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Tag Archives: Gospel
The Extraordinary Synod on the Family concluded over the weekend in Rome (5-19 October, 2014), bookended by the beatification of Pope Paul VI. It proved to be an eventful, even enthralling journey for the Church, two weeks of discussion, passionate debate and prayerful discernment about the way in which the Church can best bring the Gospel to bear on the lives of millions of families as diverse as they are complex.
Given the multidimensions of family life, the issues canvassed by the bishops and participants were also broad. They included the plight of refugees, the care of children with special needs, the situation of migrant workers and the unemployed, the impact of the internet on family bonds, and then there were the distinctive concerns of African bishops whose concerns differ in striking ways from those in the affluent West (e.g. the practice of polygamy and conditions of extreme poverty).
However, and perhaps inevitably, the focus of media and popular attention ultimately fell on two specific matters: the question of Eucharist for the divorced and remarried, and the Church's pastoral response to homosexual persons.
Controversies of the Synod
As the first synod of bishops to meet under the leadership of Pope Francis, and affirming as it did many diverse views on the way in which Catholic faith speaks to human lives, the synod attracted not only generous media coverage for a Catholic get-together but wide-ranging interpretations of what was said, by whom and for what intent.
Of course, the synod discussions were pre-empted and almost overshadowed by Cardinal Kasper of Germany who in February 2014 advocated for access to communion for Catholics who have divorced and remarried. This was followed by a strong critique of his position by several other cardinals, including in the book-length reply, The Gospel of the Family, which contained a foreword by our own Australian prelate Cardinal Pell (the text of the Cardinal's introduction is available here).
(For those interested in the pre-history of the synod, preparations began in earnest in November 2013, with a survey distributed by national bishops' conferences to glean the opinions of Catholics on a number of Church teachings. The survey was a commendable initiative and expressed a sincere desire to be consultative though it clearly suffered from limitations, including the formulation of the questions which could be difficult for the Catholic in the street to say the least e.g. 'How is the theory and practice of natural law in the union between man and woman challenged in light of the formation of a family?' This survey was followed in June 2014 by the lineamenta or preparatory document for the Synod which presented the results of the November consultation and set a platform for the synod discussions to begin in earnest).
As the synod officially got underway this month, one of the major causes of controversy was the mid-term or post-discussion report known as the relatio post disceptationem. This was intended as a provisional snapshot of the views of the bishops thus far. However, many bishops objected to the content of this summary, noting that it was not only insufficiently grounded in Scripture and Catholic tradition but that it seemed to present the views of one or two particular bishops as the consensus of the whole assembly, which they were not.
The most strident and vocal objector to this interim report was the American cardinal Raymond Burke who argued, '[this document], in fact, advances positions which many Synod Fathers do not accept and, I would say, as faithful shepherds of the flock cannot accept'. Controversially, the interim report had included praise for the 'positive aspects' of what the Church has long considered 'irregular' situations, including civil unions and cohabitation, and even spoke of 'accepting and valuing' people of homosexual orientation (though with the notable disclaimer 'without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony').
Criticism was particularly focused on the General Secretariat of the Synod which handled the information flowing out of the bishops' discussion, with accusations that its members, including Cardinal Baldisseri, had manipulated, or at the very least swayed considerably, the content of the relatio to reflect a personal and permissive agenda.
Interpretations of the Synod
As is customary, and was the case following the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the major media outlets interpreted the discussions and debates of the bishops through a political lens, with reports of 'conservative' and 'liberal' camps pitted one against the other (of course, Pope Francis was read as ensconced within the latter and undermined by the former, taken to be the majority).
Without denying the political nature of all human discourse, including the ordinary desire to influence outcomes and press one's case, the heart of a synod is not the political motivations that underlie the bishops' views but the theological arguments that are raised in accounting for those positions. Of course, the media is generally not interested in actual arguments, only assertions, and for the most part lack a theological background or concern.
In cherry-picking lines from the disputed interim report we have mentioned, as well as Pope Francis' powerful concluding address to the Synod Fathers, the Daily Mail and even the BBC were able to run histrionic headlines such as "Massive Vatican shift on gay sex" and "Pope Francis set back on gay policy".
