Books of the Month: Kids!

Gerald S. Lesser's Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street (New York: Random House, 1974 -- $10.00)

Richard M. Polsky's Getting to Sesame Street: Origins of the Children's Television Workshop (Palo Alto, Calif.: Aspen Program on Communications and Society, 770 welsh Rd., 1974 --$3.95...also New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1974 -- $11.00)     

Film Theory and Criticism

William T. Pilkington and Don Graham, eds., Western Movies (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979–$13.95/$6.95)

William R. Meyer, The Making of the Great Westerns (New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1979 – $20.00)

Michael Pitts, Famous Movie Detectives (Metuchen, New Jerseys Scarecrow Press, 1979 – $11.95)

Gerald Mast's The Comic Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979– $7.95 paper)     

Popular Music

Brian Rust The American Record Label Book (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1978— $20.00)

Bill Harry Mersey Beat: The Beginnings of the the Beatles (London: Omnibus Press/New York: Quick Fox, 1978—E2.50/$4.95, paper)

Mary Laverne Dimmick The Rolling Stones: An Annotated Bibliography (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978—$7.95)

Judith Glassman The Year in Music: 1978 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978—$15.95)

Lionel Salter The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music: A Guide to Composers and Recommended Recordings (New York: Crown Books (Harmony Books)/London: Salamander Books, 1978—$17.95/8.95)

Gerald Bordman American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$35.00)     

Methodological Reconsiderations: The Shifting Paradigms

In the struggle to gain an understanding of ourselves, we have developed a variety of explanatory theories, models, and paradigms with methods of questing answers that have been considered appropriate to the theory, model, or paradigm. Behaviorists have sought to determine the nature of relationships by means of a basic cause-effect design. They assume that laws governing behavior exist and are discernible, that cause is fundamentally external in nature, and that empirical methodologies represent the best approach to the explanation of behavior within societies. Advocates of an alternative world view (antipositivism or interpretivism) adhere to the naturalistic conception of a human being as a rule-following agent. They assume that people are conscious social actors capable of controlling their behavior, and that human behavior originates in the individual's interpretation of reality. Their research methods are aimed at exploring the situations of the actor in order to work out how individuals arrived at the interpretations and created the actions they did. Both schools of researchers seem to be tackling the same issues, but those steeped in the behavioral sciences are questing for empirical generalizations while the interpretivists are analyzing conceptual properties and the meaning of each. Yet, it is not a blind allegiance to one specific world view and its concomitant methodologies that is important but an ability to think creatively and to have a sound conceptual base on which to build a world view. Methods are the tools of scholarship and should be adapted according to the nature of the questions, not unquestioningly applied.     

Tne Opportunity of tne Family in tne Development of Democracy

The author of this paper has just graduated from one of our great American seminaries. He seriously questions whether the education he received there has given him the best preparation for his future work in the ministry.

His question is so pertinent that it calls for further exploration. The Editor has invited comment from a seminary graduate of one year standing, from a graduate of fifteen years standing, and from the heads of two seminaries which are particularly interested in preparing men for the ministry. Their comments follow immediately after the article.

In the nature of the case, the author and the seminary would better remain anonymous.