Fear

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.

Page 380 of 529 · 20 per page

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

  65Lecture 7—War and Witchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire õ Then the devil would take the brand-new witch to meet some of her colleagues at a black Sabbath: a terrible parody of Christian ritual. Scholars have found no evidence that such black masses or devil worship actually happened. But people at the time believed that satanic orgies were real, and witches or innocent witnesses told very elaborate stories to the courts. õ Scholars estimate that there were about 100,000 witchcraft trials between 1450 and 1750. These led to between 40,000 and 50,000 executions (75 to 80% of those were women, usually burned at the stake). õ Most of the people accused of witchcraft were older women who somehow did not conform to social expectations. Perhaps they were childless, or lived alone, or had been driven by poverty to live as beggars. Perhaps they didn’t get along with their neighbors very well. So when someone’s cow went lame, or their crop failed, it was tempting to blame that old lady who came by looking for a handout and gave weird looks to people who weren’t generous enough. õ Witch hunts ran rampant in many parts of Europe during the Thirty Years’ War. But the most intense hysteria didn’t happen in the most war-ravaged areas, where it was easy to see armies were responsible for destruction. õ There was much more hysteria about witches in places that were on the margins of the war: areas that got hit by the fighting but stayed intact. Perhaps people in such areas had to turn over their homes to brutish troops, or send sons and fathers to fight far away, or heard rumors of spies in their town. These are the places where people were prone to blame the strange old lady who had lived around the corner for decades. õ The very worst witch hunts were the pet projects of strong religious leaders, like some of the prince-bishops who ran their own mini- kingdoms in various corners of the Holy Roman Empire. These guys believed that the Catholic Church could only turn back the tide of the Protestant Reformation by stamping out every trace of witchcraft and heresy.

• From Stone Butch Blues (1993)

  It turned out to be true that 42" Street was filled with all-night theaters. Admission was three dollars for kung fu movies endlessly strung together. I chose a theater and entered an all-male world. The theater smelled like stale cigarettes and reefer. Many of the seats wete broken, something I didn’t discover until I sat down and landed on the sticky floor. The men nearest me checked me out and went back to staring at the screen. I loved the movies. They seemed to share a theme. A young man is faced with a powerful enemy. He’s forced to find a teacher who can train him in monkey style, praying mantis, tiger, eagle claw, scorpion. The twist is that the teacher is not powerful enough on his own or dies before the young man is ready. It always takes some special combination of skills and insights to defeat the foe. The hero was honorable—marked by humility and discipline and was very respectful, if not chaste, with his girlfriend. But every time a woman appeared on the screen, the men around me shouted, “Eat that pussy! Puck that bitch!” At first it scared me. Then I realized, with the exception of me, this was an all-male audience. Who were they talking to if not each other? Was each man who shouted from his stoned stupor trying to convince the men nearby that a woman could still make his dick hard? That no matter how the weight of the streets had crushed him he was still a real man? I kept putting off going to the bathroom, but after a while I just had to. The stench hit me as I opened the men’s room door. An older man was sitting on one toilet, a needle stuck in his arm, nodding. The tile was gummy with crud. There were no doors on the stalls. Most of the toilets were overflowing with shit and toilet paper. I snuck into the women’s bathroom. It was musty from lack of use. Just as I was zipping my pants back up, the door opened. “What are you doing in here?” a man in a red blazer asked me. I let my voice settle into rough. “Taking a shit. Do ya mind?” I pushed past him and went back to my seat. By the time I’d seen each film twice I began to doze. The next morning I walked, asking directions of nearly everyone I passed, till I was on the doorstep of the first rental agency I’d found in the Voice. “Do you have anything cheaper?” I asked the woman agent. “You want an apartment or a dump? Two hundred-fifty—that’s a bargain.” I thought about it. “When can I move in?” “Here’s the keys,” she said. I reached for the keys, she pulled them back. “That’s one month rent, one month security, and a finder’s fee: $750, payable now.”

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Although older than most of his lieutenants, he encouraged them all to address him with the familiar “you” form in Russian. He made himself completely accessible even to junior officials. When he listened to you, it was with such intensity and interest, his eyes boring into you. He seemed to pick up your deepest thoughts and doubts. But his greatest trait was to make you feel important and part of the inner circle of revolutionaries. He would put his arm around you as he accompanied you out of his office, always ending the meeting on an intimate note. As one young man later wrote, people who saw him were “anxious to see him again,” because “he created a sense that there was now a bond that linked them forever.” Sometimes he would turn slightly aloof, and it would drive his courtiers crazy. Then the mood would pass, and they would bask again in his affection. Part of his charm lay in the fact that he epitomized the revolution. He was a man of the people, rough and a bit rude but someone an average Russian could identify with. And more than anything, Joseph Stalin could be quite entertaining. He loved to sing and to tell earthy jokes. With these qualities it was no wonder that he slowly amassed power and assumed complete control of the Soviet machinery. But as the years wore on and his power grew, another side to his character slowly leaked out. The apparent friendliness was not as simple as it had seemed. Perhaps the first significant sign of this among his inner circle was the fate of Sergey Kirov, a powerful member of the Politburo and, since the suicide of Stalin’s wife in 1932, his closest friend and confidant. Kirov was an enthusiastic, somewhat simple man who made friends easily and had a way of comforting Stalin. But Kirov was starting to become a little too popular. In 1934, several regional leaders approached him with an offer: they were tired of Stalin’s brutal treatment of the peasantry; they were going to instigate a coup and wanted to make Kirov the new premier. Kirov remained loyal— he revealed the plot to Stalin, who thanked him profusely. But something changed in his manner toward Kirov from then on, a coldness that had never been there before. Kirov understood the predicament he had created—he had revealed to Stalin that he was not as popular as he had thought, and that one person in particular was more liked than him. He felt the danger he was now in. He tried everything he could to assuage Stalin’s insecurities. In public appearances he mentioned Stalin’s name more than ever; his expressions of praise became more fulsome. This only seemed to make Stalin even more suspicious, as if Kirov were trying too hard to cover up the truth. Now Kirov remembered the many rough jokes he had made at Stalin’s expense.