The BBC coverage focused on Francis' critique of 'hostile inflexibility' among so-called traditionalists and intellectuals, and implied that these adversarial forces had undermined or 'setback' the Pope's more 'progressive' agenda on homosexuals and the remarried. Conspicuously, the report made no mention whatsoever of the pontiff's critique in the self-same address of those who have 'come down from the cross' to 'bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God' (you can read the complete address here).
More locally, broadcasters tapped into the local response to the synod, including SBS which while perpetuating the BBC caricature of a Pope Francis opposed by backward bishops, at least tried to seek out a Catholic view of things.
In my fifteen seconds in the spotlight, I shared the view that the synod represents a healthy and vital discussion for the global Catholic Church and that the Catholic bishops are mindful of the lived situations of people from across the world and mindful also of what the Gospel can bring to those contexts. I tried to underscore that the range of issues being discussed by the synod as they relate to the family were broad and that the synod represents the Church's ongoing and sincere discernment of how best to accompany people in their life journeys, including divorcees, the civilly remarried, single parents, and gays and lesbians to whom the Gospel also speaks. (Other voices in the report included Paul Collins who can always be relied upon to express more than a healthy scepticism about Church matters).
Discernment is Not Division
The key to an interpretation of the synod and its events is given to us, I think, in Pope Francis' closing address to the Synod Fathers which is a profound and striking statement (you can read it here). He provides us with 'the eyes of faith' to continue talking about these issues with confidence.
Firstly, Pope Francis is not at all unnerved by the differing views expressed in the preceding fortnight and accepts the rigorous debates in faith as an expression of the Church discerning how to enter ever more deeply into the heart of the Gospel by the sensus fidei, the sense of faith of the faithful. As he shared,
Many commentators . . . have imagined they see a disputatious Church where one part is against the other, doubting even the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and harmony of the Church – the Holy Spirit who throughout history has always guided the barque, through her ministers, even when the sea was rough and choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.
What Francis is affirming by valuing debate over the silence of 'a false and quietist peace' is the capacity of the Church to receive God's revelation faithfully and meaningfully by attending, together as people of faith in the Spirit, to tradition, including the teachings of the Magisterium, and the experience of Christian families in the world (I have written about the Church's discernment of the Spirit here, in relation to the 2013 papal conclave).
To teach and evangelise the Church must first listen, receive time and again the deposit of faith which constitutes our living tradition and attend to the complex realities of contemporary family life which too can be a source of theological knowing.
The guarantor of the Church's ongoing faithfulness to Christ in this multidimensional process is the Holy Spirit, as Vatican II's Lumen Gentium affirms and which Pope Francis cited in as many words,
The universal body of the faithful who have received the anointing of the holy one cannot err in matters of belief. It displays this particular quality through a supernatural sense of the faith in the whole people when 'from the bishops to the last of the faithful laity', it expresses the consent of all in matters of faith and morals (Lumen Gentium 12).
This discernment of the sensus fidei, a sense of the faith and the Church's sense for the faith, should not be a 'source of confusion and discord', as Francis remarked in his address, but should be entered into with confidence, trust and utmost faith in the Holy Spirit's capacity, through diverse and even imperfect people (like you and me) to lead God's people to the truth and mercy of God (you can read more about this connection between the deepening of tradition and the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit in Dei Verbum 8 as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church n.892).
As well, in the process of spiritual discernment that will continue until the General Synod on the family in 2015, Francis warns of temptations or polarities. The first temptation is to be fossilised in our faith, exhibiting a 'hostile inflexibility' which would in fact impede the ability of the Church to bring the Gospel to new and developing circumstances. This kind of fundamentalism or rigorism can manifest a lack of faith and trust in the Spirit that guides the Church (the Marian dogmas of the 19th and 20th centuries standout as instances in which the Church has developed a deeper appreciation of her own faith). 'Traditionalism' is in fact not traditional at all for the pilgrim Catholic Church understands development as a perennial and necessary deepening of her self-understanding in light of the Gospel, and never a departure from it ("Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life"; John 6:68)
The other risk named by Francis, the one that media outlets were less enthusiastic to report, was the capitulation or accommodation of the Church, and the Gospel it bears, to 'a worldly spirit instead of purifying [the world] and bending it to the spirit of God'.
