Admiration

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• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The Epistle to Diognetus forms the transition from the purely practical literature of the Apostolic Fathers to the reflective theology of the Apologists. It still glows with the ardor of the first love. It is strongly Pauline.1317 It breathes the spirit of freedom and higher knowledge grounded in faith. The Old Testament is Ignored, but without any sign of Gnostic contempt. 5. Authorship and Time of composition. The author calls himself "a disciple of the Apostles,"1318 but this term occurs in the appendix, and may be taken in a wider sense. In the MS. the letter is ascribed to Justin Martyr, but its style is more elegant, vigorous and terse than that of Justin and the thoughts are more original and vigorous.1319 It belongs, however, in all probability, to the same age, that is, to the middle of the second century, rather earlier than later. Christianity appears in it as something still new and unknown to the aristocratic society, as a stranger in the world, everywhere exposed to calumny and persecution of Jews and Gentiles. All this suits the reign of Antoninus Pius and of Marcus Aurelius. If Diognetus was the teacher of the latter as already suggested, we would have an indication of Rome, as the probable place of composition. Some assign the Epistle to an earlier date under Trajan or Hadrian,1320 others to the reign of Marcus Aurelius,1321 others to the close of the second century or still later.1322 The speculations about the author begin with Apollos in the first, and end with Stephens in the sixteenth century. He will probably remain unknown.1323 § 171. Sixtus of Rome. Enchiridion SIXTI philosophi Pythagorici, first ed. by Symphor. Champerius, Lugd. 1507 (under the title: Sixtii Xysti Anulus); again at Wittenberg with the Carmina aurea of Pythagoras, 1514; by Beatus Rhenanus, Bas. 1516; in the "Maxima Bibliotheca Vet. Patrum." Lugd. 1677, Tom. III. 335–339 (under the title Xysti vel Sexti Pythagorici philosophi ethnici Sententicae, interprete Rufino Presbytero Aquilejensi); by U. G. Siber, Lips. 1725 (under the name of Sixtus II. instead of Sixtus I.); and by Gildemeister (Gr., Lat. and Syr.),Bonn 1873. A Syriac Version in P. Lagardii Analecta Syriaca, Lips. and Lond. 1858 (p. 1–31, only the Syriac text, derived from seven MSS. of the Brit. Museum, the oldest before A.D. 553, but mutilated). The book is discussed in the "Max. Bibl." l. c.; by Fontaninus: Historia liter. Aquilejensis (Rom. 1742); by Fabricius, in the Bibliotheca Graeca, Tom. I. 870 sqq. (ed. Harles, 1790); by Ewald: Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. VII. (Göttingen, 1859), p. 321–326; and by Tobler in Annulus Rufini, Sent. Sext. (Tübingen 1878).

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  To Melito we owe the first Christian list of the Hebrew Scriptures. It agrees with the Jewish and the Protestant canon, and omits the Apocrypha. The books of Esther and Nehemiah are also omitted, but may be included in Esdras. The expressions "the Old Books," "the Books of the Old Covenant," imply that the church at that time had a canon of the New Covenant. Melito made a visit to Palestine to seek information on the Jewish canon. He wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse, and a "Key" ( ), probably to the Scriptures.1375 The loss of this and of his books "on the Church" and "on the Lord’s Day" are perhaps to be regretted most. Among the Syriac fragments of Melito published by Cureton is one from a work "On Faith," which contains a remarkable christological creed, an eloquent expansion of the Regula Fidei.1376 The Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as the perfect Reason, the Word of God; who was begotten before the light; who was Creator with the Father; who was the Fashioner of man; who was all things in all; Patriarch among the patriarchs, Law in the law, Chief Priest among the priests, King among the kings, Prophet among the prophets, Archangel among the angels; He piloted Noah, conducted Abraham, was bound with Isaac, exiled with Jacob, was Captain with Moses; He foretold his own sufferings in David and the prophets; He was incarnate in the Virgin; worshipped by the Magi; He healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, was rejected by the people, condemned by Pilate, hanged upon the tree, buried in the earth, rose from the dead and appeared to the apostles, ascended to heaven; He is the Rest of the departed, the Recoverer of the lost, the Light of the blind, the Refuge of the afflicted, the Bridegroom of the Church, the Charioteer of the cherubim, the Captain of angels; God who is of God, the Son of the Father, the King for ever and ever. § 178. Apolinarius of Hierapolis. Miltiades. Claudius Apolinarius,1377 bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a successor of Papias, was a very active apologetic and polemic writer about A.D. 160–180. He took a leading part in the Montanist and Paschal controversies. Eusebius puts him with Melito of Sardis among the orthodox writers of the second century, and mentions four of his "many works" as known to him, but since lost, namely an "Apology" addressed to Marcus Aurelius (before 174). "Five books against the Greeks" "Two books on Truth." "Two books against the Jews." He also notices his later books "Against the heresy of the Phrygians" (the Montanists), about 172.1378 Apolinarius opposed the Quartodeciman observance of Easter, which Melito defended.1379 Jerome mentions his familiarity with heathen literature, but numbers him among the Chiliasts.1380 The latter is doubtful on account of his opposition to Montanism. Photius praises his style. He is enrolled among the saints.1381

