Admiration

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  He had begun his career at Goldman Sachs in 1966, slowly rising through the ranks to become its cohead in 1990. He was one of the key figures who transformed Goldman Sachs into the most powerful investment bank on Wall Street. He was a hard worker and brilliant at finance, but as he became more powerful within Goldman, he also became more deferential in all of his interactions. In meetings in which he was clearly the most knowledgeable person, he would make a point of asking for the opinions of the most junior associate in attendance, and of listening to what he or she had to say with rapt attention. When people who worked for him asked him what should be done in relation to some crisis or problem, he would look at them calmly and ask first, “What do you think?” He would take their answer quite seriously. As one colleague at Goldman later said of him, “There is no one better at the humility shtick than Bob. The line, ‘just one’s man opinion’ was something he would utter a dozen times a day.” What is remarkable is how Rubin earned the admiration of so many people and how few had anything bad to say about him, considering the competitive environment within the company. This reveals the power you have to short-circuit envy by placing attention on other people instead of yourself and engaging with them on a meaningful level. If you find yourself under an envy attack, your best strategy is to control your emotions. It is much easier to do this once you realize that envy is the source. The envier feeds upon your overreaction as material to criticize you, justify their actions, and entangle you in some further drama. At all costs, maintain your composure. If possible, get some physical distance as well—fire them, cut off contact, whatever is possible. Do not imagine you can somehow repair the relationship. Your generosity in trying this will only intensify their feelings of inferiority. They will strike again. By all means defend yourself from any public attacks or gossip that they spread, but do not harbor revenge fantasies. The envier is miserable. The best strategy is let to them stew in their “cold poison” from a distance, without any future means of wounding you, as Mary did to Jane. Their chronic unhappiness is punishment enough. Finally, you might imagine that envy is a somewhat rare occurrence in the modern world. After all, it is a primitive, childish emotion, and we live in such sophisticated times. Furthermore, not many people discuss or analyze envy as a major social factor. But the truth is that envy is more prevalent now than ever before, largely because of social media. Through social media we have a continual window into the lives of friends, pseudofriends, and celebrities. And what we see is not some unvarnished peek into their world but a highly idealized image that they present.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  In the earliest years of their democracy, before Pericles had appeared on the scene, the Athenians had preferred a certain personality type in their leaders—men who could give an inspiring, persuasive speech and had a flair for drama. On the battlefield these men were risk takers; they often pushed for military campaigns that they could lead, giving them a chance to gain glory and attention. They advanced their careers by representing some faction in the Assembly—landowners, soldiers, aristocrats—and doing everything they could to further its interests. This led to highly divisive politics. Leaders would rise and fall in cycles of a few years, but the Athenians were fine with this; they mistrusted anyone who lasted long in power. Then Pericles entered public life around 463 BC, and Athenian politics would never be the same. His first move was the most unusual of all. Although he came from an illustrious aristocratic family, he allied himself with the growing lower and middle classes of the city—farmers, oarsmen in the navy, the craftsmen who were the pride of Athens. He worked to increase their voice in the Assembly and give them greater power in the democracy. This was not some small faction he now led but the majority of Athenian citizens. It would seem impossible to control such a large, unruly mob of men, with their varied interests, but he was so fervent in increasing their power that he slowly gained their trust and backing. As his influence grew, he started to assert himself in the Assembly and alter its policies. He argued against expanding Athens’s democratic empire. He feared the Athenians would overreach and lose control. He worked to consolidate the empire and strengthen existing alliances. When it came to war and to serving as a general, he strove to limit campaigns and to win through maneuvers, with minimal loss of lives. To many this seemed unheroic, but as these policies took effect, the city entered a period of unprecedented prosperity. There were no more needless wars to drain the coffers, and the empire was functioning more smoothly than ever. What Pericles did with the growing surplus of money startled and amazed the citizenry: instead of using it to buy political favors, he initiated a massive public building project in Athens. He commissioned temples, theaters, and concert halls, putting all of the Athenian craftsmen to work. Everywhere one looked, the city was becoming more sublimely beautiful. He favored a form of architecture that reflected his personal aesthetics—ordered, highly geometric, monumental yet soothing to the eye. His greatest commission was that of the Parthenon, with its enormous forty-foot statue of Athena. Athena was the guiding spirit of Athens, the goddess of wisdom and practical intelligence. She represented all of the values Pericles wanted to promote. Singlehandedly Pericles had transformed the look and spirit of Athens, and it entered a golden age in all of the arts and sciences. What was perhaps the strangest quality of Pericles was his

