Gratitude

Passages

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

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• From Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality (2007)

  Jon for taking a crack at an early draft Don for Monday lunches in remote caves Marsha for meeting us at Kava House Tomaas for giving me seven of the best numbers in the world Tandy for focus, focus, focus Matt Krick for the keen mind and giant heart René for believing more than ever Kathy for wisdom, perspective, and the details The Mars Hill Tribe for going there again and again Chris for making Grand Rapids your second home Angela for another joyous round Sister Virginia for showing me that there’s never been anything to prove [image file=image_rsrc24W.jpg] Share and discuss this book with your small group! Click to get the free reading and discussion guide from SmallGroupGuides.com [image file=image_rsrc24X.jpg] For religion news, resources, exclusive content, sneak previews, and deep discounts on e-books from the biggest names in Christian thought, subscribe to our free e-newsletter at NewsandPews.com About the Author ROB BELL is a bestselling author and international teacher and speaker. His books include Velvet Elvis, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Drops Like Stars, and Love Wins, and he was profiled in TIME magazine as one of 2011’s hundred most influential people. He and his wife, Kristen, have three children. Visit the author online at www.robbell.com. Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com ENDNOTES INTRODUCTION: This Is Really About That 1 Genesis 25, 27.2 Genesis 28:11. “In a certain place” is one of the many places in the Bible where phrases and words appear to be ordinary and yet are the windows and doors to new understandings of the story.3 Verse 15. There is a vast tradition of commentary on this passage. Lawrence Kushner’s God Was in This Place and I, I Did Not Know It (Jewish Lights Publishers) is an excellent place to start. Read this book with your friends and you’ll have things to talk about for years.4 For examples of this, see 1 Kings 3:2; 11:7; 12:31; 13:2; 14:23; and 22:43.5 Verses 20–21.6 Genesis 35:7.7 I’m sure Jacob’s kids understood altars and shrines and piles of rocks in the sense that people did this all the time in the ancient Near East. My hypothetical dialogue between Jacob and his children is about why. Why this altar here, Dad? The most symbolic act here would have been the standing of one stone, called a massabah in Hebrew, on top of all the others.CHAPTER ONE: God Wears Lipstick

• From Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014)

  When I interviewed him for the job, he was apologetic about the darker episodes in his past, but I thought he was perfect for the kind of staff we were trying to build. He signed up, moved to Montgomery, and without hesitation jumped into the McMillian case with me. We spent days tracking leads, interviewing dozens of people, following wild rumors, investigating different theories. I was increasingly persuaded that we would have to figure out who really had killed Ronda Morrison to win Walter’s release. Aside from my appreciation for Michael’s invaluable help with the work itself, I was grateful finally to have someone around to share the insanity of the case with—just as I was discovering that it was even crazier than I thought. After a few months of investigation, we’d uncovered strong evidence to support Walter’s innocence. We discovered that Bill Hooks had been paid by Sheriff Tate for his testimony against Walter—we found checks in the county’s financial records showing close to $5,000 in payments to Hooks in reward money and “expenses.” Sheriff Tate had also paid Hooks money to travel back and forth out of the county around the time of the trial. This information should have been disclosed to Walter’s counsel prior to trial so that they could have used it to cast doubt on the credibility of Hooks’s testimony. We also found out that Hooks had been released from jail immediately after giving the police his statement that he’d seen Walter’s “low-rider” truck at the cleaners on the day of the murder. We found court records revealing that the D.A. and the sheriff, who are county officials, had somehow gotten city charges and fines against Hooks dismissed, even though they had no authority in city courts. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, that Hooks had charges against him dismissed in exchange for cooperation with authorities was information that the State was obligated to reveal to the defense. But, of course, they hadn’t. We found the white man who was running the store on the day that Ralph Myers came in for the purpose of giving a note to Walter. Walter had tried to persuade his original lawyers to speak to this man, but they had failed to do so. After Walter described the location of the store, we were able to track him down. The storeowner recounted his memory of that day: Myers had sought out Walter—but had to ask the storeowner which of the several black men in the store was Walter McMillian. Months after the crime, the storeowner was adamant that Myers had never seen Walter McMillian before.

• From This Boy's Life: A Memoir (1989)