The Church must engage the world, as Francis has so often stressed, but it engages the world and contemporary culture with a view of what the world really is in Christ, a world of men and women made in the image of God and called to conversion or 'likeness' in Christ in whom we find our origin and destiny. Thus, Pope Francis critiques outright in his concluding address,
a destructive tendency to do-gooding, which in the name of a false mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them, that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots
with the phrase 'false mercy' a nod to no less than St John Paul II. What does Francis mean by this? He means that we cannot truly serve people in their wounds and in their growth through crisis if we disregard the truth, if we cover over the truth with superficial or cheap dressings. As American Archbishop Kurtz put it, 'Mercy without truth is not mercy'.
While the concrete solutions to the contemporary challenges that confront the family will be the subject of discussion over the next twelve months, the synodal process has already recalled two principles for our view of Church and mission. The first, that all people are called to Christ and the Church – as all are called to the King's banquet in the parable of Matthew 22 – and second, that all people are called to conversion in Christ who is the source of true life – as was the guest at the banquet called to change before approaching the table. The Church must both open wide its arms to the sinner and invite a new creation in each one of us, no matter what our state of life or circumstances may be. This is the universal hope and universal challenge of the Gospel.
Much more will be said on family and life issues in the coming year, by each of the local churches (dioceses), episcopal conferences and the observing media. As Catholics, we are being invited by Pope Francis explicitly and the debates of the synod implicitly to trust in the Spirit-filled capacity of the whole Church, all of us together, to know what the faith is and to better accompany all people in their journeys with the promise and joy of the Gospel.
Tagged Church, conclave, discernment, ecclesiology, evangelisation, family, Gospel, Holy Spirit, John Paul II, leadership, mission, Pope Francis, reform, Vatican II
Peter among the Apostles
With the imminent election of a new pope, the role of the Bishop of Rome has come into focus in popular and religious media. It struck me that the many formalities and traditions that accompany a papal election, as interesting as they might be, have had the effect of putting into the shade the bases of the papacy in Catholic faith. This seems a lost opportunity to provide 'reasons for our hope' (1 Pet. 3:15)
In short, little attention has been given to the 'why' of the papacy, a 'why' which is significant not only for Catholic believers in their own understanding of the Church but also for non-Catholic Christians who are often, and it must be said not always unreasonably, 'put off' by an apparent obsession with ceremonial fanfare over and above the simplicity of biblical discipleship.
Indeed, Paul VI lamented in 1967 that 'the Pope . . . is undoubtedly the most serious obstacle on the path to ecumenism'. His eventual successor, John Paul II, was to take a more positive view in regards to the ecumenical significance of the papacy, asking how the Petrine Office could accomplish a service of love and unity recognised by all. As the Oxford theologian Fergus Kerr notes, the Polish pontiff even appealed to Christians who are not now, and perhaps never likely to be in full communion with Rome, to help in reshaping the papal ministry (see Ut Unum Sint 4). This recognised not only the possibility of papal reform but situated the task of the papacy within an ecumenical context, within a communion of faith that was 'already but not yet'.
For Catholics, of course, the pope is understood to be the successor of the apostle Peter and so has 'full, immediate, ordinary and general jurisdiction' or primacy over the college of bishops and indeed over the whole Church. What does this rather foreboding statement mean? It means he has a distinct, ecclesial responsibility to proclaim and preserve the faith in its purity and plenitude as well as uphold the unity of the communion of faith, with personal, and not merely delegated, authority to intervene in the workings of another bishop and local churches in service of that ecclesial communion.
Contrary to 'ultramontanists' who confuse the papacy with the Church, it should be kept in view that the pope is not the only principle of the Church's unity (lest we forget the Holy Spirit, for one, and the worldwide episcopate to name another). The Petrine Office is firmly embedded within the Church, in service of the Church's unity and not above it.
