповідальною за наслідки свого вибору. У подібному випадку, у правовій ситуації людина є приреченою на свободу, коли призначенням людини є здійснити себе і одночасно право. У даному випадку екзистенційні можливості буття-з-Іншими є не трансцендентальними умовами нашого буття-у-світі, але постають як живе природне право – екзистенційне право.
The Doing Business data highlight the important role of the government and government policies in the day-to-day life of domestic small and medium-size firms. The objective is to encourage regulations that are designed to be efficient, accessible to all who use them and simple in their implementation. Where regulation is burdensome and competition limited, success tends to depend on whom one knows. But where regulation is efficient, transparent and implemented in a simple way, it becomes easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to compete on an equal footing and to innovate and expand. In this sense Doing Business values good rules as a key to social inclusion. Enabling growth, and ensuring that all people, regardless of income level, can participate in its benefits, requires an environment where new entrants with drive and good ideas can get started in business and where good firms can invest and grow, thereby creating more jobs. Doing Business was designed with 2 main types of users in mind: policy makers and researchers. Doing Business is a tool that governments can use to design sound policies for the creation of firms and jobs. But this tool should not be used in isolation. Doing Business provides a rich opportunity for benchmarking by capturing key dimensions of regulatory regimes. Nevertheless, the Doing Business data are limited in scope and should be complemented with other sources of information.
Over the last decade, Kenya's society and economy have changed fundamentally and these deep trends will continue. Rapid population growth and urbanization will create many new challenges which need to be managed well to support Kenya's economic take-off in the medium-term. This fourth edition of the Kenya economic update argues that Kenya can turn the tide in turbulent times and make the most of the ongoing structural shifts. In 2011, Kenya will need to address short-term domestic and international shocks, including higher inflation, pressures on the exchange rate and, most importantly, a volatile political environment. The government will need to navigate through these shocks successfully and to continue with its economic reform program to achieve higher growth. At the same time, the government will be making major strategic decisions in Kenya's decentralization architecture which will shape the medium-term development prospects of the country. Economic success is possible, as the 5.6 percent growth in 2010 has shown. If growth will accelerate to an average of 6 percent this decade, Kenya will achieve middle income country status by 2019.
Αυτή η διπλωματική εργασία ερευνά τη σημαντικότητα της ποιότητας στην ναυτιλιακή βιομηχανία σε συνδυασμό με την απαραίτητη ασφάλεια και την προστασία του θαλάσσιου περιβάλλοντος. Η ποιότητα στο χώρο της ναυτιλίας δεν αφορά μόνο το προϊόν αλλά και τις υπηρεσίες, τις διαδικασίες, το προσωπικό και γενικά με οτιδήποτε εμπλέκεται για τη σωστή διεξαγωγή των επιθυμητών αποτελεσμάτων. Προκειμένου να υπάρξουν επικερδή αποτελέσματα και επίτευξη των στόχων, θα πρέπει κάθε ενέργεια, σύστημα και υλικά να διακατέχονται από ποιότητα. Μέσα από μία αναλυτική περιγραφή γίνεται σαφές πόση σημαντική είναι η ποιότητα στο χώρο της ναυτιλίας. Ένα ενδιαφέρον ζήτημα που έρχεται πολλές φορές σε σύγκρουση με τη ζητούμενη ποιότητα στη ναυτιλία είναι αυτό της ασφάλειας. Προκείμενου να επιτευχθεί η απαραίτητη ασφάλεια, αυτό αυτομάτως συνεπάγεται σε αύξηση των κόστων. Η ασφάλεια απαιτεί συνεχής εκπαίδευση και ενημέρωση του προσωπικού (εν πλω και στις εταιρείες), σύγχρονα συστήματα πλοήγησης και τεχνολογίας καθώς και πολλά άλλα σημαντικά θέματα ασφάλειας που αναλύονται εκτενώς στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία. Πολλές ναυτιλιακές εταιρείες επιλέγουν να μειώσουν την ασφάλεια προκειμένου να ανταποκριθούν όσο το δυνατόν καλύτερα στην ποιότητα. Όταν τίθενται ζητήματα ασφάλειας τότε οι διαδικασίες είναι πιο χρονοβόρες και πολυέξοδες. Παρατηρήθηκε όμως ότι όταν αμελείται η ασφάλεια, δημιουργούνται ατυχήματα. Γι αυτό το λόγο δημιουργήθηκαν κανόνες και νόμοι από τον Διεθνή Οργανισμό Ναυτιλίας και πολλούς άλλους οργανισμούς οι οποίοι υποχρεώνουν τις ναυτιλιακές εταιρείες να τηρούν και να εφαρμόζουν συγκεκριμένα μέτρα ασφάλειας. Ο Διεθνής Κώδικας Διαχείρισης Ασφάλειας, το Σύστημα Διαχείρισης Ασφάλειας και ο Διεθνής Οργανισμός Τυποποίησης περιγράφουν λεπτομερώς τις υποχρεώσεις κάθε ναυτιλιακής εταιρείας. Τα τελευταία χρόνια, έχει δοθεί έμφαση στην προστασία του περιβάλλοντος. Τα θαλάσσια ύδατα χρήζουν άμεσης αντιμετώπισης μιας και η ρύπανση τους είναι μεγάλη και επικίνδυνη για πολλά ζώα, φυτά και ακόμη και για τον άνθρωπο. Ως γνωστόν, τα ναυτικά ατυχήματα προκαλούν τεράστιες οικολογικές καταστροφές, αυτό όμως δεν σημαίνει ότι η διέλευση των πλοίων στους ωκεανούς γίνεται χωρίς επιπτώσεις για το θαλάσσιο περιβάλλον. Σε αυτό το σημείο, γίνεται μεγάλη αναφορά στις οικολογικές καταστροφές που προκαλεί η ναυτιλία με σκοπό να γίνει αντιληπτό η σοβαρότητα της κατάστασης όπως και οι τρόποι αντιμετώπισης τους. Και σε αυτό το θέμα έχουν καθιερωθεί σχετικές νομοθεσίες που επιβάλλουν στις ναυτιλιακές εταιρείες να λαμβάνουν μέτρα για την προστασία του θαλάσσιου οικοσυστήματος. Αυτά τα ζητήματα είναι ιδιαίτερα σημαντικά για πολλούς λόγους. Αρχικά, για μια ναυτιλιακή εταιρεία καθώς καθορίζουν την ανταγωνιστικότητά της στο χώρο αλλά και την επιβίωση της. Ύστερα, για την ασφάλεια του προσωπικού και του εμπορεύματος και τέλος για την προστασία του θαλάσσιου περιβάλλοντος το οποίο επηρεάζει άμεσα και έμμεσα όλον τον κόσμο. ; This paper serves as an enquiry into the importance of quality in the shipping industry in combination with the necessary safety and protection of the marine environment. Quality in the field of shipping is not only about the product but also the services, the procedures, the staff and in general with everything involved for the correct execution of the desired results. In order to have profitable results and achieve the goals, each action, system and materials must be possessed by quality. Through a detailed description it becomes clear how important quality is in the field of shipping. An interesting issue that often comes into conflict with the required quality in shipping is that of safety. In order to achieve the necessary safety, this automatically entails an increase in costs. Safety requires continuous training and information of staff (on board and in companies), modern navigation systems and technology as well as many other important safety issues that are extensively analyzed in this dissertation. Many shipping companies choose to reduce safety in order to respond as well as possible to quality. When safety issues arise then the procedures are more time consuming and costly. However, it has been observed that when safety is neglected, accidents occur. For this reason, rules and laws were created by the International Maritime Organization and many other organizations that oblige shipping companies to comply with and implement specific safety measures. The International Safety Management Code, the Safety Management System and the International Organization for Standardization describe in detail the obligations of each shipping company. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on environmental protection. Seawater needs immediate treatment as its pollution is high and dangerous for many animals, plants and even humans. Maritime accidents are known to cause enormous ecological disasters, but this does not mean that the passage of ships in the oceans has far-reaching effects on the marine environment. At this point, great reference is made to the ecological disasters caused by shipping in order to understand the severity of the situation as well as the ways to deal with them. In this regard, relevant legislation has been established that requires shipping companies to take measures to protect the marine ecosystem. These issues are particularly important for many reasons. Initially, for a shipping company as they determine its competitiveness in the field and its survival. Then, for the safety of personnel and goods and finally for the protection of the marine environment which directly and indirectly affects the whole world.
ABSTRACTThis study aims to determine the effect of company performance, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership on executive compensation. In this study, company performance is measured by Net Profit Margin (NPM) and Return on Equity (ROE). The data in this study were obtained from the company's annual report. Data collection uses a purposive sampling method for infrastructure, utility and transportation sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018. The samples used in this study were 29 companies from 70 companies. The analytical method of this study uses multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that the performance of companies that are positioned with ROE, managerial ownership has a positive effect on executive compensation. While the company's performance does not affect executive compensation when measured by the NPM proxy. 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Colombia en su legislación normatiza el sector de la minería de carbón, sin embargo se considera que las estrategias no han sido suficientes para la identificación, prevención y control de la accidentalidad y enfermedad laboral. Durante el año 2013 el índice de fatalidad fue de 1,59. Estadísticas del año 2004 evidencian que las neumoconiosis fueron las mayores causas de invalidez de origen profesional. Objetivo: Categorizar actividades de intervención en promoción y prevención de accidentalidad y enfermedad laboral en trabajadores de la minería de carbón. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión de literatura sobre minería de carbón y salud la cual fue obtenida de las bases de datos PUBMED, Sciendirect, VHL, SINAB por literatura publicada sin límites de año, en idioma inglés, español o portugués. Para la búsqueda se utilizaron términos en lenguaje controlado (términos MESH), revisión por pares de títulos y resúmenes. Las publicaciones fueron seleccionadas para revisión de texto completo bajo criterios de inclusión y exclusión. Los códigos contemplados para esta revisión fueron: a) país donde la intervención se llevó a cabo, b) salud ocupacional, c) prevención de accidentalidad, d) programas de promoción, e) tecnologías, f) resultados obtenidos. Resultados: Del total de 2500 artículos seleccionados por los autores principales se realizó la revisión de los primeros 300 artículos, 32 hacen referencia al tema de salud ocupacional y minería de carbón, 10 contienen intervenciones consideradas de relevancia para esta revisión bibliográfica. Se presentan intervenciones estadísticamente significativas (p<0.05) y que han demostrado ser de impacto positivo en la minería de carbón en promoción y prevención de accidentalidad y enfermedad ocupacional. Conclusiones: Se identificaron las siguientes cuatro tipos de intervención: 1) las de carácter educativo que hacen referencia a las capacitaciones participativas, el entrenamiento por medio de "degraded image", la realización de gestión de autocontrol y retroalimentación para el uso de elementos de protección personal (EPP), la aplicación del Modelo de Proceso Paralelo Extendido; 2) intervenciones preventivas como la medición de alcoholimetría antes del turno, la presencia de personal de enfermería en minas de carbón y el reconocimiento de los predictores de la enfermedad para optimizar la prevención primaria; 3)intervenciones de vigilancia como la promovida en la metodología Estadísticas Europeas de Accidentes de Trabajo (EEAT) para la investigación de los accidentes de trabajo, la aplicación de las recomendaciones de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) para la detección de la neumoconiosis y 4) De carácter tecnológico consistente en la intervención de tareas a partir de los resultados de la aplicación del software desarrollado por el Instituto Nacional para la Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional (NIOSH). Estas intervenciones han demostrado ser eficaces en la promoción y prevención de accidentalidad y enfermedad ocupacional por lo cual se recomienda su aplicación en Colombia posterior al análisis de costo-efectividad. ; Colombia government has introduced several regulations to the coal-mining sector; however, it is considered that the actual strategies have not been effective to identify, prevent and control the workplace injury, fatality and illness. During year 2013 the fatality index arise to 1,59. 2004 Statistics reveals that Pneumoconiosis were the most important causes of workforce disability. Objective: Categorize intervention activities on workplace injury, fatality and illness promotion and prevention for the coal-mining workforce. Method: Coal-mining and health literature was deeply revised, which was obtained from renowned databases as PUBMED, ScienceDirect, VHL and SINAB, without considering the publication date and published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. To the literature recompilation were used controlled language terms (MESH terms) and article title and abstract peer review. The articles were selected for whole text review based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The considered codes for this review were: a) country where the intervention has been carried on, b) occupational health, c) injury and fatality prevention, d) promoting programs, e) technologies and f) obtained outcomes. Results: From the 2500 selected articles by the principal authors, 300 articles were reviewed: 32 of them deal with occupational health and coal mining, 10 contain statistically significant interventions relevant to this literature review. Statistically significant interventions (p<0,05) are presented, which had a positive impact on prevention and promotion of occupational health, injury and fatality in coal mining. Conclusions: Four intervention types were identified: 1) ones which make reference to participative trainings, training based on "degraded image", execution of feedback and self-control management to the use of personal protection equipment (PPE), the application of the parallel extended process model; 2) preventive interventions as the measurement of breath alcohol concentration level before work shift begin, the nurse personnel presence in coal mines and the acknowledgment of illness predictor to optimize the primary prevention; 3) surveillance interventions like the promoted in the European statistics on accidents at work (ESAW) methodology for work accident assessment, the application of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for Pneumoconiosis detection and 4) technology consistent interventions of work activities based on the software outcomes, which were developed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The mentioned interventions have been proved to be effective in promotion and prevention of occupational illness, injury and fatality, which make them recommendable to be implemented in Colombia after cost-benefit analysis.
Die Durchführung des Luftverkehrsmanagements (engl. Air Traffic Management, ATM) bedarf aufgrund der sich global ändernden Rahmenbedingungen einer radikalen Restrukturierung. Dies ist insbesondere der stetig steigenden Luftverkehrsnachfrage bei gleichbleibenden Luftraumvolumina und – damit einhergehend – dem zwingend erforderlichen Zuwachs an Flugsicherheit (engl. Safety) geschuldet. Zudem wird auch seitens der politischen Entscheidungsträger und Akteure des Verkehrssystems Luftverkehr verstärkt Wert auf die Aspekte Umweltverträglichkeit und Nachhaltigkeit gelegt. Die Europäische Union (EU) sowie die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika haben auf diese Situation politisch jeweils mit den ATM-Initiativen SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) bzw. NextGen (Next Generation Air Transportation System) reagiert. Aus den hieraus resultierenden, verbindlichen Vorgaben ergeben sich vielfältige Anforderungen an alle Teilnehmer des Systems Luftverkehr. Dies umfasst u.a. auch die Fluggesellschaften und deren operative Leitstellen (engl. Operations Control Center, OCC). Die Hauptaufgabe der im OCC tätigen Mitarbeiter besteht darin, während der letzten 72 Stunden vor Abflug und während der Durchführung eines Fluges alle für den Ablauf des Flugverkehrs relevanten Betriebsprozesse zu überwachen und zu kontrollieren sowie plötzlich auftretende, unvorhergesehene Betriebsstörungen (z.B. Luftfahrzeugdefekte, Einsetzen von Schlechtwetter, betrieblich bedingte Verspätungen) im Rahmen des Disruption Management zu beheben. Hierbei muss nicht nur der Flugsicherheit, sondern auch der Kosten- und Zeiteffizienz Tribut gezollt werden. Zur Erledigung ihrer Aufgaben interagieren die Mitarbeiter der OCCs mit anderen ATM-Akteuren, insbesondere mit der Flugsicherung (engl. Air Traffic Control, ATC) sowie den eigenen Luftfahrzeugführern. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Masterarbeit wird untersucht, inwiefern sich die o.g. ATM-Initiativen SESAR bzw. NextGen auf die Prozesse und Strukturen von OCCs sowie auf bestehende Betriebsprozesse zwischen den OCCs und den Luftfahrzeugführern auswirken werden. Um dies zu analysieren, werden sowohl die aktuellsten Projektdokumentationen beider ATM-Initiativen sowie bestehende Sekundärliteratur und wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen ausgewertet. Anhand der von SESAR und NextGen gemachten Vorgaben werden Schemata für die zukünftige Integration von OCCs in die lang- und kurzfristigen Planungsprozesse von Fluggesellschaften sowie für die betriebliche Interaktion zwischen OCCs und Luftfahrzeugführern abgeleitet. Basierend hierauf wird in einem weiteren Schritt analysiert, inwiefern die in SESAR and NextGen gemachten Vorgaben heutige OCC-Betriebs- und Interaktionsprozesse abbilden, berücksichtigen bzw. zu ändern versuchen. Hierbei wird insbesondere ein Augenmerk auf konzeptionelle Unzulänglichkeiten und Lücken gelegt. Kapitel 1 beschreibt einleitend politische, ökonomische, ökologische, gesellschaftliche und operationelle Aspekte, welche die Einführung von SESAR und NextGen notwendig machen und rechtfertigen. Nach erfolgter Einleitung dient Kapitel 2 dazu, die wissenschaftliche Vorgehensweise bei Erstellung dieser Abschlussarbeit vorzustellen und einen generellen Überblick über deren Inhalt, Rahmen und Aufbau zu gewähren. Anschließend folgt in den Kapiteln 3 und 4 eine detaillierte Analyse der beiden ATM-Initiativen SESAR bzw. NextGen. Hierbei werden nicht nur die jeweils darin definierten operationellen Konzepte und Schüsseltechnologien, sondern ebenfalls Implementierungsaspekte berücksichtigt. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen werden beide ATM-Initiativen in Kapitel 5 verglichen und Gemeinsamkeiten wie auch Unterschiede, insbesondere im Bezug auf die in den jeweiligen Betriebskonzepten (engl. Concept of Operations, ConOps) vorgegebenen Schlüsseltechnologien, herausgestellt. Nachfolgend werden in Kapitel 6 der Aufbau, die Arbeitsabläufe und die Strukturen heutiger OCCs sowie deren Integration in airline-interne Planungsprozesse dargestellt und die Arbeitsabläufe bei der Interaktion zwischen OCCs und Luftfahrzeugführern erläutert. Weiterhin werden drei unterschiedliche Szenarien vorgestellt, welche dazu dienen, die heutige Rolle von OCCs im Bezug auf deren Umgang mit Betriebsstörungen (engl. Disruption Management) aufzuzeigen. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen der vorhergehenden Kapitel 3 bis 6 erfolgt in Kapitel 7 eine Anwendung der aus SESAR und NextGen resultierenden Vorgaben auf heutige OCC-interne Arbeitsabläufe sowie deren gemeinsame Interaktionsprozesse mit Luftfahrzeugführern. Dieses Vorgehen dient dazu, festzustellen, wie die von SESAR und NextGen gemachten Vorgaben zukünftige OCC-Prozesse, -Strukturen und -Interaktionen beeinflussen werden. Hierzu werden – basierend auf den SESAR und NextGen ConOps – für alle Planungs- und Flugphasen entsprechende Prozess- und Interaktionsschemata visualisiert und beschrieben. Diese werden anschließend unter Einbezug der drei in Kapitel 6 definierten Szenarien hinsichtlich ihrer Verträglichkeit mit heutigen Betriebs- und Interaktionsprozessen analysiert und bewertet. Resultierend hieraus werden konzeptionelle Insuffizienzen identifiziert und analysiert, und – insoweit praktikabel – entsprechende Gegenmaßnahmen dargelegt. Abschließend dient Kapitel 8 der Zusammenfassung der in den vorangehenden Kapiteln gewonnenen Erkenntnisse und gibt einen Überblick über thematisch-verwandte Fragestellungen, welche der näheren wissenschaftlichen Betrachtung bedürfen. Dies umfasst beispielsweise die Frage, inwiefern die Interoperabilität von SESAR und NextGen bei transatlantischen Flügen gewährleistet ist. ; During the next two decades, the way Air Traffic Management (ATM) is conducted will have to alter significantly due to globally changing framework conditions. This is mainly because of the steadily rising demand for air transportation at constant, limited airspace volumes, which – in direct return – makes increases in both capacity and safety become inevitable. Moreover, political decision makers as well as ATM stakeholders increasingly foster aspects like environmental protection and sustainability. Both the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) responded to this situation politically by launching the ATM initiatives SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) and NextGen (Next Generation Air Transport System) respectively. These contain binding provisions and manifold requirements which will influence all ATM stakeholders conducting flights within European and U.S. American airspaces in the future; this also encompasses airlines and their Operations Control Centers which represent an airline's operational control room. The OCCs' main functions are to monitor and control all relevant operating procedures and to handle sudden and/or unforeseen disruptions (e.g. inoperable aircraft, severe weather conditions). Thereby, not only the safety, but also the cost and time efficiency of flight operations has to be accounted for. As to be able to perform their tasks, today's OCCs mainly interact with the ATM stakeholders Air Traffic Control (ATC) and cockpit crews. This master's thesis aims to analyze how the above mentioned ATM initiatives SESAR and NextGen will influence both the structure and workflows of today's OCCs as well as existing OCC-cockpit crew operating procedures. Therefore, the need for SESAR and NextGen is clarified (Chapter 1) and both projects' documentation as well as adherent secondary literature and scientific papers are examined and compared to each other (Chapters 3 to 5). Subsequently, the setting, workflows and structures of today's OCCs as well as their integration into airline planning processes and the interaction of OCC-cockpit crew workflows are specified (Chapter 6). Based on the provisions specified in SESAR and NextGen, schemes for future OCC integration into long- and short- term airline planning processes as well as pre- and in-flight OCC-cockpit crew workflow interaction are derived and analyzed by applying them to three self-defined scenarios. Adapted from that, a gap analysis is performed as to identify missing provisions and conceptual inadequacies (Chapter 7). Finally, a short conclusion of the results of this thesis and an overview of thematically-related issues which should be subject of further scientific research are provided (Chapter 8). This, e.g., encompasses the interoperability of SESAR and NextGen when it comes to transatlantic flight operations.