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The question therefore lies between the shorter Greek copy and the Syriac version. The preponderance of testimony is for the former, in which the letters are no loose patch-work, but were produced each under its own impulse, were known to Eusebius (probably even to Polycarp),1234 and agree also with the Armenian version of the fifth century, as compared by Petermann. The three Syriac epistles, however, though they lack some of the strongest passages on episcopacy and on the divinity of Christ, contain the outlines of the same life-picture, and especially the same fervid enthusiasm for martyrdom, as the seven Greek epistles. III. His Character and Position in history. Ignatius stands out in history as the ideal of a catholic martyr, and as the earliest advocate of the hierarchical principle in both its good and its evil points. As a writer, he is remarkable for originality, freshness and force of ideas, and for terse, sparkling and sententious style; but in apostolic simplicity and soundness, he is inferior to Clement and Polycarp, and presents a stronger contrast to the epistles of the New Testament. Clement shows the calmness, dignity and governmental wisdom of the Roman character. Ignatius glows with the fire and impetuosity of the Greek and Syrian temper which carries him beyond the bounds of sobriety. He was a very uncommon man, and made a powerful impression upon his age. He is the incarnation, as it were, of the three closely connected ideas: the glory of martyrdom, the omnipotence of episcopacy, and the hatred of heresy and schism. Hierarchical pride and humility, Christian charity and churchly exclusiveness are typically represented in Ignatius.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Origen’s greatest service was in exegesis. He is father of the critical investigation of Scripture, and his commentaries are still useful to scholars for their suggestiveness. Gregory Thaumaturgus says, he had "received from God the greatest gift, to be an interpreter of the word of God to men." For that age this judgment is perfectly just. Origen remained the exegetical oracle until Chrysostom far surpassed him, not indeed in originality and vigor of mind and extent of learning, but in sound, sober tact, in simple, natural analysis, and in practical application of the text. His great defect is the neglect of the grammatical and historical sense and his constant desire to find a hidden mystic meaning. He even goes further in this direction than the Gnostics, who everywhere saw transcendental, unfathomable mysteries. His hermeneutical principle assumes a threefold sense—somatic, psychic, and pneumatic; or literal, moral, and spiritual. His allegorical interpretation is ingenious, but often runs far away from the text and degenerates into the merest caprice; while at times it gives way to the opposite extreme of a carnal literalism, by which he justifies his ascetic extravagance.1469 Origen is one of the most important witnesses of the ante-Nicene text of the Greek Testament, which is older than the received text. He compared different MSS. and noted textual variations, but did not attempt a recension or lay down any principles of textual criticism. The value of his testimony is due to his rare opportunities and life-long study of the Bible before the time when the traditional Syrian and Byzantine text was formed. § 188. The Works of Origen. Origen was an uncommonly prolific author, but by no means an idle bookmaker. Jerome says, he wrote more than other men can read. Epiphanius, an opponent, states the number of his works as six thousand, which is perhaps not much beyond the mark, if we include all his short tracts, homilies, and letters, and count them as separate volumes. Many of them arose without his cooeperation, and sometimes against his will, from the writing down of his oral lectures by others. Of his books which remain, some have come down to us only in Latin translations, and with many alterations in favor of the later orthodoxy. They extend to all branches of the theology of that day. 1. His biblical works were the most numerous, and may be divided into critical, exegetical, and hortatory.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  II. Salomon Hess: Leben Bullinger’s. Zürich, 1828–’29, 2 vols. Not very accurate.—*Carl Pestalozzi: Heinrich Bullinger. Leben und ausgewählte Schriften. Nach handschriftlichen und gleichzeitigen Quellen. Elberfeld, 1858. Extracts from his writings, pp. 505–622. Pestalozzi has faithfully used the written and printed sources in the Stadtbibliothek and Archives of Zürich.—R. Christoffel: H. Bullinger und seine Gattin. 1875.—Justus Heer: Bullinger, in Herzog2, II. 779–794. A good summary. Older biographical sketches by Ludwig Lavater (1576), Josias Simler (1575), W. Stucki (1575), etc. Incidental information about Bullinger in Hagenbach and other works on the Swiss Reformation, and in Meyer’s Die Gemeinde von Locarno, 1836, especially I. 198–216. After the productive period of the Zwinglian Reformation, which embraced fifteen years, from 1516 to 1531, followed the period of preservation and consolidation under difficult circumstances. It required a man of firm faith, courage, moderation, patience, and endurance. Such a man was providentially equipped in the person of Heinrich Bullinger, the pupil, friend, and successor of Zwingli, and second Antistes of Zürich. He proved that the Reformation was a work of God, and, therefore, survived the apparent defeat at Cappel. He was born July 18, 1504, at Bremgarten in Aargau, the youngest of five sons of Dean Bullinger, who lived, like many priests of those days, in illegitimate, yet tolerated, wedlock.304 The father resisted the sale of indulgences by Samson in 1518, and confessed, in his advanced age, from the pulpit, the doctrines of the Reformation (1529). In consequence of this act he lost his place. Young Henry was educated in the school of the Brethren of the Common Life at Emmerich, and in the University of Cologne. He studied scholastic and patristic theology. Luther’s writings and Melanchthon’s Loci led him to the study of the Bible and prepared him for a change. He returned to Switzerland as Master of Arts, taught a school in the Cistercian Convent at Cappel from 1523 to 1529, and reformed the convent in agreement with the abbot, Wolfgang Joner. During that time he became acquainted with Zwingli, attended the Conference with the Anabaptists at Zürich, 1525, and the disputation at Bern, 1528. He married Anna Adlischweiler, a former nun, in 1529, who proved to be an excellent wife and helpmate. He accepted a call to Bremgarten as successor of his father. After the disaster at Cappel, he removed to Zürich, and was unanimously elected by the Council and the citizens preacher of the Great Minster, Dec. 9, 1531. It was rumored that Zwingli himself, in the presentiment of his death, had designated him as his successor. No better man could have been selected. It was of vital importance for the Swiss churches that the place of the Reformer should be filled by a man of the same spirit, but of greater moderation and self-restraint.305

• From The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir (2004)