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

  JAPANESE DOMINATION õ From 1910 to 1945, Korea was under Japanese domination. The Japanese wanted Korean subjects to sever all relations with missionary groups and other foreign organizations, and to take part in the rituals of Japanese traditional religion, Shinto. õ In the Shinto worldview, Japan was a paradise created by the gods, and participating in Shinto rites at public shrines was a required demonstration of political loyalty. The Vatican saw that Korean Catholics were in a tight spot and signed a concordat with the Japanese government in 1936, basically saying that Catholics can do that; their activity at the shrines is not idol-worship but an act of patriotism. õ Protestants got into more tangles with the Japanese government: They pushed back against Japanese efforts to turn Korean schools into secular, Japanese-language operations. Christians were accused of trying to assassinate the governor general, and when some Korean activists got together in 1919 to sign a declaration of independence, nearly half of them were Protestant. õ In the government’s eyes, Christianity in general, and Protestantism in particular, seemed like a cult devoted to overthrowing the regime (even though most Korean Christians advocated for nonviolent resistance). Japanese troops burned churches, arrested and executed Christian leaders, and at least once herded Christians into their church and set it on fire. AFTER DIVISION õ With the end of World War II, the Allied powers ended Japanese rule in Korea. American forces occupied the south, and the Soviets held the north. This situation led to the establishment of two rival regimes: the Republic of Korea in the South, and the communist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North. Under the leadership of 346 The History of Christianity II

• From Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2016)

  She went to the rubbish bin. “It’s in here.” She lifted out the rubbish, pulled out the folded newspaper underneath, and opened it up, and there was my little turd. She showed it to gran. “Look!” “What?! How did it get there?!” Koko, still blind, still stuck in her chair, was dying to know what was happening. “What’s going on?!” she cried. “What’s going on?! Did you find it?!” “It’s shit,” Mom said. “There’s shit in the bottom of the dustbin.” “But how?!” Koko said. “There was no one here!” “Are you sure there was no one here?” “Yes. I called out to everyone. Nobody came.” My mother gasped. “We’ve been bewitched! It’s a demon!” For my mother, this was the logical conclusion. Because that’s how witchcraft works. If someone has put a curse on you or your home, there is always the talisman or totem, a tuft of hair or the head of a cat, the physical manifestation of the spiritual thing, proof of the demon’s presence. Once my mom found the turd, all hell broke loose. This was serious. They had evidence. She came into the bedroom. “Trevor! Trevor! Wake up!” “What?!” I said, playing dumb. “What’s going on?!” “Come! There’s a demon in the house!” She took my hand and dragged me out of bed. It was all hands on deck, time for action. The first thing we had to do was go outside and burn the shit. That’s what you do with witchcraft; the only way to destroy it is to burn the physical thing. We went out to the yard, and my mom put the newspaper with my little turd on the driveway, lit a match, and set it on fire. Then my mom and my gran stood around the burning shit, praying and singing songs of praise. The commotion didn’t stop there because when there’s a demon around, the whole community has to join together to drive it out. If you’re not part of the prayer, the demon might leave our house and go to your house and curse you. So we needed everyone. The alarm was raised. The call went out. My tiny old gran was out the gate, going up and down the block, calling to all the other old grannies for an emergency prayer meeting. “Come! We’ve been bewitched!” I stood there, my shit burning in the driveway, my poor aged grandmother tottering up and down the street in a panic, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew there was no demon, but there was no way I could come clean. The hiding I would have to endure? Good Lord. Honesty was never the best policy when it came to a hiding. I kept quiet. Moments later the grannies came streaming in with their Bibles, through the gate and up the driveway, a dozen or more at least. Everyone went inside. The house was packed.

• From Stone Butch Blues (1993)