Issue 32.2 of the Review for Religious, 1973. ; Review ]or Religious is edited by faculty members of the School of Divinity of St. Louis University, the editorial offices being located at 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. It is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute; St. Louis, Missouri. Published bimonthly and copy-right (~) 1973 by Review ]or Religious. Composed, printed, and manufactured in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. Single copies: $1.25. Sub-scription U.S.A. and Canada: $6.00 a year; $11.00 for two years; other countries, $7.00 a year, $13.00 for two years. Orders should indicate whether they are for new or renewal subscriptions and should" be accompanied by check or money order payable to Review ]or Religious in U.S.A. currency only. Pay no money to persons claiming to represent Review ]or Religious. Change of address requests should include former address. R. F. Smith, S.J. Everett A. Diederich, S.J. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Editor Associate Editor Questions and Answers Editor March 1973 Volume 32 Number 2 Renewals, new subscriptions, and changes of address should be sent to Review for Religious; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, Minnesota 55802. Correspondence with the editor and the associate editor together with manuscripts, books for review, and materials for "Subject Bibliography for Religious" should be sent to Review for Religious; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; St. Joseph's Church; 321 Willings Alley; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106. Religious and Social. Security William Quinn, F.S. . Brother William Quinn,F.S.C., is the Assistant to the President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men of the USA; Suite 114; 1330 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20036. For some years the Internal Re~)enue Service of the U.S. Government has recognized that religious with the vow of poverty require a specific treatment under the law. In virtue of their vow of poverty, religious have no income in the sense in which this word is used by Internal Revenue Service. What-ever salary they might earn is in reality earned as an agent of their order, not for themselves personally. Because of this, religious have been exempt from the federal income tax; when the Social Security System was begun in 1936, .religious were excluded for the same reason: They had no income upon which to base the Social Security tax and which would serve to determine the level of benefits upon retirement or disability. In 1967 the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress passed legislation extending Social Security coverage to members of religious orders under a vow of poverty. However, when the matter was considered in the Senate, representatives of religious orders requested time for further study of the effects of coverage. The provision was not included in the Senate: passed bill which went to conference, and th~ conference agreed to post-pone the matter pending study of the orders. The status of religious under Social Security was not changed in the Social Security Amendments of 1967. The 1972 Provisions The provision for extending coverage to members of religious orders that is contained in the 1972 Amendments to the Social Security Act is based upon recommendations submitted to the Congress by a joint Social Security study committee, established by the two conferences of religious superiors in the U.S., LCWR and CMSM. 210 / Review for Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 On October 30, 1972, President Nixon signed into law the Bill, H.R. 1, entitled Social Security Amendments of 1972; this Bill is now known as P.L. 92.603. The Bill provided many modifications in the existing Social Security legislation, but Section 123 is of particular interest to religious since its heading is: Coverage for Vow-of-poverty Members of Religious Orders. Religious orders are given the option of electing coverage under Social Security for their members under a series of rather well-defined conditions. The option is open-ended, that is, there is no time limit for when this option must be exercised, but it is irrevocable once it has been made. It will then be binding upon all present and all future members of the order. This new legislation recognizes the special situation of religious with the vow of poverty by creating for the purpose of Social Security coverage a unique definition of "wages": "The term 'wages' shall include the fair market value of any board, lodging, clothing, and other perquisites furnished to such member." Two things might be remarked about this definition: First, it is in no way related to the salary a particular religious might be receiving, and second, every religious in the order has an assignable "wage." The services performed by the religious might actually be carried out in an institution such as a school or hospital, but for the purposes of this Bill these services are deemed to be performed by the religious as an employee of the religious order. The obligation of paying the Social Security taxes members of the order falls upon the order, and not the particular institution for which the religious might be working. The effect of this legislation is to allow religious orders (or an autono-mous subdivision, such as a province or an independent monastery) the option of entering the Social Security system. The rates of taxation, the conditions for claiming disability, and the requirements for old-age benefits are the same for religious as all other participants in the Social Security pro-gram. A retroactive feature is built into the legislation, to allow the order to make the effective date of coverage any time'up to five years previous to the date of election of coverage. The order must pay the accumulated back taxes for all of its members, starting with the chosen effective date, but in so doing a number of older religious Will qualify immediately for old-age and Medicare benefits. The answers to specific questions about eligibility, tax rates, and bene-fits must be found in publicatigns of the Social Security Administration, or by consulting local offices of the Administration. These questions and answers are part of the daily routine of these offices and should not present any great difficulty. Special Questions Some questions, however, do pertain directly to religious, and some of these present rather difficult technical considerations. Examples of these Religious and Social Security might be: What is an autonomous subdivision of an order; are alien mem-bers of the order living in the United States covered; what about U.S.A. citizens, living and working in a foreign country; when is a religious retired? It is relatively easy to know when a lay worker in a business enterprise is retired. The case of one who stops working and who is no longer paid a salary is rather obvious, but even with the layman there may be some diffi-culty in establishing the fact of retirement. This would occur, for example, in the case of a self-employed person who would substantially reduce the time devoted to employment. In the case of a religious, where the "wage" is calculated on the basis of room and board and other perquisites furnished to him by the order, the question as to when the religious is to be considered as retired becomes more difficult. Retirement, for a religious under Social Security, is defined in the new legislation as the situation in which the religious no longer performs the duties usually required (and to the extent usually required) of an active member of the order. In spelling out the interpretation of this definition for the benefit of the religious superiors who will have to make the certification of retirement, the Social Security Administration calls attention to two con-siderations: a comparison of the nature of the work being performed before retirement with that performed after, and the amount of time devoted to this service. Should a sister, for example, be assigned to the motherhouse after fifty years of teaching and there devote herself to monitoring the phone, it is clear that she has retired. The case is more difficult, say, for a con-templative sister who gradually grows more feeble with age and who is not able to keep up the pace of former years. She is considered to be retired, for Social Security purposes, when the religious superior certifies that she is no longer able to perform the services required of active members. A Typical Illustration The operation of the new Social Security legislation could perhaps best be appreciated by considering a particular case as a typical illustration of how the law would work out in practice. Suppose, for example, that Brother John Doe, born in 1917, has taken a vow of poverty as a member of a re-ligious order. Suppose further thai the prov.ince of his order elects to partici-pate in Social Security by filing the appropriate Certificate of Election, with an effective date of January 1, 1973. The tables of eligibility for retirement benefits and for hospital insurance (Medicare) indicate that 31 quarters of coverage are needed in order to be fully insured; this means that Brother John Doe must have paid Social Security taxes on his "wages" for 31 quarters, at least, in order to be fully insured. An important parameter in the discussion is the amount of "wages" on which Brother John Doe pays the tax. This is an amount arrived at by the religious superior of his province as a result of considering the fair market 212 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 value of the board, lodging, clothing, and other perquisites furnished mem-bers of the province. Suppose for the sake of our illustration that this figure is $2,500 per year. The province, beginning in 1973, must pay a Social Se-curity tax for Brother John Doe at a rate of 11.7%, or $292.50 per year. The tax rate will remain at 11.7% until 1978, when it will increase to 12.1%. This rate will continue through 1980; from 1981-85 it will be 12.3%; 1986-1997 it will be 12.5%. This tax must be paid until Brother John Doe becomes disabled or until he retires. Brother John Doe will reach the age of 65 in 1982. At this time he may apply for old-age benefits. By 1982 he will have earned 36 quarters of coverage, and he will therefore be qualified for both retirement and Medi-care benefits. The amount of Brother's retirement benefits are calculated on the basis of his average "wage" over a period of 26 years (this number is given in a Social Security table, depending on date of birth and whether the person is a man or woman). In Brother John Doe's case his total earnings are 9 × $2,500 or $22,500; this divided by 26 gives his average yearly earn-ings as $865, or $72 a month. The Social Security Administration table of benefits indicates that Brother John Doe qualifies for the minimum benefit of $84.50 per month, or $1,014 per year. American Experience of Mortality Tables show that, on the average, men who reach age 65 will live another 15 years. Applying this figure to Brother John Doe gives his total old-age benefits as $15,210. Medicare Provisions After reaching 65, Brother John Doe automatically qualifies for Medi-care, Part A, the hospital insurance part of the health insurance program. This provides payment for services received as a bed patient in a hospital, or in an extended care facility, or at home as a patient up to 90 "hospital days" or 100 "extended care days" or 100 "homeohealth visits." The details of these benefits are spelled out in Your Medicare Handbook published by the Social Security Administration. After reaching age 65, Brother John Doe may elect to participate in Part B of Medicare which is a medical insurance program that helps pay for doctors' services, medical services and supplies, and other health care services. The cost of this insurance is reevaluated by the Government an-nually, but was $5.60 per month for the period July 1971-July 1972. Again, the details of this insurance program are contained in the same Handbook referred to above. Brother John Doe may continue to work after reaching age 65; should he do so, he will continue to pay Social Security on his wages. Further, the first $2,100 of his wages do not influence the old-age retirement benefits he receives, but the $400 beyond $2,100 (recall that our example set Brother John Doe's wages at $2,500) reduces his benefits by a proportion of one dollar for each two dollars earned over $2,100, or, in our example, by Religious and Social Security $200. Upon retirement, Brother John Doe would receive the full amount of his retirement benefit and would no longer pay the Social Security tax. Upon his death, a cash benefit of $251 is paid the beneficiary of Brother John Doe. However, for Social Security purposes Brother John Doe has no dependent survivors; after the deathbenefit is paid, no further benefits are paid on Brother John Doe's account. The Question Facing Each Religious Order Each religious order is now faced with a rather complex question-- what would be the economic consequence of exercising the option of joining the Social Security system. The order becomes liable to the Social Security tax on all its present members add all future members; it also gradually qualifies its members through quar.ters of coverage for the benefits of the Social Security program, chiefly disability, retirement, and Medicare. The order must make a careful evaluation of its age profile, its wage level, and its health and mortality experience.', to arrive at a prudent judgment as to lhe advisability of joining the Social Security program. The retroactive feature of P.IS. 92.605, Section 123, requires special consideration. This will allow religious who have recently retired, or those who will retire in the next several years, to qualify for full coverage, but the price that must be paid is the back Social Security tax for all members of the order who were active at the effective retroactive date. This date may be any number of quarters up to '~a maximum of 20 prior to the date of election of coverage. The effect of not choosing the retroactive feature is that some of the present older religious will not qualify for Social Security benefits, nor will they be eligible for Part A of Medicare after reaching age 65. Detailed information on Social Security matters is contained in the .publications listed below. Also, more specific reference to Social Security as it affects religious with a vow of poverty is given in the series of questions and answers that follow. Critical Social Security Questions Question 1. For purposes of the law relating to the Social Security coverage of religious (P.L. 92.603), what are considered wages? Answer. Wages for the purpose of this law shall include the fair market value of any board, lodging, clothing, and other perquisites furnished to a member by the order or autonomous subdivision thereof or by any other person or organization pursuant to an agreement with the order or subdivi-vision. Question 2. Does the law provide for a minimum or maximum amount for evaluated maintenance? Answer. The legislation specifically provides that the evaluated mainte-nance shall not be less than $100 per month. The maximum of course 214 / Review [or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 would be $10,800 under the 1972 amendments. The committee reports emphasize that the evaluation shall be on a reasonable basis. There is no indication that cost accounting principles must be applied. The committee reports also emphasize the understanding that there will be one established or evaluated wage for all of the members of the order regardless of the position which they occupy. Question 3. Are religious subject to both Social Security and income taxes? Answer. This law does not affect the vow of poverty but rather confirms it. Therefore, there would be no income tax liability on evaluated board and lodging. The Social Security taxes imposed on wages are limited by the law to orders which waive their tax exempt status for the limited purpose of Social Security coverage. Question 4. Will the religious be required to file any income tax forms? Answer. No, this law is not based on the self-employment concept as in ~the case of ministers. The only form filed is that which is required of tile employer; that is, the order or a subdivision thereof. Question 5. Who determines the level of income for a particular religious order or autonomous subdivision thereof? Answer. This is determined by the religious super:,or, based on a study of the actual situation existing with the members of the order or subdivi-sion thereof. Question 6. The order or subdivision thereof decides whether or not to come into the Social Security System; how is this decision made? Answer. The law does not specify how the decision is to be made. The provincial may get to~ether with the council and make the decision. Alterna-tively, the entire membership might be polled on the question. Question 7. If the order elects to come under Social Security, is this election irrevocable? Answer. Yes. Question 8. How many quarters of coverage are necessary in order to be fully insured under Social Security? Answer. Ultimately, the answer depends on the date of birth of the person being considered. It is necessary to go to a table supplied by the Social Security Administration to find the answer to this question. It should be observed here that, depending on the age of the individual, it may not be necessary to have as many quarters of coverage to secure Medicare coverage. This too depends on Social Security Administration tables. Question 9. Is it economically advantageous for a religious order to participate in Social Security? Answer. It is difficult to give a generalized answer to this question. It must be determined for each individual order. Three of the most signifi-cant factors are: the level of wages of the members of the order, the age distribution of the members of th+ order, and the benefits which would be Religious and Social Security / :215 receivable, that is, old age and survivors benefits, Medicare coverage and disability insurance and death benefits. Question 10. What retirement benefits are paid to a retired religious who has been fully insured under Social Security? Answer. This depends on the level of "income" on which the religious paid Social Security taxes during the years he was acquiring the necessary number of quarters of coverage; however, there is a minimum benefit paid to everyone who has the requisite number of quarters. At present this minimum is $84.50 per month or $1,014 per annum. Question 11. What is the situation with respect to a religious who pays Social Security taxes for ten years and then leaves the order? Answer. The credits a religious earns toward Social Security coverage belong to him/her as an individual; should the religious leave the order he takes the earned eligibility with him into secular life. Question 12. A religious man with sufficient quarters of coverage to be fully insured reaches age 65 but continues to work; that is, he is not retired in the technical sense of the term. What is his status under Social Security? Answer. Upon reaching the age of 65 the religious who has earned the required quarters of coverage may apply for Social Security benefits and he would be entitled to the same. If he continues to work, that is, he is not retired, the order must pay the Social Security taxes on his wages even though he is receiving old age benefits. If his wages are $2,100 or less, there would be no reduction of his old age benefits. If, on the other hand, they are in excess of $2,100 there would be a reduction of one dollar for every two dollars in excess of $2,100. The above answer would apply to a member of a religious order of women with the exception that she would be eligible for Social Security at the age of 62. Her benefits, however, would be somewhat reduced. Under the 1972 amendment a man may likewise be retired at 62 but his benefits would be reduced. Question 13. Is there any significant difference in the Social Security law as it applies to men or to women? Answer. The age at which women may receive benefits, and is the nor-mal retirement age for women, is 62, whereas it is 65 for men; however, men may retire at 62 and receive i'educed benefits. The required quarters of coverage to be fully insured differs for men and for women. The exact details should be checked with table~ supplied by the Social Security Administration. Question 14. Is there any time limit in which to elect coverage? Answer. No, an election may be made at. any time the order so desires. Question 15. Is there any time limit for electing retroactive coverage? Answer. No; however, if. the order defers the election of retroactive coverage for a significant amount of time it will be more costly when the order does elect to come in on a retroactive basis. The rate for the retro-active purchase of coverage is determined by, existing tax rates during the :216 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 five year period. For example, if an order elected five years retroactive cov-erage in December the tax rate for 1967 and 1968 would be 8.80%; for 1969 and 1970 it would be 9.60 and for 1971 and 1972 it would be 10.40. In 1973 the rate will be 11.70 and by 1978 it will rise to 12.10. In addi-tion to the increased costs it is possible that some religious will not be covered if the retroactive buy-in is deferred for a substantial period of time. Some members, for example, may retire and, consequently, will not be cov-ered in the retroactive purchase. Question 16. Must one elect for a retroactive period of five years or may one elect for a lesser number of years? Answer. The order may elect to "buy in" for any number of years it wishes, the maximum being five. Question 17. If a religious is active during the retroactive period and alive at the time of election but no longer a member of the order should he be counted in determining retroactive coverage? Answer. Yes. Question 18. When must the order pay for the retroactive coverage? Answer. By the end of the quarter in which the election is made. This payment must be made in a lump sum; there is no provision for an install-ment buy-in. Question 19. May an order elect coverage before the forms and regula-tions are finalized? Answer. Yes; notification of election of coverage may be sent to your district Social Security office. Question 20. When should a religious secure a Social Security number? Answer. As soon as possible. It is not necessary to have Social Security coverage in order to acquire a number. Acquisition of a number might speed receipt of benefits when an election is finally made. Question 21. If a religious subject to a vow of poverty performs ser-vices not required by the order but merely with the approval of his or her superior may he or she receive the benefit of this law? Answer. No, the services performed must be at the requirement of the religious order or subdivision thereof. Question 22. If a religious receives board and lodging from another organization (parish) how shall the wages be determined for Social Se-curity purposes? Answer. The tlat rate which is adopted for all religious shall prevail. Question 23. How much would it cost to buy in retroactively for a five year period at an evaluated wage of $100 per month? Answer. It would cost $612 per member who was active during the five year period and alive at the time of election. Some Available Literature 1. Social Security Handbook (SSI 135). This is available from the Religious and Social Security / 217 Superintendent of Documents and provides o]~erall ~nformatlon but nothing more recently than 1969. It will be 3 to 6 rrionths, before anything like its counterpart will be brought out. The volume c~sts $2.25. 