Put in terms of an ecclesiology of communion, the pope is for Catholic faith the visible point of communion of the local churches and cannot, and should not, act as an absolute monarch. Why? This is because it is the college of bishops as a whole that is understood to be of divine law (ius divinum), a college that the pope could never abolish or do away with and of which he remains a member. So the Pope is a head of a college of bishops, belonging wholly to this college while never being simply its delegate. 'Peter' remains an 'apostle' while the 'apostles' do have Peter as their head. Indeed, 'papal infallibility', that ability of the pope to proclaim what the faith is, cannot be understood apart from the faith of the college of bishops and so is intrinsically linked to the faith of the whole Church (and anything but an autonomous or private opinion).
What do other denominations make of all of this? Many non-Catholic Christians reject the entire notion of the papacy and its theological or biblical foundations. Closer to home, the Orthodox – whose bishops the Catholic Church does recognise as legitimate, sacramental bishops, of genuine apostolic succession – while not strictly or necessarily objecting to a place of honour for the Bishop of Rome among the world's bishops, do not believe that the Bishop of Rome should have any juridical claim over a local bishop. In other words, they reject the idea that the Bishop of Rome can actually interfere with another bishop in the governance of his own diocese.
So, to return to what I think has been a missed opportunity in recent weeks, what are the bases of the papacy in Catholic faith? The most basic approach is to reflect on the biblical warrant for the Petrine Office and to offer this in conversation to other Christians of goodwill. Specifically, how might we understand Peter's role among the apostles, a role in the primitive Church that underpins, at least in part, Catholic faith on this subject?
The biblical and theological literature concerning Peter's role in the early Christian community is vast and includes important contributions by Rudolf Pesch, Martin Hengel, Christian Grappe, Raymond Brown and the Australian theologian Gerald O'Collins.
The classic Scriptural texts which have been understood to establish Peter's primacy among the apostles are well-known and have been well covered in apologetic debates. They are:
Matthew 16:18-19 ('And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven) Note to conclave enthusiasts: This passage is traditionally read to the newly-elected Pope and cardinal-electors prior to the pontiff's first appearance at the balcony of St Peter's Basilica;
Luke 22:31-32 ('Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers')
John 21:15-18 (detailing Jesus' repeated command to Peter, 'feed my sheep').
However, beyond these familiar texts, there are others which I think disclose Peter's distinctive role and authority within the first community of disciples. We know, for one, that the Gospel of Mark was written not long after Peter's martyrdom in Rome (c.60-70) and that it transmits the witness of Peter himself to Jesus' life and ministry. This testifies to the importance of Peter's witness for the early Church community.
As Gerald O'Collins avers, Peter stands out as well among the apostles as the first witness to the resurrection, and therefore one whose Easter faith and proclamation of that event is central to the Church's life. This witness to the Risen Jesus is, as O'Collins points out, a much neglected dimension of the figure of Peter.
I suspect many Catholics would be surprised by this claim and would more likely name 'Mary Magdalene' as the first witness to the Risen Jesus and for good reason. After all, in all four Gospels she is present at the empty tomb. However, an empty tomb is not Jesus himself and Mary Magdalene is named as first witness to the Risen Jesus only in Matthew 28:1-10 and John 20:11-18.
The alternate, and likely earlier, tradition names Peter as the first witness to the Resurrection and can be found in St Paul's writings which, of course, pre-date the four Gospels. In one of Paul's letters to the community at Corinth we find an ancient formula (perhaps creed) which names Peter as first witness to Jesus risen from the dead. Paul writes,
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accord with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor. 15:3-8) [My emphases]
Paul is clearly transmitting an already-existing tradition. This same Petrine tradition can be detected in Luke's Gospel, on the road to Emmaus, where the evangelist emphasises that this 'Emmaus' encounter with the Risen Jesus is not the primary one. Luke writes of the disciples on the road,
That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying 'The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon (Peter)!' Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he has been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. [My emphases]
It becomes apparent from such New Testament texts, in addition to reference to the 'keys to the Kingdom', Peter as shepherd of the flock and as the 'rock' on which the Church's life will be supported, that 'the fisherman from Bethsaida' assumes a special leadership role among the apostles that was actual, grounded in his primary role as witness and messenger of Easter faith, and subsequently recognised in the writings of the early community of faith, that is, in its Scriptures as such.
