The Spirit in 1 and 2 Thessalonians

In the Thessalonian correspondence, Paul, through his occasional yet repeated references to the Spirit’s role in the life of a believer, individual and corporate, teaches that the Spirit is active in a person’s life from the time faith in the gospel is kindled in them. The Spirit regenerates a sinner through deep conviction and power and continues to sanctify a person to live in holiness according to the will of God. Paul reminds them that even their joy amid suffering is the work of the Spirit in them. It enables them not only to imitate Christ and the other believing communities in suffering but also to become a model for other persecuted communities. Paul firmly encourages them to embrace the charismatic gifts of the Spirit among them, but he warns them to be cautious so as to avoid their possible misuse.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE USE OF FOREIGN EXPERIENCE IN THE PROTECTION AND PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHTS OF CITIZENS

The article discusses security measures designed to guarantee the rights of voters. The main goals that are achieved when using electronic and remote voting systems are formulated. It has been proved that elections must be free and fair, with all declared observance of all proclaimed electoral principles. A proposal for an e-voting program is being considered, which will keep the voter from leaving the ballot blank, but will give a warning in advance that a blank ballot may be declared invalid, which will significantly reduce the number of lost votes and spoiled ballots. Emphasis is placed on the main difference between voting by telephone and voting on the Internet, which is that voting via a computer network requires a number of security measures aimed at protecting the system from outside influences. Particular attention is paid to the study of the experience of foreign countries in the application of each method of voting. Problematic issues of the process of democratic transformations in Ukrainian society are studied. The sources that enshrine the right of a person to file individual complaints with international human rights bodies are indicated, and only international agreements can be found. It is proved that a citizen cannot file an application if the state has not acceded to the relevant agreement and, moreover, has not undertaken to recognize the competence of the international body specified in the agreement. The author draws attention to the fact that when holding elections to local self-government bodies, electoral associations and political parties and their structural subdivisions are also recognized as another public organization that simultaneously meets the following conditions: an association of citizens according to the Law of Ukraine �On public associations�, at a level corresponding to the level of elections, or at a higher level. The study conducted in this article gives grounds for the following conclusions: a specific form of implementation of public law is their application, which is carried out by state and/or municipal authorities. This form of realization of public law is connected with the concept of protective norms of law which are called to provide us by the citizen of the subjective right at the loading of the legal mechanism of protection in case of obstacles in realization of the given public right, including the right to choose and be chosen. In our deep conviction, the priority of protecting the voting rights of citizens must be guaranteed. And it is in the election results that the will of the citizens is materialized, they are the end product of the realization of their voting rights. If such guarantees are not formulated in law and are not observed by courts and election commissions, mechanisms are inevitably established that allow manipulating election results against the will of voters.

Transformation of indigenous peoples’ Ecological conciousness

The world of Indigenous ecological reality has a spatial and temporal structure. The need for a favorable natural environment, sufficient natural resources’ quantity and quality, as well as env ironmental security has been permanently present in autochtonous existence. Researchers of North American and Siberian indigenous peoples’ ecological identity agree that of the two criteria, spatial structure plays more important role than temporal. The indigenous peoples’ spatial identity is linked to their deep conviction that everything in the world “stops” periodically, so if you pray in the right locality, where higher powers are most likely to stop at that very moment, prayer would be heard. Thus the feeling of attachment to ethnic homeland is crucial in the process of creating an ethnic niche. Most of the Indigenous people believe that their nations were created at the territory they live now, so this locus is the center of the universe for them. The past and the future are understood by the natives at the level of physical perceptible sound, visual, tactile and sensory sensations, thus the concept of the sacred landscape is formed, and each nation has its own notion of it. Indigenous writers sometimes shift temporal-spatial layers, superimposing chronotopic planes, suspending astronomical time, thus destroying the boundaries of the real world and at the same time creating fascinating spaces that are an important part of the indigenous spatial identity. Thus, spatiality functions in fictional texts as a stylistic device designed to express the opposition of different worlds.

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF WETLANDS AND RAMSAR PLACES IN THE CROSS-BORDER REGION OF BULGARIA, NORTHERN MACEDONIA, ALBANIA AND GREECE AND DEVELOPMENT

According to the definition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), wetlands on Earth are areas that are flooded or saturated with water, artificial or natural, permanently or temporarily flooded with standing, sitting or running water. These areas include areas where water is the predominant element, such as swamps, wetlands, peatlands, estuaries, sea branches and lagoons, lakes, rivers and artificial reservoirs with a depth of more than six meters. Considering the importance of these territories and with the deep conviction that the preservation of their flora and fauna can be ensured by combining long-term national policy with coordinated international action, the scientific community reacted to the encroachments and unreasonable attitude to them by concluding 02.02. 1971 of the Convention on wetlands of international importance, especially as waterfowl habitats, known to the general public as the Ramsar Convention. The main objectives of this document are to manage wetlands as sites of great economic, cultural, scientific and conservation value, to avoid damage and loss and to preserve them through prudent use, i.e. through their continuous development. The object of study in the present work is the biological diversity, in particular the avifauna of some of the internationally important wetlands in the border areas between Bulgaria, Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania in view of the opportunities they offer for the development of some forms of alternative types of tourism.