  Her words confirmed what I'd feared most—Id asked for too much. I stood up slowly and staggered to the door. Ruth put her hand on the door. “Jess, sit down. Where are you going?” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. I looked at her calmly, hiding the crisis of rejection. “Honey,” she stroked my cheek. “I’m so sorry. I just don’t want it to be you. C’mon, honey. Please. Come.” Ruth guided me to her bedroom. I covered my eyes against the sunlight streaming in her window. She pulled the shades. Ruth laid me down on her bed. I could feel the embroidered edges of her pillowcases against my cheek. My head hurt even worse when I lay down. I sat up, unable to explain why. Ruth touched the back of my head. I winced in pain. She stared at her hand in horror. It was coveted with blood. “Jess,” she whispered, “Tm afraid.” My eyes narrowed in anticipation of another rejection. Ruth lifted my hand in both of hers and kissed each bruised knuckle. I wasn’t afraid to die in her bed with my hand in hers. She gently pressed my head against her body. It hurt, but I needed her closeness. Her voice dropped low, like a whisper: “I once read in an old drag magazine about a time, long, long ago, when people like us were honored. If I had the power, Jess, I’d take you back and leave you there with people who would cate for you as much as I do. I’d know you were safe, and you’d be loved.” I tried to sit up. “Lean against me, Jess. You need to rest.” I moaned as I tried to lay my head against her 285 Stone Butch Blues breastbone. Ruth propped me up with pillows. She curled up between my thighs and stroked my chest with her wide hand. “Shh,” she whispered. “I know you're frightened, too, but it’s gonna be alright. It’s always the worst when they hurt my head. I’m always afraid I'll lose my thoughts, my memories. ’m scared Tl lose me. Is that how you're feeling?” She wiped the tears from my cheeks. I closed my eyes. “Try to stay awake, honey.” She pleaded. “Please. I’m afraid for you to fall asleep right now.” I wanted to go away. “T’ll tell you stories,” she smiled. “Pll tell you about where I grew up. Would you like thatr”’ I blinked back to consciousness and nodded. Ruth rested her cheek against my chest and squeezed me tight. “Oh, Jess. I wish I could show you the vineyards. I wish you could smell the grapes in the fall air.” Ruth looked up at me and smiled. “Someday I’m going to make you grape pie. After my Grandma Anne’s and my mama’s, I make the best grape pie in the valley.” Grape pie didn’t sound very good to me, but it didn’t matter much at the moment.

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

  õ In 1905, Lenin published an essay describing religion as “spiritual booze” that taught people “to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward.” But he called for religion to be treated as a “private affair,” and said people should be able to choose any religion, or none at all. õ However, the Orthodox Church was an obvious rival to the Bolsheviks for the loyalties of the people. And the Bolsheviks took aim almost immediately. They didn’t officially ban the church, but they seized church property and rounded up any priest or bishop who didn’t profess total loyalty to the Russian Revolution—and even some who did. õ Some clergy ended up in prison camps and mental hospitals—and those were the lucky ones. Others were tortured and executed as enemies of the revolution. In the 1920s, as the chaos in the provinces led to widespread famine, the Bolsheviks whipped up resentment against the church by charging that priests and bishops had refused to turn over their valuables to be sold to help feed the people. They capitalized on that long history of church privilege at the expense of ordinary believers. õ As for the dissenters who got a break after the 1905 law on religious toleration: The Bolsheviks put an end to that and turned out to be just as zealous in persecuting religious minorities as the tsars had ever been. Religious minorities fled where they could. RELIGION UNDER STALIN õ In 1929, five years after Lenin died and his successor Joseph Stalin took power, the government enacted the Law on Religious Associations, which set the rules for all religious worship, Orthodox or otherwise. õ To form a religious organization, a group of at least 20 adults had to come together and seek permission from the local magistrate to perform their “cult” in an approved building, and only in that space. No religious festivals, evangelizing, religious education, charity work, or anything else outside the registered building was allowed. 248 The History of Christianity II õ Meanwhile, the Soviet government tried to lure believers away from traditional churches by establishing a rival organization called the Living Church. Clergy of this temple of propaganda preached that the Bolshevik program was essentially the fulfillment of Christianity. The message appealed to some Christian socialists, but the Living Church was so obviously an arm of the state that it failed to win many sincere believers. Lecture 25—The Church and the Russian Revolution 249

• From Stone Butch Blues (1993)

  seen it before. The cafeteria was absolutely, right down the middle, segregated. “Get the picture, honey? Where you been?” “Can I sit with you anyway?” Karla tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes at me. “It’s a free country,” she said as she turned on her heel and walked away. “Hello, white girl! You new in town?” Darnell teased as he moved over to let me sit down next to Karla. I laughed. There was no other sound in the huge room. You could’ve heard a pin drop. My stomach tightened, and the food on my plate looked more disgusting than usual. “Karla,” I sat down next to her. “I really need to talk to you, really bad.” “Uh-oh,” someone whispered at our table. Mrs. Benson was racing toward our table. “Young lady, what are you doing?” I took a deep breath. “Pm eating lunch, Mrs. Benson.” Everyone at the table tried to stifle giggles, but when milk sprayed out of Darnell’s nose, well, it just couldn’t be controlled. “Come with me, young lady,’ Mrs. Benson told me. “Why?” I wanted to know. “I didn’t do anything,” She stormed away. “That was easy,” Darnell said. “Too easy,” Karla answered. “Karla, I really need to talk to you,” I told her. “Uh-oh,” Darryl said, “here comes Jim Crow.” Actually, his name was Moriarty. The coach was headed right for me. I was waiting for him to say something to me, but he didn’t. He grabbed me by the arms, digging his fingers into my flesh. Moriarty half dragged me to the door of the cafeteria. “You little slut,’ he whispered. “Tl take care of this, Coach.” Miss Moore, the assistant principal, intervened. She put her arm around me and led me out into the hall. “Child,’ she said, “you are in a whole lot of trouble. What the hell were you doing?” “Nothing, Miss Moote. I didn’t do anything. I was just trying to talk to Karla.” She smiled at me. “Sometimes you don’t have to do anything wrong to be in hot water.” All of my panic and fear welled up in my eyes. I wanted so badly to open up to Miss Moore. “Honey, it’s not all that bad,” she reassured me. I couldn’t speak. “Are you OK, Jess? Are you in trouble?” She looked at my swollen lip; no one else had noticed. “Do you want to talk, Jess?” I did want to talk. But my mouth wouldn’t move. “Here’s the other troublemaker,’ Moriarty said. He had Karla in his grip. Miss Moore pulled Karla close to her. “Tl take cate of this, Coach. You go back to being lunch monitor.” He looked at her with open hatred. I could see what a racist he was. “C’mon girls.” Miss Moore put her arm around each of us. “T’ll explain to the principal that you didn’t mean any harm.”