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  He would announce himself to the secretary in the outer office, then patiently wait there until called in, sometimes for an hour. He didn’t seem bothered by this—he busied himself by reading or taking notes. Once inside, he’d ask the senator about his wife and family or his favorite sports team—he had clearly done his homework on the senator in question. He could be quite self-deprecating. He’d often first introduce himself as “Landslide Lyndon,” everyone knowing he had won his Senate seat by the slimmest of margins. Mostly, however, he came to talk business and get advice. He’d ask a question or two about some bill or bit of senatorial procedure and would listen with a focus that was striking and charming, almost like a child. His large brown eyes would stay fixed on the senator in question, and with his chin resting on his hand, he would occasionally nod and every now and then ask another question. The senators could tell he was paying deep attention because invariably he would act on their advice or repeat their very words to someone else, always crediting the senator who had spoken them. He would leave with a gracious thank-you for their time and for the invaluable education they had provided. This was not the spirited hothead they had heard so much about, and the contrast redounded to his credit. The senators saw him most often on the Senate floor, and unlike any other member of the institution, he attended every session and sat almost the whole time at his desk. He took copious notes. He wanted to learn everything about senatorial procedure—a dull affair, but one that seemed to captivate him. He was far, however, from being a dullard. When senators encountered him in the hallway or in the cloakroom, he always had a good joke to tell or some amusing anecdote. He had spent his early years in rural poverty, and although he was well educated, his language had some of the color and biting humor of the Texan farmer and migrant worker. The senators found him amusing. Even Tom Connally had to admit that he had somehow misread him. Older senators, referred to at the time as Old Bulls, particularly came to appreciate Lyndon Johnson. Although they held positions of great authority based on their seniority, they often felt insecure about their age (some were in their eighties) and their physical and mental capacities. But here was Johnson visiting their offices frequently, intent on absorbing their wisdom. One older Democratic senator in particular took to Johnson— Richard Russell of Georgia. He was only eleven years older than Johnson, but he had been serving in the Senate since 1933 and had become one of its most powerful members.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Flannery’s increased empathy and feeling of unity with others, as evidenced by her strong desire to communicate with all types of people, caused her to eventually let go of one of her greatest limitations: the racist sentiments toward African Americans she had internalized from her mother and many others in the South. She saw this clearly in herself and struggled against it, particularly in her work. By the early 1960s she came to embrace the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. And in her later stories she began to express a vision of all the races in America converging one day as equals, moving past this dark stain on our country’s past. For over thirteen years, Flannery O’Connor stared down the barrel of the gun pointed at her, refusing to look away. Certainly her religious faith helped her maintain her spirit, but as Flannery herself knew, so many people who are religious are just as full of illusions and evasions when it comes to their own mortality, and just as capable of complacency and pettiness as anyone else. It was her particular choice to use her fatal disease as the means for living the most intense and fulfilling life possible. Understand: We tend to read stories like Flannery O’Connor’s with some distance. We can’t help but feel some relief that we find ourselves in a much more comfortable position. But we make a grave mistake in doing so. Her fate is our fate—we are all in the process of dying, all facing the same uncertainties. In fact, by having her mortality so present and palpable, she had an advantage over us —she was compelled to confront death and make use of her awareness of it. We, on the other hand, are able to dance around the thought, to envision endless vistas of time ahead of us and dabble our way through life. And then, when reality hits us, when we perhaps receive our own bullet in the side in the form of an unexpected crisis in our career, or a painful breakup in a relationship, or the death of someone close, or even our own life-threatening illness—we are not usually prepared to handle it. Our avoidance of the thought of death has established our pattern for handling other unpleasant realities and adversity. We easily become hysterical and lose our balance, blaming others for our fate, feeling angry and sorry for ourselves, or we opt for distractions and quick ways to dull the pain. This becomes a habit we cannot shake, and we tend to feel the generalized anxiety and emptiness that come from all this avoidance. Before this becomes a lifelong pattern, we must shake ourselves out of this dreamlike state in a real and lasting way. We must come to look at our own mortality without flinching, and without fooling ourselves with some fleeting, abstract meditation on death. We must focus hard on the uncertainty that death represents—it could come

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  LECTURE 27 REBELLION AND REFORM IN LATIN AMERICA In 1753, King Ferdinand VI of Spain bullied the pope into signing a concordat—a special agreement—effectively allowing the Spanish monarch to choose all the bishops and other important church officials throughout the Spanish empire. Later in the century, Charles III saw Catholic education and worship as a way to compel native people to learn Spanish and to keep a close eye on any tribes that might rebel. In short, as these kings consolidated their kingdoms in Europe into something resembling the modern nation state, they aimed to do the same abroad and to turn the church into a bureaucracy to help run the empire. 262 This lecture traces the Catholic Church in Latin America from this time of colonial rule up through the present day. Much has changed, but in some ways, the core themes remain the same: the struggle of religious leaders to assert themselves against worldly powers; the divided loyalties of a church that has always wanted to both protect its flock and protect itself as an institution; and the challenges facing residents of Latin America at the edge of European empire. THE AGE OF INDEPENDENCE õ In 1789, the French Revolution reverberated around the world. Even if it didn’t topple the crowned heads of Europe, it set in motion the beginning of the end of European empire in Latin America. õ In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte emerged from the turmoil of the French Revolution and crowned himself emperor of France. He invaded Spain and installed his older brother Joseph on the Spanish throne, but most of Spain refused to recognize this foreign usurper. õ In 1810, a national parliament formed in Cádiz, a part of Spain still free from French control. When Ferdinand VII regained his throne in 1814, many Spanish didn’t want to go back to the old days. The church was divided on this; many of the more senior officials appreciated the stability that a strong monarchy brought, but among the lower clergy, there was significant support for a more liberal regime that granted a greater voice to the people. Lecture 27—Rebellion and Reform in Latin America 263 õ This was true in the colonies as well. Take for example Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest in Dolores, Mexico. Most of his parishioners were Indians and mestizos, the term traditionally used for people of mixed European and Indian descent. Under the Spanish caste system, these were the groups most vulnerable to oppression and exploitation. õ But Hidalgo cared deeply for his flock, and when royal authorities tried to crack down on local autonomy, he urged the people of Dolores to fight back. When he rang the church bells calling his parishioners to arms, he launched a rebellion that grew to include 80,000 people. 264 The History of Christianity II

