Second Coming

Abstract: There is a widespread belief that cancer is caused, at least in part, by aberrant mental processes. A corollary of this belief is that cancer may be cured by the application of the mind. These ideas are fostered in Australia by a popular book “You can conquer cancer” by lan Gawler, a veterinary surgeon who attributes, at least in part, the development and subsequent cure of his own cancer to such processes. Critical examination of these beliefs finds evidence in their support to be lacking. None the less, many patients with cancer in this country follow the book’s advice, often on the basis that it “at least can do no harm”. While some patients may be aided to come to terms with their disease and to lead more fulfilling lives by taking up meditation and the positive approach to living that is described in the book, it also contains recommendations about orthodox treatments, life-style and diet which, If adopted uncritically, could be quite detrimental. The potentially harmful effects of accepting such unproved ideas about cancer need to be known more widely. Furthermore, because his ideas are making such an impact on the dayto-day treatment of cancer in this country, Gawler owes it to the community to justify, with evidence, his claims that by meditation patients with cancer may be enabled to achieve a cure of their disease in a way that is unattainable with orthodox medical treatment alone. In many ways the achievements of medical science in treating advanced cancer are not well-enough known. They include the cure of the majority of children with acute leukaemia; the cure of 80% or more of patients with cancer of the testis (the most common cancer in young men) and of Hodgkin’s disease; the cure of about half the cases of high-grade malignant lymphomas; and the achievement of prolonged remissions and possibly cures in 20-30% of adults with acute leukaemia. Patients with advanced malignancies of several other types, including prostatic, breast and ovarian cancers, small-cell carcinoma of the lung, the chronic leukaemias and multiple myeloma, all can achieve improvements in the quality of life as well as the prolongation of survival. In some cases, such as with the use of hormonal agents for breast and prostatic cancers, the treatment that is required to effect these results has little toxicity. As a consequence of these advances, any visitor to a haematology or oncology clinic in a large teaching hospital today would be able to see a number of patients for whom a diagnosis of advanced cancer was made in the 1970s. None the less, taken over all, science has made only a modest impact on the problem of cancer. Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in our community, and no effective specific treatment is available yet for a number of common malignancies such as cancer of the pancreas, non-small cell carcinoma of the lung and advanced adenocarcinoma of the bowel. Even where effective treatment can be offered, to many patients the potential side-effects of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are perceived as unacceptable relative to their possible benefits. Furthermore, doctors often are criticised for their inability to discuss bad news sympathetically and for their failure to impart hope. Therefore, it should be no surprise that some patients are inclined to seek solutions outside the medical profession. Currently, a widely held belief is that the solution lies in alterations to mental attitudes and a return to “natural” living. It is postulated that mental attitudes determine the body’s immune status and that this, in turn, determines the risk of the development of cancer. Thus, the hypothesis runs, if mental attitudes may lead to cancer, changing those attitudes may cure cancer. Interest and belief in this approach among the general public in Australia is so strong that a popular book on the subject beguilingly entitled “You Can Conquer Cancer” by lan Gawler, a veterinary surgeon, has sold many thousands of copies and, in fewer than six years, already is into its seventh printing. It is the most readily available book on cancer to be found in bookshops and health food stores throughout the nation. In contrast, books which provide broadly based information about cancer in a popular form and in a manner which the medical profession could recommend confidently (for example, those by Glucksberg and Singer, Baum, Clyne, and Bryan and Lyall) generally are displayed much less prominently, if at all. The situation now has been reached in some parts of the country that almost every patient with a newly diagnosed cancer either buys the book or is given it by a well-meaning relative or friend. Furthermore, thousands of patients, as well as their friends and relatives, have joined support groups around the nation that actively promote the views that are expressed in the book. The medical profession has maintained a low profile on the matter hitherto but, in my opinion, the growing popularity of the book and of the practices that are mooted in it are such that silence no longer is appropriate. The Gawler phenomenon now is having a significant