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  in this way, if you experience it several times, it is probably an indication of something more intense stirring within them. Backbiting: If people like to gossip a lot, particularly about common acquaintances, you can be sure they will gossip about you. And gossip is a frequent cover for envy, a convenient way to vent it by sharing malicious rumors and stories. When they talk about others behind their backs, you will see their eyes light up and their voice become animated—it gives them a joy comparable to schadenfreude. They will elicit any kind of negative report about a common acquaintance. A frequent theme in their gossip is that no one’s really that great, and people aren’t what they pretend to be. If you ever get wind of a story they have spread about you, subtly or not so subtly negative, only one such instance should be enough to raise your antennae. What indicates active envy in this case is that they are your friend and they feel the need to vent their underlying hostility to a third party rather than keep it to themselves. If you notice that friends or colleagues are suddenly cooler to you than before for no apparent reason, such gossiping might be the source and would be worth ferreting out. In any event, serial gossipers do not make loyal and trustworthy friends. The push and pull: As we saw in the Jane Williams story, enviers often use friendship and intimacy as the best way to wound the people they envy. They display unusual eagerness to become your friend. They saturate you with attention. If you are in any way insecure, this will have great effect. They praise you a little too effusively too early on. Through the closeness they establish they are able to gather material on you and find your weak points. Suddenly, after your emotions are engaged, they criticize you in pointed ways. The criticism is confusing, not particularly related to anything you have done, but still you feel guilty. They then return to their initial warmth. The pattern repeats. You are trapped between the warm friendship and the occasional pain they inflict. In criticizing you, they are experts at picking out any possible flaws in your character or words you might have regretted, and giving them great emphasis. They are like lawyers building a case against you. When you’ve had enough and decide to defend yourself or criticize them or break off the friendship, they can now ascribe to you a mean or even cruel streak and tell others of this. You will notice in their past other intense relationships with dramatic breakups, always the other person’s fault. And at the source of this pattern, something hard to discern, is that they choose to befriend people whom they envy for some quality, then subtly torture them. In general, criticism of you that seems sincere but not directly related to anything you have actually done is usually a strong sign of

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

  õ Ferdinand and Isabella saw themselves as loyal warriors for Roman Catholicism. And under them, Catholicism in Spain developed some fairly distinctive features. Here are two of the most important: ✳ The Spanish church was militant. Spanish Catholicism in this period was forged in battle against Jews and Muslims. And Spanish Catholics lived in constant suspicion of other cultures, looking for false converts everywhere. From the perspective of the missionaries and soldiers who carried Spanish Catholicism around the world, serving the Spanish crown was the best way to serve the Lord. Conquest and conversion went hand in hand. ✳ The Spanish church served the king and queen first, and the pope second. The Spanish monarchs bullied the Vatican into many concessions. They gained the right to appoint all the clergy, to collect church donations called tithes, and basically to act as mini- pope within Spain. BRINGING CHRISTIANITY TO THE NEW WORLD õ The Spanish conquistador Hernán de Cortés arrived in Mexico and began war against the Aztecs in 1519. In the decades that followed, Spain conquered—at least in theory—a huge swath of territory that included a lot of North America south of what is now Canada and west of the Mississippi; all of present-day Mexico; most of Central America; various islands in the Caribbean, Atlantic, and Pacific, including the Philippines; and the whole western half of South America. õ The Spanish had three goals: to expand their empire, to gain profits from natural resources, and to win converts for Catholicism. At this time, the church’s missionary force was comprised of men who had given up the idea of marriage and a normal civilian life to take holy orders. 52 The History of Christianity II õ Most were members of relatively new religious orders that were different from our stereotype of a Catholic monk. While most monks withdraw from the world and stay cloistered inside a monastery, praying, worshipping, and fasting, these missionaries were either friars or Jesuits. ✳ Friars are mendicants, meaning they rely on gifts from others. They are called to live out their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in active service to a community. ✳ Jesuits are members of the Society of Jesus, which was founded in 1540, later than the Franciscan and Dominican orders. They are supposed to be ready to go anywhere at a moment’s notice, and they report directly to the pope. Lecture 6—The Church Militant in the Spanish Empire 53