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles144 144 Canaanite woman begs Jesus repeatedly to heal her daughter, Jesus says to her finally, “O woman, great is your faith” (15:28; Mark 7:29 has simply “For this saying you may go your way,” with no reference to her faith). 52 To the disciples, however, Jesus says repeatedly in Matthew, “ye of little faith” (ὀλιγόπιστοι, 6:30, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8, 17:20) The Canaanite woman, moreover, speaks her faith in her own voice. Whereas Mark merely reports that she speaks, Matthew gives us direct discourse. Twice she cries out to Jesus: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David”; “Lord, help me” (Matt 15:22, 25). 53 In Mark, she has none of these words. In Matthew, even before her final winning line—“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs” (15:27)—she has twice called Jesus “Lord,” and she has called him “Son of David.” In her own voice, therefore, in Matthew’s gospel, the Canaanite woman proclaims Jesus Lord and King. “O woman, great is your faith,” Jesus says to her at last; in this address—O woman (ὦ γὐναι, a Matthean addition)— Dermience says he uses a title of utmost respect. 54 Second and finally, the women at the tomb. It is perhaps not surprising, in light of the anointing woman and the Canaanite woman, that at the gospel’s end it is women who first see the risen Lord, and women who first proclaim the good news. “Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has been raised from the dead,” the angel says to the women (Matt 28:7). And in Matthew, though not in Mark, the women do go and tell. In light of the earlier contrasts between the anointing woman who announces Jesus’ death and the disciples who do not see it, and the Canaanite woman who has great faith and the disciples who have little faith, the angels’ words are pointed. “Behold, I have told you” (ἰδοὺ εἶπον ὑμῖν, 28:7); you go and tell his disciples. The women see; the women hear the angel’s voice. The disciples are nowhere to be found. And this time, the women speak. The women are bearers of the word now at the tomb as the Canaanite woman was in the presence of Jesus earlier in the gospel. Τhe women are bearers of the word “with fear and great joy” (28:8) to the disciples—the disciples who now again, as before in Matthew’s gospel, find themselves doubting (οἱ δὲ ἐδίστασαν, 28: 17). At the gospel’s end as at its beginning, then, women carry the word of the Lord; it is through their faithfulness that God’s word is heard. The word of God that Mary bears in her body in the gospel’s first chapter, “the other Mary” is given to speak, in the last chapter, in her own voice. In the gospel’s ending we come full circle, back to its beginning. And we find there not only the constancy of God’s word, but Mary. “Behold, I am with you always,” the risen Jesus says in the gospel’s last verse. So Mary’s son speaks in the last verse of the gospel the promise spoken at the gospel’s beginning in Mary herself: God is with us. The women in Matthew’s gospel are few, but they have

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Within months she had become the house expert on mystical theology. She could be seen meditating and praying for hours, more than any other sister. Later that same year the prioress was transferred to another house. Deeply impressed by Jeanne’s behavior and ignoring the advice of others who did not think so highly of her, the prioress recommended Jeanne as her replacement. Suddenly, at the very young age of twenty-five, Jeanne now found herself the head of the Ursuline nuns in Loudun. Several months later, the sisters at Loudun began to hear some very strange stories from Jeanne. She had had a series of dreams, in which a local parish priest, Urbain Grandier, had visited and physically assaulted her. The dreams became increasingly erotic and violent. What was strange was that before these dreams, Jeanne had invited Grandier to become the director of the Ursuline house, but he had politely declined. In Loudun, locals considered Grandier a gallant seducer of young ladies. Was Jeanne merely indulging in her own fantasies? She was so pious that it was hard to believe she was making it all up, and the dreams seemed very real and unusually graphic. Soon after she began telling them to others, several sisters reported having similar dreams. One day the house confessor, Canon Mignon, heard a sister recount such a dream. Mignon, like many others, had long despised Grandier, and he saw in these dreams an opportunity to finally do him in. He called in some exorcists to work on the nuns, and soon almost all of the sisters were reporting nightly visits from Grandier. To the exorcists it was clear— these nuns were possessed by devils under the control of Grandier. For the edification of the citizenry, Mignon and his allies opened the exorcisms up to the public, who now flocked from far and wide to witness a most entertaining scene. The nuns would roll on the ground, writhing, showing their legs, screaming endless obscenities. And of all the sisters, Jeanne seemed the most possessed. Her contortions were more violent, and the demons that spoke through her were more strident in their satanic oaths. It was one of the strongest possessions they had ever seen, and the public clamored to witness her exorcisms above all the others. It now seemed apparent to the exorcists that Grandier, despite never having set foot in the house or having met Jeanne, had somehow bewitched and debauched the good sisters of Loudun. He was soon arrested and charged with sorcery. Based on the evidence, Grandier was condemned to death. After much torture, he was burned at the stake on August 18, 1634, before an enormous crowd. Soon the whole business quieted down. The nuns were suddenly cleared of demons—all except Jeanne.