It is interesting to note, as a final remark, that Peter's leadership of the apostolic community is as a repentant sinner (cf. Luke 5:8, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord'). Peter, of course, would go on to deny Jesus three times, a betrayal foretold. However, this 'shadow side' of Peter does not rule out his leadership but grounds his task of leadership in his own conversion and in service and proclamation of God's love and compassion to others. Again, we hear Jesus' words in Luke's Gospel, expressing this exemplary role that Peter is to play in service of the Church's faith as a whole, 'I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers' (Lk 22:32). St Peter emerges, as ever, an unworthy servant, entrusted to proclaim the plenitude and unity of faith in Him who first showed him mercy.
While the papacy has been subject to reform throughout the centuries, shaped not only by internal factors but also by the dramatic circumstances of the world, the continuity between the role of Peter among the apostles and the Pope among the college of bishops and the universal Church is a most positive and biblically-shaped principle of Catholic faith. While the reports on the conclave continue to roll in and as the announcement of a new 'Peter' looms, we remember the first Peter as leader, teacher, witness of Easter faith, repentant sinner, evangeliser and, above all, disciple to Christ who alone can 'make all things', including his Church, anew (Rev. 21:5).
Tagged communion, conclave, ecclesiology, ecumenism, Gospel, Jesus, John Paul II, papacy, Paul VI
praying in faith
"Pray without ceasing' (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
The season of Lent brings renewed focus to the significance of prayer for growth, a practice supported by fasting and that leads us to almsgiving.
It is not novel to suggest that prayer belongs to the essence of Christian life and is essential to the integrity of Christian leaders. Curiously, however, we find few opportunities in our parishes, schools and beyond where prayer is taught and can be learned.
Although a life of prayer grows principally through its practice, that is by praying, it is also nourished by an understanding of what prayer involves and awakens us to as we do it. When we understand what we are doing when we are doing it, a new intentionality and fresh desire is brought to our prayer, not only in the setting of the Church's liturgy but throughout the breadth of our Christian life.
Indeed, in the Gospels we find the disciples eager to learn the way of prayer after being drawn into its circle by Jesus' example. 'Lord, teach us to pray' they ask (Lk 11:1). In the Catechism we find recognition as well of prayer as a practice that is learned, with a call for formation and education in ongoing 'schools of prayer' (CCC#2689). While always a gift of the Spirit, prayer presupposes effort by the disciple (CCC#2725) for 'we do not know how to prayer as we ought' (Rom. 8:26).
While it can be approached in so many ways, I have come to experience prayer most powerfully as an expression of our radical dependence on God as the source of our life. What is more, it is because of this dependence on God, and not despite of it, that prayer is at the same time the overwhelming (even confronting) experience of our own humanity at its depth, in its fundamental orientation towards God.
We learn this much from 'the master of prayer', Jesus of Nazareth who is, as St Paul describes, 'the revelation of the children of God' (Rom. 8:19). It is Jesus who unveils in his own filial piety our destiny in God, revealing communion with 'our Father' not simply as a 'religious' venture, an extrinsic performance detached from ourselves, but a calling in accord with the imperatives of our own nature. In short, prayer is not only entry into the divine life but also the discovery of our authentic humanity by that encounter.
As Christians it is essential to note as well that we do much more than merely 'follow' or imitate Jesus in prayer. In the act of prayer we, in fact, enter into Jesus' own prayer to the Father as the Gospel makes powerfully clear: 'God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son who cries 'Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6, Rom. 8:15). It is the Spirit of Christ who prays within the heart of each disciple.
Hence, in the person of Jesus we come to see not only the extent to which prayer shapes the heart we bring before God but discover our prayer as an entry into His communion with the Father. Prayer is, as the Eucharistic doxology proclaims, 'through Him, with Him and in Him'. To pray is to allow ourselves to be 'caught up' in the prayer of Jesus who is alive in us through the Spirit to the Father.