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

  õ In John’s vision, this all culminates in the battle of Armageddon, when Jesus and the saints finally defeat these evil powers. They also defeat Satan, and an angel casts him down into a pit for 1,000 years. This is a period of time known as the millennium. The millennium is said to be a time of perfect peace, a time when God’s kingdom will be fully realized on earth. õ After 1,000 years Satan is released from the pit, and he immediately tries to marshal a final battle against the righteous. But God rains down fire on Satan and his evil forces, winning the battle. After this last showdown, the final judgment comes. The righteous will glorify God forever in heaven, while the wicked will be condemned to hell. INTERPRETATION õ Christians have had a hard time agreeing on exactly how to interpret the parts of the Bible that may speak to the end times. Over the centuries, Christians have fallen into three broad schools of thought regarding when Christ will return and how. They are called amillennialist, postmillennialist, and premillennialist Christians. ✳ Amillennialists do not read Revelation’s passage about the binding of Satan and Christ’s 1,000-year earthly reign as a literal prediction. They read it as a metaphor. Amillennialists believe that Christ will not literally rule on earth. Instead, they believe that Jesus is already reigning from heaven at the right hand of God. Today, this view is the accepted doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. ✳ Postmillenialism became more prominent among Protestants through the mid-19th century. The term postmillenialism refers to when these Christians think Christ will return: They believe Christ will return after the millennium, the 1,000-year earthly reign of the saints. Postmillennialists are generally optimistic about the course of human history; despite all the sin, they believe that things are getting better and better. Lecture 24—Apocalyptic Faith in the 1800s and Beyond 233 ✳ Likewise, premillennialism refers to when these Christians think Christ will return: They believe Christ will come the millennium— in the flesh—to establish his 1,000-year reign with the saints, his followers, on earth. This means that until Jesus returns to begin his rule, human affairs will descend lower and lower into sin and despair. õ In the 19th century, premillennialism began to gain more influence in America. A few charismatic leaders shaped the way that many American evangelicals—and many Protestants around the world—still think about the end times today. õ One of the great figures in the history of American apocalyptic thought was William Miller. As a young man he wasn’t very religious at all, but in his 30s, he had a conversion experience. 234 The History of Christianity II

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Being so well read and cultivated, she was the delight of the artists and writers in town, and the Romans began to warm up to her. Within a few years, however, everything unraveled. Her husband instigated a feud with one of the leading families in Italy, the Colonnas. Then in 1484 the pope suddenly died, and without his protection Caterina and her husband were in grave danger. The Colonnas were plotting their revenge. The Romans hated Girolamo. And it was almost a certainty that the new pope would be a friend of the Colonnas, in which case Caterina and her husband would lose everything, including the towns of Forlì and Imola. Considering the weak position of her own family in Milan, the situation began to look desperate. Until a new pope was elected, Girolamo was still the captain of the papal armies, now stationed just outside Rome. For days Caterina watched her husband, who was paralyzed with fear and unable to make a decision. He dared not enter Rome, fearing battle with the Colonnas and their many allies in the crowded streets. He would wait it out, but with time their options seemed to narrow, and the news kept getting worse—mobs had sacked the palace they lived in; what few allies they had in Rome had now deserted them; the cardinals were congregating to elect the new pope. It was August and the sweltering heat made Caterina—seven months pregnant with her fourth child—feel faint and continually nauseated. But as she contemplated the impending doom, the thought of her father began to occupy her mind; it was as if she could feel his spirit inhabiting her. Thinking as he would think about the predicament she faced, she felt a rush of excitement as she formulated an audacious plan. Without telling a soul of her intentions, in the dark of night she mounted a horse and snuck out of camp, riding as fast as she could to Rome. As she had expected, in her condition no one recognized her and she was allowed to enter the city. She headed straight for the Castel Sant’Angelo, the most strategic point in Rome—just across the Tiber River from the city center and close to the Vatican. With its impregnable walls and its cannons that could be aimed at all parts of Rome, the person who controlled the castle controlled the city. Rome was in tumult, mobs filling the streets everywhere. The castle was still held by a lieutenant loyal to Girolamo. Identifying herself, Caterina was let into Sant’Angelo. Once inside, in the name of her husband she took possession of the castle, throwing out the lieutenant, whom she did not trust. Sending word out through the castle to soldiers who swore loyalty to her, she managed to smuggle in more troops.

• From On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)

  A sound now of dribbling. A liquid warmth slides down the hem of her black trousers. The acrid smell of ammonia. Lan pisses herself in front of the two boys—and holds the girl tighter. Around her feet a circle of wet heat. The brain of the macaque monkey is the closest, of any mammal, to a human’s. The raindrops darken as they slide down the blond soldier’s dirt-baked cheeks before collecting, like ellipses, along his jaw. — “Yoo Et Aye numbuh won,” she says, urine still dripping down her ankles. Then again, louder. “Yoo Et Aye numbuh won. “No bang bang.” She raises her free hand to the sky, as if to let someone pull her right up to it. “No bang bang. Yoo Et Aye numbuh won.” A tic in the boy’s left eye. A green leaf falling into a green pond. He stares at the girl, her too-pink skin. The girl whose name is Hong, or Rose. Because why not another flower? Hong—a syllable the mouth must swallow whole at once. Lily and Rose, side by side on this breath-white road. A mother holding a daughter. A rose growing out of the stem of a lily. He takes note of Rose’s hair, its errant cinnamon tint fringed blond around the temples. Seeing the soldier’s eyes on her daughter, Lan pushes the girl’s face to her chest, shielding her. The boy watches this child, the whiteness showing from her yellow body. He could be her father, he thinks, realizes. Someone he knows could be her father—his sergeant, squad leader, platoon partner, Michael, George, Thomas, Raymond, Jackson. He considers them, rifle gripped tight, his eyes on the girl with American blood before the American gun. “No bang bang . . . Yoo Et Aye . . . ,” Lan whispers now. “Yoo Et Aye . . .” Macaques are capable of self-doubt and introspection, traits once thought attributable only to humans. Some species have displayed behavior indicating the use of judgment, creativity, even language. They are able to recall past images and apply them to current problem solving. In other words, macaques employ memory in order to survive. — The men will eat until the animal is empty, the monkey slowing as they spoon, its limbs heavy and listless. When nothing’s left, when all of its memories dissolve into the men’s bloodstreams, the monkey dies. Another bottle will be opened. Who will be lost in the story we tell ourselves? Who will be lost in ourselves? A story, after all, is a kind of swallowing. To open a mouth, in speech, is to leave only the bones, which remain untold. It is a beautiful country because you are still breathing. Yoo Et Aye numbuh won. Hands up. Don’t shoot. Yoo Et Aye numbuh won. Hands up. No bang bang.

