Aosis

Most articles evaluating the African traditional worldview focus an attack on the ancestor cult or highlight positive aspects of the worldview. In either case, mention of the this-worldly religious focus tends to be �in passing�. An evaluation of this aspect of the worldview is a gap in the research, which this article seeks to address. The findings should significantly affect evangelical ministry method to many people in the country. The this-worldly religious focus of the African traditional worldview as found in South Africa is considered. It is a focus which hardly, if ever, looks beyond this world and this age. The this-worldly focus is a significant feature of the African traditional worldview and related African Traditional Religion (ATR). The concern raised is that this feature of the worldview is prevalent in the country, is unbiblical and is a major problem affecting the church. The article first describes the this-worldly religious focus and how it is expressed in ATR and...

Background: Non-cold chain-dependent HIV rapid testing has been adopted in many resource-constrained nations as a strategy for reaching out to populations. HIV rapid test kits (RTKs) have the advantage of ease of use, low operational cost and short turnaround times. Before 2005, different RTKs had been used in Nigeria without formal evaluation. Between 2005 and 2007, a study was conducted to formally evaluate a number of RTKs and construct HIV testing algorithms. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess and select HIV RTKs and develop national testing algorithms. Method: Nine RTKs were evaluated using 528 well-characterised plasma samples. These comprised 198 HIV-positive specimens (37.5%) and 330 HIV-negative specimens (62.5%), collected nationally. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated with 95% confidence intervals for all nine RTKs singly and for serial and parallel combinations of six RTKs; and relative costs were estimated. Results: Six of the nine RTKs met...

Christian doctrine has by and large held that suicide is morally wrong, however in psychology, suicidal tendencies and suicidal ideations are a major health problem, and for every suicide, there are many more who attempt suicide every year. In this article, we seek to advance the knowledge on suicide by identifying particular psychological characteristics and Christian spiritual controversies. This research proceeds to a transversal interdisciplinary conversation where practical theology and psychology reflect their voices about suicide. A transversal interdisciplinary approach articulates that theology and science can share concerns, and converge on commonly identified issues like suicide, although they differ in discipline. We aim to create a dialogue between psychology and the Christian faith concerning suicide. Christianity has always viewed suicide as a sinful act, and anyone who commits suicide would go straight to hell. Even though there are no direct scripture texts on suici...

A new approach is proposed to identify trading opportunities in the equity market by using the information contained in the bivariate dependence structure of two equities. The relationships between the equity pairs are modelled with bivariate copulas and the fitted copula structures are utilised to identify the trading opportunities. Two trading strategies are considered that take advantage of the relative mispricing between a pair of correlated stocks and involve taking a position on the stocks when they diverge from their historical relationship. The position is then reversed when the two stocks revert to their historical relationship. Only stock-pairs with relatively high correlations are considered. The dependence structures of the chosen stock-pairs very often exhibited both upper- and lower-tail dependence, which implies that copulas with the correct characteristics should be more effective than the more traditional approaches typically applied. To identify trading opportuniti...

Orientation: The South African construction industry is constrained by the shortage of a skilled workforce due to global competition and insufficient graduate output. There is a need to evolve attract and retain the most valuable talent.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate talent management in a prominent South African internationally operating construction company. The objective is to develop a framework for enhancement of talent management practices.Motivation for the study: The South African construction industry’s inability to retain talent, hampers global competitiveness and productivity. Talent shortages need to be addressed at a strategic level to remain competitive.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative research approach examined a single South African construction organisation in the Gauteng Province. Grounded theory was used to analyse data generated from interviews, participant observations and company documents.Main findings: Firstly, ta...

This article is about the imago Dei, proceeding from an ecotheological perspective. Both the ‘image of God’ and the ‘likeness of God’ are examined based on the understanding that God is a relational God. It approaches the question of the imago Dei in terms of God’s incorporeal nature, and what it is that human beings have in common with God apart from the human being’s capacity for personal and interpersonal relationships. It addresses the question of the imago Dei in terms of God’s spiritual nature and the human being’s ‘earthly’ nature by utilising the metaphor of ‘shadow’. This metaphor was investigated in terms of its meaning in Hebrew (tselem), and Genesis 2:7–8 where the creation of the human being is described in terms of God breathing the breath of life into the human being. A distinction has been drawn between the ‘image of God’ and the ‘likeness of God’, with the ‘likeness of God’ (demuth) that was investigated in the context of Exodus 31:1–5, and the various spiritual gif...

In this contribution, the authors describe the theological contribution of Don Cupitt, initially in stronger relation to Jacques Derrida and also contextualising his insights through the work of some of his predecessors, contemporaries and those who write in his wake; also, in relation to his times and the trends on which he reacts. The latter is also transposed to some currently unfolding theological, ecclesial and societal trends internationally. The main emphases on Cupitt highlighted here may well, different to what initial reactions might be, be of value for certain groups of Christian believers.

