DREAM BODIES AND PERIPATETIC PRAYER: READING BONAVENTURE's ITINERARIUM WITH CERTEAU

The erstwhile sedentary Parisian theologian, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, traveled extensively throughout Europe after his election as Minister General of the Minorite Order in 1257. In the fall of 1259 he arrived on Mount La Verna in Tuscany. As he ruminated on the stigmatized flesh of Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure composed the classical mystical text, Itinerarium mentis in Deum. Utilizing Michel de Certeau's work on prayer, travel narratives and spatial practices, this essay explores how Bonaventure rereads the story of the Poverello in the Itinerarium mentis in Deum as a mystic narrative of peripatetic prayer.     

African American and European American Perceptions of Problematic Issues in Interethnic Communication Effectiveness

African American and European American perceptions of interethnic communication effectiveness were compared. Interethnic communication was conceptualized as a problematic event (perceptually organized into communication issues). Hypotheses proposed that ethnic identity would predict conversational issues which, in turn, would predict satisfaction. Nine issues salient to communication were derived from previous research: powerlessness, stereotyping, acceptance, goal attainment, authenticity, understanding, expressiveness, shared worldview, relational solidarity, and relaxation. The hypotheses were tested for differences between African Americans and European Americans with additional tests far relationship closeness. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factorial validity of the issues and indicated that identity had both political and social dimensions for African Americans but only a single dimension for European Americans. Path analysis did not support the causal ordering. However, when the causal link between identity and issues was eliminated and satisfaction was regressed on the entire set of predictor variables the multiple Rs were above .91 for both ethnic groups. Different issues were associated with satisfaction for each group and for close and distant relationships for each ethnic group.     

A Comprehensive Model of Cancer-Related Information Seeking Applied to Magazines

This article examines a comprehensive model of information seeking (CMIS) resulting from the synthesis of three theoretical research streams: the health belief model, uses and gratifications research, and a model of media exposure and appraisal. The model postulates that four health-related factors—demographics, direct experience, salience, and beliefs—determine two information carrier factors—perceptions of information carrier characteristics and utility—which, in turn, determine information-seeking actions. A sample of 366 adult women drawn from a medium-size midwestern city was surveyed by telephone on the issue of mammography use and cancer-related information seeking. The model resulted in an excellent fit to the data received. However, the values of the paths associated with the health-related factors were extremely low, suggesting that models of information seeking from mass media, such as magazines, should focus on purely communicative factors. These results are discussed in terms of future research and the pragmatic benefits of this theoretical framework.