Rediscovering pneumatology in the “Age of the Spirit”: A North American Lutheran contribution

This essay explores Luther's pneumatology, especially in his sermons on the Gospel of John, might offer resources for “discerning the spirits” in the emerging “age of the Spirit,” as Harvey Cox and Phyllis Tickle have dubbed it, which sees the rise of the “spiritual but not religious” and movements calling for spiritual revolution. The author shows that Luther's insistence that the Spirit work through the given means of “Word and sacrament,” was not intended to limit the Spirit's activity in the world, but rather to protect God's people from those who would wish to use the Spirit for their own means and power.     

Erich Przywara’s Theology of Israel: A Critical Response to “Historical Criticism”

In the Anglophone world the Jesuit philosopher and theologian Erich Przywara (1889‐1972) tends to be known almost exclusively to Balthasar and Barth scholars (as an important mentor to the former and a formidable nemesis of the latter). In recent years, however, interest in Przywara has grown beyond these circles, owing in part to the English translation of his magnum opus, Analogia Entis (2014), and a handful of articles and monographs on his thought. Indeed, it is gradually being recognized that Przywara was an important philosopher and theologian in his own right – of no less stature, and arguably profounder, than the most recognized names in modern theology – even if he did not possess the same oratorical gifts. At the same time, however, a shadow has been cast over this recovery effort since an American church historian named Paul Peterson accused Przywara, along with Balthasar and even Barth, of varying degrees of anti‐Semitism and fascist sympathies – charges that, were they true, would make one reluctant to read him or find out why Edith Stein, Balthasar, Rahner, Josef Pieper et al. thought so highly of him. The point of this article, accordingly, is to set the record straight, at least as far as Przywara’s supposed “anti‐Semitism” is concerned (his view of National Socialism will be treated separately). It is understandable, of course, that Peterson is troubled that theologians could have contributed to the conditions that led to the horrors of the Shoah; and this alone justifies the zeal of his investigations. But the unfortunate way he has conducted them has also come with a cost: in this case, the misrepresentation of the intentions and the unjust impugning of the character of an eminent theologian, from whom, according to Rahner and Balthasar – indeed, according to John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis – the church still has much to learn. But, as regrettable as this may be, Peterson’s investigations have also done a service for modern theology: not only have they occasioned a closer look at Przywara’s cultural and political views, which was overdue; they have also helped to uncover, however inadvertently, a distinctly Pauline theology of Israel, aspects of which may yet prove fruitful.     

Using internet resources in a research methods course

Internet resources (a WWW home page, a Unix-based Listserv discussion list, and e-mail) were used to supplement traditional materials in a research methods course. The course also included word processing and computerized data analysis, and the student version of MEL was used as a research simulator. A computer usage survey was administered at the beginning and end of the semester. Analysis of the survey results indicated that students were more positive in their attitudes about computers as a helpful tool for psychologists at the end of the course than at the beginning. They did not show an increased appreciation for the usefulness of Internet and e-mail, however, which is probably the result of the text-based Internet browser and the slowness of the e-mail system used.     

Primal Alternatives to Talk Therapy: The Batak “Tondi” of North Sumatra

Although talk therapy has tended to rely on exogenous or outside the person resources, many primal alternatives to talk therapy have emphasized the importance of endogenous or inside the person sources of empowerment. The Toba Batak of North Sumatra provide an internalized means of mediating mental health through a religious-based notion of the tondi, or source of power, inside the person as the source of mental-physical health and illness. The rituals necessary for maintaining health are discussed with the rationale supporting those rituals. Applications of these historical beliefs among contemporary university students are also discussed.     

Career planning inventories: “do-it-yourself” won't do

This article explores the practical difficulties encountered in using self-administering, self-scoring, and self-interpreting career guidance instruments with students who have white-collar aspirations and blue-collar histories. After dramatizing and summarizing the problems, the author describes a model for successful use of one such inventory—as a text rather than a test—with career exploration groups.     