In coming to an appreciation of prayer's meaning and possibility, the reflections below might further shape your own imagination and practice of prayer. They are generously provided by a friend, a monk, who has dedicated his life to this ceaseless communion with God.
1. Prayer rises in our hearts when we listen to the words of the Gospel, meditate upon them, and strive to live as faithful disciples of Christ. In the 'Life of Antony', we catch a glimpse of the way the early Christians prayed. Every day, they would go to their local church in order to listen to the Scriptures and pray together. On Sundays, they would celebrate the Eucharist. Then they would go back to their homes, carrying in their minds the words of Scripture they had heard read in the church.
Throughout the day, whether they were walking along the road, working in the fields, preparing a meal, or conducting business, they would recall the texts and meditate on them. This was for them a 'school of prayer': the continuation of the liturgy in their daily lives.
2. When we attend to God's Word in the context of our daily lives it has the power to speak to our hearts and lead us in the way of discipleship. It also has the power to keep the fire of prayer and love burning in our hearts. Abba Joseph, one of the early Egyptian Desert Fathers, used to say: 'If you will you can become all flame'.
It is important that we see prayer as very much part of our daily living. We need to structure into our lives some time when we can be free for listening to God's Word, prayerful reading of the Scriptures, and quiet contemplative prayer. However, perhaps the most vital element of our prayer life is the way that prayer overflows and becomes a part of the rest of our lives. Prayer will tend to become stilted and artificial if it is confined only to set times and places.
3. Our relations with other people are an intrinsic part of our prayer life. The gentle stirring of love that we feel in our hearts during times of prayer tends to dry up if it is not given scope to reach out concretely to others in our normal, daily contact with the people who share our lives. Love needs to be exercised if it is to grow strong. John in his letter says: 'How can we love God, who we cannot see, if we do not love our brothers and sisters, who we do see?' (1 Jn 4:20). We need to trust the love that God places in our hearts and learn to reach out from there to others.
4. Prayer gives us the opportunity to recognise our own limitations: weakness, failure, brokenness, temptation, and even sin. It demands real faith to stand before God and believe in his love. We need the courage to say the prayer of the Eastern monastic tradition which is 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.' When we allow God to enter the messiness of our lives, then grace is able to act and, finally, growth can take place.
This is sage advice not simply for a life of 'prayers' but a more encompassing life of prayerfulness. In listening to the Word, allowing that Word to enter and shape our daily living and intentions, as suggested here, we begin to understand and experience the depth of communion that prayer enables.
As a final note, over the past few years it has struck me that ordained and lay leaders of communities can desire that their people change while they themselves remain the same. The primacy of prayer in the journey towards God and one another applies to all and admits of no exception.
Without prayerfulness there cannot be growth and without growth there cannot ultimately be fullness of life in Him. Our communities will thrive in the Gospel and its mission to the extent that we pray.
Tagged Gospel, Jesus, leadership, prayer


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Mind RACES: from Reactive to Anticipatory Cognitive Embodied Systems
Mind RACES is a three-year EC funded project (Sixth Framework Programme - Information Society and Technologies - Cognitive Systems) involving 8 Partners. It is mainly focused on the concept of Anticipation. The project started on October 1st 2004 and was formally completed on December 2007. The MindRACES website will be maintained and continuously updated anyway, and it will include novel work of the consortium on prediction and anticipation.
The general goal of the Mind RACES project is to investigate different anticipatory cognitive mechanisms and architectures in order to build Cognitive Systems endowed with the ability to predict the outcome of their actions, to build a model of future events, to control their perception anticipating future stimuli and to emotionally react to possible future scenarios. Such Anticipatory Cognitive Systems will contribute to the successful implementation of the desired ambient intelligence.
After 3 years of research (see the Final EU Commission Report) the 7 Partners of MindRACES Consortium produced more than 80 publications, different robotic and software artefacts and important events, such as ABIALS 2008 and the Fall Symposium 2005, that show the importance of the Anticipation in various cognitive context.
This is a list of some of the most relevant publications resulting from MindRACES (click HERE to see them all):
Balkenius, C. and Johansson, B. (2007). Anticipatory Models in Gaze Control: A Developmental Model. Cognitive Processing, 8, 167-174.