2. Your Medicare Handbook (DHEW ,Publication; SSA 72-10050). This is available from the Superintendent of Documents at 35 cents in bulk rate, free for a few copies. The Handbook is available to anyone entitled to Medicare. 3. Your Social Security (DHEW SSA 72-10035). This provides gen-eral information and is available free from the Superintendent of Documents. 4. If You Become Disabled (SSA 73-10029). Available free even in bulk. 5. Your Social Security Earnings Recordi (DHEW 73-10044). Avail-able from the Superintendent of Documents. 6. How Medicare Helps You When You Go to the Hospital (DHEW 72-10039). This may be free in bulk. 7. Estimating Your Social Security Retirement Check (SSI 47). Avail-able free. Theological Reflections on the Ordination of Women Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices The Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices is a committee of the' National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Foreword This report prepared by the Committee on Pastoral Research and Practices has been approved for publication by the Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The report is not definitive. It deals only with the question of ordination to diaconate and priesthood, leaving aside the question of installation of women in ministries of lector and acolyte. It is a contribution to the con-tinuing dialogue on a subject of great importance. Its purpose is to encour-age further study and discussion while making honest efforts to identify the major questions which must be examined in depth before conclusive answers can be given. We are conscious of the deep love for the Church which underlies the growing interest of many women in the possibility of ordination. Our own appreciation of their indispensable contribution to the life of the Church underlies this effort at honest dialogue. Other churches are also engaged in a study of this question. While their reflections have been helpful to us, we hope ours may be helpful to them. Theological Reflections on the Ordination ot Women The question of ordaining women is an old one in the Church, but it has not yet been thoroughly researched for Catholic theology. There is no explicit authoritative teaching concerning the ordination of women that settles the question. The topic should be given exhaustive study. The theological reasons for and against the ordination of women need to be developed in careful and 218 The Ordination of Women / 219 objective fashion. A thorough study is required not because of sociological trends, but because of developments in the Church within the past decade. The encyclical Pacem in terris (no. 41) in 1963 listed the emancipation of women as a positive development of modern times. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (nos. 9, 29) in 1965 rejected any discrimination based on sex. The admission of women as auditors to the last two sessions of Vatican II (1964-65), the proclamation of St. Theresa of Avila as Doctor of the Church (1970), the discussions on this subject in the Third Synod of Bishops (1971)--these trace a considerable recent development concerning woman's role in the Church. The revelation given in Galatians 3:28 shows the equality before God of every Christian: "There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or freeman, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus." In the Church then there is no distinction of persons: Discriminatory lines have been erased by Christ. In the Church there can be no discrimination. The basic text and basic teaching, however, do not mean that there are not different ministries in the Church, or that one ministry is to be pre-ferred over another--as the same St. Paul taught in 1 Cor 12:4-14: 1. In spite of this doctrine of the equality of all in Christ, no woman has ever been pope, bishop, or priest. At the present time it cannot be proven or disproven that women were ever ordained deacons. It is Church law (Canon 968) that women are not eligible for orders. Several scriptural and theological justifications have been proposed to explain why women are not eligible for ordination. They are here listed-- in a general order of increasing importance--with some brief comments. 1. In the Old Testament, authentic priesthood was limited to males. The Aaronic priesthood and the levitical service (a service somewhat analogous to the diaconate) were similarly limited to males (cf. Exodus 28, Leviticus 8). This was in keeping with the strongly patriarchal Hebrew society. Be-cause we accept the law as invested with divine authority, we accept this limitation of Old Testament priesthood to men of one family within one tribe of Israel as expressing God's will-for the Old Testament. The exclusion of most males and of all females was then also God's will. This entire presen-tation, however, seemingly has no direct bearing on the issue at hand. We of the New Testament are studying the will of God concerning the New Testa-ment priesthood of Jesus Christ. 2. In the New Testament there is mention of a woman who was called "deaconess" (Rom 16:1) and of other women serving as deacons (1 Tim 3:11). Similarly in the early centuries of the Church, and especially in the East, there were deaconesses. Unfortunately no clear conclusions can be drawn from this information. There is no way at present to determine whether these women were called by this title in a formal or an informal way, whether the women in scripture were wives of deacons .who aided their deacon hus-bands, whether they were ordained, whether any ordination they received 220 / Review for Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 was sacramental, etc. The uncertainty of Scripture scholars concerning an "order" of deaconess is illustrated in the Jerome Biblical Commentary, 53: 136; 57: 21. A similar uncertainty seemingly exists concerning the deaconess in the early Oriental Church. This deaconess tradition is helpful in approach-ing the present question. However, we must beware of constructing a case for or against the sacramental ordination of women on such fragmentary and indefinite information. 3. Saint Paul repeatedly directed that women hold to a subordinate posi-tion in the Church, keep silence in the Church, keep their heads covered, tend the home and family, etc. (cf. 1 Cor 11:2-16; 14:33-36; Eph 5:22-24; Col 3: 18; Titus 2:5; cf. 1 Pet 3: 1-7). There seems to be little question but these texts are of Pauline authority alone. The developments of the past decade in the Church listed in this letter, and the authorized functioning of women as lectors and commentators, further demonstrate that these Pauline texts should not be cited as arguing against the ordination of women. 4. The New Testament doctrine on "headship" as reflected in the order of creation is given to justify the leadership of men and the subordination of women in the Church (cf. 1 Cor 11:3-12; 1 Tim 2:8-15). This same reasoning is advanced to explain the ordination to the priesthood of men but not of women. This doctrine of the dependence of woman on man is seem-ingly the teaching of Genesis (cf. JCB 2:18) as well as of Saint Paul (cf. supra). However, much further study is needed before conclusions can be drawn. 5. The incarnation is given as a reason for the ordination of men only. The word of God took on flesh and was made man--as a male. This then was the divine plan. It is stated that this divine plan is expressed in the person of Christ (cf. Decree on the Ministry and Li]e o[ Priests, no. 2). It is argued that a male priest is required to act in the person of the male Christ. 6. The selectivity of Christ and of the early Church presents another ap-proach. It is known that Jesus did not hesitate to contravene the law and sociological customs of his time. Yet Jesus selected only men as his apostles and disciples. Further, the replacement for Judas was to be specifically one of male sex (Acts, 1:21 in the Greek), even though women who fulfilled the other conditions were present and available. Similarly the seven assistants to the apostles (Acts 6:3) were all men, even though the work was to be that of serving widows. This limitation to men, it is argued, goes beyond socio-logical conditions of that day and points to a divine choice. 7. Revelation is made known to us from tradition as well as from Sacred Scripture (cf. Constitution on Divine Revelation, nos. 8-10). It is then necessary for theology in this question to look to the life and practice of the Spirit-guided Church. The constant practice and tradition of the Catholic Church has excluded women from the episcopal and priestly office. The-ologians and canonists have been unanimous until modern times in con- The Ordination of Women / 221 sidering this exclusion as absolute and of divine origin. Until recent times no theologian or canonist seemingly has judged this to be only of ecclesiasti-cal law. It would be pointless to list the many authorities and the theological note that each assigns to this teaching. However, the constant tradition and practice of the Catholic Church against the ordination of women, interpreted (whenever interpreted) as of divine law, is of such a nature as to constitute a clear teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the Church. Though not formally defined, this is Catholic doctrine. These seven approaches have been used to document the exclusion from ordination of women. From them we attempt to draw six somewhat tentative conclusions: 1. Reasons no. 5 and no. 6 call for considerable further study in order to measure their validity. 2. Reason no. 7 is of ponderous theological import. Its force will not be appreciated by those who look for revelation and theology in Scripture alone, and who do not appreciate tradition as a source of theology. Because of rea-son no. 7 a negative answer to the possible ordination of women is indicated. The well-founded present discipline will continue to have and to hold the entire field unless and until a contrary theological development takes place, leading ultimately to a clarifying statement from the magisterium. 3. This question is extraordinarily complex. It is influenced by the indi-vidual's point of departure, viewpoint, and choice of terminology. Even in this study some helpful distinctions have not been spelled out for the sake of brevity. It would seem that neither Scriptural exegesis nor theology alone can give a clear answer to this question. The ultimate answer must come from the magisterium, and the current question is whether the magisterium (as reason no. 7 explains) has already given a definite and final answer. And at this level of doubt, only the magisterium itself can give" ultimate clarification. 4. It is possible to draw distinctions between the diaconate and the epis-copal- priestly order, and within the diaconate itself. Assuming that the diaconate is of ecclesial and not divine, institution, and that it can be sep-arated from the sacrament of orders, it would seem possible that special study be given to the possibility of a diaconate of service, non-sacramental and non-liturgical, which would be conferred on women. It has been noted that Pseudo-Denys in the 5th century made such a distinction within the diaconate. 5. Some contemporary writings on this subject approach priestly ordina-tion as "power" rather than service, and speak of a "right to ordination." Such views appear to overlook the clear doctrine that priestly ministry is service to the People of God, that no Christian has any right to ordination, and that it involves the mystery of God's free election. One who is not an ordained priest is not thereby, a lesser Christian, a lesser minister, or a victim of discrimination. In the Church there are many ministries, but all Christians do not have all charisms, and the hearts of all should be set on the greater 222 / Review ]or Religious, l/olume 32, 1973/2 gifts of God's love (1 Cor 12:4-13:3). Further, all Christians share in the common priesthood of the faithful (cf. Constitution on the Church, no. 10); from among these some are chosen by God to minister to the others by priestly service. In such a context should this question be presented. 6. Beyond the question of theological possibility is the further considera-tion o~ what is pastorally prudent. For the present, however, we can see from theology only a continuation of the established discipline. Considering the strength of that discipline and the numerous uncertainties detailed in this paper, the needed study on this question is now just beginning. As is evident, every one of the points listed in this report calls for a major study. The German theologian Ida Friederike Gorres reminds us that it is God's will and plan that must be determinant in this question: The Catholic priesthood is a unique phenomenon, springing solely from the faith, the doctrine, the history, the growing self-consciousness of the Church: not from the religious needs of the Catholic people, certainly not from any principles or theories concerning the rights of men and women, nor yet from the necessity of particular functions which could be assigned at will to various persons. The one and only exemplar of the Catholic priest is the living person of Jesus Christ, in his relationship to the Church: in the mystery of the one, perfect, indissoluble life he leads, with her (Catholic Transcript, Dec. 17, 1965). Pluralism in the Works of Karl Rahner with Applications to Religious Life Philip S. Keane, S.S. Philip S. Keane, S.S., is the Vice Rector of St. Patrick's Seminary; 320 Middlefield Road; Menlo Park, California 94025. As a working theologian moves from place to place, he finds himself being asked questions on a wide variety of subjects and his interests tend naturally to move towards those questions which he is asked over and over again. In the past twelve to eighteen months there is no question which I have been asked about more frequently than the theological meaning of pluralism. The question has come from virtually all segments of the Christian community, but it has been asked with special urgency by the members of religious communities, with at least one religious community having enough concern about the issue that it has called for a serious study of pluralism in its newly adopted constitutions.1 Pluralism a Perennial P~oblem In a certain sense I have found the repeated questions about pluralism amusing. My amusement has come from the fact that my questioners (sisters in particular) so often seem to be presupposing that pluralism is a brand new issue, perhaps even a .brand new toy, which theologians have just lately discovered. Some of the questioners seem very excited about this new issue as if it will solve all their community living problems while others are quite frightened by it, but they all seem to have the idea that pluralism is a totally new problem. This I find amusing inasmuch as pluralism is a perennial problem which theologians have .wrestled with for centuries; it is hardly a new issue. Many of today's older theologians such as Karl Rahner aConstitutions o] the Sisters o] St. Joseph o] Carondelet, a Congregation o] Pontifical Right, St. Louis, 1972, p. 29. 223 224 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 have been working with pluralism for 30 or 40 years, that is, since before a number of my excited questioners were born. Thus perhaps the first point to be made to those who are either nervously or excitedly asking about theologi-cal pluralism today is that it is anything but a totally new theological concept. Nonetheless, theological plurfilism is a most important issue for the whole Church today and for religious communities in particular. Also, it is an issue which is not well understood especially from the theological view- . point. Hence, the goal of this article will be to aid our understanding of pluralism as a theological reality by presenting the concept of pluralism found in the works of Karl Rahner and by applying this concept to the situation of the religious community today. In the past 10 or 15 years Rahner has written very extensively and incisively on pluralism'-' and his work on the theme should surely be a help to us in forming a workable theological concept of pluralism. Divisions and Presuppositions Our reflections on the theology of pluralism will be divided into five parts: first, pluralism as a basic theological reality; second, the unique character of pluralism today; third, some consequences of today's pluralism for the Church as a whole; fourth, pluralism and the oneness of our faith; and finally the implications of pluralism for religious community life. The first four parts will gather and coherently organize Rahner's ideas on plural-ism. The final section will move beyond what Rahner says explicitly, but it will seek to be faithful to his views on pluralism. An important note before beginning the explanation of Rahner's writings on pluralism is that, as with any Rahnerian topic, the vastness and.depth of Rahner's total theological synthesis are such as to render the treatment of a particular Rahnerian theme such as pluralism somewhat difficult without at least some grasp of the whole of Rahner. In our particular case, for example, Rahner's metaphysics of human knowing as bipolar (explicit and implicit), his concept of God as indescribable mystery, his explanation of Christianity as an openness to all that is genuinely human, and his concept of man as ~Rahner's major articles on pluralism include "The Theological Concept of Con-cupiscentia," Theological Investigations (hereinafter T1) [8 volumes 1961-71; vs. 1-6, Baltimore: Helicon; vs. 7-8, New York: Herder and Herder], v. 1, pp. 347-82; "The Man of Today and Religion," TI 6, pp. 3-20; "A Small Question Regarding the Contemporary Pluralism in the Intellectual Situation of Catholics and the Church," ibid., pp. 21-30; "Reflections on Dialogue within a Pluralistic Society," ibid., pp. 31-42; "Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, pp. 17-29; "Philosophy and Theology," Sacramentum Mundi (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968-70), v. 5, pp. 20-4; "Theological Reflections on the Prob-lem of Secularization," Theology o] Renewal (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968), v. 1, pp. 167-92; "Pluralism in Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith," Concilium, v. 46 (1969), pp. 103-23; and "Glaube des Christen und Lehre der Kirche," Stimmen der Zeit, July 1972, pp. 3-19. Pluralism in Rahner / 225 a future-oriented being whose most fundamental virtue is hope are all themes which form a substratum for his theology of pluralism? These themes will be given brief explanations as needed and the reader less familiar with Rahner is advised to consider them carefully when they occur. Pluralism as a Basic Theological Reality First of all then, what is the basic theological meaning of pluralism? Rahner began to develop his thinking on this matter in his well known 1941 article on concupiscence.4 Therein while discussing Heidegger's distinction between human person and human nature, Rahner makes the point that the human person, the source of human freedom and human longing for God, can never fully dispose of himself in a single action. Instead, man's person finds himself limited by man's nature as a material or incarnate spirit. Man cannot make a total act of movement towards God, an act which is uni-formly effective in all the aspects of human nature. For man's person which freely seeks God lives in an insuperable tension with his nature which limits his ability to move towards God. Some years later (1959) Rahner explained this kind of thinking further in another context when writing about the mystery of God) Here the point is that the mystery of God so totally tran-scends human knowledge that no concrete human experience or human expression can ever fully encapsulate the mystery of God. This mystery which is at the very root of man's being constantly eludes man's efforts to grasp or formulate it. At the level of concrete human knowing man does not have a total understanding of God. Rather man in his materiality and there-fore in his limitation has only partial knowledge of the mystery of God. The more he learns about God the more there is to learn, for God will always be the mystery who exceeds the depths of our understanding.~ Our life then is a day by day effort to see, follow, and love God more clearly, nearly, and dearly as the popular song from Godspell puts it. All this of course is no new insight. St. Paul said the same thing centuries ago: "Oh, :~Good background reading on these themes includes "Dogmatic Reflections on the Knowledge and Self-Consciousness of Christ," TI 5, pp. 199-201; "The Concept of Mystery in Catholic Theology," TI 4, pp. 36-73; "Anonymous Christians," TI 6, pp. 390-8; "On the Theology of the Incarnation," T) 4, pp. 105-20; and "The Theology of Hope," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, pp. 78-87. ¯ ~"The Theologi~:al Concept of Concupiscentia," TI 1, pp. 347-82. For what follows see especially pp. 368-9. In recent articles Rahner has explicitly shown how his present thinking on pluralism is rooted in his early writings on concupiscence; for example, "Theological Reflections on the Problem of Secularization," Theology o] Renewal, v. 1, pp. 187-8. 