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  More than anyone else, he reminded her of her father. He was handsome, clever, extremely well read, and yet there was a softness to his character. Finally here was a man who was her equal in knowledge, power, and refinement. The admiration was mutual. Soon they were inseparable, and in 1498 they married, uniting two of the most illustrious families in Italy. Now she could finally dream of creating a great regional power, but events beyond her control would spoil her plans. That same year Giovanni died from illness. And before she had time to grieve for him, she had to deal with the latest and most dangerous threat of all to her realm: The new pope, Alexander VI (formerly known as Roderigo Borgia), had his eye on Forlì. He wanted to extend the papal domains through conquest, his son Cesare Borgia serving as the commander of the papal forces. Forlì would be a key acquisition for the pope, and he began to maneuver to politically isolate Caterina from her allies. To prepare for the imminent invasion, Caterina forged a new alliance with the Venetians and built an elaborate series of defenses within Ravaldino. The pope tried to pressure her to surrender her domain, making her all kinds of promises in return. She knew better than to trust a Borgia. But by the fall of 1499, it seemed that the end had finally come. The pope had allied himself with France, and Cesare Borgia had appeared in the region with an army of twelve thousand, fortified by the addition of two thousand experienced French soldiers. They quickly took Imola and easily entered the city of Forlì itself. All that remained was Ravaldino, which by late December was surrounded by Borgia’s troops. On December 26, Cesare Borgia himself rode up to the castle on his white horse, dressed all in black—quite a sight. As Caterina looked down from the ramparts and contemplated the scene, she thought of her father. It was the anniversary of his assassination. He represented everything she valued, and she would not disappoint him. She was the most like him of all his children. As he would have done, she had thought ahead—her plan was to play for time until her remaining allies could come to her defense. She had cleverly fortified Ravaldino in a way that would allow her to keep retreating behind barricades if the walls were breached.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  But in narrowing herself down to the role of the devoted wife, she had to repress her naturally expansive character. She had to expend her energy in placating her husband’s insecurities. In the process she lost all initiative and paid the price, experiencing a deep depression that nearly killed her. She learned her lesson and afterward would remain true to herself for the rest of her life. Perhaps what is most surprising about the story of Caterina Sforza is the effect she had on the men and women of her time. We would expect that people would have condemned her as a witch or virago and shunned her for all her flouting of gender conventions. Instead, she fascinated almost everyone who came in contact with her. Women admired her strength. Isabella d’Este, the ruler of Mantua and her contemporary, found her inspiring and wrote after her capture by Borgia, “If the French criticize the cowardliness of our men, at least they should praise the daring and valor of the Italian woman.” Men of all types—artists, soldiers, priests, nobility, servants —obsessed over her. Even those who wanted to destroy her, like Cesare Borgia, felt an initial attraction and the desire to possess her. Men could talk battle and strategy with her and feel like they were talking to an equal, not like the other women in their lives, with whom they could barely converse. But more important, they sensed a freedom in her that was exciting. They also had to play a gender role, one that was not as constricting as a woman’s role but had its disadvantages. They were expected to be always in control, tough and indomitable. Secretly they were drawn to this dangerous woman with whom they could lose control. She was not a feminine doll, all passive and existing only to please men. She was unrepressed and authentic, which inspired in them the desire to let go as well, to move past their own constricted roles. Understand: You might like to imagine that much has changed when it comes to gender roles, that the world of Caterina Sforza is too distant from our own to be relevant. But in thinking so you would be greatly mistaken. The specific details of gender roles might fluctuate according to culture and time period, but the pattern is essentially the same and is as follows: We are all born as complete beings, with many sides to us. We have qualities of the opposite sex, both genetically and from the influence of the parent of the other gender. Our character has natural depths and dimensions to it. When it comes to boys, studies have shown that an early age they are actually more emotionally reactive than girls.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called Mitfreude— “joying with.” As he wrote, “The serpent that stings us means to hurt us and rejoices as it does so; the lowest animal can imagine the pain of others. But to imagine the joy of others and to rejoice at it is the highest privilege of the highest animals.” This means that instead of merely congratulating people on their good fortune, something easy to do and easily forgotten, you must instead actively try to feel their joy, as a form of empathy. This can be somewhat unnatural, as our first tendency is to feel a pang of envy, but we can train ourselves to imagine how it must feel to others to experience their happiness or satisfaction. This not only cleans our brain of ugly envy but also creates an unusual form of rapport. If we are the targets of Mitfreude , we feel the other person’s genuine excitement at our good fortune, instead of just hearing words, and it induces us to feel the same for them. Because it is such a rare occurrence, it contains great power to bond people. And in internalizing other people’s joy, we increase our own capacity to feel this emotion in relation to our own experiences. Transmute envy into emulation. We cannot stop the comparing mechanism in our brains, so it is best to redirect it into something productive and creative. Instead of wanting to hurt or steal from the person who has achieved more, we should desire to raise ourselves up to his or her level. In this way, envy becomes a spur to excellence. We may even try to be around people who will stimulate such competitive desires, people who are slightly above us in skill level. To make this work requires a few psychological shifts. First, we must come to believe that we have the capacity to raise