Butz, M. V., Sigaud, O., Pezzulo, G., & Baldassarre, G. (Eds.). (2007). Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems: From Brains to Individual and Social Behavior, LNAI 4520 (State-of-the-Art Survey). Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg.
Butz, M.V., Herbort, O., & Hoffmann, J. (2007). Exploiting Redundancy for Flexible Behavior: Unsupervised Learning in a Modular Sensorimotor Control Architecture. Psychological Review, 114, 1015-1046.
Butz, M.V., Lanzi, P.L., & Wilson, S.W. (in press). Function Approximation with XCS: Hyperellipsoidal Conditions, Recursive Least Squares, and Compaction. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.
Gomez F. and Schmidhuber J. (2005). Co-Evolving Recurrent Neurons Learn Deep Memory POMDPs. In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-05, Washington, D.C.). Nominated for Best Paper in Coevolution
Lorini, E., Castelfranchi, C. (2006). The unexpected aspects of Surprise. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, 20 (6), pp. 817-835.
Pezzulo, G. and Castelfranchi, C. (2007). The symbol detachment problem. Cognitive Processing, 8(2):115–131.
Pezzulo, G.; Butz, M.V.; Castelfranchi, C. & Falcone, R. (eds.) The Challenge of Anticipation: A Unifying Framework for the Analysis and Design of Artificial Cognitive Systems. Springer, forthcoming
Schmidhuber J., Wierstra, D. and Gomez, F. (2005). Evolino: Hybrid Neuroevolution / Optimal Linear Search for Sequence Learning. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-05, Edinburgh).
Wierstra D., Gomez, F. and Schmidhuber, J. (2005). Modeling Systems with Internal State using Evolino. In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-05, Washington, D.C.). Winner of Best Paper Award in Learning Classifier Systems and Other Genetics-Based Machine Learning.
Ognibene, D., Balkenius, C., Baldassarre, G. (in press 2008). Integrating epistemic action (active vision) and pragmatic action (reaching): a neural architecture for camera-arm robots. In: 'From Animals to Animats 10: The 10th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB'08)'. 7-12 July 2008, Osaka, Japan.
PROJECT NUMBER: IST-511931 PROJECT TYPE: STRP START DATE: October 1st 2004 PROJECT COORDINATOR: Rino Falcone
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Photograph by Steve Morash
Joe Grabowski is a sixth and eighth grade science and math teacher in Guelph, Ontario. He has been teaching for five years.
My classes use technology to explore the world. In the last year and a half we've connected, via Skype and Google Hangout, with more than 70 scientists, explorers, and conservationists from around the world—all without ever leaving our desks. We call it "Exploring by the Seat of Our Pants." We've joined an expedition on an active volcano, hung out in an Adélie penguin colony, shared stories with Fabien Cousteau from the ocean floor, and watched a wild shark get tagged at a lab in Bimini, in the Bahamas. We've learned about cultures and environmental challenges in Iceland, Afghanistan, Ecuador, Antarctica, and Timor Leste, to name a few. Along the way we've been privy to unpublished research, never-before-seen footage, and pioneering conservation projects.
The team from the Bimini Biological Field Station, performing a scientific work up on a juvenile nurse shark as Joe's class watches via Skype. Photograph by Bimini Biological Field Station
My students' guest teachers are National Geographic explorers, Mission 31 aquanauts, marine biologists, rocket scientists, videographers, endurance athletes, environmental activists, and even other students. Our lessons are often tied into our science and geography units, but many times we make connections just for the enjoyment of learning about something new. These connections have lead to countless exciting and unexpected journeys. My students have learned more about our planet and what we are doing to it than I could have ever hoped for.
How did this activity impact your students? Did students change an aspect of their behavior or way of thinking?
Exploring by the Seat of Our Pants has made science fun and exciting for my students. Many were used to science periods consisting of reading from textbooks or taking notes from overhead projectors. Now science is something they look forward to, and they often head home to research the people and places we've connected with.
I'll never forget watching these two groups of children, laughing and dancing together from thousands of miles away.