5"The Concept of Mystery in Catholic Theology," TI 4, pp. 36-73, especially pp. 46-8. 6Rahner pushes this position about God as absolute mystery to its ultimate radicality when he argues that God will still be m. ystery for us in heaven (ibid., pp. 53-60), and that in God all the mysteries of our faith are ultimately one (ibid., pp. 61-73). 226 / Review ]or Religious, Vohtme 32, 1973/2 the depths and the richness of the wisdom of God; how incomprehensible his judgments are, how unsearchable his ways" (Rom 11:33). Unavoidable Pluralism Putting these ideas together, we can see that both man's unlimited desire to choose God in freedom and his ceaseless yearning to know God with his intellect are limited in such a way that in actual fact man only chooses and knows God through a series of particular or partial acts of choice or knowledge. His choice of God comes through a multiplicity of human choices, his knowledge of God comes through a multiplicity of human acts of knowing.; All this leads Rahner to a basic dictum of his religious or theological anthropology, namely, that the inherently limited and seriated character of all human choice and knowledge of God means that all human experi-ence of God has about it a necessary and unavoidable element of multiplicity or pluralism. Since man cannot fully embrace the mystery of God in single actions, he must experience God through many actions. Pluralism thus be-comes a basic or fundamental element of man's relationship to God. Rahner states this in many ways in his works. He states that man is ever subjected to the agony of pluralism,s and even more strongly he calls pluralism a radical or irreducible fact of human existence.'~ Because God made man as a material or embodied spirit, man cannot escape from pluralism, from the fact that he must learn about God, and indeed about all of life bit by bit, part by part. There just is no other way for the human spirit. Any form of mysticism which tries to escape from man's bodiliness and multiplicity is a pseudo-mysticism in the opinion of Rahner?° It is particularly important to note that since Rahner's concept of plural-ism is founded upon man's way of knowing and choosing God, it is a radi-cally theological concept, that is, a concept asserting a basic aspe.ct of man's relationship to God. This is significant today because very often pluralism is bandied about as a sociological or political concept, whereas Rahner's idea of it is much deeper. The trouble with those who limit their concept of pluralism to sociology or political science is that, whether they like pluralism or not, they can very easily look upon it as a fad which will pass away. In :Rahner uses both Scotist approaches (the limitations of our freedom) and Thomist approaches (the limitations of our knowledge) in explaining pluralism theologically. In later years he tends mostly towards knowledge oriented or Thomist examples, perhaps most celebratedly with his concept of "gnoseological concupiscence" ("The-ological Reflections on the Problem of Secularization," Theology o] Renewal, v. 1, p. 187). But both ways are possible for him. Slbid., pp. 190-1. :"'Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, p. 22. 1°Hearers o] the Word (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969), pp. 77-9. Pluralism in Rahner / 227 particular those threatened by pluralism will wait for it to pass if they view it as a fad. But pluralism is not a passing fad. Its basic point is that no two of us ever experience and formulate our approach to God in exactly the same way. We are truly moving towards the "many mansions in our father's house." Ultimately then we must see pluralism as a theological issue. Problems of Pluralism Rahner's language in describing the fundamental phenomenon of pluralism raises some interesting questions. Why does he describe man as "subjected" to pluralism? Why does he call pluralism agonizing? Why did he begin to develop his treatment of it in the context of a theology of con-cupiscence? The answer to all these questions is that in Rahner's view it is man's irreducible pluralism which makes it possible for man to sin. It is precisely man's ability to explicitly grasp only partial goods or values which enables him to sin, to sin by absolutizing one or some of these partial values and thus shutting himself up in the finite,~1 closing himself to the unfathom-able mystery of God. The agony for man is that he experiences or perceives value only in partial and thus plural realizations. His very way o~ being drives him towards the multiple or plural values. The temptation to ab-solutize such values is the temptation to sin. Rahner's whole theology of hope, of man as a being who must be open to the future, a being who must refuse to absolutize the partial values of the present, is, of course, echoed here.l~ These thoughts bring up another problem. Do pluralism's close connec-tions with concupiscence, and hence its status as the occasion which renders sin possible make pluralism a bad or evil thing? Definitely not! This rejection of a condemnation of pluralism is one of the most emphatic rejections in Rahner's entire theological system. His whole reason for beginning to write about man's concupiscent movement after multiple and partial values was to insist that such movement cannot be called fundamentally evil?:' Rahner holds that it was the all good God who made us .as material and pluralistic beings and that, therefore, we must accept ourselves as we are in faith, in hope, and in love. Rahner is determined to teach that we should love the nature God gave us and this means that we must openly embrace our radi-cal, God-given pluralistic state. We simply cannot flee from it, agonizing though it may be. Are we ready to accept Rahner's challenge on this point? The Unique Character of Pluralism Today Our reflections so far have shown us that pluralism is a basic constituent of man's experience of God affecting all men at all times. But another vital 11,,Thoughts on the Possibility of Belief Today," 7~1 5, p. 10. V-'For a position similar to Rahner's on this point see Wolfhart Pannenberg, What is Matt? (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), pp. 68-73. ~:t"'The Theological Concept of Concupiscentia," TI 1, pp. 369-71. 228 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 point needs to be made. Why is it that pluralism, always a part of man's situation before God, has become such a particularly pressing concern in our times? Why are so many in religious communities suddenly talking about it? Why has a man like Rahner written so much on pluralism in recent years? To put all these questions more precisely we should ask the following: Is there something specifically unique about pluralism in the 20th century? Are there new factors today which further complicate man's fundamentally pluralistic situation? In answer, the first assertion to be made is that Rahner very definitely feels that 20th century pluralism is a specifically unique phenomenon in the history of the human race. He explains the uniqueness of 20th century pluralism by referring to the tremendous, historically unparalleled explosion in human knowledge which is taking place in our century.TM Man has prob-ably learned more (and therefore appropriated more multiple or plural values) since the beginning of our century than he learned in all the previous centuries combined. Thus, specialization has become the byword of our age. Each individual human being is learning more and more about less and less. Human communication is becoming harder and harder. In the 19th century those who went to college or graduate school could be rela-tively certain that their studies would include a good deal of the "liberal arts" and that they would arrive at basically similar value systems. Even in the early 20th century this was still so. Today, however, people are sent away to school to study various disciplines (art, sociology, psychology, literature, mathematics, and so forth) and they come home with such varied value systems that for all practical purposes they are speaking in different languages. Many segments of society experience this problem in-cluding religious communities. The situation is especially burdensome for persons in authority insofar as persons in authority are never again going to be able to learn enough to understand all the varied value systems and languages of the people under them. A Qualitatively New Situation Rahner gives his position on the uniqueness of 20th century pluralism a deeply radical meaning when he refuses to explain today's pluralism on a merely quantitative basis, that is, on the basis of the increased number of plural values which different men are learning about today. Rather he holds that the numerical increase in man's knowledge of pluralistic values has placed mankind in a qualitatively new situation,x'' The qualitative l~"Reflections on the Contemporary Intellectual Formation of Future Priests," T! 6, pp. 114-20; "Reflections on Dialogue in a Pluralistic Society," ibid., pp. 39-40; and repeatedly elsewhere in Rahner's works on pluralism. ~z"Pluralism in Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith," Concilium 46 (1969), p. 104. Pluralism in Rahner / 229 difference is this: In the past the number of insights and values known to man was limited enough that it was at least possible in principle for one person or one group of persons to gather together the known human insights and values in such a way as to formulate one coherent worldview or philosophy of life which could be accepted and embraced by all men at least in a given part of the world. Further, in the past, the world's great civiliza-tions (Western, Oriental, African, American) were so insulated from one another by "cultural no-man's lands" that the fact of one civilization's philosophy of life not including the values known to other civilizations made no difference in practice,a'~ Today, however, the whole world is different; the barriers between the great civilizations are collapsing, and the number of pluralistic insights and values has so increased that it is simply impossible for any person or group to embrace all known values and thus establish a worldview which can attain anything approaching a universal acceptance by a civilization or civilizations.1~ This is why Rahner says that 20th century pluralism has put man in a qualitatively new situation: man can no longer thematize universally acceptable worldviews. 20th century pluralism is therefore radi-cally new. The adjectives which Rahner uses to describe it become stronger and stronger as the years pass. He describes today's pluralism as irreduc-ible, indomitable, unconquerable, unsurpassable, and so forth,as Another way of describing the qualitative difference between today's pluralism and that of the past might be to say that in former times the plural values perceived by man could be conquered by inclusion within one philosophical worldview so that they were reduced to diverse aspects of that worldview, to diversities within one philosophical system. But the differing values of today cannot be conquered or reduced to one system; thus we no longer have diversities within a system but instead we have something much more radical, we have a pluralism which is in Rahner's words unconquerable and irreducible. Rahner never precisely uses the words diversity and pluralism to characterize the old and new aspects of human multiplicity, but such a terminology certainly seems to fit in with his description of the qualitative difference between today's pluralism and that of former centuries. In any case the point is that pluralism, while ~"Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, p. 22. ~r"A Small Question Regarding the Contemporary Pluralism in the Intellectual Situa-tion of Catholics and the Church," TI 6, p. 22, and in a number of other places in Rahner's works. ~SAmong many examples of Rahnerian language of this type are: "Theological Reflec-tions on the Problem of Secularization," Theology o] Renewal, v. 1, pp. 188-90; "Reflections on the Contemporary Intellectual Formation of Future Priests," TI 6, p. 117; "The Man of Today and Religion," ibid., p. 20; "Pluralism in Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith," Concilium 46 (1969), p. 107. Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 always a fact for man before God, presents us with a new series of problems in our times. Consequences of Today's Pluralism for the Church What should be the attitude or response of Christianity towards the qualitatively new phenomenon of 20th century pluralism? Six different aspects of Christianity's response to today's pluralism can be distinguished. The first of these aspects is a general picture of Christianity's response to pluralism; the remaining five are specific consequences of the new pluralism for the Church. First then and in a general way, it can be said that throughout his writings Rahner comes across very strongly as a man who is deeply con-vinced that one of Christianity's most vital and essential tasks for our times is to accept and embrace the pluralistic situation which God has given us today just as all men in ages past have had to accept the experience of pluralism which God gave them. This open thinking is found in Rahner's works on non-Christian religions,19 on the secularity and godlessness of today's world (which Rahner says we must bravely and courageously accept because it has a positive meaning and challenge for us),-°° and on the pluralistic sciences which he espouses and encourages.21 Even the shrinking of the Church in today's pluralistic world must be accepted ~vithout fear and loved by the Christian as part of God's plan for us, part of salvation history?-° Definitely, theret~ore, Rahner sounds a clarion call to the 20th cen-tury Church to face without fear or escapism the task which God has given us of coping with the new pluralism. I have little doubt but that in future centuries, Rahner's brilliant and insightful challenge to the Church on this matter will be one of the things for which he will be most remembered. In so many ways it can be said that for Rahner the name of the game for the Christian today is to be open. The whole thrust of Rahner's thinking on anonymous Christianity suggests this. Specific Consequences Secondly and more specifically, Rahner holds that in the light of modem pluralism Christianity must give up the idea that its entire message and value system can be embraced in any one philosophical system and in par: ticular it must give up the idea that the Thomistic philosophical system can continue to be the one decisive dialogue partner in which all Christian in-ag" Christianity and the non-Christian Religions," TI 5, pp. 115-34. =°"The Man of Today and Religion," TI 6, pp. 1 I-2. '-'1"Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, p. 27. "-'~"The Present Situation of Christians: A Theological Interpretation of the Position of Christians in the Modem World," The Christian Commitment (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963), pp. 3-37. Pluralism in Rahner / 231 sights can be expressed to the world. Rather in the future Christianity will simply have to accept a who~le host of diaiogue partners (the arts, the be-havioral, social, and pure sciences, Oriental philosophies, and so forth) in expressing the Gospel messa'ge to the world. Rahner says this explicitly at least twice~3 and gives many other hints of it as well. For instance, he says that we must study all the great philosophies of the world because in an anonymous way they may be,' as much or more Christian than our explicitly Christian philosophy. In other words we are moving into an age of Christian philosophies and worldview!, instead of an age of a univocal Christian philosophy and worldview. Note carefully that Rahner who is a Thomist never says that Thomism sl~ould be abandoned as a philosophy. What he does say is that Thomism can no longer be given the absolute, monolithic status ascribed to it in the 15ast by the Church. Instead it must constantly criticize itself, realizing that it can never express the fullness of the truth of God. It must relentlessly op.en itself to the lns~ghts of other philosophies, which must in their turn be~ open to it. No longer will there be any one philosophy of life (in the sense values) upon which the Chu~rch or communities within it can operate.~' Thirdly as a consequence of pluralism for the Church Rahner holds that since theology depends on philosophical thinking for its mode of ex-pression, the fact that there can no longer be only one exclusively Christian philosophy suggests directly that there can no longer be one theology in the Church. Instead there Will be many theologies, a fact that the Church I ¯ " must bravely accept as Rahner puts it. no way denies our oneness of faith (Rahner calls it credal oneness) but it does demand that in the future our expressions of the one faith will be plural, in accord with the plu~iformtty of human experience. Next, and closely related to the idea of many theologies, Rahner argues I . that the magisterium or teac, hmg office of the Church finds itself cast into a whole new situation by tod.ay's pluralism.-oG Rahner points out that on rare occasions the teaching office[of the Church will have to continue to operate in the traditional mode, that [is, by rejecting this or that theological formula-tion as inconsistent with the faith,z7 Much more often, however, Rahner holds that in today's plurahst~c world the magisterium will have to take on z~"Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial ~ssue, 1968, p. 18; 'Phdosophy ~nd Theology" Sacramentum Mundt, v. 5, p. 23. ~4This position does not deny the underlying unity of our faith, a matter we shall consider later. '-'SIbid., pp. 23-6. Rahner does speak herein of a sense in which there is still one theology, but this will emerge in our forthcoming consideration of our one faith. "-'Glbid., p. 26; "Pluralism in Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith," Concilium 46 (1969), pp. 112-3. ~7"Pluralism in. Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith," Concilium 46 (1969), p. 113. 232 / Review for Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 a new function, a function which can be well described as a challenge func-tion rather than a judgment function. The idea of this challenge function of the magisterium is that no longer can the teaching Church understand all the formulations of all the theologians as it did in the past. Thus the Church will often not be in a position to judge the works of an individual theologian. But she can challenge him. She can urge him to be certain that his formula-tions are faithful to the Christian tradition. By so doing the teaching Church can render real service to the individual theologian and to the Christian community as a whole. Obviously a magisterium which challenges more than it judges will have to be more trusting of its theologians, trusting that they are faithful to our traditions even when the magisterium is not totally clear on how the new formulas of theology relate to the faith. Rahner states that this new challenge aspect of the Church's teaching office is already occur-ring. 2s The whole situation also suggests to Rahner that today's magisterium will generally refrain from proclaiming new dogmas, as it refrained at Vatican II. A fifth consequence of pluralism for the Church today is a fact which we previously alluded to, namely, that persons bearing authority in the Church (including bishops, pastors, religious superiors, and so forth) are placed in an extremely difficult but still very important position by con-temporary pluralism. All of us, therefore, should be deeply sensitive to the burdens of those who hold ecclesial office. Rahner points out that at times such authorities may have to exercise authority traditionally, saying no to this or that.-09 In most cases, however, office bearers in today's Church will follow the style of the new magisterium by challenging their subjects rather than judging them. In this context a particularly important task for Church authority figures will be to maintain openness, that is, to keep any of their subjects or groups of subjects from so locking themselves to a partial set of values (whether liberal values or conservative values) that they fail to be genuinely open to the mystery of God and thus commit the ultimate human sin of absolutizing finite values. Need for Constant Dialogue The last and perhaps most important implication of contemporary plural-ism is that in our times Christianity must engage in a constant and genuine dialogue with itself and with the world around it. Since today's man realizes that his philosophy of life can never be a total or absolute system, he must constantly seek to correct and expand his own viewpoint by dialoguing with other men. Rahner points out that genuine Christian dialogue is truly possible in a pluralistic society because for the man of faith all true values in 2s"Philosophy and Philosophizing in Theology," Theology Digest, Sesquicentennial issue, 1968, p. 27. 29"The Future of Religious Orders in the World and Church of Today," Sister Forma-tion Bulletin, Winter, 1972, p. 7. Pluralism in Rahner / 233 various philosophical and theological systems are seen to be rooted in the one mystery of God. Values not rooted in the mystery of God are not true values and will be shown as such in the dialogue. Hence as we journey through history together, there is hope that men can come to understand how their partial expressions of value are integrated in the absolute mystery or absolute future of man which is God. Those of course who lack faith will not see human differences as resolvable even in our future in God. But for those of us who do believe, there is hope that full unity will be attained in the eschaton. And in this hope we can keep on talking with each other despite repeated misunderstandings. Our age is peculiarly an age of going to meetings, and no doubt many of us get tired of meeting after meeting. But, if we are to be Christians in these pluralistic times, it seems we must keep on having meetings no matter how boring they, become. As Rahner sees it, dialogue is the only possible mode of coexistence for mod-ern Christian persons."