“Communities isn't just about trees and shops”: students from two South African universities engage in dialogue about ‘community’ and ‘community work’

The question of what constitutes ‘a community’ or even ‘the community’ takes on an extra salience in a divided society such as South Africa where the entire environment remains imprinted with the legacy of enforced segregation along racial lines. Higher education institutions need to prepare emerging health and social service students for the world of practice in a context of diversity, continuing segregation and marked inequality. As one step to helping students deal with working in a divided society, academic departments from two different South African universities have been involved in a collaborative teaching and research project. Fourth year psychology and social work students from the two universities took part in a collaborative, practical course which formed part of their curricula. In this course, students were given the opportunity to engage with the notion of ‘community’ and ‘community work’ with each other. The students came from diverse racial, class and political backgrounds, and by engaging with one another as they did, had the opportunity to ‘visit’ worlds they have rarely had access to. While this course was able to achieve a broadening awareness among students from different backgrounds about the notion of community, it will take both more engagement with courses of this kind, and a continuing history of change in South Africa, for students to feel more comfortable in transcending both physical and psychological boundaries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Andrew Burges, The Ascension in Karl Barth. Reviewed by Douglas Farrow
Donna Bowman, The Divine Decision: A Process Doctrine of Election. Reviewed by David Guretzki
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel's Gospel. Reviewed by Christopher R. Seitz
Donald K. McKim, ed., The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin. Reviewed by Victor Shepherd
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Christology, a Global Introduction: An Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective. Reviewed by Paul Cumin
Daniel Deme, The Christology of Anselm of Canterbury. Reviewed by Timothy Harvie     

Implementing “Starting Points”: A Follow-Up Study

The article describes a follow-up study of the implementation of a group-based needs assessment program for unemployed people titled “Starting Points.” The study was conducted using a focus group methodology that resulted in 813 statements from staff and clients involved with the program. The statements were categorized within 15 themes. The themes generated suggested that the program was successful in connecting clients with needed resources. They also pointed out the importance of the way in which clients were referred to the program and the availability of resources following completion of the program. Recommendations are made regarding future implementation of the program. The article concludes with questions raised by the study regarding the implementation of employment counseling interventions generally.     

Malawian secondary students’ beliefs about intelligence

Students who view intelligence as malleable tend to be more academically motivated and perform at higher levels than students who view it as a fixed trait. We examined the beliefs of students from Malawi because the culture and schooling process in this country is very different from some other areas of the world in which students’ views of intelligence have already been studied. Our research questions were: (1) How do Malawian students define intelligence? (2) To what extent do Malawian students view intelligence as malleable? (3) Are Malawian students’ definitions of intelligence and beliefs about the malleability of intelligence similar to those of students in more developed countries? We conducted a mixed methods study and surveyed 136 students attending a secondary school in Malawi using a 39‐item questionnaire. Students responded to questions about their intelligence beliefs on open‐ and closed‐ended items. Our results showed that Malawian students believe that an intelligent student exhibits a variety of behaviors, including studying, working hard, reading, performing well on exams and in class, answering and asking questions, paying attention, and demonstrating good behavior. Most students believe that intelligence is malleable and provided responses that indicated that students can become more intelligent through effort. When compared to the findings of other studies, the present results suggest that the Malawian students who remain in secondary school have definitions of intelligence and beliefs about the malleability of intelligence that are similar to those of students in more developed countries, such as the US and Germany. In fact, it appears that Malawian secondary students have even higher malleable beliefs than American and German students. Finally, some of the measures that have been found to produce scores that are reliable and valid in other populations do not produce scores that are as reliable when used with Malawian students.     

Brief report: Compliance in the classroom: Using the „thumbs up”︁ procedure to increase student compliance to teacher requests

This study assessed the effectiveness of a program designed to increase compliance with teacher commands in a regular 5th grade math class. A reversal design (A-B-B'-A-B') was employed. The teacher used a discriminative stimulus to signal the students as to the availability of an opportunity to earn a point towards a reinforcer. To receive the point the students were required to return the signal and initiate compliance. The entire class was involved in the program; however, data were recorded on two students, one identified by the teacher as noncompliant; the other served as a control. The results indicated that the program was effective in increasing initiation of compliance to teacher commands. However, serious questions were raised about the generalizability of such a program.     

Response to Edmund N. Santurri

Barth and Niebuhr seemed to be wary of natural law because each of them thought that the “natural” in natural law means that natural law has to be rooted in natural theology. However, natural law today is more cogently formulated without any natural theology at all. “Natural law” means that law can be derived from the twofold character or nature of human personhood: the capacity for a communal relationship with other humans, and the capacity for a covenantal relationship with God, both of which continually overlap in human life. The natural or external world only provides the backdrop for these human capacities; it does not determine them.     

“OPENNESS TO THE WORLD”: KARL BARTH'S EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY OF CHRIST AS THE PRAY‐ER1

What is at stake in accounts of “prayer” is reflection on a practice that cannot be readily spoken of free from the most important considerations of God, world, human identity and the shape of its performance. Instead, if prayer “is not to become a harmless game and an endlessly babbling chatter” (Karl Rahner), attention needs to be paid to the god or gods that practices of so‐called “prayer” encounter, and it may be that much of what moves in the name of the God of Jesus Christ is, in Barth's terms, no‐god. For Barth not only has the knowledge of the practice of prayer, in a sense, been taken out of our hands in its Christ‐grounding, but its Christ‐shaped performance involves the determination of Christian life and its self‐reflective thought in the pattern of the new life that might be characterised as the properly ordered freedom of self‐dispossessing obedience.     