ourselves up. Confidence in our overall abilities to learn and improve will serve as a tremendous antidote to envy. Instead of wishing to have what another has and resorting to sabotage out of helplessness, we feel the urge to get the same for ourselves and believe we have the ability to do so. Second, we must develop a solid work ethic to back this up. If we are rigorous and persistent, we will be able to overcome almost any obstacle and elevate our position. People who are lazy and undisciplined are much more prone to feeling envy. Related to this, having a sense of purpose, a feel for your calling in life, is a great way to immunize yourself against envy. You are focused on your own life and plans, which are clear and invigorating. What gives you satisfaction is realizing your potential, not earning attention from the public, which is fleeting. You have much less need to compare. Your sense of self-worth comes from within, not from without. Admire human greatness. Admiration is the polar opposite of envy—

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Caught off guard by this action, Caterina reacted with fury. She rounded up the conspirators and had them executed and their families imprisoned. In the months after this, she fell into a deep depression, even contemplating suicide. What had happened to her over the past few years? How had she lost her way and given up her power? What had happened to her girlhood dreams and the spirit of her father that was her own? Something had clouded her mind. She turned to religion and she returned to ruling her realm. Slowly she recovered. Then one day she received a visit from Giovanni de’ Medici, a thirty-year-old member of the famous family and one of Florence’s leading businessmen. He had come to forge commercial ties between the cities. More than anyone else, he reminded her of her father. He was handsome, clever, extremely well read, and yet there was a softness to his character. Finally here was a man who was her equal in knowledge, power, and refinement. The admiration was mutual. Soon they were inseparable, and in 1498 they married, uniting two of the most illustrious families in Italy. Now she could finally dream of creating a great regional power, but events beyond her control would spoil her plans. That same year Giovanni died from illness. And before she had time to grieve for him, she had to deal with the latest and most dangerous threat of all to her realm: The new pope, Alexander VI (formerly known as Roderigo Borgia), had his eye on Forlì. He wanted to extend the papal domains through conquest, his son Cesare Borgia serving as the commander of the papal forces. Forlì would be a key acquisition for the pope, and he began to maneuver to politically isolate Caterina from her allies. To prepare for the imminent invasion, Caterina forged a new alliance with the Venetians and built an elaborate series of defenses within Ravaldino. The pope tried to pressure her to surrender her domain, making her all kinds of promises in return. She knew better than to trust a Borgia. But by the fall of 1499, it seemed that the end had finally come. The pope had allied himself with France, and Cesare Borgia had appeared in the region with an army of twelve thousand, fortified by the addition of two thousand experienced French soldiers. They quickly took Imola and easily entered the city of Forlì itself. All that remained was Ravaldino, which by late December was surrounded by Borgia’s troops. On December 26, Cesare Borgia himself rode up to the castle on his white horse, dressed all in black—quite a sight. As Caterina looked down from the ramparts and contemplated the scene, she thought of her father. It was the anniversary of his assassination. He represented everything she valued, and she would not disappoint

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  It is only after I finished my dissertation and started to work as a professor myself that I realized the pressure one is under as an academic. When I submitted my drafts as a doctoral candidate, I had thought I would receive feedback right away. Terry would usual y say to me that my chapter was next on his pile to occupy his close attention, and indeed he would get back to me in a reasonable and timely manner. It never real y occurred to me to consider the almost insurmountable task and pressure that a university professor working in a large research institution might face. Terry was busy as a professor, active researcher (he always had one day total y devoted to his research projects), administrator, and the myriad other roles one is assigned in a university context. As a student, I lived in a different world. I realize today that my students occupy a different universe. I thought I was busy until I started my own career. It is remarkable that in the busyness of his life Terry has been able to pursue a number of extremely important scholarly questions for more than thirty years. Donaldson’s scholarship in the field of NT broadly conceived is very important, especial y as he has pushed scholars to pay closer attention to the complex relations between early Christ-followers—who were mostly non-Jews—and the Jewish matrix from which the narrative of the Christian proclamation comes. In four clearly articulated monographs, 2 Terence L. Davidson, Judaism and the Gentiles: Jewish Patterns of Universalism (to 135 CE) (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007). 3 Introduction 3 Donaldson presents a research trajectory that is both solid and informative. 3 At the writing of this edited volume he also has a forthcoming monograph on Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine. 4 This edited volume is important for the development of scholarship in the ways in which some prominent NT scholars engage Donaldson’s contributions to sharpen some of his conclusions and to honor him for his work and friendship. These essays are located at the intersections of three bodies of literature— Paul, Matthew, and Second Temple Jewish Literature—as well as with themes and questions that have been central to Donaldson’s work: Christian Judaism and the parting of the ways, Gentiles in Judaism and early Christianity, and anti-Judaism in early Christianity. Donaldson’s scholarly achievement, as well as his dedication to his students and commitment to scholarly pursuits across the academic divide, has made it a pleasure for me to be in conversation with a variety of scholars. The essays included in this Festschrift testify to the wide array of colleagues eager to engage with Donaldson’s work and to push the scholarly conversations in further and fruitful directions. Overview of the Volume Chapter 1 is from Steve Mason. Mason is very interested in probing historical questions.