~° In ending this section an observation which ought to be made is that none of these consequences of pluralism we have just reviewed really solve the problem of how the Christian is to live and form community today. For in all honesty we have to face the fact that pluralism as it now exists is a new problem which the generations who have preceded us did not face in the way we face it. Thus nobody today really knows how to cope with our pluralism and our inability to form worldviews which large scale segments of society can accept. Rahner makes some suggestions on the matter for the Church as a whole, but even he admits that he is far more asking the question about pluralism than answering it.~1 This lack of answers to the challenge of pluralism may not make us feel comfortable, but we must realize that that is where we are. Pluralism and the Oneness of Our Faith An especially nagging question seems to underlie much that we have said. Is pluralism something like the dualisms of former centuries with their many gods? Does pluralism have some effect on our faith in one God? In the Rahnerian thought world the answer is quite simple. Theological plural-ism positively does not weaken the oneness of our faith; if anything it strengthens that oneness by focusing us on the true source of our faith instead 'of on the more superficial sources of unity upon which we too often relied in the past. To understand Our oneness in faith in Rahner's system, we must advert to a basic theme of Rahner's theological anthropology or vision of man, namely that there are two poles or levels to human exis- :~°"Reflections on Dialogue within a Pluralistic Society," TI 6, p. 35. The whole article is valuable on dialogue. :~lThis point is made clear by the title and substance of Rahner's article, "A Small Question Regarding the Contemporary Pluralism in the Intellectual Situation of Catholics and the Church," TI 6, pp. 21-30. 234 / Review lor Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 tence.3~ One of these poles, in fact the more obvious of them, is the pole of concrete human activity and experience. This is the pole of human expres-sion, of human speech, of explicit consciousness and choice. On this pole or level the effects of man's materiality and limitation are clear, and thus man operates from this pole in a radically pluralistic fashion. He has many con-crete acts of learning and many forms of speech. He makes many choices. There is, however, another, a deeper and ultimately more significant level to human existence, a level which precedes the level of the concrete and multiple. This is the level of man's preconscious existence, of his deepest self-awareness before his God. Those who speak of man's funda-mental option are referring to this level of man's life. On this level rather than multiplicity and a myriad variety of human acts of knowledge and choice, man, if he is a believer, has a basic and simple openness to his God. On this level man in his radical openness no longer experiences a pluralism of values. Instead he knows one Lord and one faith. He and his neighbor may not be able to describe their faith in the same way, but as believers they are surely experiencing the one ineffable God. This level of transcen-dent human openness to God makes Christian faith community real. Our faith, therefore, is not hindered by pluralism. In fact, pluralism only serves to buttress our faith, because it forces us to realize that our faith can only be genuine faith if it is based on the unfathgmable mystery of God. No other source but this mystery can stand as an adequate ground for us as believers. Surely with this ground we can cry out in the words of Malachy: "Have we not all one father? Has not the one God created us?" (Mal 2:10). The Foundation in Tradition Rahner's position on human openness to the ineffability of God as the source of our faith and upon (he inevitable pluralism which begins to ensue as soon as we start expressing that faith finds much support both in the tradition of the Church and in modern authors. Traditionally, for instance, Christian authors have emphasized that the ways of knowing God by specific affirmation (via allirmativa) or negation (via negativa) had a validity .but still a clear limitation. Thus traditional authors appealed to a third way of knowing God, to the way of eminence or transcendence (via eminentiae), that is, to a primal recognition by man of the mystery of God. As Henri de Lubac has pointed out this third way is really the first and most fundamental way. a3 Among modern authors Bernard Lonergan in his new book, Method in Theology,34 gives particularly noteworthy support to Rahner's idea that we 3'-'"Dogmatic Reflections on the Knowledge and Self-Consciousness of Christ," TI 5, pp. 199-201. a:~Henri de Lubac, The Discovery o! God (New York: Kenedy, 1960), pp. 122-3. 34New York: Herder and Herder, 1972. In our context see especially pp. 265, 323, 326-30. Pluralism in Rahner / :235 all share one ineffable faith despite our various perceptions of that faith. Lonergan's insistence that true objectivity in man is not an "out there now real" set of facts, but rather man's honest habit of mind as he keeps him-self attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible would seem to place faith on the deepest level of human openness while realizing that faith will be expressed in various formulations. Even more explicitly, Lonergan's carefully reasoned argument that what is permanent in our dogmas is their meaning, not their formula supports Rahner's effort to place faith at the core of the human person while being open to pluralism on other levels of human perception or choice. Perhaps the title of Rahner's article "Pluralism in Theology and the Oneness of the Church's Profession of Faith" sum-marizes all this very nicely?5 We may have to use many words but we still have the Word of God. Pluralism thus creates no fundamental faith problem. It helps us to see that our faith must be based on the mystery of God. Our openness to this mystery is the primary source of our existence as a faith community. It is true, of course, that Christians need other levels of communal togetherness and organization besides this primary mystery of faith level. Some of these other or "second level" approaches to community will be considered in what follows about religious communities. First, however, we must realize that none of these other levels will have any meaning unless we begin by seeing ourselves as united on the primal level of faith in God. Implications of Pluralism for Religious Community Life~ With less specific guidance from Rahner, but in the spirit of all that we have seen, what can be said about the implications of contemporary plural-ism for religious communities in the Church? First, if we accept the idea that a religious community is called to be a genuine sign of hope to the whole Church and if contenlporary theological pluralism is one of the most critical and fundamental challenges facing the Church today, the task of opening itself to and coping with man's radically pluralistic situation is one of the most formidable and vital tasks facing the religious community today. It seems to be the kind of issue concerfiing which the religious community must live up to its eschatological nature as a sign of transcendent hope for the whole Church, a sign that real Christianity is possible in the modern pluralistic world, a sign to the Church of where she is going. It is an historical fact that over the centuries, religious com-munities have been leadership organizations in the Church in times of crisis. :~SA section of Lonergan's new book has almost exactly the same title (pp. 326-30). a6White the title of this section speaks of religious communities, surely the remarks herein can be taken as referring to the various n6ncanonical religious groups in the Church today as well as to the canonically approved religious communities. Indeed, the noncanonical groups may have an especially important task in showing religious communities their possibilities in our pluralistic world. 236 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 In our times pluralism is the crisis and millions of persons throughout the world are seeking to overcome the alienation which can exist in our plural-istic world. New experiments in communal living abound. In the crisis of pluralism can the religious community live up to its historic role of leader-ship for the future? Second, if religious communities do face up to this challenge of assuming a leadership function in showing the Church its role in a pluralistic society, probably the most realistic forecast which can be made is that the days ahead are going to be days of agony and suffering for religious communi-ties, agony because of the very nature of pluralism, and because no one right now knows precisely what to do about pluralism. This does not mean at all that religious communities should give up hope or lose faith, but it does mean that the years ahead and the paths to adapting to pluralism are going to be most difficult. Just one example of this difficulty will be that almost in-evitably more religious will have crises of faith and perhaps leave com-munities, even later in life?7 For an honest facing of pluralism will create more options for the religious and these options will create more crises. Third, it would seem that the option being taken by a few communities of refusing virtually all change and forward movement simply is not a viable option in the light of the theology of pluralism. With the greatest respect for the good faith of the leaders and members of these communities, there is an honest question about how such nondialoguing communities can continue to exist in our pluralistic .world. It is true that these communities are doing rather well as far as incoming candidates are concerned. But are these candidates accepting the vocational task of building community amidst the pluralism which God has given us all? Or are they fleeing from that task and seeking after a security which refuses to admit that pluralism exists? The Option of Fragmentation Fourth, and of special importance, the option of "fragmentation," the option of a larger religious community dividing itself into two or more smaller groups with each group representing a particular viewpoint would also seem to be foreign, at least in principle, to Rahner's theology of plural-ism. Many religious are heard to call for this option today when there is so much clamor about the bigness of organizations and the value of small, intimate communities. While I can see real value in religious communities working out living arrangements based on small, relatively homogeneous groups, I would argue that the large community structure with its varying viewpoints should be retained in our pluralistic world. My reasons for saying this is that there would seem to be a great possibility that smaller groups of religious in cutting off dialogue with other thinking about religious ::rKarl Rahner, "The Future of Religious Commonities in the World and Church of Today," Sister Formation Bulletin, Winter, 1972, p. 4. Pluralism in Rahner / life would become ineffectual, would fail to grow in maturity, and would stand in a real danger of closing in on themselves in such a way as to become unresponsive to the demands of a pluralistic society. Incidentally, the danger of a select group becoming closed would be just as great for a progressive group as for a conservative group. The Pharisees are the classical example of a progressive group who closed in on themselves and subsequently became of little value to society. Further, the fragmentation option for religious seems to ignore another of Rahner's noteworthy themes, namely that the power inherent in a larger organization can be a genuinely redemptive value in a pluralistic society.3s The foregoing remarks against the fragmentation of religious com-munities should not be taken as an absolute stand against such fragmenta-tion. Rather these remarks are a general or "in principle" statement. Rahner himself points out that in some hopefully exceptional cases in life there is so little possibility of creating understanding that a particular dialogue must be broken off so that a group can keep dialoguing at all."~ In these cases other forms of dialogue must replace the broken ones, since genuine dialogue is essential for human coexistence in a pluralistic society. There have been a few cases in recent years of religious communities dividing; and who are we to say that these particular terminations of dialogue were not genuine in-spirations of the Holy Spirit, genuine efforts to establish other forms of dia-logue when one form had become impossible? In general, however, dialogue between differing viewpoints is so essential in a pluralistic society that the option of fragmentation should not be taken except under extreme and oppressive circumstances. Experimentation and Incarnationalism Fifth, if the religious community accepts its leadership mission for the world, and if it refuses the anti-change and fragmentation options, it be-comes clear that the most helpful (and also most difficult) option for a religious community today is to let its structures become open to genuine dialogue and pluralism in such a way that the community becomes truly re-flective of the actual condition of the whole Church today. This will mean as Rahner sees it that the religious community will be engaged in a constant process of. experimentation as it seeks to face up to new perceptions of value in our pluralistic world?" Such experimentation will stem from all levels in a community: individuals, groups, and organized authority. Only through such experimentation will a religious community achieve the true openness and dialogue needed in a pluralistic ~ociety. ~S"Theology of Power," TI 4, pp. 391-409. :~:~"Reflections on Dialogue within a Pluralistic Society," Ti 6, pp. 40ol. ¯ "~"The Future of Religious Communities in the World and Church of Today," Sister Formation Bulletin, Winter 1972, pp. 6-7. 238 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 Lastly, a religious community living amidst pluralism must advert to what Rahner calls the "incarnational principle" of Christianity.'1 This principle means that the ineffable faith unity which we share in the depth of our being must somehow become incarnate, must somehow be incorpo-rated into tangible structures. Otherwise we could never experience our faith unity. More particularly, a religious community as a small unit in the Church can never embrace all the possible incarnations or concrete ex-pressions of faith value. A religious community is thus only one form of faith expression. It is only one "social institutionalization''42 of Christianity. All this implies that in addition to its underlying faith unity, a religious community will necessarily have to embrace certain second level values (the first level is always our faith), certain particular incarnations of the mystery of God. Such second level values are genuinely worthwhile in a pluralistic society for they do lead us to the one God, though in a limited way. Traditionally, the second level values around which religious com-munities have been organized have included the confession of the members of a community (Roman Catholic), their apostolate, their sex, their vowed life, their prayer, their communal living, and so forth. Openness and Second Level Unifiers Now what, in our pluralistic society, can be said about religious com-munities' second level sources of unity? Two main points must be made. First, important though these second level unifiers are, they are not ab-solute expressions of the mystery of God. Thus the place, meaning, and even the continued existence of such second level unifiers of a religious community are subjects which cannot be exempted from dialogue if a re-ligious community is going to be genuinely open to the pluralism of today's world, to our inability to form a total worldview as we did in the past. A religious community which seeks to be open to the absolute mystery of God is not absolutely open to that mystery if it absolutizes any other points besides the one mystery. And when a religious community says that values such as the vows do not call for further dialogue and understanding, it is precisely absolutizing something other than the mystery of God; it is sub-mitting to the ultimate temptation created by our pluralistic situation, the temptation of seeking particular goods instead of the good. It would be most paradoxical if today's religious community were to submit to this temptation. The whole history of religious communities has been one of protest (by vows) against the absolutization of partial human goods such as marriage, wealth, and power. And even though this protest has had tremendous impact in the history of salvation, can a religious corn- 41"Membership of the Church according to the Teaching of Pius XII's Encyclical 'Mystici Corporis Christi,'" TI 2, p. 34. a~Karl Rahner, "Reflections on Dialogue within a Pluralistic Society," TI 6, p. 31. Pluralism in Rahner / 239 munity absolutize its means (and its understanding of this means) of dialoguing with the world, of showing the world where it must move in the spirit of Christian hope? Many examples of how a religious community must be open to dialogue about second level values could be cited. Apostolates obviously need to be reconsidered today. The vow of poverty is in great need of reassessment inasmuch as the mere fact that one cannot dispose of his or her own funds does not make one poor if he or she belongs to a rich community.4'~ To take another example which has probably been thought of a good deal less, who are we to say that religious communities are always going to remain ex-clusively Roman Catholic? Granted that Vatican II has already described the other Churches as true ecclesial realities, granted that Eucharistic Inter-communion is probably not too far off, granted that many young people in the other Christian confessions (especiall.y young women) find an idealism, way of life and apostolic zeal in Catholic-religious communities for which there is no parallel in their own confessions, and finally granted that more and more the real need is for a united Christianity to show its value to a secular (and sometimes atheistic) world rather than for Catholicism to show its value to Protestantism or vice versa, might it not ultimately be-come a genuine call of the Spirit for the Catholic religious communities to accept members from other confessions? While not offering an absolute answer, I hope the example at least helps make the point that dialogue on the values which I have called second level in the religious life seems to be an inescapable consequence of the theology of pluralism. Necessity of Second Level Unifiers Our second major observation on religious communities and second level values or unity sources is a strong reminder that, granted that these values are a constant subject of dialogue, growth, and change, a religious community movement simply cannot exist without some sort of second level value commitment and organization. The religious community must operate through a concrete value-unity structure in order to be open to ultimate value. It must have a concrete vocation if it is going to have a vocation at all. It cannot have its absolute, transcendental goal (the mystery of God) without expressing this goal in concrete goals. A religious community's concrete vocation and concrete goals are so necessary sociologically that, in the midst of all the open dialogue about them, they should be seen as a requirement for membership in the community. Those who do not agree with a religious community's particular goals may be perfectly good Christians, but a community will only retain its societal identity insofar as its members agree upon a particular sociological format for moving towards the mystery of God. This is why Rahner argues that authority in a religious community 43On this point see Karl Rahner, "The Theology of. Poverty," TI 8, especially p. 172. 