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

  õ In the millet system, each religious minority religious community was a millet. The Jews were recognized as one millet and the Orthodox Christians were recognized as another millet. Each millet had a lot of autonomy in handling administration and settling internal disputes. õ In return for a modest amount of self-government, the patriarch had to ensure that Christians obeyed the law. The sultan continued many of the old taxes and restrictions practiced by earlier Muslim rulers and imposed a host of new rules meant to keep Christians in their place. õ One of the first things Mehmed did was confiscate the magnificent Hagia Sophia church and turn it into a mosque. Christian worship could only happen quietly, behind closed doors. So even if the patriarch acquired quite a bit of power, life for ordinary Christians became more difficult. õ Other legal restrictions included that Christians couldn’t use Muslim- style saddles, or engrave Arabic on their signet rings, or sell wine. They couldn’t wear crosses or carry icons or any other kind of Christian symbol in public. õ Perhaps the harshest penalty on Christians was this: The sultan had the right to seize Christian children at any time if he decided he needed more soldiers or servants in his court. In European territories of the empire like Bulgaria, families had to turn over a certain number of their male children to the state. Unlucky children ended up as slaves; luckier ones turned into court scholars or the sultan’s special bodyguards, called the Janissaries. õ The idea was to create a private army of foreigners who would be highly skilled but docile, with no political power. These boy-soldiers were circumcised, housed with Turkish families, and forced to convert to Islam, at least outwardly. Christians called this policy of stealing children the boy tribute or the blood tax, and it went on until the late 17th century. 106 The History of Christianity II õ Recently, historians have argued that everyday life was often different from legal theory; that despite anti-Christian prejudice and this oppressive edifice of legal restrictions, in many cases Muslims and Christians mingled pretty freely in their neighborhoods, buying and selling goods at market, and even seeking common justice in the Islamic courts. õ Ottoman rulers were often pragmatists who never would have been able to hold onto a vast and diverse empire for centuries if they hadn’t allowed non-Muslim subjects some breathing room. At the same time, it wasn’t for nothing that the sultan also took the title of caliph—that is, he claimed to be the head of the Muslim world, supreme in both religious and worldly power. õ He drew much of his authority from Islam. Islam could provide a framework for relative tolerance when the sultan and his Muslim subjects were feeling confident about the state of the empire, and it could encourage persecution and oppression when they were feeling nervous and insecure. Lecture 11—Christians under Muslim Rule 107

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

  understand the second key piece of the Quiet Revolution: the rise of a secular form of Quebec nationalism to replace the ardent Catholic nationalism that had previously defined French Canada. õ In the 1960s, a powerful and sometimes violent strain of nationalism arose in Quebec, an ideology that promised empowerment, that proclaimed that only native-born French speakers were “real Quebeckers” and that English speakers were agents of a foreign imperialist power. õ Between 1963 and 1970, the radical terrorist group Front de Libération du Québec regularly bombed government offices, mailboxes, railroads, and other targets, mainly targeting wealthy English-speaking communities. English-speaking Canadians began to flee Quebec in droves. This nationalist ardor inspired separatist political parties that still campaign today on the promise to work for Quebec’s independence from Canada. õ Since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has come to adopt secularism as public policy. Specifically, Quebec has adopted the French ideology of church and state, laïcité, which strives to virtually banish the trappings of religion from public spaces and keep public policy free of religious ideas. õ Critics have suggested that when advocates of laïcité campaign to ban, for example, Muslim women who work in Quebec government offices from wearing a headscarf, it’s not just about religion. To critics, laïcité has fused with French-Canadian nationalism into a fiercely xenophobic attitude toward immigrants. õ The Quiet Revolution is a story that is particular to Quebec. But it points to some broader features in the history of secularization. In Quebec, the Catholic Church simply was not up to the challenges of the 20th century. 288 The History of Christianity II STRIPPING THE PUBLIC SQUARE õ From the 1960s onward, across Western Europe, most Brits, Danes, West Germans, and others still baptized their babies, got married in church, and wanted a church burial, but these rituals seemed to hold cultural rather than theological power. õ In the United States, church attendance rates were more buoyant, but a series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s prohibited public school officials from requiring Bible reading or prayer in the classroom. Traditional Christian teachings about the subservient role of women in church and at home began to lose their hold. Practices outlawed by traditional Christianity, like abortion and homosexual activity, gained more social acceptance. Lecture 29—Secularism and the Death of God 289