The Promise of an Actualistic Pneumatology: Beginning with the Holy Spirit in African Pentecostalism and Karl Barth

Christians in the developing world are sending a clear message to all who will listen: more attention needs to be paid to the Holy Spirit than ever before in the history of Christian thought. This essay explores what African Pentecostalism could teach Karl Barth and in particular how the actualistic Christology that Barth is known for can be applied to concrete acts of the Holy Spirit. The essay employs James Buckley's distinction between what Barth says versus what Barth shows to demonstrate profound possibilities that exist within Barth's thought for beginning theological reflection from the concrete acts of the Spirit.     

PHILOSOPHY,MYTH, AND THE “SIGNIFICANCE” OF SPECULATIVE THOUGHT

Abstract: A close examination of the relation between philosophy and myth reveals important functional parallels in some of their basic means of operation that helps shed some light on philosophy's overall task. A crucial aspect of the structural similarity between philosophy and myth is the generation of what Hans Blumenberg calls “significance.” I argue that the preservation and enhancement of significance (through a strong affinity to myth) is an essential and overlooked aspect of philosophy's task, one best accomplished through the world‐orienting work of speculative philosophy. By weaving the fragmented insights, criticisms, lessons, and methods of the more “specialized” analytic, pragmatic, critical, postmodern, deconstructivist, and other methods of thought together in a systematic way, speculative philosophy may be able to provide us with the kind of world orientation needed for developing a healthier, richer, more profound understanding of ourselves and our proper place within the world.     

Derrida's Worldly Responsibility: The Opening between “Faith” and the “Sacred”

This article will theorize how Derrida's deconstruction signifies a fundamental ontological alterity. We will examine the use of both the tropes of “sacred” and “faith” as tropes to express this possibility. We will articulate how deconstruction, as a development of phenomenology, provides a theoretical nexus where the alterity of things and persons may be thought. We will arrive at the paradoxical formulation of “ontological alterity” as a key moment in deconstructive thinking. Essentially we will argue that deconstruction offers the resources to think the relation between other person and things in the world as motivated by a firm radicalization of Heideggerean worldliness and Levinasian alterity.     

“Everybody knows it’s true”: Social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism moderate false consensus for stereotypic beliefs

European American university students (N = 89) judged the percentage of African Americans who possess 16 traits (e.g., poor, violent, and emotionally expressive) and then estimated how other students would make the same judgments. Participants also completed measures of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Individuals with both high SDO and high RWA held the least positive views of African Americans. False consensus emerged in the form of a significant positive average within-person partial correlation between participants’ own ratings and their judgments of how other students would respond, controlling for the actual responses of other students. False consensus was positively related to SDO and a significant SDO × RWA interaction indicated that false consensus was highest for participants with both high SDO and high RWA. Results suggest that hierarchy-legitimizing beliefs in the form of stereotypes may be sustained internally through false consensus, especially among those most prone to prejudice.     

THE CLASS SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF COMPLIANCE TRAINING WITH “DO” AND “DON'T” REQUESTS: ANALOGUE ANALYSIS AND CLASSROOM APPLICATION

Two experiments are reported in which the relationship between compliance with “do” and “don't” requests was examined with developmentally disabled children. In Experiment 1, a multiple baseline design across subjects with counterbalanced treatment conditions was used to evaluate a compliance training program composed of four phases: (a) baseline, during which no consequences were delivered for compliance, (b) reinforcement for compliance with one targeted “do” request, (c) reinforcement for compliance with one targeted “don't” request, and (d) follow-up with reinforcement on a variable ratio schedule for compliance with any “do” or “don't” request. Results of probes conducted before and after training within each condition indicated that generalized compliance occurred only with requests of the same type as the target exemplar (“do” or “don't”). In Experiment 2, these results were replicated in a classroom setting. Following collection of baseline probe data on student compliance, a teacher training program was successfully implemented to increase reinforcement of compliance first with one “do” and subsequently with one “don't” request of a target student. Results of multiple baseline probes across “do” and “don't” requests indicated that the teacher generalized and maintained reinforcement of compliance with other requests of the same type and to other students, with a resulting increase in student compliance with the type of requests reinforced. The impact of treatment on both teacher and student behavior was socially validated via consumer ratings. Implications of these findings with respect to response class formation and compliance training programs are discussed.