240 / Review jor Religious, Volume 321 1973/2 may sometimes have to operate in the traditional yes or no method. Surely the yeses or noes of a religious community's authority can never be more than provisional since the community's self understanding and consequent second level values will grow and change in dialogue. But the fact remains that the growth process of permanent religious commitment (and this is what permanent commitment is, a growth process) can only function at a particular point in space and time through the acceptance of second level goals.44 Religious communities which have forgotten this point in recent years have had their troubles as a result. Conclusion By way of a concluding thought, especially for those who are fearful of what will happen to religious communities as they face their future with all its pluralism, I would like to make the very joyful and hopeful point that there are already some indications that an honest, pluralistic dialogue on religious life's second level values will probably do a great deal more to reinforce rather than to downgrade the traditional wisdom of the Church on religious life even though this wisdom may not be asserted as absolutisti-cally as it was in the past. For instance, I have noted and been truly inspired by the fact that Christian virginity has been emerging as a very deep seated value in the lives of some members of the noncanonical religious com-munities in which it is required neither by Church law nor by any public vow. In an era when so many priests, brothers, and sisters are questioning celibacy and virginity, this is most refreshing; it suggests that our pluralistic, open-ended society (which is, after all, God's gift to us) is not so much a thing to be feared as it is a genuine opportunity for spiritual growth. Per-haps it will teach us some things we have been trying to learn all along. ¯ ~4The insistence of second level goals does not of course imply anything like the detailed agreement which existed when religious communities operated from a homogeneous worldview. But some admittedly evolutionary sociological coherence on the second level is a necessity. Pluralism and Polarization among Religious George M. Regan, C.M. Father George Regan is associate professor of theology at St. John's University; Grand Central and Utopia Parkways; Jamaica, New York 11432. The recently published sociological and psychological studies of priests in the United States have no counterpart as yet in special studies about religious men and women. Tempting hypotheses could be constructed on the basis of personal experience and impressions about the levels of maturity and self-actualization among religious, about their attitudes toward authority, and about their opinions on specific issues such as birth control, celibacy, divorce, and liturgical practices. The surveys of priests indicated that widespread disagreement exists among various segments of the Catholic clergy on such issues and that deeply polarized attitudes seem rooted in profound ideologi-cal differences. In the absence of hard data leading to actual percentages of religious who hold certain views, one can nevertheless reflect on the divergence experienced firsthand in contacts with religious communities these days. Pluralism of approach, outlook, and conviction characterize religious at all levels of the same community at times, and comparison of one community with others easily substantiates this impression of diversity, which has re-placed the former uniformity. Pluralism reaches into all levels of community life, encompassing not only particular questions such as order of day, con-crete regulations on government, poverty, and style of dress, but also more fundamental aspects of the institute's l!fe, such as its purpose and nature in the larger Church, its basic ideals and values, and its charismatic qualities for today's world. Members thus find themselves split deeply at official chapters and in less formal gatherings on the most fundamental meanings of their religious life and on many more superficial issues. Coupled with this pluralism has arisen a sense of alienation, an outright bitterness about 241 242 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 the frustrating experience of division, or an aimless confusion. Polarization of groups may be discerned not infrequently. The vitality of individual religious and of entire communities has suffered immeasurably as a conse-quence. This extensive pluralism and the resulting polarization constitute a rich and inviting ground for thorough exploration by specialists in various fields. At times in recent years, some religious have tended to look upon their problems as mainly theological in nature, but further reflection casts grave doubt on the accuracy of this claim. In particular, the psychological and social factors of given attitudinal differences and divisions often feed into the situation more than do the theological and philosophical viewpoints espoused. This may be seen clearly in many contemporary divisions which have emerged between young and old, or between liberals and conservatives. Such divergences often manifest features closely resembling matters dis-cussed in development psychology or sociology in general. This article will concentrate principally on the more theoretical and intellectual roots of today's pluralism which underlie the theological, psychological, and sociological differences. In a sense, it will address the issue of the basic framework within which various groups of religious operate. It will not offer a litany of the specific differences which separate religious, nor will it provide a "medicine chest" of remedies. Our more limited purpose is simply to reflect on the different levels and .origins of pluralism in the ways of thinking and acting among relig!pus and to inquire into some possible means of coping with its sometimes unhappy results. The Death of Old Theory In an address to a committee of American bishops in which he inter-preted the results of the sociological survey of priests, Andrew Greeley claimed that "we have not yet discovered that our fundamental problem is the collapse of old theory combined with the non-appearance of new theory." In his usage, theory means those goals, values, models, and basic assumptions that allow the given human grouping to interpret and order phenomena, to justify its own existence, to explain its purposes to outsiders and new members, to underwrite its standard procedures and methodologies, and to motivate its members toward its goals. Though Greeley's comments regarding such theory concern priests alone, his approach has direct bear-ing on the question of the emergence of pluralism in all areas of American Church life, including religious communities. According to Greeley, the old theoretical structure began to crumble in the United States about ten years ago, and it has now disappeared, never to be restored. This rigid and unconscious theory emerged as a mixture of post-Tridentine garrison Catholicism and American immigrant Catholicism. It laid stress on loyalty to the Church, certainty and immutability of an-swers, strict discipline and unquestioning obedience, a comprehensive Pluralism and Polarization Catholic community, suspicion of the world beyond the Church, avoidance of re-examination of fundamental principles, and clearly defined models of behavior. The reasons substantiating .this theory were largely extrinsic and suasive, not decisive, for they were justified by one's loyalty to the teachings and structures of the Church and not by their intrinsic rationality. When various elements of this theoretical structure were thrown into doubt, the entire theoretical structure collapsed without warning. Since all rules, however minor, were viewed as immutable and unquestioned, change in even a few rules such as "meat on Friday" exposed the shaky foundations of the whole structure. The very suddenness of the change had excluded any opportunity to rethink the grounds of past assumptions and when these assumptions fell into disrepute, confusion resulted. Greeley believes that there exists virtually no theoretical perspective to replace the old theory, for the fads and fashions, clich6s and slogans of recent years lack sound and solid scholarship. His remedies for this situation center on the indis-pensability of scholarship in all areas of Church life. Scholars must get to work on building a new theory; and all levels of the Christian community must manifest openness, respect, and understanding for the results of their scholarship. One might justifiably criticize various elements of Greeley's presenta-tion, which sometimes verges more on polemical journalism than on ob-jective analysis. Sweeping generalizations about the old theory's "avoidance of re-examination of fundamental principles," and about the former lack of rational foundations do not ring completely accurate. One may well disagree with the actual cogency of the intrinsic reasons advanced for many past approaches, but it strikes one as gross exaggeration to deny their very existence, as Greeley seems to do. Consequences ot the Loss o~ the "Old Theory" His overall analysis seems true enough, however, and its application to the current situation which exists in many religious communities also seems clear. In a peculiar fashion and perhaps more strongly than in the priesthood, many religious institutes had embodied the chief marks of the "old theory" which Greeley describes. Disappearance of these characteristics or questionings about their presentday relevance have split many a com-munity or left it adrift aimlessly. The basic goals, values, and assumptions of past approaches to religious life constitute the kind of "old theory" which has undergone increasing challenge. Debates about such funda-mentals have obviously far more import than does disagreement about more superficial features in religious communities. How often does one not hear religious, usually older in age, wondering about the seeming decrease in loyalty to the community and its traditions among some members, the ever-changing views of the young, the lack of discipline and compliance with authority which has grown, the intrusion ~/44 / Review for Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 of what seems a worldly spirit, the lessening in time devoted to formal prayer, an overstress on personal fulfillment, an endless questioning of basic goals, values, and principles, and the advancement of vague and im-precise models of religious conduct? It takes little effort to draw the sharp contrast between these tendencies and the "old theory" formerly in effect. Another group of members, on the other hand, may criticize the present situation and urge change from precisely an opposite vantage point: Why has the community not updated more its apostolate, life style, government, and spirituality? Why do institutional requirements outweigh personal needs? Such conflicting comments and complaints signal at the least that the members of the religious community have failed to agree on some essential aspects of their life together. Onguing Crisis If one were to accept Greeley's views, then a religious community which lacks agreement on a theory in this deep sense of goals, values, and basic assumptions must of necessity expect ongoing crisis, for it lacks the founda-tions needed by any human organization. Without such organizational ele-ments agreed to substantially by the members, the religious community will lack the tools to provide a rationale for its existence, thereby undercutting its ability to attract new candidates and to motivate its present members. The conflicting expectations of its members, furthermore, would in all likeli-hood lead to frustration and anger, which may become repressed and then manifested only in hidden agendas. The real issues which separate may appear rarely in open discussion; a superficial facade of friendly toleration may mask underlying divisions. Instead of religious' testing one another's assumptions in healthy confrontation and seeking to incorporate whatever seems of value, defensive listening may begin whereby one person listens caret~ully in order to gather information, or better ammunition, to contra-dict. In extreme cases, open hostility or full withdrawal into silence may eventuate. Such problems parallel closely communications difficulties de-scribed extensively in marriage counseling literature. In such an atmosphere, not only deterioration of the human relationships involved, but also de-terioration of the persons themselves must set in eventually. Need for Substantial Agreement This sobering prospect lends a special urgency to the continuing task of striving to clarify and reach substantial agreement on the fundamentals of each religious community. If the members differ broadly on the very purpose and values of the community, how can they realistically expect one another to pursue vigorously and in unison some common goals? The various issues which polarize groups may, in fact, be symptoms of the deeper pathology in the religious community: a lack of common goals, values, and assump-tions essential to the life of the organism. For example, when large numbers Pluralism and Polarization / 245 of religious in a teaching community favor direct social work for the poor, the issue of the apostolic purpose of the institute should be addressed courageously. Similarly, communities which experience sharp and immense diversity among the members on their inner identity as contemplatives or apostolically oriented religious should discuss the matter openly, rather than avoiding the problem or simply drifting indecisively into a new identity through the sheer force of circumstances. When religious of the same community differ enormously on such a basic point of their common life as that of the character of the institute, they have little reason to hope for harmonious concord on lesser ideals and values. The more that significant pluralism enters these foundational areas of goals, values,, and basic assumptions regarding the community itself, the more the members should expect a sense of aimlessness, disunity, and confusion, it would seem. Unless some shared meanings emerge at these deep levels of their life together, religious must prepare for the inevitable results which flow from vague and overly general goals and values. Un-fortunately, dialogue may at times neglect these basic levels of religious life and concentrate on the more superficial, day-to-day aspects or happenings. Such failure may even carry over into official discussions at chapter and the like where extreme defensiveness or closed-mindedness can prevent needed exchange of opinions among the members. In a positive way, therefore, it seems incumbent on religious, especially those in higher authority, to raise these issues when disagreement exists below the surface and to foster free airing of views in the hope of clarifying goals and values. This seems a healthier solution than pretending outwardly that the members amicably share the same opinions. Some meeting of minds may follow more readily in this unhampered atmosphere, despite the anxieties created by confronta-tion. The Roots of Change Greeley's analysis of the contemporary situation in the Church and in the American priesthood is professedly that of a sociologist. When he speaks of the disappearance or collapse of the old theory, therefore, he refers hardly at all to the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the old theory, which he discusses more in empirical terms. Appreciation of these more theoretical dimensions may assist us in gaining additional insight into the roots of pluralism and in evaluating proposed means of coping with it. We shall direct our attention to two matters in particular: the emergence of pluralism in ecclesiology today, and the shift from a classicist to an his-torically conscious worldview. Pluralism in Ecdesiology Though Greeley mentions the death of post-Tridentine garrison Cathol-icism, he does not explore the highly juridical theology of the Church which 246 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 had justified these tightly knit patterns of behavior. This ecclesiology often found direct application to the models of authority and the corresponding structures employed in religious communities. The overcentralization, lack of sufficient subsidiarity, and overly juridical conception of authority found in the Church at large and in diocesan structures existed in religious com~ munities as well and rested its common roots in this understanding of the Church. This former approach to a theology of the Church had the added implication of overstressing the divine element of the holy Church, in too great contrast at times with the so-called profane world. In failing to give enough weight to positive elements outside the Church and to see God present there among men, "this understanding lent a basis to a spirituality tinged with suspicion of the world, "merely natural" or human values, and human institutions. God's self-communication seems relegated more readily to the more narrowly institutional context of the Church and open dialogue with the world appears foreign or dangerous in this conception. Religious communities which operated within this conceptual framework more natur-ally took on reservations about contacts with the world and the need to separate oneself from its perverting influences gained favor. By way of contrast, many contemporary writings which view the Church as servant and healer of the total human society understand her as essentially related to the world; and they take a far more accepting view of human values and institutions: the Church "goes forward together with humanity and experiences the same earthly lot which the world does. She serves as a leaven and as a kind of soul for human society as it is to be renewed in Christ and transformed into God's family" (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, no. 40). The more that individual religious communities as a whole have taken on this more openly secular approach, which views the world and human values more favorably, the more they customarily take a somewhat negative view of factors which are viewed as separating the religious from the world or from human customs. Resulting Disagreements Inevitable disagreements must exist in religious communities and throughout the entire Church so long as disagreement exists on such funda-mental approaches to a theology of the Church. Pluralism among religious in this basic theological area sometimes underlies the members' differing convictions on contact with or separation from other people, openness or closedness to human standards and patterns of conduct, and general in-volvement with or disassociation from ordinary human events. Disputes about religious garb, about freedom to come and go, about visiting with laity or entering into friendship with them, and about attendance at or participa-tion in recreational or sports activities sometimes stem from more profound differences about the way in .which religious are conceived of in their rela-tionship to "the world." An implicit ecclesiology often seems at work in the Pluralism and Polarization / 247 way people think about such concrete matters. Similarly, disagreements in ecclesiology are bound to influence one's notions of Church authority. These disagreements become manifest frequently in the comments or criticisms by religious that they find their community's authority too centralized in the person of the provincial authorities or the local superior; or that col-legial bodies such as consultations of the local house are given mere lip service by the local superior; or that decisions which can be reached by themselves individually or at the local level are reserved to higher authority. Once again, these issues seem symptomatic of the more profound ideological differences in ecclesiology which separate Catholics today. Though such disagreements seem inevitable in today's climate of plural-ism, the destructive manner of coping with them found so often need not exist. More comments will be made on this topic later in this article, but some reflections seem pertinent even at this stage. Disagreement can at times be a constructive and enriching force in human relationships, within toler-able limits and depending on how people react. Deep differences should be faced squarely in a climate of open communication, if some valid hope remains of fostering closer harmony and unity in community. To bury di-vergences o~r to treat only the symptoms or external manifestations of pluralism and the resulting polarization insures an eventual destruction of interpersonal sharings promotive of personal growth. It would be more worthwhile to plunge tactfully into the more basic levels of disagreements, which in this case touch on the very nature of the Church and of ecclesiasti-cal authority. One's assumptions, spoken and outspoken, should be brought to light in mutual respect and openness. A willingness to temper one's views, to grant honesty and good will to the other party, and to speak about issues, not personalities, seems a minimum condition in such dialogue. In this deeper context where lie the roots of more shallow differences, mere pragmatic techniques for bettering the current situation will prove in-sufficient. Though the American passion for such practical programs may obscure one's vision, religious communities must accept the need of dealing with these more profound, theoretical dimensions of these issues. If reli-gious communities are to adopt even more moderate thrusts of contemporary theologies of the Church and of ecclesiastical authority, for example, they should at least acquaint all members with a more positive view of the world beyond the Church. Leaders in each community must also embody the con-viction that authority means service, not naked power disguised under new forms; that collegial functioning flows from Christian coresponsibility as members of the community; that love, trust, and friendship must be present in any effective Church leader and perhaps even more in a leader within a religious community. This kind of new theory, if it be that in contrast to some past distorted notions, surpasses mechanical techniques of improving government and the community's stance vis-?a-vis the rest of mankind. To expect that religious superiors familiar with another approach to authority 248 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 can automatically learn and adopt this new theory and behavior seems rather unrealistic. Practice based on such theory would go a long way in alleviating some tensions which exist among those who doggedly hold to outmoded con-ceptions of the Church and of authority, and those who stridently favor newness uncritically, perhaps urging the abandonment of most structures and of practically any interpretation of authority. Once more, unless some attempt is made to deal with issues below their surface and to strive for some limited agreement in fundamentals, religious communities cannot rightfully expect polarization to lessen, let alone disappear. A Changed Worldview Beyond Greeley's empirical analysis and the implications of the ecclesi-ological factors described above, we can explore still further to the deeper roots of today's pluralism in religious communities. Catholic authors in recent years have noted a significant shift in the basic worldview whereby we do philosophy and theology these days, and whereby we approach prac-tical solutions to questions in Church life. By worldview, these authors mean the fundamental framework whereby one interprets and orders reality and thus arrives at more detailed convictions. Bernard Lonergan in dogmatic theology, Charles Curran in moral theology, John Courtney Murray in matters pertaining to religious freedom, and Avery Dulles in ecclesiology have all referred to a contemporary change from a classicist worldview to an historically conscious worldview, which they all see as having immense ramifications in their areas of concern. Greek philosophy and Christian thought represented by thinkers ranging from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas to nearly all Catholic theologians until quite recently employed an approach which emphasized