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  This is usually a visual image, though it could also be sound, touch, taste or smell. Many times it is a combination of several or, even, all of the above sense impressions simultaneously. For example, a woman molested by an alcoholic uncle may panic on seeing a man who looks vaguely like him or whose breath smells of alcohol and who walks with a loud, lumbering gait. These fragmentary snapshots come to represent the trauma. They become, in other words, the intrusive image or Imprint. For me, the image of the shattered glass and the eyes of the teenage driver kept intruding on my consciousness and flooding me with fear and dread. When reworking such embedded sensory images, a process of diffusing the adrenalin charge of the compressed “trauma snapshot” is necessary in order to uncouple associations that are symptomatic. An important therapeutic technique “expands and neutralizes” this fixation and helps the person recover the multisensory experience he or she may have had prior to the threat that caused the fragmentation. The following vignette illustrates this principle of expanding the “visual aperture.” Imagine that early one summer morning, you are walking along a beautiful hillside. There is a babbling brook meandering beside the pathway. A gentle breeze makes the multicolored flowers look as if they are dancing on the meadow. You are touched by the sight of drops of morning dew sitting on a blade of grass. The sunshine warms your skin, and the scent of the flowers is nothing less than intoxicating. You are taking this all in. Then, unexpectedly, a large snake appears on the trail. You stop and hold your breath. All that you had perceived a moment ago is gone ... or is it? Not really. What happens is that your perception has constricted to focus narrowly on the source of the threat. Most everything else retreats into the background, into the hidden crevices of your mind, so as not to distract you from what you must identify and do: to keep your attention solely focused on the snake and to slowly back away. After feeling safe again, you may return to the full sensory experience of the morning. When a traumatized individual is able to expand his or her sensorial impressions, associated hyperarousal begins to ease, allowing that widened perceptual field to return to its prethreat status, and thus enhances the capacity of self- regulation. Before my accident, as detailed in Chapter 1, I was taking in the scene: the colors, sounds, scents and warmth of that perfect day.

• From In the Dream House (2019)