Another area that has grown in leaps and bounds is their questioning skills. Since the beginning of the school year, questions like What's your favorite ocean animal? have been replaced with What kinds of symbiotic relationships do you see in the coral reef ecosystem? It's amazing for them to have their questions fielded by a leading expert—someone who can answer them with fresh data or an amazing story from the field.
Joe's grade 8 students' perspective as they meet the shark star of the Skype session. This is one of nearly 100 connections with scientists, explorers, and conservationists that his class has made. Photograph by Joe Grabowski
What academic subjects did you integrate into this activity?
The area that I integrate the most into this activity is science. I began to set these connections up as a supplement to a biodiversity unit. It seemed like a great fit, having some scientists from around the world teach my students about the different species and ecosystems they study. It took off from there when we decided to aim for 50 connections throughout the school year.
We've integrated other curriculum areas as well. When studying Canada's trading partners, we connected with several classrooms in countries that Canada trades with. After connecting with marine biologist and Sharks4Kids founder Jillian Morris, my class was motivated to do something to help protect sharks. We were studying persuasive writing, so we decided to draft open letters to the premier of Western Australia to voice our opinions about the shark cull that was about to begin. We received a disappointing response from the premier and immediately wrote back. In the process we made local and international headlines, we even made a video for a conservation group in Western Australia and did a radio interview in Perth. My students definitely learned that their voices could be heard, even on the other side of the world.
How does teaching with a global perspective impact your students?
I think one of the biggest eye openers for my students is that the world isn't quite as big as they thought it was and that their actions and choices can be felt even in the most isolated regions of our planet. A lesson that really drove that home was when we connected with Emily Penn, expedition leader, skipper, artist, and oceans advocate. She is the director of Pangaea Explorations, taking scientists to remote regions of the oceans to study plastic pollution in the five gyres. It blew my students' minds to learn about a huge plastic patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the impact it is having on marine life. Images of pristine beaches covered in plastic debris and dead albatross with stomachs filled with everything from lighters to toothbrushes shocked them. It caused many to rethink their use of plastics and how they dispose of waste.
Last year's map showing the connections Joe's made with scientists all over the world. Photograph by Joe Grabowski
What is one simple activity that any educator could do with their students to get them thinking about the world?
A great activity to start off with is to connect with another classroom somewhere in the world. You can use Skype in the Classroom and Google Connected Classrooms. In terms of guest teachers, I'll look online for scientists or explorers that fit particular units. I send an initial email, explaining what I'm doing in my classroom and why we'd like to connect. From there it takes a couple back and forth emails to confirm a date and time.
My class has a blast playing a game called Mystery Skype, connecting with classrooms around the world and racing to identify each others locations through a series of yes and no questions. Afterwards we share about our daily lives and cultures. One call with a group of children in Uganda really stood out. With limited access technology in Africa, it was their first time using video calling. They were so excited, they started teaching my students some of their traditional dances. I'll never forget watching these two groups of children, laughing and dancing together from thousands of miles away.
Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you in your personal life or in your teaching?
A simple quote from Jacques Cousteau: "People protect what they love."
I hope that by sharing my passion for the natural world and introducing my students to amazing places and people from around the world, they will be inspired to do the same.
Jessica Shea 05/26/2015 07/09/2015 educator of the week, technology, using technology in classrooms
5 thoughts on "Exploring by the Seat of Our Pants"
Pingback: 2017 Emerging Explorers (part I) | Nat Geo Education Blog
kharetos says:
Thank you so much for the inspiration. I recently connected with Andrea Marshall of Marine Megafauna Foundation, she suggested your blog. Our school is transitioning to a STEM school next year and we recently acquired a poly-cam. I am excited to begin building relationships and connecting with scientists and engineers all over the world. I hope it will inspire our kids to dream big!
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Sadie bradbury says:
Totally inspiring, nice work, I am going to try this in Halifax. Thank you for taking the time to share!
Joe Grabowski (@GrabowskiScuba) says:
Awesome Sadie! I highly recommend connecting with Jillian Morris from Sharks4Kids, she'll put together an amazing lesson for your class!
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