  Bentley is shameless, brazen, and hot.” — JERRY STAHL , author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty “The art of talking dirty has come late to women, but when we get it—and Toni Bentley has—the pages burst into flames.” — NANCY FRIDAY , author of Women on Top and My Secret Garden “What Bentley has achieved in these pages is something rare and unexpected. Hers is an erotic journey neither prurient nor grandiose, resulting in a work of high literary ambition rendered unforgettable by its unflinching candor.” — DAVID M. FRIEDMAN , author of A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis “Toni Bentley has gone into territory other writers are afraid of, and that has been considered male territory at that, and done so bravely and sexily.” — PHILIP WEISS , author of American Taboo: Murder in the Peace Corps Also by Toni Bentley Winter Season: A Dancer’s Journal Holding On to the Air: An Autobiography (by Suzanne Farrell with Toni Bentley) Costumes by Karinska Sisters of Salome CREDITS Cover image of Toni Bentley © John Wheeler. Used by permission; courtesy of John Wheeler. Author Photo by: Michele Mattei Copyright THE SURRENDER. Copyright © 2004 by Toni Bentley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks. The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Bentley, Toni. The surrender : an erotic memoir / Toni Bentley.—1st ed. p. cm . ISBN 0-06-073246-6 1. Bentley, Toni. 2. Women—United States—Sexual behavior—Case studies. 3. Women—United States—Biography. 4. Ballet dancers—United States—Biography. 5. Anal sex. I. Title. HQ29.B45 2004 306.77—dc22 [B] 2004050807 ISBN 0-06-073247-4 (pbk.) Epub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062253330 Version 09212012 05 06 07 08 09 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Publisher Australia HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd. Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia http://www.harpercollins.com.au Canada HarperCollins Canada 2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada http://www.harpercollins.ca New Zealand HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited P.O. Box 1 Auckland, New Zealand http://www.harpercollins.co.nz United Kingdom HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 77-85 Fulham Palace Road London, W6 8JB, UK http://www.harpercollins.co.uk United States HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 10 East 53rd Street New York, NY 10022 http://www.harpercollins.com

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Almost all the catholic saints belong to the higher degrees of the clergy or to the monastic life. And the monks were the chief promoters of the worship of saints. At the head of the heavenly chorus stands Mary, crowned as queen by the side of her divine Son; then come the apostles and evangelists, who died a violent death, the protomartyr Stephen, and the martyrs of the first three centuries; the patriarchs and prophets also of the Old Covenant down to John the Baptist; and finally eminent hermits and monks, missionaries, theologians, and bishops, and those, in general, who distinguished themselves above their contemporaries in virtue or in public service. The measure of ascetic self-denial was the measure of Christian virtue. Though many of the greatest saints of the Bible, from the patriarch Abraham to Peter, the prince of the apostles, lived in marriage, the Romish ethics, from the time of Ambrose and Jerome, can allow no genuine holiness within the bonds of matrimony, and receives only virgines and some few vidui and viduae into its spiritual nobility.814 In this again the close connection of saint-worship with monasticism is apparent. To the saints, about the same period, were added angels as objects of worship. To angels there was ascribed in the church from the beginning a peculiar concern with the fortunes of the militant church, and a certain oversight of all lands and nations. But Ambrose is the first who expressly exhorts to the invocation of our patron angels, and represents it as a duty.815 In favor of the guardianship and interest of angels appeal was rightly made to several passages of the Old and New Testaments: Dan. x. 13, 20, 21; xii. 1; Matt. xviii. 10; Luke xv. 7; Heb. i. 14; Acts xii. 15. But in Col. ii. 18, and Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 8, 9, the worship of angels is distinctly rebuked. Out of the old Biblical notion of guardian angels arose also the idea of patron saints for particular countries, cities, churches, and classes, and against particular evils and dangers. Peter and Paul and Laurentius became the patrons of Rome; James, the patron of Spain; Andrew, of Greece; John, of theologians; Luke, of painters; subsequently Phocas, of seamen; Ivo, of jurists; Anthony, a protector against pestilence; Apollonia, against tooth-aches; &c. These different orders of saints and angels form a heavenly hierarchy, reflected in the ecclesiastical hierarchy on earth. Dionysius the Areopagite, a fantastical Christian Platonist of the fifth-century, exhibited the whole relation of man to God on the basis of the hierarchy; dividing the hierarchy into two branches, heavenly and earthly, and each of these again into several degrees, of which every higher one was the mediator of salvation to the one below it. These are the outlines of the saint-worship of our period. Now to the exposition and estimate of it, and then the proofs.

• From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1921)

  T. (see Acts 15 Rom. 15 1 Cor. 92; it is otherwise in classical Greek and the Lxx) refers specifically to the office and work of an apostle of Christ; see on 11. The omission of the article gives the word qualitative force. The preposition cic expresses not mere reference but purpose or result, “for or unto the creation of,” t. e., “so as to make him an apostle.” Ths neprtoufs is here, as in v.’?, by metonymy for “the circumcised.” elg t& vn is manifestly a condensed expression equivalent to els &rootoAny tay efvey, or the like, used for brevity’s sake or through negligence. That &xoctoAny is omitted because of an unwillingness on Paul’s part to claim apostleship for himself is excluded alike by the whole thought of the sentence and by 11. 9. Kal yvovtes THY ydpw THY SoOeicdy por, ’IdxkwPos Kal Kyn¢as Kat “Iwdvns, of Soxodvtes attra eivar, SeEvas eSa@Kxav €uol cat BapvdBa Kowwvias, “and when, I say, they per- ceived the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were accounted to be pillars, gave to me and to Barnabas right hands of fellowship.” These I, 8-9 95 words resume the thought of v.’, virtually repeating ¢ddvTes 67 TerioTevpat, etc., and completing what was there begun. It is an overrefinement to attempt to discover a marked dif- ference between éOdvTes and yvevtes. The “grace that was given to me” is manifestly the grace of God or Christ (on the word yapus, see 13 and detached note p. 423), including espe- cially the entrusting to him of the gospel to the uncircumcised (v.7), but not necessarily excluding that manifested in the results which he had been able to accomplish. Cf. Rom. 15, &¢ ob [sc. "Inood Xprorot] éraPopev yapw Kal arocroAny els UraKony Tictews év Tacw Tos EOveowv, See also x Cor. 319 152° Eph. 3% 7 8 47, On the question how the other apostles came to recognise that God had given him this grace, cf. on v.7. The giving of right hands is in token of a mutual compact, while Kowwvias defines that compact as one of partnership, See more fully below in fine print. The placing of the name of James first is probably the reflection of a certain prominence of James in the action here spoken of and of his influence in the decision, even above that of Peter. Thus while Peter is mentioned in vv.” 8, as in some sense the apostle of the circumcision, tz. €., as the leader in missionary work among the Jews, James was apparently the man of greatest influence in the settlement of a ques- tion of policy, involving one of doctrine in the more practical sense. Cf. on vv. 8. The substitution of Téte0¢ for Knp&s, and the placing of it before *I&xwGog (DFG df g Vg. Syr. [psh. harcl.] Tert.