Synapses, networks, brain development – funding basic neuroscience research in Germany by the Schram Foundation

Research driven solely by curiosity and the desire to understand fundamental principles of brain function. The freedom to address important questions with bold, sometimes risky experiments. A platform for open scientific exchange and discussions at highest academic level to provide new impulses to the field. And a growing number of scientists who share the passion for neuroscience and who join forces to tackle some of the big mysteries that surround the brain. These visions together with the deep conviction that basic research is the fundament needed for any progress in applied science motivated Dr. Armin Schram to create the foundation that carries his name. They are also the ideals that the foundation still pursues, and to date, 26 research proposals designed by individual researchers or small teams have been, or are, supported in this spirit. Here, we introduce the reader to the individual scientists who were awarded grants by the Schram Foundation over the years, highlight some of the many discoveries made in the course of their studies and list some of the key publications that arose from this work.

Sartre was not a Marxist

Ronald Aronson praises Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential Marxism in an essay in the Boston Review. I argue that existential Marxism is a case of a contradictio in adiecto. Sartre was never recognized as a Marxist by his contemporaries. He not only failed to show any interest in the question of economic exploitation, but most of the answers he gave in the Critique even contradicted Marxist theory. His expression of Marxism as the philosophy of our time seems to have rather been more an act of courtesy than the expression of deep conviction. As Sartre himself later said, Marxism and existentialism are quite separate philosophies.

The Enemy of My Enemy: The Soviet Union, East Germany, and the Iranian Tudeh Party's Support for Ayatollah Khomeini

This article examines the strategy of the Iranian Tudeh Party in concert with its Soviet and East German patrons and allies during and after the Iranian revolution of 1979. The article assesses the thinking behind the Tudeh's strategy of unwavering support for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his Islamist allies, even after other major leftist parties had begun fighting the new Islamic regime. This strategy was a product of the international Communist movement's model of revolution in the developing world that envisioned new states following a “non-capitalist path of development.” In Iran, this was compounded by the use of Allende-era Chile as a model for the politics of revolutionary Iran, as well as a deep conviction that Islamism could not provide an effective model of governance in the twentieth century and therefore would collapse of its own accord within months after the Islamists seized power.

Efforts towards Establishing a New State-conceptualized History in Russia

It would be too early to try and summarize the way in which the issue of Russia’s “state historical and remembrance policy” has evolved or foresee its possible outcomes, as the standard uniform set of schoolbooks has not yet been approved. The media-voting competitions presented in this essay, however, clearly demonstrate the national social climate and its trends, which would have to be moulded into some form of an “all-Russian socium” by such a new approach to history. As contemporaries we might curiously await the next rounds of the “identity battle,” but as historians we must give voice to scepticism in regards to hopes of any form of quick success. Yet most of all, we have to stand by the deep conviction that only a pluralistic approach to history based on free research and the freedom to present freely conceived alternatives can help in the crystallization of a realistic national self-image. P.S.: For the first time in the history of Russia a statue has been erected for Ivan IV (the Terrible, the Fearsome) in the city of Oryol on 15 October 2016. The countdown has begun.

How Did Buddhism Matter in Tang Poetry?

Buddhism was often a theme in poetry, especially when writing to monks and on Buddhist sites; it was sometimes a deep conviction on the part of individual poets that contributed to the way they represented the world. There was a period, however, from the ninth through early eleventh century, when Chan meditation shaped how poets thought about the very way of writing poetry. The common use of the [Buddhist] “Way” or Chan in parallel with “poetry” in couplets from this period worked through the possible relations: identity, similarity, complementarity, and mutual exclusion. But the presumption was that the composition of poetry was the counterpart of Chan meditation. Such serious reflection on the relation between Chan meditation practice and poetry eventually devolved into Yan Yu’s thirteenth-century comparison of Chan sectarian doctrine with the study of poetry. Le bouddhisme est un thème très fréquent dans la poésie chinoise, en particulier quand le poète écrit à un moine ou au sujet d’un site bouddhique. Il constitue dans certains cas une conviction profonde qui contribue fortement à forger la représentation du monde telle que le poète l’exprime en vers. Il y eut cependant une époque, entre le ixe et le début du xie siècle, où la méditation Chan a façonné la façon même dont les poètes concevaient l’écriture poétique. L’usage fréquent des termes “Voie” (bouddhique) ou Chan en parallèle avec celui de “poésie” dans les couplets de cette époque couvre la gamme de leurs relations possibles: identité, similarité, complémentarité et exclusion mutuelle. L’hypothèse commune à ces diverses options était que l’écriture poétique était l’homologue de la méditation Chan. Ces réflexions élaborées sur les rapports entre les pratiques de la méditation Chan et de la poésie ont débouché au xiiie siècle sur la comparaison menée par Yan Yu entre la doctrine Chan et l’étude de la poésie.