  You get out of the car and sit against the side of the house, putting your winter coat on backward like a smock. The coyotes come back, after a while, trotting casually across the lawn. Deer too, and foxes, all paying you no mind, as if you are part of the scenery, as if you aren’t there at all. You could go to bed too. Or, you could sit at the table in the kitchen and watch the scene from behind the windowpane. But that, you think, would be like putting this night in a museum—removed, too-soon forgotten. Sit with this, you think. Don’t forget this is happening. Tomorrow, you will probably push this away. But here, remember. Your butt goes numb in the grass. The lawn is a theater of wildlife. Your little car, stalwart as any stallion, sits silent and bright in the driveway, finally cooling down after her long drive. Birds titter early-morning Morse code from the trees. A gaggle of drunk students crests the hill at the edge of the golf course and stand there looking at you—perhaps believing you to be a ghost—before shuffling down onto the street. “Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love,” Allen Ginsberg wrote, “past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?” And in the same way that the wrist rotates faster when the door latch is about to release, the predawn night speeds up a little just before the day comes. And though it would not be until the next summer solstice that you’d be free from her, though you would spend the season’s precipitous drop into darkness alongside her, on this morning, light seeps into the sky and you are present with your body and mind and you do not forget. In the morning, the woman who made you ill with fear brews a pot of coffee and jokes with you and kisses you and sweetly scratches your scalp like nothing has happened. And, as though you’d slept, a new day begins again. [image file=image_rsrc2K0.jpg] 23. Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, Type C752.1, Taboo: doing thing after sunset (nightfall).Dream House as Spy ThrillerNo one knows your secret. Everything you do (running your thumb along your jawline to search for blonde and spiny hairs, zipping up a sinewy boot, twisting a highball glass around a wet sponge, tapping a hot printer that reeks of toner, brandishing a black bottle of wine in a doorway, lift-dropping a sweaty T-shirt against your breastbone as the treadmill slows, unfolding a wallet to pay for broccoli and tissues, turning your back to a bonfire, folding your arms over your breasts in front of your classroom, writing tight lines of notes as the others talk, laughing your braying cackle that turns heads) is heightened with what you know and they—all of those ordinary citizens—do not know.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  By creating double binds in which nothing you say or do will please them, or by making it seem arbitrary, they terrorize you with this insecurity. They now control your emotions. At some point, they will become total micromanagers—whom can they trust anymore? People have turned into automatons, incapable of making decisions, so they must oversee everything. If they reach such extremes, these types will end up destroying themselves, because it is actually impossible to rid the human animal of free will. People rebel, even the most cowed. In Stalin’s last days he suffered a stroke, but none of his lieutenants dared to help him or call for a doctor. He died from their neglect, as they had come to both fear and loathe him. You will almost inevitably encounter this type in your life, because through their ambition they tend to become bosses and CEOs, political figures, cult leaders. The danger they represent to you is in the beginning, when they first apply their charm. You can see through them by employing your visceral empathy. Their show of interest in you is never deep, never lasts too long, and is inevitably followed by a coquettish pullback. If you stop being distracted by the outward attempt at charm, you can sense this coldness and the degree to which the attention inevitably flows to them. Look at their past. You will notice that they do not have one single deep and intimate relationship in which they exposed any vulnerability. Look for signs of a troubled childhood. Stalin himself had a father who beat him mercilessly and a rather cold and unloving mother. Listen to people who have seen their true nature and have tried to warn others. Indeed, Stalin’s predecessor, Vladimir Lenin, had understood his lethal nature, and on his deathbed he tried to signal this to others, but his warnings went unheeded. Notice the terrified expressions of those who serve such types on a daily basis. If you suspect you are dealing with this type, you must keep your distance. They are like tigers—once you are too close, you cannot get away, and they will devour you. 2. The Theatrical Narcissist. In 1627, the prioress of the Ursuline nuns in Loudun, France, welcomed into the house a new sister, Jeanne de Belciel (1602–1665). Jeanne was a strange creature. Rather dwarfish in size, she had a pretty, angelic face but a malicious glint in her eye. In her previous house she had made a lot of enemies with her continual sarcasm. But to the prioress’s surprise, transferred to this new house, Jeanne seemed to undergo a transformation. She now acted like a complete angel, offering to help the prioress in all of her daily tasks. Moreover, given some books to read on Saint Teresa and mysticism, Jeanne became engrossed in the subject. She spent long hours discussing spiritual questions with the prioress.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  including Jeffrey Katzenberg (see chapter 11 for more on this). If people quit on these tyrants, they are fine with that. This demonstrates that the individual retains some independence, and they will find a replacement who will be more submissive, at least for the time being. They may also increase their difficult behavior to test certain individuals and get them to quit or submit. Such tyrants may try to act like helpless children. They are the temperamental artist or genius type, so naturally brilliant and absentminded. Their pleas for assistance from you and their urgent need for you to do more seem to express their vulnerability. They use such feigned weakness to justify the ugly nature of their tyranny. It is very hard to strategize against such types, because most often they are your superiors and have real power over you. They tend to be hypersensitive and prone to anger, which makes any form of resistance or inner detachment hard to maintain. Overt rebellion will only make the situation worse. You must first realize that this strategy of theirs is more conscious than it appears. They are not weak and helpless but cunning tyrants. Instead of lingering on anything positive they’ve said or done, think only of their manipulations and harshness. Your ability to detach from them emotionally will neutralize the obsessive presence they try to instill. But in the end nothing really will work, because if, in their hypersensitivity, they detect your distance, their behavior will only get worse. The only real counter is to quit and recuperate. No position is worth such abuse, for the damage to your self-esteem could take years to recover from. Controlled Aggression We are born with a powerful energy that is distinctly human. We can call it willpower, assertiveness, or even aggression, but it is mixed with our intelligence and cleverness. It was revealed to us in its purest state in childhood. This energy made us bold and adventurous, not only physically but mentally, wanting to explore ideas and soak up knowledge. It made us actively search for friends with whom we could explore together. It also made us rather relentless when it came to solving problems or getting what we wanted. (Children can often be bold in what they ask for.) It made us open to the world and to new experiences. And if we felt frustrated and helpless for long enough periods of time, this same energy could make us unusually combative. As we get older and we encounter mounting frustrations, resistance from others, and feelings of impatience for power, some among us may become chronically aggressive. But another phenomenon is even more common: we become uncomfortable with and even frightened of that assertive energy within, and our own potential for aggressive behavior. Being assertive and adventurous could lead to some failed action, making us feel exposed and vulnerable. If we express this energy too much, people may not like

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  But if the matter be considered aright, such things are voluntary rather than involuntary; for they are voluntary simply, but involuntary in a certain respect. For a thing is said to be simply, according as it is in act; but according as it is only in apprehension, it is not simply, but in a certain respect. Now that which is done through fear, is in act in so far as it is done. For, since acts are concerned with singulars; and the singular, as such, is here and now; that which is done is in act, in so far as it is here and now and under other individuating circumstances. And that which is done through fear is voluntary, inasmuch as it is here and now, that is to say, in so far as, under the circumstances, it hinders a greater evil which was feared; thus the throwing of the cargo into the sea becomes voluntary during the storm, through fear of the danger: wherefore it is clear that it is voluntary simply. And hence it is that what is done out of fear is essentially voluntary, because its principle is within. But if we consider what is done through fear, as outside this particular case, and inasmuch as it is repugnant to the will, this is merely a consideration of the mind. And consequently what is done through fear is involuntary, considered in that respect, that is to say, outside the actual circumstances of the case. Reply to Objection 1: Things done through fear and compulsion differ not only according to present and future time, but also in this, that the will does not consent, but is moved entirely counter to that which is done through compulsion: whereas what is done through fear, becomes voluntary, because the will is moved towards it, albeit not for its own sake, but on account of something else, that is, in order to avoid an evil which is feared. For the conditions of a voluntary act are satisfied, if it be done on account of something else voluntary: since the voluntary is not only what we wish, for its own sake, as an end, but also what we wish for the sake of something else, as an end. It is clear therefore that in what is done from compulsion, the will does nothing inwardly; whereas in what is done through fear, the will does something. Accordingly, as Gregory of Nyssa [*Nemesius, De Nat. Hom. xxx.] says, in order to exclude things done through fear, a violent action is defined as not only one, “the principal whereof is from without,” but with the addition, “in which he that suffers violence concurs not at all”; because the will of him that is in fear, does concur somewhat in that which he does through fear.