• From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1921)

  4%. Even if vyev be taken as subjective genitive (Sief.), it would be neces- sary to understand it as referring to a gratulation of themselves, not of others, as is shown clearly by the following sentence introduced by Yap and referring to the enthusiasm of the Gala- tians in receiving Paul. On the use of the simple pronoun for the reflexive, see Rob. p. 681, and the examples in the imme- diately preceding and following sentences, Tetpagwov buoy and opParpwors tua. IIod is the reading of SABCFGP 33, 104, 424**, 442, 1912 f g Veg. Syr. (psh. harcl. mg.), Boh. Arm. Euthal. Dam. Hier. Pelag. Of these f Vg. Boh. (?) Arm. Hier. al. add éottv after ov. DKL al. pler. d Goth. Syr. (harcl. txt.) Thdr. Mop. Sever. Chr. Thdrt. Thphyl. Oec. Victorin. Aug. Ambrst. al. read cfg instead of xod. DFGK al. pler. de Goth. Chr. Thdrt. Aug. Ambrst. add fy after obv. The choice is between x00 ody and tic ody jy, the other readings being corruptions or con- flations of these. Internal evidence is indecisive. Mey. and, follow- ing him, Zahn prefer tfc ody qv. But the strong preponderance of external evidence requires the adoption of mod oty. The alternative reading is probably an unintentional clerical corruption, IO being converted into TIX, and Y omitted to make sense. papTupa yap buiy bri et duvatdv Tods ddbarpors tua éfo- puéavtes edwxaré wor. “For I bear you witness that ye would, if possible, have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.” A confirmation immediately of the assertion implied in 0 waKkapiopuos vue but indirectly of the affirmation of their 244 GALATIANS former favourable attitude, which began with odSév jduxjnoaré ue, v.38, That he dwells on this matter at such length and states it so strongly shows the apostle’s strong desire to rein- state himself in the affections of the Galatians. The language escapes hyperbole only by the expression ¢i dvvatov, The inference from the reference to the eyes that Paul’s weakness of the flesh was a disease of the eyes, though slightly favoured by «i dvvarey in preference, e. g., to € avayKatoy is very pre- carious. ‘Yuty is not an indirect object denoting the person who receives the testimony (cf. Acts 158), but dative of advantage, denoting the one to whose credit witness is borne (cf. Acts 225 Rom. 10? Col. 418). et Suvatdy ... éShxaté wor is evidently a hypothesis contrary to fact, &y being omitted. Cf. BMT 249 and Mt. 26% Jn. 9%* 15% 19% On the mention of the eyes as the most precious members of the body, ¢f. Deut. 321° Ps. 178 Zach. 28, and on é&0edcow of the plucking out of the eyes, see Hdt. 85%: é&bouEe adtHv 6 cathe tole dp)arkods Se& thy aitlny tabcyy (viz., for going to war against his command), and other exx. cited by Wetst., ad loc., also Lxx, Judg. 162 (A; B reads éxxéxtw); t Sam. 112.

• From Birthday Girl (2018)

  Eso está bien, ¿verdad? Es normal encontrar a otras personas atractivas. Eso sucede. Quiero decir, Scarlett Johansson es atractiva. Eso no quiere decir que esté interesada en ella. Mordisqueo de nuevo mi dona, mi mirada yendo a un lado de nuevo, observando sus brazos y los múltiples tatuajes. Engranajes y pernos, como el armazón de un robot, un trabajo tribal que definitivamente dice que fue un chico de los 90, y apenas puedo ver lo que creo es un reloj de bolsillo que parece que está tratando de romper su piel. Es como una mezcla sin ningún tema discernible, pero es un trabajo hermoso. Me pregunto cuál es la historia tras ellos. Tomo otro bocado, el glaseado rosa y las chispas arcoíris envían descargas eléctricas al fondo de mi boca, haciéndome querer meter toda la cosa en mi boca. —Sabes, de verdad me gustaría tener abdominales —comento, masticando—, pero estas están muy buenas. Suelta una carcajada, mirándome y riéndose. —¿Qué? —Nada. Simplemente eres… —Aparta la mirada como si buscara las palabras—. Eres solo, como, interesante o… ¿algo? —Sacude la cabeza—. Lo siento, no sé qué quiero decir. —Y entonces de la nada dice—: Linda. —Como si acabara de recordarlo—. Quiero decir que eres linda. Mi estómago da un vuelco, y el calor inunda mis mejillas como si estuviera de nuevo en quinto año, cuando era un halago tremendo que el chico que te gustaba te dijera que eras linda. Sé que habla de mi personalidad y no de mi apariencia, pero me gusta. Termina la dona y toma un sorbo de su soda. —Entonces, ¿qué edad tienes? —pregunta—. ¿Unos veintitrés, veinticuatro? —Claro, en un tiempo. Suelta una risa. —Diecinueve —respondo finalmente. Toma aire y suspira, hay algo extraño en su mirada. —¿Qué? —Tomo el último mordisco y rozo mis manos entre sí, apoyando e inclinando mi cabeza contra la silla. —Ser tan joven de nuevo —reflexiona—. Parece que fue ayer. Bueno, ¿qué edad podría tener? Diecinueve no pudo haber sido hace tanto para él. ¿Diez años? ¿Tal vez doce? —Entonces, ¿harías algunas cosas diferentes si pudieras volver? —indago. Esboza una tensa sonrisa y me mira, sus ojos serios. —Déjame decirte algo… un pequeño consejo, ¿está bien? Escucho, mirándolo y con mis ojos fijos en los suyos. —Avanza a toda marcha —me dice. ¿Eh? Debe ver la confusión en mis ojos porque continúa: —El tiempo se pasa como una bala —asegura—, y el miedo te da las excusas que buscas para no hacer las cosas que sabes que deberías. No dudes de ti misma, no lo pienses dos veces, no dejes que el miedo te contenga, no seas perezosa, y no bases tus decisiones en lo felices que harán a otros. Solo hazlo, ¿bien? Lo miro, y desafortunadamente, parece que es lo único que puedo hacer.

