The Protestant Heritage

Protestantism originated in the 16th-century Reformation, and its basic doctrines, in addition to those of the ancient Christian creeds, are justification by grace alone through faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the supremacy of Holy Scripture in matters of faith and order. Variation in sacramental doctrine exists among Protestants, but most limit the

Biblical Literature, The First Letter of John

I John assumes a knowledge of the Johannine Gospel (the author of I John may be the ecclesiastical redactor of the Gospel According to John) and adds ethical admonition and instruction regarding the well-being of the church as it confronts heresy and stresses the lack of moral concern that springs from it. There is strong defense against the threat of a type of Gnosticism

Belize, Daily life

The social class of the people - whether they are poor or middle class - affects whether they will have such amenities as a car or television and influences as well whether their children will complete secondary school. Belizeans who have television watch mostly foreign programs, such as Mexican soap operas and North American sports; and the music they listen to largely

Yang-chou

In the 4th and 3rd centuries BC Yang-chou was a fief known as Kuang-ling in the state of Ch'u. After the Ch'in unification of the empire in 221 BC, it became the seat of a county. Under the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220), it was the seat

Boiler

Also called �Steam Generator, � apparatus designed to convert a liquid to vapour. In a conventional steam power plant, a boiler consists of a furnace in which fuel is burned, surfaces to transmit heat from the combustion products to the water, and a space where steam can form and collect. A conventional boiler has a furnace that burns a fossil fuel or, in some installations, waste fuels. A nuclear reactor

Biblical Literature

History is a central element of the Old Testament. It is the subject of narration in the specifically historical books and of celebration, commemoration, and remonstration in all of the books. History in the Old Testament is not history in the modern sense; it is the story of events seen as revealing the divine presence and power. Nevertheless, it is the account of an

Baptist General Conference

Conservative Baptist denomination that was organized in 1879 as the Swedish Baptist General Conference of America; the present name was adopted in 1945. It developed from the work of Gustaf Palmquist, a Swedish immigrant schoolteacher and lay preacher who became a Baptist in 1852. He established the first Swedish Baptist Church in Rock Island, Ill., that same year. Palmquist and

Denson, William Dowdell

American lawyer who, as chief military prosecutor of Nazis accused of many of the most horrific of the atrocities committed in Germany at the Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenberg, and Dachau concentration camps, was the most successful of the American prosecutors of World War II criminals; of 177 Nazis he prosecuted between 1945 and 1947, 97 were hanged and the rest went to prison

Paddle Tennis

Small-scale form of tennis similar to a British shipboard game of the 1890s. Frank P. Beal, a New York City official, introduced paddle tennis on New York playgrounds in the early 1920s. He had invented it as a child in Albion, Mich. It became popular, and national championship tournaments are still held in the United States. Platform tennis, a later development, is sometimes called

Aleksandrovsk-sakhalinsky

City, Sakhalin oblast (province), far-eastern Russia, on the western coast of Sakhalin Island. It was founded in 1881 as a centre for penal settlements. In 1890 the writer Anton Chekhov lived there while gathering material about convict life for his book Ostrov Sakhalin (�Sakhalin Island�). It became a city in 1926 and from 1932 to 1947 was the centre of an oblast. Pop. (1991 est.) 19,600.

Computers, Von Neumann's �Preliminary Discussion�

But the design of the modern, or classical, computer did not fully crystallize until the publication of a 1946 paper by Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann titled �Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument.� Although many researchers contributed ideas directly or indirectly to the paper, von Neumann was the principal

Vaginismus

Muscle spasm that closes the opening to the vagina in the female reproductive tract. The vagina serves as a birth canal for the delivery of babies and as the copulatory organ during sexual intercourse. The spasm may be so intense that the vagina seems pathologically obstructed. Vaginismus is a protective mechanism that sometimes develops when there are tender

Miracle, Sacred places

Miracles are often connected with special sacred places. Normally these are natural shrines, such as sacred groves, or temples and sanctuaries in which a god or spirit lives or has manifested himself or in which his statue, symbol, holy objects, or relics are enshrined. Holy places, such as Mecca and the Ka'bah in Islam or the Buddhist stupas, are centres of pilgrimages