man's ability to grasp the essence of reality through his reasoning faculty. This so-called "classicist worldview" left little room for change, variation, or uncertitude. Since reason can easily enough penetrate to the essence of reality, im-mutability, certitude, timelessness, and absoluteness characterized such varied matters as moral principles, images of the Church, Church laws, and inherited patterns of conduct. In moral issues, for example, this thought pattern leaves little room for variability and relativity because of cultural diversity, historical development, or concrete circumstances. A variety of universal, negative norms, "Thou shalt nots," became part and parcel of the moral theology built on this worldview. In ecclesiology, this approach favored descriptive notes which emphasized similar qualities of unchange-ableness, universality, absoluteness, and certainty. The canon law elaborated in former times also mirrored this conception of reality. Modern influences of personalism, phenomenology, and existentialism and the scientific spirit of modern times bore in on Catholic philosophers and theologians in recent decades and turned the tide against this classicist Pluralism and Polarization / 249 worldview for many an author and, seemingly, for our entire Western cul-ture. The historically conscious worldview embodied in many Catholic writ-ings today views man and his world as evolving and historical, rather than as static and unchanging. Progress, development, and growth are seen as marking man and his world, and these qualities should carry into all philosophical, theological, and practical understandings of Christian life. A stress on the human person in his subjectivity and concreteness, on this man or men, rather than simply on "man," characterizes the contemporary in-quiry. The individual's feelings and non-rational states understandably receive more attention in this approach. Since concreteness, change, and diversity are such prominent features, tentativeness and openness to excep-tion replace the past tendency to formulate a host of absolute understand-ings. Pluralism and Worldviews Results of this shift in worldviews can be seen clearly in recent debates in the field of Christian moral theology. The uniqueness and unrepeatability of the individual person and his myriad moral situations have eroded for some authors the very possibility of articulating general moral norms with an absolute force, the "Thou shalt nots" so familiar in past presentations of Catholic morality. Rather than centering their treatment of a question like divorce, contraception, or pre-marital relations on the essence of marriage and human sexuality, for instance, authors writing in this vein will tend to discuss the empirical consequences and concrete circumstances of divorce, contraception, and pre-marital relations in order to arrive at their moral reflections on the proposed conduct. Nearly all authors show some reliance these days on this historically conscious view of man, though most have combined this with some continuing reliance on man's essential structures. This eclecticism does, however, lead inevitably to a spectrum of theological opinions, instead of the one "Catholic opinion" found in moral writings in use even into the past decade. A main result of this shift in worldviews and the accompanying eclecti-cism, consequently, has been the emergence of pluralism in many areas of Catholic thinking and living. One answer no longer exists for many issues in theology, philosophy, and Church life. Catholics' opinions run the spectrum from the essentialism inherited from past approaches through all shades of combinations to the other pole, new approaches heavily conditioned by existentialism, process thought, and consequ.entialism. Many common em-phases can, of course, be discerned in contemporary writings: a stress on the human person in his freedom, dignity, and personal fulfillment; the possibility of more room for change in previously accepted theological opinions, in social customs and law, and in Church structures; a thrust toward service in the world, rather than an emphasis on the dangers of con-tamination from the world; and an understanding of the Church more in 250 / Review ]or Religious, Volume 32, 1973/2 terms of the persons involved than in terms of institutions. These common emphases do not, however, lead to one new theory; they lead instead to new theories, new theologies, new understandings of the Church and ecclesiastical laws, customs, and structures. In a real sense, a new theory has developed which permits and even fosters a plurality of theories, of theologies, and of understandings. Pluralism constitutes a key-note of such "new theory." Disappointment may well await those who urge and expect some new univocal theory in the sense of an all-comprehensive and wholly coherent system of goals, values, and models of appropriate behavior and assumptions for the Church at large. Such a theory seems un-likely to appear on the horizon in the foreseeable future, if at all. What seems far more plausible and realistic to expect is an acceptance of pluralism in theology, philosophy, Church structures, and social customs and laws. Worldviews and Polarization This contrast between the classicist and historically conscious worldviews has influenced greatly the polarization so evident in religious communities today. At the roots of the various groupings whose labels have become pop-ularized-- liberal vs. conservative, old vs. young, secular-minded vs. cultic --often lies this more fundamental difference in the very approach to reality which religious and other Catholics now have. Inevitably, religious working within the historically conscious worldview will be more prone to accept or even to foster change in structures, in theological understandings, in the manner of doing Christian service to the world, in the proper exercise of authority in their community, and in traditional laws and customs. Since their entire outlook on reality promotes change and development in the name of human and Christian progress, and diversity and tentativeness in all formulations, which must of necessity be time-conditioned, they will urge these qualities in all aspects of religious life. Bedause their worldview con-centrates more on the human person in his concreteness and uniqueness, they will react strongly against whatever structures, institutions, and under-standings hinder the individual's fulfillment. A deeper interpersonal sharing at a different level of friendship than found in traditional approaches to religious life will leave these religious unsatisfied with forms of life which they find impersonal, institutionalized, and shallow. De~ires for small group-living frequently result from their reaction to such weaknesses, which they discern in large religious houses. Such issues as those of optional celibacy for secular priests, the ordination to priestly ministry of women, freedom of life style for priests and religious in such matters as dress, residence, and occupation, remarriage or readmis-sion to the sacraments of the divorced, and collegial living without a local authority in the person of a superior flow more naturally from a person whose fundamental outlook remains open to newness and progress in the sense described and whose value system places great emphasis on the indi- Pluralism and Polarization / :251 vidual person's development. Often enough, the individual religious will not have clearly articulated the theoretical foundations of his basic worldview or framework for thinking and judging; he simply finds himself doing it rather consistently without much reflection. No more than for many a person operating within the classicist worldview, his basic presuppositions and unarticulated theory rarely enter formally into discussion. Unless other members of religious communities come to appreciate this basic contrast in worldviews, they will find it most difficult to understand the rationale for many present-day movements and for viewpoints like those described previously. They will greet each new issue in the community with dismay, wondering why large numbers of their own community fail to see things their way. "Where have they gone wrong?" may be their continuing puzzled query. They will not grasp that an entirely different framework, the historically conscious worldview, has its own inner logic, as compelling for its adherents as their own classicist approach. One need not, of course, actually agree with the historically conscious worldview in its main lines or certainly in its applications. Unless one has some minimal understanding ot~ its overall thrust, however, one seems doomed to confusion, so far-reaching has been its influence and acceptance. Rancor and anger leading to hardened opposition of polarized camps may eventually set in. This seems already to have occurred in numerous instances in religious communities and rela-tions have become strained or, in some cases, non-existent. The Danger of Worsening The pluralism of opinions has threatened and disturbed many religious precisely because it has unsettled the foundations of their entire worldview and the conclusions which flow from it. The wonder, at times is that more polarization fails to exist, given the chasms in viewpoints. A hankering after the former uniformity in outlook and the accompanying security may under-standably have crept into one's (onsciousness in this charged atmosphere. Condemnation of unexamined new approaches as untenable or foofish may prove the only sustainable defense for the threatened and vulnerable person trained in another way in a different era. Conversely, religious who operate within the historically conscious Worldview may retreat into an unsubstan-tiated dogmatism in reaction to this rejection which they sense in their fellow religious. The wounded feelings they experience may lead some into frustrated withdrawal, whose sequel will be loneliness and depression. In overreaction, others may lash out negatively against traditional values and customs, denying in the process the continuity with the past which will insure the future. This unhealthy and mutally destructive atmosphere will breed a polarization far removed from the ideals of Christian community. Unless some steps toward amelioration of this situation can be under-taken, the current crisis in some religious communities seems likely to con-tinue and to deepen. An already bad situation may worsen. In particular, 252 / Review ]or Religious, l/olume 32, 1973/2 the strong, balanced, and idealistic candidates needed so badly in religious communities will not be attracted to a divided and polarized group who seem unable to live the unity their very notion implies. A deep and urgent crisis exists; yet the tone of given communities sometimes manifests business as usual in an atmosphere of unrealistic hope for a better future. Doomsday prophets are usually proved wrong and their message hardly accords with Christian hope. Yet Christian hope has always avoided the twin shoals of despair and presumption. Both undue pessimism and unwarranted optimism remain excluded. Coping With Pluralism and Polarization What suggestions can be offered for coping with pluralism and its fre-quent companion, polarization? At the outset, it would be profitable to recall that any such discussion should proceed within the prayerful recol-lection of Jesus' prayer "that they may all be one, even as you Father in me and I in you; that they may all be one in us." Religious communities' unity must fit within this larger context of the unity among men and the unity of the Church, as prayed for by Jesus. Constant prayer for faithfulness to the gospel ideal of loving union with all one's neighbors should mark every Christian. I-Iow much more so in those situations when religious experience disunity, discord, and polarization? Prayer for one another, reflection on those features which the religious share in common, and a positive desire for loving union should receive more emphasis than often seems the case. Besides these most fundamental suggestions, several more come to mind. First, it would seem helpful as a starting point to realize and expect that pluralism will be unavoidable in the years ahead in most areas of Church life and theology. Pluralism will not simply go away overnight, if at all. The fundamental differences in outlooks among Catholic moral theologians, for example, in such basic matters as the existence of absolute norms, the epistemology of theological ethics, the use of Sacred Scripture, the binding force of the Church's teachings on moral matters, the importance of esti-mating consequences and employing empirical data, all point to long-reaching splintering into various camps of moral theologians for the fore-seeable future. Logically, authors who disagree on such basic items must disagree also in matters pertaining to medical ethics, sexual ethics, social issues, or any other concrete moral question. Similarly, the different worldviews employed by religious who live under the same roof or in the same province dictate perforce some degree of continued divergence on matters pertaining to their religious lives. Keeping these facts in mind, expectation of pluralism in a realistic way may cut away some of the unnecessary emotional defenses which hinder rational analysis of the new premises and conclusions. In this unhampered atmosphere, de-fensiveness will diminish, hopefully, and reasoned consideration and genuine dialogue, in the sense of a candid exchange of views, may follow the more Pluralism and Polarization / 25
The research is based on the features of the influence of interethnic relations on the development of cross-border cooperation. It is noted that, provided effective ethno-national policies are implemented, multi-ethnic border regions have the advantage that national communities facilitate cross-border cooperation, and they often act as intermediaries in inter-regional relations. It has been proven that interethnic relations have a significant impact on the development of cross-border cooperation, in particular the importance of local authorities and national governments, which have a significant role to play in the issues of inter-ethnic relations in the region. It is argued that in the development of cross-border cooperation, greater emphasis should be placed on programs and projects aimed at improving the coexistence and development of national minorities in the border regions where they are most often living compactly, in particular representatives of national minorities; as a factor of European integration. For the successful development of cross-border cooperation, it is important to understand the needs and interests of the ethnic communities of a particular region, and to take into account historical, cultural factors. It is noted that the integration model is effective in the development of cross-border cooperation, since it enables different ethnic groups and national minorities to maintain their national identity, as well as to participate in regional and inter-state cooperation. Each interethnic community in Europe has its own peculiarities, and therefore the general list of recommendations included in the European Charter does not list the granting of large permits to municipal regions. However, these documents formed the basis for cross-border cooperation in European regions, and the provisions contained therein strengthened activities in this field. An important fact is that most inter-ethnic cooperation activities are within the structures of the European Union. The most common term is "territorial cooperation" or "cross-border cooperation", which are understood as different types of cooperation programs. These programs support the promotion and implementation of joint projects of an international nature throughout the European Union and its neighbors. A specific form of cross-border cooperation is Euroregional. Its characteristic feature is the institutionalization of cross-border cooperation structures. These structures may be: interethnic associations, councils, secretariats, committees, working groups, etc. Euroregional cooperation is carried out within the Euroregion. The Euroregion can be seen as a formal structure of cooperation, adopted on the basis of agreements between interethnic local and regional authorities in order to deepen economic and social cooperation. It is emphasized that the European experience of using the opportunities of cooperation with national minorities in multiethnic regions is of great importance for Ukraine, in particular, the work of the Council of Europe, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), the Association of European Border Regions, which receive considerable attention, is useful. national minorities in the development of cross-border cooperation. European experience demonstrates that, with proper organization of state policy and historical experience, the involvement of ethnic groups in cross-border cooperation can have a positive impact. Interethnic cooperation promotes political stability and reduces tensions in border areas, and has a positive impact on economic cooperation, development of education, science and culture. It is proved that cross-border cooperation must take into account the nature of ethno-political relations in the border regions, promote the provision of conditions for the development of ethno-cultural characteristics of national minorities and develop mechanisms of interethnic interaction, cooperation of local authorities and public organizations of national minorities. ; Исследованы особенности влияния межэтнических отношений на развитие трансграничного сотрудничества. Отмечается, что при реализации эффективной этнонациональной политики полиэтнические приграничные регионы имеют преимущество в том, что национальные общины способствуют налаживанию трансграничного сотрудничества, они часто выполняют роль посредников в межрегиональных отношениях. Доказано, что межэтнические отношения оказывают значительное влияние на развитие трансграничного сотрудничества, в частности, важная роль отводится местным органам власти. Утверждается, что в развитии трансграничного сотрудничества стоит больше внимания уделять программам и проектам, которые направлены на улучшение сосуществования и развитие национальных меньшинств в приграничных регионах, где они чаще всего проживают компактно, в частности, представителей национальных меньшинств, национальные общества следует рассматривать как партнеров в развитии межгосударственного диалога как фактор европейской интеграции. Для успешного развития трансграничного сотрудничества важно понимание потребностей и интересов этнических сообществ того или иного региона, учета исторических, культурных факторов. Отмечается, что именно интеграционная модель является эффективной в развитии трансграничного сотрудничества, поскольку дает возможность различным этническим группам и национальным меньшинствам сохранить свою национальную идентичность. Отмечается, что для Украины важным является европейский опыт использования возможностей сотрудничества с национальными меньшинствами в полиэтнических регионах, в частности, полезны наработки в этом вопросе Совета Европы, Стратегии ЕС для Дунайского региона (EUSDR), Ассоциации европейских приграничных регионов, значительное внимание уделяют исследованию возможностей национальных меньшинств в развитии трансграничного сотрудничества. Межэтническое сотрудничество способствует политической стабильности и уменьшает напряженность в приграничных зонах, а также положительно влияет на экономическое сотрудничество, развитие образования, науки и культуры. Доказано, что для трансграничного сотрудничества важно учитывать характер этнополитических отношений в приграничных регионах, способствовать обеспечению условий для развития национальных меньшинств и выработки механизмов межэтнического взаимодействия, сотрудничества органов местной власти и общественных организаций национальных меньшинств. ; Досліджено особливості впливу міжетнічних відносин на розвиток транскордонної співпраці. Зазначається, що за умови реалізації ефективної етнонаціональної політики поліетнічні прикордонні регіони мають перевагу в тому, що національні громади сприяють налагодженню транскордонної співпраці, вони часто виконують роль посередників у міжрегіональних відносинах. Доведено, що міжетнічна співпраця має значний вплив на розвиток транскордонної співпраці, зокрема, важлива роль відводиться місцевим органам влади, які мають значну вагу приділяти питанням міжетнічних відносин у регіоні. Стверджується, що у розвитку транскордонної співпраці варто більше уваги надавати програмам та проектам, які спрямовані на покращення співіснування та розвиток національних меншин у прикордонних регіонах, де вони найчастіше проживають компактно, зокрема, представників національних меншин, національні товариства варто розглядати як партнерів у розвитку міждержавного діалогу, як чинник європейської інтеграції. Для успішного розвитку транскордонної співпраці важливим є розуміння потреб та інтересів етнічних спільнот того чи іншого регіону, врахування історичних, культурних чинників. Зазначається, що саме інтеграційна модель є ефективною у розвитку транскордонної співпраці, оскільки дає можливість різним етнічним групам та національним меншинам зберегти свою національну ідентичність, а також брати участь у регіональній та міждержавній співпраці. Наголошується, що для України важливим є європейський досвід використання можливостей співпраці з національними меншинами у поліетнічних регіонах, зокрема, корисними є напрацювання у цьому питанні Ради Європи, Стратегії ЄС для Дунайського регіону (EUSDR), Асоціації європейських прикордонних регіонів, які значну увагу приділяють дослідженню можливостей національних меншин у розвитку транскордонного співробітництва. Європейський досвід демонструє, що за правильної організації політики держави, а також врахування історичного досвіду участь міжетнічних груп у межах транскордонного співробітництва може мати позитивний вплив. Доведено, що транскордонна співпраця повинна обов'язково враховувати характер етнополітичних відносин у прикордонних регіонах, сприяти забезпеченню умов для розвитку етнокультурних особливостей національних меншин та вироблення механізмів міжетнічної взаємодії, співпраці органів місцевої влади та громадських організацій національних меншин.