• From The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir (2004)

  Instead, I would stick to dancing and continue plunging my toes into the beautiful, tight, shiny sheaths called pointe shoes. And there was the miracle, made manifest daily on my very own feet. Despite blistered and bloody evidence to the contrary, my feet didn’t hurt at all while ensconced in the shoes, while dancing. They only hurt when the shoes came off, when my foot was released from its satin prison. This curious experience, the ironic marriage of physical discomfort and euphoria, taught me the power of transcendence. My pink pointe shoes became my fetishistic ally, my crown of thorns, my bed of nails. I adored my toe shoes. Alongside my saint obsession, I developed a passion for reading. This passion, I came to believe, detracted from my ultimate success as a dancer by luring me from the circumscribed, nonverbal world of movement to the limitless plains of thought. The Book Phase included: Simone Weil (beyond my scope to emulate); Nietzsche (Thus Spake he to me); Henry Miller (the romance of poverty in Paris!); D. H. Lawrence (John Thomas and Lady Jane); Anaïs Nin (sexual liberation between the sheets and on the page—in Paris); Freud (incest is best—or at least inevitable); Thomas Mann (the poetic profundity of X-rays); Henry James (I am Isabel Archer, living in the wrong era, in the wrong wardrobe); Virginia Woolf (diary after diary right into the river); Erich Fromm; Eric Hoffer; Ernest Becker (The Denial of Death, every page underlined in red); and Søren Kierkegaard (seven tomes in a row, with voluminous notes on either legal pads or index cards . . . I loved Kierkegaard). These books and their revelations constituted my secret life until I was nearly twenty. Then I lost my virginity. And although my deepest interests have perhaps never changed, they immediately became irrevocably diverted to deriving answers—dancing had presented all the questions—from experience, not only books. But while all this reading and searching for external connection went on in the early morning and late at night, my deepest allegiance and dependence belonged elsewhere during the day: on the walls of the dance studio, where I could not escape my savage self. MY MIRROR, MY MASTER Ballet dancing is learned in front of a mirror. Hours and hours and hours and hours in front of a mirror. As a little girl, as a serious student, and then as a professional adult in both classes and rehearsals, I learned that every arch of the foot, every glance of the eye, every angle of the arm, every turn of the leg, every smile, every grimace, every strain is simultaneously performed and witnessed by one’s self, that nebulous entity called consciousness.

• From Summer Sisters (1998)

  By the time they hit Menemsha it was after five. They figured they’d do sunset there, then head for home. But as soon as they stepped onto the beach they spotted Bru and Von tossing around a Fris-bee. Caitlin pushed her canvas tote at Vix, kicked off her Tevas, and flashed her a wicked smile as she raced down the beach, leaping into the air to snatch their Frisbee in mid-flight. Vix hung back, watching, as if she were in sixth grade again, studying Caitlin for the secret to success. Caitlin was dazzling at seventeen. Her hair cascaded down her back, her skin was moist and flawless, and the expression on her face dared anyone to mess with her. She’d reached her full height that year, leaving Vix three inches behind. She was all legs, like Barbie, but without the ridiculous chest. Caitlin saw this as a defect, some trick nature had played on her. The girls at school encouraged her to send a photo to Elle or Cosmo or even Seventeen . The boys drooled over her. Even the teachers found her irresistible, but irritating. She was so bright. Why didn’t she apply herself? She could be anything, do anything, with just a little effort. But half the time she didn’t turn her papers in when they were due, and she refused to study for tests. “School has nothing to do with life,” she’d say. She’d gone skiing with Phoebe over spring break, to the Italian Alps, and returned with big news for Vix. “Congratulations are in order,” she’d announced. “I’m no longer a virgin.” So, Caitlin had been first, just as she’d guaranteed. Well, Vix wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t even disappointed. “Who?” she asked. “Where?” “A ski instructor,” Caitlin said. “Italian. Very physical. You know the type.” Vix didn’t. “We met on the tram. He was all over me by the time we got to the top of the mountain. We could hardly ski down fast enough.” Vix felt her heart beating faster. “And?” she asked, not certain how much she wanted to know. “It just happened.” “It can’t just happen.” “Well, first we had to get out of our ski clothes if that’s what you mean.” That wasn’t what she meant. “Did it hurt? Did you feel the Power? Was it exciting?” Caitlin laughed. “Exciting? Yeah, I guess so … for about two minutes. That’s how long it took till he finished.” Vix laughed, too. “Did he use something?” she asked. “Of course. I’m not totally crazy!” “Do you love him?” “Love him? I hardly know him. I’ll probably never see him again. It was mostly … curiosity. But at least I got it out of the way.” Vix had no intention of doing it just to get it out of the way. Caitlin called her impossibly romantic, swearing that sex and love not only can be separated but should be. “What gets women into trouble is the way they confuse the two,” she said.