Heidenheim

Officially �Heidenheim an der Brenz� city, Baden-W�rttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany, on the Brenz River in the eastern Swabian Alps. The site of a Roman settlement, it was chartered in 1356. It is overlooked by the ruined castle of Hellenstein (with a museum) standing on a hill (1,985 feet [605 m]). Since 1723 it has held traditional shepherds' competitions. Precision instruments, tools, machinery, textiles, and cement are

Alliance For Progress

International economic development program established by the United States and 22 Latin American countries in the Charter of Punta del Este (Uruguay) in August 1961. Objectives stated in the charter centred on the maintenance of democratic government and the achievement of economic and social development; specific goals included a sustained growth in per capita

Philemon And Baucis

In Greek mythology, a pious Phrygian couple who hospitably received Zeus and Hermes when their richer neighbours turned away the two gods, who were disguised as wayfarers. As a reward, they were saved from a flood that drowned the rest of the country; their cottage was turned into a temple, and at their own request they became priest and priestess of it. Long after, they

Adair V. The United States

(1908), case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld �yellow dog� contracts forbidding workers from joining labour unions. William Adair of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad fired O.B. Coppage for belonging to a labour union, an action in direct violation of the Erdman Act of 1898, which prohibited railroads engaged in interstate commerce from requiring workers to refrain

Guldberg, Cato Maximilian

Guldberg was educated at the University of Christiania and taught at the royal military schools before becoming professor of mathematics at the University

Manasa

Folk goddess of snakes, worshiped mainly in Bengal and other parts of northeastern India, chiefly for the prevention and cure of snakebite and also for fertility and general prosperity. As the protector of children, she is often identified with the goddess Sasthi (�the Sixth,� worshiped on the sixth day after birth). The antiquity of the goddess is a matter of conjecture. The

Ear Disease, M�ni�re's disease

M�ni�re's disease, also called endolymphatic hydrops, is a fairly common disorder of the labyrinth of the inner ear that affects both the vestibular nerve, with resultant attacks of vertigo, and the auditory nerve, with impairment of hearing. It was first described in 1861 by a French physician, Prosper M�ni�re. It is now known that the symptoms are caused by an excess of

Ear Disease, M�ni�re's disease

Thomas E. Watson,

Fu Hsi

Pinyin �Fu Xi�, formally (Wade-Giles romanization) �T'ai Hao (Chinese: �The Great Bright One�)�, also called �Pao Hsi�, or �Mi Hsi� first of China's mythical emperors. His miraculous birth, as a divine being with a serpent's body, is said to have occurred in the 29th century BC. Some representations show him as a leaf-wreathed head growing out of a mountain or as a man clothed with animal skins. Fu Hsi is said to have discovered the famous Chinese trigrams used in divination and thus to have contributed, in

Andrade, Oswald De

Born into a wealthy and aristocratic family, Andrade traveled extensively in Europe during his youth and there became aware of avant-garde literary trends in Paris and Italy. After his return to S�o Paulo,

Race, India's caste system

India has a huge population encompassing many obvious physical variations, from light skins to some of the darkest in the world, from straight coarse hair to frizzled and crinkly hair, and a wide variety of facial features. In addition, the Hindu sociocultural system is divided into castes that are exclusive, hereditary, and endogamous. They are also ranked and unequal

Acton (of Aldenham), John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron, 8th Baronet

English Liberal historian and moralist, the first great modern philosopher of resistance to the evil state, whether its form be authoritarian, democratic, or socialist. A comment that he wrote in a letter, �Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,� today has become a familiar aphorism. He succeeded to the

Denham, Sir James Steuart, 4th Baronet

Denham was educated at the University of Edinburgh (1724 - 25). In the course of continental travels following his qualification as a lawyer (1735), he became embroiled in the Jacobite cause. His involvement in the 1745 rebellion of the Stuart pretender to the throne

Gillars, Mildred

Gillars was an aspiring actress who played minor parts in some American theatrical touring companies. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University but left in 1922. In 1929 she traveled to North Africa, with the intention of going on to Europe. In 1934 she

Stead, William Thomas

Stead was educated at home by his father, a clergyman, until he was 12 years old and then attended Silcoates School at Wakefield. He became an apprentice in a merchant's countinghouse and in about 1870 began to contribute

New England

The region was named by Captain John Smith, who explored its shores in 1614 for some London merchants. New England was soon settled by English Puritans whose aversion to idleness and luxury served admirably the need of fledgling communities