Objective: During the interwar period, the healthcare system in Europe experienced a dramatic transformation. It was perceived that preventive medicine was no less important than curative medicine. Moreover, without proper prevention of the so-called social diseases, all later therapeutic measures were expensive and ineffective. The former battle against the consequences was replaced by measures targeting the causes. The fight against social diseases involved a state-owned strategy and a broad arsenal of measures. The University's scholars also took part in this process. Our study revealed that the significance of the disease prevention in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Stephen Bathory was well understood. Moreover, the treatment was not segregated from hygiene as strictly as it is today. Many hygienists as well as clinicians contributed to the development of preventive mechanisms. The broad specialization of doctors enabled them to see not only biomedical, but also social and economic aspects of a disease. Hygienists and doctors encouraged cooperation and coordination of their activities with the central and local authorities as well as education of the local population.The progress of medical science in Europe and the World, as well as the Soviet ideology in Eastern Europe distracted doctors from the search for the etiology of social illness. Biomedical treatment had become much more effective, and the development of social hygiene research in Eastern Europe had experienced stagnation. For ideological reasons the disease etiology in the Soviet bloc could not be associated with social factors. Social hygiene in the Soviet Union was highly politicized; it could only be interpreted in a frame of Soviet models. The healthcare system that had been created in the Soviet Union was named as the best in the world. The actual medical statistics were concealed from the public, since their logical interpretation could reveal the social causes of illnesses and the disadvantages of the soviet system.Sometimes we must return to basic ideas to improve current public health mechanisms. It is worth reconsidering fundamental questions, i.e. what public health is and how to achieve it. The breadth of the approach of the interwar Vilnius hygienists and doctors, the sensitivity to the social origins of diseases and persistence in combating them by all possible means could serve as an example for today's doctors. At that time, hygienists approached the idea that the highest goal of prevention was to create a healthy environment, healthy living and working conditions. Although today we live in a much safer environment than those individuals did, new threats are emerging because of changing technology and lifestyle. The broad approach of physicians remains equally important in order not only to combat individual precedents, but also to overcome the preconditions for emerging precedents. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the theoretical patterns of hygiene and public health established by the hygienists of the Vilnius Hygiene Department as well as the attempts to apply them in practice.Methods: The study was conducted by analyzing the primary and secondary historical sources using the comparative method. A lot of data from the Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Lithuanian Central State Archives) that had been used in this research were published for the first time. According to the original archival data, an analysis of the scientific publications of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Stephen Bathory was made to find out the priorities of the research carried out at that time.Conclusions: The complicated economic conditions, the lack of support from the local and central government as well as the imperfections in health legislation of that time hindered the full implementation of the hygienist strategies of the University of Stephen Bathory. However, the activities of the Department of Hygiene of Stephen Bathory University had a significant impact on the development of hygiene science as well as medical practice in the Vilnius region during the Interwar period (1919–1939). ; Cel badań: W okresie międzywojennym system opieki zdrowotnej przeżył dramatyczną transformację. Uważano, że medycyna zapobiegawcza jest nie mniej ważna niż medycyna lecznicza. Ponadto, bez zapobiegania tzw. chorobom społecznym wszystkie późniejsze działania stawały się kosztowniejsze i nieefektywne. Walkę z konsekwencjami zastąpiono środkami ukierunkowanymi na zapobieganie. Zwalczanie chorób społecznych wymagało odpowiedniej strategii państwowej i obszernego zestawu narzędzi. Uniwersyteccy naukowcy też mieli udział w tej walce. Badanie wykazało, że w okresie międzywojennym, na Wydziale Lekarskim Uniwersytetu Stefana Batorego w Wilnie, wartość – jaką było zapobieganie chorobom – była zrozumiała, a samo leczenie nie było oddzielone od higieny tak wyraźnie, jak to jest dzisiaj. Mechanizmy zapobiegawcze zostały opracowane zarówno przez wielu higienistów, jak i klinicystów. Szeroka wiedza lekarzy pozwoliła im dostrzec nie tylko biomedyczne, ale także społeczne i ekonomiczne aspekty choroby. Higieniści i lekarze zachęcali władze centralne i lokalne do współpracy i koordynacji działań zapobiegających chorobom oraz do edukacji lokalnej ludności.Postęp nauk medycznych w Europie i na świecie, a także ideologia sowiecka w Europie Wschodniej, odwracały uwagę lekarzy od poszukiwań społecznej etiologii chorób. Leczenie biomedyczne było skuteczniejsze i od tego czasu rozwój badań nad higieną społeczną w Europie Wschodniej, bardzo spowolnił. Higiena społeczna w Związku Radzieckim była bardzo upolityczniona, można ją było interpretować tylko w kategoriach sowieckiego modelu pojęciowego. System opieki zdrowotnej stworzony w Związku Radzieckim został uznany za najlepszy na świecie. Dane statystyk medycznych były ukrywane przed opinią publiczną, ponieważ ich logiczna interpretacja mogła ujawnić społeczne przyczyny choroby i wady obecnego systemu.Dzisiaj, aby ulepszyć mechanizmy zdrowia publicznego, czasami musimy powracać do podstawowych idei. Warto zastanowić się nad podstawowymi pytaniami – czym jest zdrowie publiczne i jak je osiągnąć. Szerokie podejście do problemu, wrażliwość na pochodzenie społeczne choroby i wytrwałość w walce z nią, wszelkimi możliwymi środkami, mogłaby być wzorem dla dzisiejszych lekarzy. W tamtym czasie nauka o zdrowiu zbliżyła się do idei, że najwyższym celem zapobiegania chorobom jest stworzenie zdrowego środowiska oraz zapewnienie zdrowych warunków do życia i pracy. Chociaż dzisiaj żyjemy w o wiele bezpieczniejszym środowisku niż ludzie w tamtych czasach, zmiany w technologii i stylu życia, mogą powodować nowe zagrożenia. Szerokie podejście lekarzy pozostaje dziś równie ważne, aby zwalczać nie tylko same precedensy, ale także wstępne warunki ich pojawiania się. Celem niniejszego opracowania jest ujawnienie teoretycznych wzorców w zakresie higieny i zdrowia publicznego ustanowionego przez higienistów Zakładu Higieny w Wilnie, a także prób ich zastosowania w praktyce.Metody: Badanie przeprowadzono poprzez analizę pierwotnych i wtórnych źródeł historii. Zastosowano metodę porównawczą. Wiele danych z Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Litewskiego Centralnego Archiwum Państwowego) zostanie opublikowanych po raz pierwszy. Zgodnie z oryginalnymi danymi archiwalnymi przeprowadzono analizę publikacji naukowych Wydziału Lekarskiego Uniwersytetu Stefana Batora, aby ustalić priorytetowe kierunki prowadzonych w tym czasie badań.Wnioski: Skomplikowane warunki ekonomiczne, brak poparcia ze strony władz lokalnych i centralnej administracji oraz niedoskonałości ustawodawstwa zdrowotnego w tamtym okresie uniemożliwiły pełne wdrożenie strategii higienistycznych wypracowanych w Uniwersytecie Stefana Batorego. Jednakże uważamy, że działania higienistów USB miały znaczący wpływ na rozwój nauki higieny i praktyki lekarskiej na Wileńszczyźnie w okresie międzywojennym (1919–1939).
The Labour government is formally committed to tackling poverty, unemployment and social exclusion and sees a major role for area‐based policies in dealing with some of these problems. The government's flagship New Deals are primarily aimed at groups of individuals with high rates of joblessness. However, the New Deal for Communities is aimed at areas suffering from high concentrations of poverty and unemployment. In addition different government departments have launched their own zone initiatives in often‐overlapping local areas.Much political discussion has focussed on the problem of coordinating all of this activity. However, behind these initiatives lies a decades‐long debate over how effective area‐based polices can actually be and it is this debate which is reflected in this issue of New Economy.We also look at the argument that the big hole in the Government's armoury is the lack of any policies to actually create jobs in areas of the country with high unemployment.When at the Treasury, Daniel Hulls helped design the New Deal for Communities, which makes him well placed to explain the analytical basis for the government's area‐based policies as well as to explore where those policies might go next. Their underlying rationale is that concentrationsof deprivation give rise to problems greater than the sum of its parts. So individuals with characteristics likely to put them at high risk of social exclusion are further disadvantaged if they live in neighbourhoods where there is a high concentration of people with similar characteristics. Mark Kleinman takes issue precisely with this justification, arguing that the empirical evidence suggests that family and individual characteristics are more important than neighbourhood effects and that families and individuals should therefore be the primary target of policy intervention. There may still be a case for locally‐based service delivery and for area based programmes to supplement mainstream resources for the most hard‐pressed areas. Soit is not a case of targeting either individuals or areas – rather it is the balance between these two approaches which is under discussion.In practice the area regeneration budget, at ??1.35 billion in 1999‐00, is only a fraction of the resources spent on families and individuals through social transfers and other mainstream public spending. Moreover, spending on regeneration at the end of this Parliament will be 11 per cent less in real terms than the Conservatives were spending in 1993‐94.The Government, or more accurately the Treasury, points to the vacancy statistics to 'prove' that there is no shortage of employment opportunity anywhere in the UK. Few people living in the real world would agree with this view. David Webster presents the directly opposite argument that the New Deals cannot work unless more jobs are directly created in narrowly‐defined areas, especially in the cities, which have witnessed a significant loss of blue collar jobs.While agreeing that the Treasury line is unsustainable, Ian Gordon agues that narrowly‐targeted job creation programmes will not work. Fundamentally, the case for such policies is that labour market imperfections prevent aggregate demand and employment in the economy as a whole growing fast enough without generating serious inflationary pressures. The problems of demand‐deficiency within 'northern' urban areas are essentially issues of regional policy, not urban regeneration, while the reduction of concentrations of high unemployment in London and most other 'southern' urban areas relies on sustaining employment growth at the national level. Peter Tyler asks whether the policy recommendations of the Urban Task Force chaired by Lord Rogers ?t with the perceived needs of urban regeneration. The general answer is yes, though we need to be wary of who really benefits from tax incentives. However, if all that Rogers aspires to is to be achieved it will require far more resources than have currently been planned for. Stephen Hall and John Mawson trace the evolution of regeneration policies and ask critical questions about how joined up the Government's policies really are. It is only at the local level that programmes can really be made cohesive and they point to the importance of the New Commitment to Regeneration directly involving local authorities and other local partners.Housing policy plays an important role in generating concentrations of deprivation. Sue Regan argues that it is increasingly difficult to generalise about social housing, with abandoned estates in the 'North' set alongside some well‐run, popular estates with vibrant tenant participation. There is a growing consensus about the benefits of mixed communities, which sits uneasily with the current composition of social housing.The IPPR indicators section points out that the funds which have come from HM Treasury to promote regional policy are very unfairly skewed, with Scotland and Wales doing much better than equivalent English regions. The North East really does have something to complain about. With some irony the funds that have emanated from Brussels are much more evenly distributed according to need. There is precious little correlation between how a local authorityscores on the Index of Local Deprivation and GDP per head. According to the data used by the EU, 14 out of the 20 most deprived local authorities in England have GDP per head at or above the EU average. This might suggest that GDP per head is a poor measure to use for targeting resources at anything below regional level. Andrea Westall and Marc Cowling question whether the proposed model for the Small Business Service will be appropriate and argue that the 'one‐stop shop' approach to offering business advice fails to recognise the differences between small ?rms, especially across sectors.The article by Brendan Walsh is entitled 'The Irish Economic Miracle'. Whether intended or not the irony of the title is that miracles defy rational explanation. The problem is timing: all the factors put forward to explain the recent excellent performance of the Irish economy have been around for many years and sometimes even decades. Why were these factors for so long associated with lacklustre economic performance, with the Irish economy only taking off in the early 1990s? Graham Bird and Ramkishen Rajan revisit proposals for a Tobin tax in the light of the international financial crises of the late 1990s. They suggest that such a tax on currency transactions would work best in preventing crises from occurring by countering excessive inflows of capital in the first place. They also suggest that even if the tax had limited effects in this respect it could still raise a lot of revenue which could perhaps be used to finance a new international lender of last resort or to augment the resources of the IMF. Eamon O'Shea questions the emphasis on education as the route to material well‐being and argues for a less narrow conception of human welfare. Education can play an important role in developing social as well as human capital and in so‐doing help underpin the micro‐institutional foundations upon which macroeconomic success is based. Peter Robinson Editor
This study estimates how much tax revenue the European Union could collect by imposing a minimum tax on the profits of multinational companies. We compute the tax deficit of multinational firms, defined as the difference between what multinationals currently pay in taxes, and what they would pay if they were subject to a minimum tax rate in each country. We then consider three ways for EU countries to collect this tax deficit.First, we simulate an international agreement on a minimum tax of the type currently discussed by the OECD, favored by a number of European Union countries, and by the United States. In this scenario, each EU country would collect the tax deficit of its own multinationals. For instance, if the internationally agreed minimum tax rate is 25% and a German company has an effective tax rate of 10% on the profits it records in Singapore, then Germany would impose an additional tax of 15% on these profits to arrive at an effective rate of 25%. More generally, Germany would collect extra taxes so that its multinationals pay at least 25% in taxes on the profits they book in each country. Other nations would proceed similarly. We find that such a 25% minimum tax would increase corporate income tax revenues in the European Union by about €170 billion in 2021. This sum represents more than 50% of the amount of corporate tax revenue currently collected in the European Union and 12% of total EU health spending.The revenue potential of a coordinated minimum tax is thus large. However, revenues significantly depend on the commonly agreed minimum tax rate. With a 21% minimum rate, the European Union would collect about €100 billion in 2021. Moving from 21% to 15% would reduce the potential revenue by a factor of two to about €50 billion.Second, we simulate an incomplete international agreement in which only EU countries apply a minimum tax, while non-EU countries do not change their tax policies. In this scenario, each EU country would collect the tax deficit of its own multinationals (as in our first scenario), plus a portion of the tax deficit of multinationals incorporated outside of the European Union, based on the destination of sales. For instance, if a British company makes 20% of its sales in Germany, then Germany would collect 20% of the tax deficit of this company. We find that that in such a scenario, using a rate of 25% to compute the tax deficit of each multinational, the European Union would increase its corporate tax revenues about €200 billion. Out of this total, €170 billion would come from collecting the tax deficit of EU multinationals; an additional €30 billion would come from collecting a portion of the tax deficit of non-EU multinationals. For the European Union, there is thus a much higher revenue potential from increasing taxes on EU companies than from taxing non-EU companies.To improve the fairness of its tax system and generate new government revenues (e.g., to pay for the cost of Covid-19), it is essential that the European Union polices its own multinationals.Last, we estimate how much revenue each EU country could collect unilaterally, assuming all other countries keep their current tax policy unchanged. This corresponds to a "first-mover" scenario, in which one country alone decides to collect the tax deficit of multinational companies. This first mover would collect the full tax deficit of its own multinationals, plus a portion (proportional to the destination of sales) of the tax deficit of all foreign multinationals, based on a reference rate of 25%.We find that a first mover in the European Union would increase its corporate tax revenues by close to 70% relative to its current corporate tax collection. Although international coordination is always preferable, a unilateral move of a single EU member state (or a group of member states) would encourage other EU countries to also collect the tax deficit of multinationals—as not doing so would mean leaving tax revenues on the table for the first movers to grab. This could pave the way for an ambitious agreement on a high minimum tax, within the European Union and then globally. This analysis shows that unilateral action can play a transformative role and that refusing international coordination is not a sustainable solution, since other countries can always choose to collect the taxes that tax havens choose not to collect.Our estimates are based on a transparent methodology that combines newly available macroeconomic data on the location and effective tax rates of multinational profits.We illustrate and validate our approach by applying it to firm-level data publicly disclosed by all European banks and 16 large non-bank multinationals. We find that European banks would have to pay 41% more in taxes if they were subject to a 25% country-by-country minimum tax. This estimate is in line with our finding that EU multinationals as a whole (all sectors combined) would have to pay around 50% more in taxes, thus suggesting that this number is indeed the correct order of magnitude.Companies such as Shell, Iberdrola, and Allianz—who voluntarily disclose their country-by-country profits and taxes—would also have to pay 35%-50% more in taxes if they were subject to a 25% minimum tax.This report is supplemented by a pioneering interactive website, https://tax-deficitsimulator.herokuapp.com. This new tool allows policy makers, journalists, members of civil society, and all citizens in each EU country to assess the revenue potential from minimum taxation on both domestic and foreign firms. Users can select various scenarios (e.g., international coordination or unilateral action), and a full range of minimum tax rates from 10% to 50%. All the data and computer code are available online, making our estimates fully reproducible. We plan to regularly update our findings, as improved and more comprehensive macroeconomic data sources become available, refined estimation techniques are designed, and more companies publicly disclose their country-by-country reports.
This study estimates how much tax revenue the European Union could collect by imposing a minimum tax on the profits of multinational companies. We compute the tax deficit of multinational firms, defined as the difference between what multinationals currently pay in taxes, and what they would pay if they were subject to a minimum tax rate in each country. We then consider three ways for EU countries to collect this tax deficit.First, we simulate an international agreement on a minimum tax of the type currently discussed by the OECD, favored by a number of European Union countries, and by the United States. In this scenario, each EU country would collect the tax deficit of its own multinationals. For instance, if the internationally agreed minimum tax rate is 25% and a German company has an effective tax rate of 10% on the profits it records in Singapore, then Germany would impose an additional tax of 15% on these profits to arrive at an effective rate of 25%. More generally, Germany would collect extra taxes so that its multinationals pay at least 25% in taxes on the profits they book in each country. Other nations would proceed similarly. We find that such a 25% minimum tax would increase corporate income tax revenues in the European Union by about €170 billion in 2021. This sum represents more than 50% of the amount of corporate tax revenue currently collected in the European Union and 12% of total EU health spending.The revenue potential of a coordinated minimum tax is thus large. However, revenues significantly depend on the commonly agreed minimum tax rate. With a 21% minimum rate, the European Union would collect about €100 billion in 2021. Moving from 21% to 15% would reduce the potential revenue by a factor of two to about €50 billion.Second, we simulate an incomplete international agreement in which only EU countries apply a minimum tax, while non-EU countries do not change their tax policies. In this scenario, each EU country would collect the tax deficit of its own multinationals (as in our first scenario), plus a portion of the tax deficit of multinationals incorporated outside of the European Union, based on the destination of sales. For instance, if a British company makes 20% of its sales in Germany, then Germany would collect 20% of the tax deficit of this company. We find that that in such a scenario, using a rate of 25% to compute the tax deficit of each multinational, the European Union would increase its corporate tax revenues about €200 billion. Out of this total, €170 billion would come from collecting the tax deficit of EU multinationals; an additional €30 billion would come from collecting a portion of the tax deficit of non-EU multinationals. For the European Union, there is thus a much higher revenue potential from increasing taxes on EU companies than from taxing non-EU companies.To improve the fairness of its tax system and generate new government revenues (e.g., to pay for the cost of Covid-19), it is essential that the European Union polices its own multinationals.Last, we estimate how much revenue each EU country could collect unilaterally, assuming all other countries keep their current tax policy unchanged. This corresponds to a "first-mover" scenario, in which one country alone decides to collect the tax deficit of multinational companies. This first mover would collect the full tax deficit of its own multinationals, plus a portion (proportional to the destination of sales) of the tax deficit of all foreign multinationals, based on a reference rate of 25%.We find that a first mover in the European Union would increase its corporate tax revenues by close to 70% relative to its current corporate tax collection. Although international coordination is always preferable, a unilateral move of a single EU member state (or a group of member states) would encourage other EU countries to also collect the tax deficit of multinationals—as not doing so would mean leaving tax revenues on the table for the first movers to grab. This could pave the way for an ambitious agreement on a high minimum tax, within the European Union and then globally. This analysis shows that unilateral action can play a transformative role and that refusing international coordination is not a sustainable solution, since other countries can always choose to collect the taxes that tax havens choose not to collect.Our estimates are based on a transparent methodology that combines newly available macroeconomic data on the location and effective tax rates of multinational profits.We illustrate and validate our approach by applying it to firm-level data publicly disclosed by all European banks and 16 large non-bank multinationals. We find that European banks would have to pay 41% more in taxes if they were subject to a 25% country-by-country minimum tax. This estimate is in line with our finding that EU multinationals as a whole (all sectors combined) would have to pay around 50% more in taxes, thus suggesting that this number is indeed the correct order of magnitude.Companies such as Shell, Iberdrola, and Allianz—who voluntarily disclose their country-by-country profits and taxes—would also have to pay 35%-50% more in taxes if they were subject to a 25% minimum tax.This report is supplemented by a pioneering interactive website, https://tax-deficitsimulator.herokuapp.com. This new tool allows policy makers, journalists, members of civil society, and all citizens in each EU country to assess the revenue potential from minimum taxation on both domestic and foreign firms. Users can select various scenarios (e.g., international coordination or unilateral action), and a full range of minimum tax rates from 10% to 50%. All the data and computer code are available online, making our estimates fully reproducible. We plan to regularly update our findings, as improved and more comprehensive macroeconomic data sources become available, refined estimation techniques are designed, and more companies publicly disclose their country-by-country reports.