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  “pre-eminent ancestor of the Davidic dynasty.” 20 At the least, then, to name Tamar is to draw attention to Judah and the Davidic and messianic focus of the genealogy already here at its beginning.21 But to read Genesis is to see that Tamar is important to Judah’s role as “Lion of Israel” in her own right. Judah, in Gen 38, has no heir; the sons of Judah have not produced a son. Two of them die childless and Judah refuses to fulfil his levirate obligations and give his third son to Tamar their widow. Jacob’s prophecy, the Davidic dynasty, is threatened. Enter Tamar. Sent away from Judah’s home, childless and a widow in her father’s house, Tamar disguises herself and conceives a child—twins—by Judah. In this way she, and not Judah, makes possible the continuation of the Davidic line and the fulfilment of Jacob/Israel’s prophecy to Judah (“the sceptre shall not depart from Judah,” Gen 49:10).22 She, and not Judah, fulfils the levirate law.23 Condemned by Judah to be burnt at the stake for prostitution, she reveals to Judah that she is the daughter-in-law he has abandoned childless, contrary to the law. “She is more righteous than I,” Judah says (38:26). Who is Tamar? She is, in Genesis, both widow and seeming prostitute, and the righteous one who insists on the fulfilment of the law of Israel, when Judah, Lion of 19 On intertextuality in Matthew see especial y Ulrich Luz, “Intertexts in the Gospel of Matthew,” HTR 97.2 (2004): 119–37, esp. 121–2 (citations 122, 121). I use “intertext” here in Luz’s first sense: intertexts as the product of the text (as opposed to the reader), belonging to the rhetorical strategy of the text, “consciously invoked by an author.” “Intertextuality on the level of the text is primarily descriptive; it facilitates the precise description of the strategies of a text.” 20 Heil, “Narrative Roles,” 539. Cf. Richard Bauckham, “Tamar’s Ancestry and Rahab’s Marriage: Two Problems in the Matthean Genealogy,” NT 37.4 (1995): 313–29, esp. 326. 21 Heil, “Narrative Roles,” 539. 22 Cf. Weren, “Five Women,” 297. 23 Cf. Clements , Mothers on the Margins, 64; Wainwright, Feminist Critical Reading, 162. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, “Tamar 1,” in Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal, Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament (ed. Carol Meyers et al.; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 161–2, here 161, notes: “in-law incest rules are suspended for the purpose of the levirate”; when a son is not available, the father-in-law is permitted, even required, to take the place of the widow’s husband in providing a son. Hence there is no “sin” in Tamar; the problem is with Judah, as he himself admits (Gen 38:26). 136 136 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  scholars began to read scripture in the original Greek and Hebrew, and they began to challenge old medieval translations and church teaching based on those translations. õ The cities of Italy were full of traders and merchants who were exposed to new ideas from all over the world. This was the culture of early global capitalism. Keep that factor in mind as this course moves into the huge changes in European Christianity in the following centuries. õ Think of Italy as in the vanguard of this shift from feudalism to early capitalism. In feudal societies, most people spent their lives in a role they were born into. Serfs toiled on the land, served great lords, and passed down those obligations to their sons. The lords inherited their titles and passed them on to their sons as well. This great chain of being, supposedly fixed by God, was meant to grind on for all eternity. õ But as a market economy began to evolve, this hierarchy broke down. The economy of status transformed into an economy of money in which self-made merchants and bankers could grow rich, put kings and popes in debt, and turn the hierarchy topsy-turvy. GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA õ Nobody is a better icon of Renaissance Florence than a man named Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Pico came from an aristocratic family, and he was a prodigy. By his 20s, he had mastered several ancient languages and published such bold challenges to the Catholic Church that he had irritated the pope. õ When he was 23, Pico decided to assemble the great truths of all world philosophies and religions in a list called the 900 Theses. To make up his list, he drew on many sources that Western Europeans had never read before because they couldn’t read the languages, such as ancient neo-Platonic philosophy, Islamic philosophy, and mystical Jewish kabbalah. Pico’s idea was that it had to be possible to reconcile all these different traditions to come up with universal truth. 6 The History of Christianity II õ He published the theses in Rome in 1486 and wanted the very best theologians and philosophers to get together and argue about them at a big international council. At the same time he published a treatise to make the case for what he was doing called the Oration on the Dignity of Man. Lecture 1—Prophets of Reform before Protestantism 7

• From Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away (2022)

  I The Gaffed Scale n October 1974, boxer Muhammad Ali pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports when he knocked out George Foreman in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.” With that victory, Ali regained the heavyweight boxing championship, a title he had first earned when he dethroned Sonny Liston a decade earlier in 1964. Ali faced unbelievable odds and adversity on the way to this momentous triumph. In 1967, he was stripped of his heavyweight title after refusing to serve in the Vietnam War, depriving him of the opportunity to fight for three and a half years during what should have been the prime of his career. After that layoff, he had to fight his way back into contention for another four years to get the title shot against George Foreman. By this time, Ali was nearly thirty-three and had fought as a professional forty-six times. Foreman was heavily favored: younger, bigger, stronger, undefeated, and considered indestructible. Ali had split a pair of fights that went the distance against both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. Neither Frazier nor Norton lasted two rounds against Foreman. When Ali bested Foreman, he cemented his status as the Greatest of All Time. Muhammad Ali became a symbol of grit. Against all odds, among a sea of naysayers, he had refused to give up and triumphed. Is there any greater testament to the power of persistence and perseverance when it comes to pursuing your dreams? But the story doesn’t end there. That same grittiness led Ali to fight for seven more years. From 1975 to December 1981, Ali persisted despite repeated, unambiguous signals that he should quit. In 1977, after friends and reporters noticed signs of his physical and mental deterioration, Teddy Brenner, the matchmaker at Madison Square Garden (which had hosted eight Ali fights) begged him to retire. Ali waffled.

