RULE-GOVERNED CHRISTIAN GNOSIS: HANS URS VON BALTHASAR ON VALENTIN TOMBERG'S MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT

The essay examines Hans Urs von Balthasar's little-known Foreword to the Christian esoteric text, Meditations on the Tarot by Valentin Tomberg. It argues that von Balthasar respected and advocated this ostensibly occult text because he found its capacious understanding of Christian faith as true gnosis similar to his own. The essay explains that both Tomberg and von Balthasar practice a rule-governed Christian esotericism whose goal is support for a fruitful ecclesial spirituality and resistance to non-ecclesial esoteric Gnosticism. Both Tomberg and von Balthasar believe that esotericism without prayer and institutional grounding can become narcissistic and self-righteous to the point of megalomania, and consequently it tends to become manipulative and coercive to the point of violence. Both authors maintain that authentic esotericism, by contrast, is marked by radical humility and non-violence; it is biblical, ecclesial, and committed to the unity of metaphysical reason and prayerful faith. The essay also draws attention to Tomberg's innovatively irenic approach to Christian anti-Gnosticism.     

COMMUNICATION FEAR: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF TRAIT GENERALITY

Recent theoretical analyses of communication fear have employed the analogy of state and trait anxiety. Communication apprehension is considered to be representative of general trait anxiety which is a function of disordered personality processes. Public speaking fear represents state anxiety and is a function of normal social evaluation anxiety. Two studies are reported which correlate state-trait measures of anxiety with communication apprehension and public speaking fear. The data support the hypothesis that communication apprehension is associated with trait anxiety but, contrary to the theoretical analysis, public speaking anxiety is associated with both state anxiety and trait anxiety. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical analysis of communication fear. The implications for future research on assessment and amelioration of communication fear are considered.     

THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST'S NORMATIVE SPIRIT: A CONSTRUCTIVE READING OF SCHLEIERMACHER'S PNEUMATOLOGY

Contemporary theologians have enriched our understanding of the Holy Spirit's identity and broadened our grasp of the pneumatological tradition, but a crucial question has not been sufficiently addressed: while we have renewed understandings of who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does, very little has been said about how the Spirit works. On the basis of some clues from Schleiermacher, this essay elaborates and defends an answer to this question. According to this proposal, Christ's normative Spirit is mediated through a process of mutual recognition which carries on the Spirit of Christ's beliefs and actions.