Throughout the world educators are starting to realise that integrated curricula reflect the “real world”. Students learn how to integrate theory appropriately with practice and it stimulates higher order thinking skills. Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as a learning strategy in an integrated undergraduate programme. A quantatative non-experimental design, a survey, was used to determine how problem-based learning influences integration of learning by the students. Using a purposive sampling method all the first-year nursing students (43) at the University of the Free State participating in the programme were included in the study. Data was collected by means of a student perception questionnaire (SPQ).

The varying literacy standards that undergraduate students represent are a reflection of their interim grasp of academic literacy (Paxton 2007). The aim of this study is to analyse a small group of undergraduate first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of academic writing and to reflect on how lecturers use formative feedback to respond to specific issues regarding students’ academic transitions within their discipline. Using an emancipatory methodology, this study was designed as a participatory action research. Qualitative data from focus group interviews with lecturers and photovoice presentations by first-year dental technology students were used to explore how students demonstrated their interim grasp of academic essay writing in a Health Science department at a university of technology. However, this article, which is part of a broader study, analyses a small class of first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of essay writing and reflects on how their ...

In 2000, the South African Constitutional Court ruled that religious freedom, including the exercise of religious rituals, may not contradict the laws of the country. This ruling came as a result of the Western Cape Law Society�s refusal to admit a Rastafarian as lawyer because of his habit of smoking marijuana. He appealed to the Constitutional Court and claimed that the ruling infringed upon his right to religious freedom. The Constitutional Court upheld the decision that no exception may be made for one religion.�

This chapter introduces Richard Kearney's intellectual autobiography (the next chapter) and, while doing so, helps situate his work into three questions: Where have you been, Where are you now, Where are you going? Since narrativity is so important to his work, this chapter asks of Richard Kearney the simple Ricoeurian question: D'ou parlez vous? It also touches upon his more recent work on carnal hermeneutics. This is an open access book that can also be downloaded here: https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/catalog/book/94

Orientation: Geometric Brownian motion (GBM) model basically suggests whether the distribution of asset returns is normal or lognormal. However, many empirical studies have revealed that return distributions are usually not normal. These studies, time and again, discover evidence of non-normality, such as heavy tails and excess kurtosis.Research purpose: This work was aimed at analysing the GBM with a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) technique based on t-distribution and compares the distribution with normal distribution.Motivation for the study: The SMC or particle filter based on the t-distribution for the GBM model, which involves randomness, volatility and drift, can precisely capture the aforementioned statistical characteristics of return distributions and can predict the random changes or fluctuation in stock prices.Research approach/design and method: The particle filter based on the t-distribution is developed to estimate the random effects and parameters for the extended model...

Voordat ’n pastorale terapeut ’n persoon met seksueel afwykende gedrag in die vorm van pedofilie, pastoraal bedien, is daar merkers wat in gedagte gehou moet word ten opsigte van die posisionering van die pastorale terapeut. Daar word aangeneem dat pedofilie nie genees kan word nie, maar slegs beheer en bestuur kan word. Pedofilie is nie net ’n saak vir ander wetenskappe nie, maar beslis ook ’n geestelike saak. Die persoon wat kinders molesteer, beleef dikwels ’n geestelike vakuum. As gevolg hiervan is sy geestelike dimensie remmend en destruktief. ’n Pastorale hermeneutiek is hier uiters belangrik. Dit beteken dat die pastorale terapeut die taak het om God se teenwoordigheid en verhaal vir die persoon met afwykende seksualiteit te vertolk, sodat sy behoeftes, lewenservaringe en nood in die lig van God se liefde en genade in sy lewe sal sin maak. Die pastorale terapeut kan die deelnemer help om te ko-konstrueer sonder om deskundige kennis op hom af te dwing. ’n Pastoraal-terapeuties...

Based on two presentations during a February 2020 South African academic visit at the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg, in this contribution, the authors of this article engage with one of the bestselling recent volumes in philosophy, Martin Hagglund’s This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free (here, the 2020 edition; initial publication date, 2019). In this book, Hagglund propagates ideas akin to those promoted within secular humanism. Whilst on the one hand this article elaborates the shortcomings of Hagglund’s criticism of religion, on the other hand it also strives for an empathetic reading of his secular humanist philosophy. The authors place this conversation within the post-secular religio-cultural climate currently rising internationally, along with some further contextualising remarks. The most important part of this article is the last section (‘Pitting some theological voices…’) in which the authors engage Hagglund’s main arguments theologically, whi...

Background: Whether a website design is a simple static page of plain text, a complex e-commerce matrix or a progressive web application, the journey is riddled with challenges. In terms of online users, every second counts when interacting with a website. It is estimated that 2 seconds is the acceptable webpage loading latency that users are willing to tolerate before abandoning a webpage. Users expect web applications to be more usable, reliable, secure, personalised and context-aware.Objectives: This study sought to identify the challenges faced and the strategies used during website development, and to then map a conceptual framework to address these challenges.Method: The 7Cs framework was the theoretical framework underpinning the study. Based on qualitative research, 12 website developers were sampled in Gauteng Province, South Africa, using non-probability sampling methods.Results: The 7Cs Website Development Scheme (7CWDS) charted from the research findings shows that the f...