• From Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection (2013)

  He was back in town for a short stretch between jobs. He’d been a wonderful contributor in my class years back, so open and thoughtful, and I enjoy catching up with him when I can. It was during this sidewalk conversation, which stretched into what must have been half an hour, that Jeremy told me he had a letter to pass on to me from some of his own former students. Having heard just a little bit about those students, and his experiences as their teacher, I knew I needed to hear more. I asked if I might interview him for this book and he agreed. His and his students’ stories, as it happens, provide a clear and poignant illustration of why and how positivity resonance matters, and how you can tap into it, even in the most difficult of group circumstances. After graduation, Jeremy had taken a coveted position at Teach For America, the nonprofit modeled after the Peace Corps that enlists thousands of future leaders, just out of college, to bring low-income communities fresh teachers for two or more years. Jeremy had been drawn to Teach For America because he yearned to make real differences for social change. A few years earlier, as a volunteer classroom assistant in the struggling city schools in neighboring Durham county, he’d become keenly aware of the irony of sitting in “ivory tower” classrooms in his own elite university, discussing in abstract terms how, generation after generation, social inequalities get replicated through entrenched inequities in education and wealth, when just down the road sat a middle school student who struggled to read “Go dog go.” Getting to know one of these kids in particular, and noting the poignant gap between his aspirations (for example, “to design video games”) and his academic ability, Jeremy discovered up close and personal that “the problem had a face.” As he put it, “Someone somewhere did something to him that prevented him from learning or didn’t give him the opportunity and that’s a problem that no one should have to deal with.” Teach For America (TFA) offered Jeremy the chance to roll up his sleeves and help to close the achievement gap by working directly with struggling kids in low-income classrooms. After a few months in TFA’s teaching training, and a short stretch into his first placement in a poor rural county in North Carolina, his assistant principal took note of his extraordinary patience and high expectations for even the lowest-performing kids in the high school. She offered him his own math class. He’d take charge of about a dozen chronically failing “special ed” kids, some with IQs in the fifties or with behavioral problems so severe that if “you look [at them] the wrong way, you could have a desk flipped.” He was excited to take on this challenge.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  William Lindsay Alexander, D. D., F. R. S. E. (1808–1884). Professor of Theology and one of the Bible Revisers. Congregationalist. From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed. vol. IV. (1878) p. 721. "Calvin was of middle stature; his complexion was somewhat pallid and dark; his eyes, to the latest clear and lustrous, bespoke the acumen of his genius. He was sparing in his food and simple in his dress; he took but little sleep, and was capable of extraordinary efforts of intellectual toil. His memory was prodigious, but he used it only as the servant of his higher faculties. As a reasoner he has seldom been equalled, and the soundness and penetration of his judgment were such as to give to his conclusions in practical questions almost the appearance of predictions, and inspire in all his friends the utmost confidence in the wisdom of his counsels. As a theologian he stands on an eminence which only Augustin has surpassed; whilst in his skill as an expounder of Scripture, and his terse and elegant style, he possessed advantages to which Augustin was a stranger. His private character was in harmony with his public reputation and position. If somewhat severe and irritable, he was at the same time scrupulously just, truthful, and steadfast; he never deserted a friend or took an unfair advantage of an antagonist; and on befitting occasions he could be cheerful and even facetious among his intimates." Testimonies of American Divines. Dr. Henry B. Smith (1815–1877). Professor of Theology in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. Presbyterian. From his Address before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, 1855, delivered by request of the Presbyterian Historical Society. See Faith and Philosophy, pp. 98 and 99. "Though the Reformation, under God, began with Luther in the power of faith, it was carried on by Calvin with greater energy, and with a more constructive genius, both in theology and in church polity, as he also had a more open field. The Lutheran movement affected chiefly the centre and the north of Europe; the Reformed Churches were planted in the west of Europe, all around the ocean, in the British Isles, and by their very geographical site were prepared to act the most efficient part, and to leap the walls of the old world, and colonize our shores. "Nothing is more striking in a general view of the history of the Reformed Churches than the variety of countries into which we find their characteristic spirit, both in doctrine and polity, penetrating. Throughout Switzerland it was a grand popular movement. There is first of all, Zwingli, the hero of Zurich, already in 1516 preaching against the idolatrous veneration of Mary, a man of generous culture and intrepid spirit, who at last laid down his life upon the field of battle. In Basle we find Oecolampadius, and also Bullinger [in Zurich], the chronicler of the Swiss reform. Farel aroused Geneva to iconoclasm by his inspiring eloquence.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  "His last days were of a piece with his life. His whole course has been compared by Vinet to the growth of one rind of a tree from another, or to a chain of logical sequences. He was endued with a marvellous power of understanding, although the imagination and sentiments were less roundly developed. His systematic spirit fitted him to be the founder of an enduring school of thought. In this characteristic he may be compared with Aquinas. He has been appropriately styled the Aristotle of the Reformation. He was a perfectly honest man. He subjected his will to the eternal rule of right, as far as he could discover it. His motives were pure. He felt that God was near him, and sacrificed everything to obey the direction of Providence. The fear of God ruled in his soul; not a slavish fear, but a principle such as animated the prophets of the Old Covenant. The combination of his qualities was such that he could not fail to attract profound admiration and reverence from one class of minds, and excite intense antipathy in another. There is no one of the Reformers who is spoken of, at this late day, with so much personal feeling, either of regard or aversion. But whoever studies his life and writings, especially the few passages in which he lets us into his confidence and appears to invite our sympathy, will acquire a growing sense of his intellectual and moral greatness, and a tender consideration for his errors.’ G. G. Herrick, D. D. Congregational Minister of Mount Vernon Church, Boston. From Some Heretics of Yesterday. Boston, 1890, pp. 210 sqq. "Calvin gathered up the spiritual and intellectual forces that had been started by the Reformation movement, and marshalled and systematized them, and bound them into unity by the mastery of his logical thought, as the river gathers cloud and rill, and snow-drift and dew-fall, and constrains them through its own channel into the unity and directness of a powerful current. The action of Luther was impulsive, magnetic, popular, appealing to sentiment and feeling, that of Calvin was logical and constructive, appealing to understanding and reason. He was the systematizer of the Reformation....