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. õ African Americans have been protesting white supremacy almost as long as they have been on the North American continent, but this long fight began to pick up new momentum in the 1950s and 1960s. In the United States, activists began to protest the segregation-enforcing Jim Crow laws with more vigor. A coalition of black pastors and committed laypeople turned theology into action. õ The activist Martin Luther King Jr. towers over his colleagues in fame, but in many respects he was very ordinary. He represents a character that we encounter throughout the civil rights movement: the clergyman-activist. His father and grandfather were Baptist preachers like him. He came from a long tradition of African American pastors whose job included negotiating their community’s relationship with white institutions and power. Lecture 30—The Gospel and Global Civil Rights 293 õ King was also a lifelong student of the broad tradition of liberation theology—black and white, Christian and non-Christian. Liberation theology sees the church as an agent for social change here and now— for economic and political liberation in this world, not just for spiritual liberation in the next. õ King went to seminary, then earned a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University in 1955. While he was in school, he read the work of Social Gospel thinkers like Walter Rauschenbusch, and he was heavily influenced by Rauschenbusch’s message that sin is not just personal; it’s institutional and cultural. Moreover, it’s a Christian’s job to work to reshape depraved features of their community, to help bring about the Kingdom of God. õ King also read Jewish ethics and the work of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian activist who opposed British rule there. He was particularly persuaded by Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. 294 The History of Christianity II

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  confesses her faith in Israel’s God, she quotes from Exod 15 and the song of Miriam.34 Josh 2:10 echoes Exodus explicitly: “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you” (Josh 2:10). This story echoes the one in the Book of Joshua; Moses and the exodus find their counterpart in Rahab and the entry into the promised land. In Matt 2, Matthew’s birth narrative will echo repeatedly the story of Moses and the exodus. In the genealogy, Matthew names the woman whose scriptural story echoes Moses and the exodus. 35 In Joshua, it is not only Rahab’s actions but her voice that matters: her faith is a matter of word as well as of deed. Rahab confesses that Israel’s God is Lord; Rahab sings again the song of Miriam at the Red Sea; Rahab speaks ahead of time of Israel’s conquest of the land. It is her message, Frymer-Kensky notes, that the spies take back to Joshua; thus Rahab becomes the “oracle” of the conquest.36 In rabbinic tradition, Rahab is revered as a prophet.37 “Rahab,” Frymer-Kensky says, “who begins as triply marginalized—Canaanite, woman, and prostitute—moves to the center as bearer of a divine message and herald of Israel in its new land.” 38 It is explicitly by her word that the men are saved and Israel enters the promised land. By her word, in Matthew’s scriptural intertext, the promises of God are fulfilled. Ruth Ruth marries Rahab’s son. In naming Ruth, Matthew recal s another confession of faith, the faith of Ruth will not break with Naomi and Naomi’s God, though she is herself a Gentile—indeed, a Moabite. “Whither thou goest I will go; …your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 2:16). The text likens her faithfulness to the faithfulness of Abraham. Boaz says to Ruth, “you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people you did not know before” (Ruth 2:11). His language, Phyllis Trible notes, is reminiscent of the call of Abraham in Gen 12. 39 Like Rahab, Ruth names the God of Israel Lord (2:16–18). Like Tamar, Ruth is righteous. She goes to great lengths on Naomi’s behalf to ensure that the obligations of next-of-kin are fulfilled. Indeed, the Book of Ruth draws the connection with Tamar.