Abstract: This collection of a dozen major essays written in recent year is vintage Frye-the fine distillation of a lifetime of originative thinking about literature and its context. The essays in Spiritus Mundi-the title comes from one of Yeat's best known poems, "The Second Coming," and refers to the book that was supposedly the source of Yeat's apocalyptic vision of a "great beast, slouching toward Bethlehem"-are arranges in three groups of four essays each. The first four are about the "contexts of literature," the second are about the "mythological universe," and the last are studies of four of the great visionary or myth-making poets who have been enduring sources of interest for Frye: Milton, Blake, Yeats, and Wallace Stevens. The volume is full of agreeable surprises: a delightful piece on charms and riddles is followed by an illuminating essay on Shakespearean romance. Like most of the other essays in the book, these two are compressed and elegant expositions of ideas that in the hands of a lesser writer would have required a book. In another selection Frye rescues Spengler from neglect and argues for the inclusion of The Decline of the West among the major imaginative books produced by the Western world. Elsewhere he advances the case for placing Copernicus in a pantheon composed primarily of literary figures. OF particular interest are several essays in which Frye comments personally and reflectively on the influence he has had on the study of literature and the reactions elicited by his work. In "The Renaissance of Books" he dissents from the opinion of the McLuhanites that the written word is showing signs of obsolescence and argues that books are "the technological instrument that makes democracy possible." As the dozen essays collected here amply attest, Northrop Frye continues to be the most perceptive and most persuasive exponent of the power of mythological imagination-or as he himself calls it, "the mythological habit of mind"-written in English.

Abstract: Guided by a literal reading of the prophetic sections of the Bible, Christian Zionists are convinced that the world is hurtling toward a final Battle of Armageddon. They believe that war in the Middle East is God's will for the region. In this timely book, Victoria Clark first explores the 400-year history of this powerful political ideology, laying to rest the idea that Christian Zionism is a passing craze or the province of a lunatic fringe. Then Clark surveys the contemporary Christian Zionist scene in Israel and in the United States, where the influence of the religious fundamentalists has never been greater. Clark engages with Christian Zionism directly, interviewing leaders, attending events, and traveling with Christian Zionists in the Holy Land. She also investigates the Christian Zionist presence in Israel. She finds that the view through the Christian Zionist lens is dangerously simple: President Bush's War on Terror is a mythic battle between good and evil, and Syria and Iran represent the powers of darkness. Such views are far from rare--an estimated fifteen to twenty million Americans share them. Almost one in three Americans believes Israel was given to the Jews by God as a prelude to the Battle of Armageddon and Jesus' Second Coming. Clark concludes with an assessment of Christian Zionists' impact on American foreign policy in the Middle East and on America's relationships with European allies since the attacks of 9/11.

Abstract: At the twelfth International Congress of the Historical Sciences there were a number of papers read on the subject of religious tolerance and heresies in modern times. Among these there were two which are of particular relevance to anyone interested in the religious thought of the Reformation Era. Professors Martin Schmidt and Gerhard Schilfert, the authors, were especially concerned with English Puritanism and its relations with continental radical ferment. Schmidt analyzed the work of Hermann Weingarten, who believed that England's century of Reformation was the seventeenth rather than the sixteenth and that it was during the struggle against the Stuarts that the history of the English church became a record of new intellectual and religious movements. Hence, the chiliastic Independents of the English Interregnum were analagous to the Anabaptists of continental fame in the early sixteenth century. In fact, during the unrest of the English Puritan Revolution, German influences presumably transmitted from the Netherlands were willingly accepted. Among the writers involved in this process were Jakob Bohme and Ludwig Friedrich Gifftheil. From these sources came the belief in the second coming of Christ which formed the unifying bond for all shades of English revolutionary Christian thought. Cromwell, himself, was deeply affected by chiliastic thought, but when he assumed political responsibility, he had to act in a more rational way. Finally the enthusiasm of the Fifth Monarchists and the Levellers subsided into the quiet mysticism of the Quakers and the natural rights position of the Age of Reason.