• From Tipping the Velvet (1998)

  Then she said, in a puzzled sort of way: ‘And you’re staying with Florrie and Ralph, are you?’ ‘They let me sleep last night in the parlour, as a favour; but today I have to move on. In fact - what time have you?’ She showed me her watch: a quarter to five, and much later than I had expected. ‘I really must go very soon.’ I took the pan off the stove - the onions had burned a little browner than I wanted - and began to look about me for a bowl. ‘Oh,’ she said, waving her hand at my haste, ‘have a cup of tea with me, at least.’ She put some water on to boil, and I began jabbing at the potatoes with a fork. The dish, as I assembled it, did not look quite like the meal that Mrs Milne had used to make; and when I tasted it, it was not so savoury. I set it on the side, and frowned at it. The girl handed me a cup. Then she leaned against a cupboard, quite at her ease, and sipped at her own tea, and then yawned. ‘What a day I have had!’ she said. ‘Do I stink like a rat? I’ve been all afternoon down a drain-pipe.’ ‘Down a drain-pipe?’ ‘Down a drain-pipe. I’m an assistant at a sanitary inspector’s. You may not pull such a face; it was quite a triumph, I tell you, my getting the position at all. They think women too delicate for that sort of work.’ ‘I think I would rather be delicate,’ I said, ‘than do it.’ ‘Oh, but it’s marvellous work! It’s only now and then I have to peer into sewers, as I did today. Mostly I measure, and talk to workers, and see if they are too hot or too cold, have enough air to breathe, enough lavatories. I have a government order, and do you know what that means? It means I can demand to see an office or a workshop, and if it’s not right, I can demand that it be put right. I can have buildings closed, buildings improved ...’ She waved her hands. ‘Foremen hate me. Greedy masters from Bow to Richmond absolutely loathe the sight of me. I wouldn’t swap my work for anything!’ I smiled at the enthusiasm in her voice; she might be a sanitary inspector, but she was also, I could tell, something of an actress. Now she took another mouthful of tea. ‘So,’ she said, when she had swallowed it, ‘how long have you been a friend of Florrie’s?’ ‘Well, friend isn’t quite the word for it, really...’ ‘You don’t know her terribly well?’ ‘Not at all.’ ‘That’s a shame,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘She’s not been herself, these past few months. Not been herself at all...’