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  Moreover, I became fascinated by the similarity of these involuntary gestures to those of the sacred dances that I had seen at various cultural performances presented at University of California–Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. These hand/finger/arm movements, called mudras , are all-embracing and inclusive, across the spectrum of the human experience and throughout the world. Particularly in Asia, the way one’s hands and fingers are poised communicates very deep and universal meanings, ones that are related more than just personally to dancer or audience member. c When the therapist observes such spontaneous mudras, then pauses, taking the time to bring them to the client’s attention, the client can then use that information to explore how his “outside” posture feels on the “inside.” It is not surprising, at this juncture, for the client to contact a treasure chest of powerful resources of connection, empowerment, flow, goodness and wholeness. I believe that these archetypal movements arise at unique moments when the instinctual is seamlessly wedded with one’s conscious awareness—when the primitive brain stem and the highest neocortical functions integrate. In summary, Behavior is the only category that the therapist is directly aware of. As clients become aware—at first only marginally—of their own behaviors, they may incorporate these perceptions into an observer role where they are reminding themselves to note sensations associated with those behaviors. When linked with thoughts, this is a powerful tool to dissolve compulsions and addictions. The Affect Channel The two subtypes in the fourth channel are the categorical emotions and the felt sense, or contours of sensation-based feeling. Emotions Emotions include the categorical ones described by Darwin and refined in extensive laboratory studies by Paul Ekman. These distinct emotions include fear, anger, sadness, joy and disgust. Again, these are feelings that the client is experiencing internally and that the therapist can deduce from the client’s face and posture even when the client is unaware of them. Contours of Feeling Another level of affect—the registration of contours of feeling—is, perhaps, even more important to the quality and conduct of our lives than are the categorical emotions. Eugene Gendlin extensively studied and described these softer affects and coined the term felt sense . 95 When you see dew on a blade of grass in the morning light or visit a museum and delight in a beautiful painting, you’re usually not experiencing a categorical emotion. Or when meeting a good friend you haven’t seen for months, you’re probably not feeling fear, sorrow, disgust or even joy. Contours are the sensation-based feelings of attraction and avoidance, of “goodness” and “badness.” You experience these nuances countless times throughout the day. While it’s easy to imagine a day without perceiving any of the categorical emotions, try for a moment to conjure up a day without any felt sense affects. On such a day you would be as lost as a ship at sea with no rudder or bearings.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  experiencing a deep depression that nearly killed her. She learned her lesson and afterward would remain true to herself for the rest of her life. Perhaps what is most surprising about the story of Caterina Sforza is the effect she had on the men and women of her time. We would expect that people would have condemned her as a witch or virago and shunned her for all her flouting of gender conventions. Instead, she fascinated almost everyone who came in contact with her. Women admired her strength. Isabella d’Este, the ruler of Mantua and her contemporary, found her inspiring and wrote after her capture by Borgia, “If the French criticize the cowardliness of our men, at least they should praise the daring and valor of the Italian woman.” Men of all types—artists, soldiers, priests, nobility, servants —obsessed over her. Even those who wanted to destroy her, like Cesare Borgia, felt an initial attraction and the desire to possess her. Men could talk battle and strategy with her and feel like they were talking to an equal, not like the other women in their lives, with whom they could barely converse. But more important, they sensed a freedom in her that was exciting. They also had to play a gender role, one that was not as constricting as a woman’s role but had its disadvantages. They were expected to be always in control, tough and indomitable. Secretly they were drawn to this dangerous woman with whom they could lose control. She was not a feminine doll, all passive and existing only to please men. She was unrepressed and authentic, which inspired in them the desire to let go as well, to move past their own constricted roles. Understand: You might like to imagine that much has changed when it comes to gender roles, that the world of Caterina Sforza is too distant from our own to be relevant. But in thinking so you would be greatly mistaken. The specific details of gender roles might fluctuate according to culture and time period, but the pattern is essentially the same and is as follows: We are all born as complete beings, with many sides to us. We have qualities of the opposite sex, both genetically and from the influence of the parent of the other gender. Our character has natural depths and dimensions to it. When it comes to boys, studies have shown that an early age they are actually more emotionally reactive than girls. They have high degrees of empathy and sensitivity. Girls have an adventurous and exploratory spirit that is natural to them. They have powerful wills, which they like to exert in transforming their environment. As we get older, however, we have to present to the world a consistent identity. We have to play certain roles and live up to certain expectations. We have to trim and lop off natural qualities. Boys lose their rich range of emotions and, in the struggle to get

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  JOHN CALVIN AND GENEVA õ The most famous reformed theologian was John Calvin. On the Protestant spectrum, he’s between Luther and Zwingli. Calvin was born in 1509 in Picardy, France. He trained to be a priest, but became disillusioned with the French clergy. He saw them as immoral and poorly educated. õ In 1534, as he was about to be ordained, Calvin converted to Protestantism. Two years later, he published the first edition of a work he would continue revising for the rest of his life: his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion. In this book, Calvin laid out the most elaborate systematic theology of Protestantism that any reformer had produced thus far. õ Calvin’s basic thesis was that man’s duty is not to know God because God is totally transcendent. Instead, man’s duty is to worship and obey. Only worship can bridge the gap between human and divine. Calvin is best known for his doctrine of predestination. He taught that before the beginning of time, God ordained some people for hell and elected others for heaven. õ Calvin got a chance to put his ideas about the Christian life into practice. In 1536, a Swiss evangelist convinced him to help the city council of Geneva implement reform. Calvin said the baseline for church membership had to be a person’s fitness to receive the sacrament, and that meant good behavior, evidence that they were probably among the elect. He thought that the Eucharist was spiritual poison for those who took it without true faith. õ He made the clergy far more powerful than they were in Lutheran lands, where they tended to depend on a prince’s bureaucracy or a city council for their employment. He imposed lots of regulations on card playing, dice, gambling, and other activities (although Geneva had many such rules before Calvin showed up). 24 The History of Christianity II õ Calvin was a harsh man: He sentenced a named Michael Servetus, who denied the Trinity and infant baptism, to burn at the stake. Yet Calvin also spent a lot of time listening to Genevans explain their troubles and trying to help them understand the Bible. Calvin built a model of church governance and community discipline that became the envy of reformed Protestants all over Europe. French Protestants, who were persecuted in their home country, flooded into Geneva. õ But not all the refugees arrived from France. Many English refugees, including the Scottish reformer John Knox, found their way to Geneva, where they came to admire the way Calvin was running things. A later generation of Englishmen and women would borrow heavily from his ideas in the colonies of New England too. Lecture 3—Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed Tradition 25