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The Platonic philosophy offered many points of resemblance to Christianity. It is spiritual and idealistic, maintaining the supremacy of the spirit over matter, of eternal ideas over all temporary phenomena, and the pre-existence and immortality of the soul; it is theistic, making the supreme God above all the secondary deities, the beginning, middle, and end of all things; it is ethical, looking towards present and future rewards and punishments; it is religious, basing ethics, politics, and physics upon the authority of the Lawgiver and Ruler of the universe; it leads thus to the very threshold of the revelation of God in Christ, though it knows not this blessed name nor his saying grace, and obscures its glimpses of truth by serious errors. Upon the whole the influence of Platonism, especially as represented in the moral essays of Plutarch, has been and is to this day elevating, stimulating, and healthy, calling the mind away from the vanities of earth to the contemplation of eternal truth, beauty, and goodness. To not a few of the noblest teachers of the church, from Justin the philosopher to Neander the historian, Plato has been a schoolmaster who led them to Christ. Notes. The theology and philosophy of Justin are learnedly discussed by Maran, and recently by Möhler and Freppel in the Roman Catholic interest, and in favor of his full orthodoxy. Among Protestants his orthodoxy was first doubted by the authors of the "Magdeburg Centuries," who judged him from the Lutheran standpoint. Modern Protestant historians viewed him chiefly with reference to the conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christianity. Credner first endeavored to prove, by an exhaustive investigation (1832), that Justin was a Jewish Christian of the Ebionitic type, with the Platonic Logos-doctrine attached to his low creed as an appendix. He was followed by the Tübingen critics, Schwegler (1846), Zeller, Hilgenfeld, and Baur himself (1853). Baur, however, moderated Credner’s view, and put, Justin rather between Jewish and Gentile Christianity, calling him a Pauline in fact, but not in name ("er ist der Sache nach Pauliner, aber dem Namen nach will er es nicht sein"). This shaky judgment shows the unsatisfactory character of the Tübingen construction of Catholic Christianity as the result of a conflux and compromise between Ebionism and Paulinism.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Beza, his daily companion, thus describes "the ordinary labors" of Calvin, as he calls them: "During the week he preached every alternate, and lectured every third day; on Thursday he presided in the meetings of Presbytery (Consistory); and on Friday he expounded the Scripture in the assembly which we call ’the Congregation.’ He illustrated several sacred books with most learned commentaries, besides answering the enemies of religion, and maintaining an extensive correspondence on matters of great importance. Any one who reads these attentively, will be astonished how one little man (unicus homunculus) could be fit for labors so numerous and great. He availed himself much of the aid of Farel and Viret,646 while, at the same time, he conferred greater benefits on them. Their friendship and intimacy was not less hateful to the wicked than delightful to all the pious; and, in truth, it was a most pleasing spectacle to see and hear those three distinguished men carrying on the work of God in the Church so harmoniously, with such a variety of gifts. Farel excelled in a certain sublimity of mind, so that nobody could either hear his thunders without trembling, or listen to his most fervent prayers without being almost carried up to heaven. Viret possessed such suavity of eloquence, that his hearers were compelled to hang upon his lips. Calvin filled the mind of the hearers with as many weighty sentiments as he uttered words. I have often thought that a preacher compounded of the three would be absolutely perfect. In addition to these employments, Calvin had many others, arising out of circumstances domestic and foreign. The Lord so blessed his ministry that persons flocked to him from all parts of the Christian world; some to take his advice in matters of religion, and others to hear, him. Hence, we have seen an Italian, an English, and, finally, a Spanish Church at Geneva, one city seeming scarcely sufficient to entertain so many nests. But though at home he was courted by the good and feared by the bad, and matters had been admirably arranged, yet there were not wanting individuals who gave him great annoyance. We will unfold these contests separately, that posterity may be presented with a singular example of fortitude, which each may imitate according to his ability."647 We shall now consider this astounding activity of the Reformer in detail: his Church polity, his theological system, his controversies, and his relation to, and influence on, foreign churches. CHAPTER XIII.CONSTITUTION AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH OF GENEVA.§ 98. Literature.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  II. J. Mabillon: Observat. de monachis in occidente ante Benedictum (Praef. in Acta Sanct. Ord. Bened.). R. H. Milman: Hist. of Latin Christianity, Lond. 1854, vol. i. ch. vi. p. 409–426: "Western Monasticism." Count de Montalembert: The Monks of the West, Engl. translation, vol. i. p. 379 sqq. In the Latin church, in virtue partly of the climate, partly of the national character,338 the monastic life took a much milder form, but assumed greater variety, and found a larger field of usefulness than in the Greek. It produced no pillar saints, nor other such excesses of ascetic heroism, but was more practical instead, and an important instrument for the cultivation of the soil and the diffusion of Christianity and civilization among the barbarians.339 Exclusive contemplation was exchanged for alternate contemplation and labor. "A working monk," says Cassian, "is plagued by one devil, an inactive monk by a host." Yet it must not be forgotten that the most eminent representatives of the Eastern monasticism recommended manual labor and studies; and that the Eastern monks took a very lively, often rude and stormy part in theological controversies. And on the other hand, there were Western monks who, like Martin of Tours, regarded labor as disturbing contemplation. Athanasius, the guest, the disciple, and subsequently the biographer and eulogist of St. Anthony, brought the first intelligence of monasticism to the West, and astounded the civilized and effeminate Romans with two live representatives of the semi-barbarous desert-sanctity of Egypt, who accompanied him in his exile in 340. The one, Ammonius, was so abstracted from the world that he disdained to visit any of the wonders of the great city, except the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul; while the other, Isidore, attracted attention by his amiable simplicity. The phenomenon excited at first disgust and contempt, but soon admiration and imitation, especially among women, and among the decimated ranks of the ancient Roman nobility. The impression of the first visit was afterward strengthened by two other visits of Athanasius to Rome, and especially by his biography of Anthony, which immediately acquired the popularity and authority of a monastic gospel. Many went to Egypt and Palestine, to devote themselves there to the new mode of life; and for the sake of such, Jerome afterward translated the rule of Pachomius into Latin. Others founded cloisters in the neighborhood of Rome, or on the ruins of the ancient temples and the forum, and the frugal number of the heathen vestals was soon cast into the shade by whole hosts of Christian virgins. From Rome, monasticism gradually spread over all Italy and the isles of the Mediterranean, even to the rugged rocks of the Gorgon and the Capraja, where the hermits, in voluntary exile from the world, took the place of the criminals and political victims whom the justice or tyranny and jealousy of the emperors had been accustomed to banish thither.

• From Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection (2013)

  The on-the-job changes Jeremy made took courage. He had to make the hard choice to forgo teaching about positive numbers in favor of teaching about positive emotions. Plus, just as he taught math experientially, he also taught about emotions experientially. Teaching in abstractions would surely have taken less time but could hardly have yielded the turnaround results that he sought. So he created games and other means through which his students could open up and connect, and feel safe both to take risks and give their all. Take some time to do what Jeremy did. Review your own job, your own work routines, your own work attitudes. Which parts of your job do you carry out with, or in the presence of, others? For what proportion of time, during those moments, do you make a conscious effort to connect? Do you slow down enough to really listen and make eye contact? Do you, like Jeremy, allow yourself and others to go “off topic” in ways that build relationships, resilience, and other resources? Maybe you don’t simply need more time, a bigger budget, or higher technology for your work team to meet its highest aspirations. Perhaps you, too, can unlock more individual and collective capacity within your team through positivity resonance. How might you devote more of your energy toward cultivating moments of connection? What new rituals or habits could you create to bring more love into your workday? What metrics would help you and coworkers know whether this investment pays off? On Love, Science, and Spirituality I’m an emotions scientist, not a scholar of religion. To date, I’ve written exactly one paper that has religion in its title, and that was merely a commentary offering my two cents on why religious involvement predicts good health. Yet my own and other people’s efforts to describe the mystical and ultimately ineffable vistas that love opens up is what first drew me to explore how love and spirituality interrelate. So when I was invited by Boston University’s Danielsen Institute to develop a series of lectures on how the science of emotions relates to spiritual development and religious well-being, I was immediately drawn in by the opportunity to dive in further. I delivered those lectures in early 2010. That experience planted seeds in the garden of thoughts and theories that have since grown into this book. Philosophers, religion scholars, and psychologists alike have long pointed to the gulf that inevitably exists between your embodied experiences and the words that describe them. Your emotional experiences, in particular, can be unspeakably extreme, sweeping you away on free falls into hellish abysses or flights to exalted peaks.