  She’d spoken with the school nurse and immediately asked the vice-principal what he thought he was doing, hauling me around by the ears. He said that was beside the point, Mrs. Wolff, let’s not muddy the water here, but she said, No, to her it wasn’t beside the point at all. She faced him across his desk. She was erect, pale, and unfriendly. The point, he told her, was that I had violated school property and the law. Not to mention decency. My mother looked over at me. I saw how tired she was, and she must have seen the pain I was in. I shook my head. “You’re mistaken,” she told him. He laughed disagreeably. Then he set out his case, which consisted of eyewitness testimony by two boys who had been in the lavatory at the time the obscene words in question were inscribed on the wall. “What obscene words?” she asked. He hesitated. Then, demurely, he said, “Fuck you.” “That’s one obscene word,” my mother said. He pondered this. He said that, given the particular context, he considered you to be an obscene word as well. I said I didn’t do it. “If he says he didn’t do it, he didn’t do it,” my mother said. “He doesn’t lie.” “Well, I don’t either!” The vice-principal rocked forward onto his feet. He opened the door and beckoned to the weed fiends, who were waiting in the outer office. They came in together and after a hangdog glance in my direction serially mumbled their dismal narrative at the floor, while I looked at them with brazen incredulity. When they were done the vice-principal gave them passes and sent them out. He was acting very much in control now, very much on top of the situation. “They’re lying,” I said. His placidity fell off like a mask. “Why?” he asked. “Give me one reason.” “I don’t know,” I said, “but they are.” “We’re not getting anywhere,” my mother said. “I think I’d better talk to the principal.” The vice-principal said that he had been given full authority in this case. He was in charge. We’d better realize that what he said went. But my mother would not be moved. And in the end we got in to see the principal. The principal was a furtive, whey-faced man who feared children and avoided us by staying in his office all day. He was right to avoid us. He wore his weakness in a way that excited belligerence and cruelty. When my mother and I came into his office, he insisted on making small talk with her as if she had just dropped by to see how things were going. At one point he leaned over and peered at my fingers. “Is that nicotine?” he asked. “No sir.” “I hope not.” He leaned back. His jacket parted, revealing green suspenders. “Let me tell you a story,” he said. “Take it for what it’s worth.

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

  Returning to Tomoko Masuzawa’s work on nineteenth-century European discourses on religion, I wonder how much progress biblical scholarship has made as a subdiscipline of religious studies. How much of this talk of exclusivity and inclusivity, particularism and universalism, is real y just coded theological apologetics? F. C. Baur valued inclusivity and universalism in a Germany that was moving away from provincialism and a fragmented German state, to a unified Germany. Wright and Dunn valued inclusivity and universalism in the United Kingdom at a time when the evils of colonialism were becoming apparent to the Western conscience. Today, we too are influenced by discourses of inclusion and universalism. To my mind, there is 34 On this issue, see Douglas A. Campbel , “Galatians 5.11: Evidence of an Early Law-observant Mission by Paul?” NTS 57 (2011): 325–47; Justin K. Hardin, “‘If I Still Proclaim Circumcision’ (Galatians 5:11a): Paul, the Law, and Gentile Circumcision,” JSPL 3 (2013): 145–64; and Joshua Garroway, The Beginning of the Gospel: Paul, Philippi, and the Origins of Christianity (New York, NY: Palgrave MacMil an, 2018). 35 As Jonathan Z. Smith puts it, “ ‘Unique’ becomes an ontological rather than a taxonomic category; an assertion of a radical difference so absolute that it becomes ‘Whol y Other,’ and the act of comparison is perceived as both an impossibility and an impiety”: Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity (CSHJ; Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 38. 96 96 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles much that is praiseworthy in these modern discourses. But to allow them to influence our historical work on ancient Judaism is to give theology, apologetics, or modern ideologies the driver’s seat where it is unlicensed to drive. More than that, it is to bear false witness against others who cannot defend themselves. Such discourses of exclusivity and inclusivity are barely masked apologetics for Christianity over Judaism that claim inclusivity for Christianity at the very moment that they are guilty of, in the name of Christianity and via poor historical work, excluding, judging, and condemning the other. When such ideologies masquerade as history, it is our job to unmask them as such. Throughout his scholarship, Terry Donaldson has done just this, and I, for one, am both deeply indebted and grateful to him. 97 Part Two Matthew 98 98 99 6 Beyond Universalism and Particularism: Rethinking Paul and Matthew on Gentile Inclusion Anders Runesson Introduction

• From In the Dream House (2019)

  Dream House as Picaresque Before I met the woman from the Dream House, I lived in a tiny two-bedroom in Iowa City. The house was a mess: owned by a slumlord, slowly falling apart, full of eclectic, nightmarish details. There was a room in the basement—my roommates and I called it the murder room —with blood-red floors, walls, and ceiling, further improved by a secret hatch and a nonfunctional landline phone. Elsewhere in the basement, a Lovecraftian heating system reached long tentacles up into the rest of the house. When it was humid, the front door swelled in its frame and refused to open, like a punched eye. The yard was huge and pocked with a fire pit and edged with poison ivy, trees, a rotting fence. I lived with John and Laura and their cat, Tokyo. They were a couple; long-legged and pale, erstwhile Floridians who’d gone to hippie college together and had come to Iowa for their respective graduate degrees. The living embodiment of Florida camp and eccentricity, and, ultimately, the only thing that, post–Dream House, would keep the state in my good graces. Laura looked like an old-fashioned movie star: wide-eyed and ethereal. She was dry and disdainful and wickedly funny; she wrote poetry and was pursuing a degree in library science. She felt like a librarian, like the wise conduit for public knowledge, as if she could lead you anywhere you needed to be. John, on the other hand, looked like a grunge rocker-cum-offbeat-professor who’d discovered God. He made kimchi and sauerkraut in huge mason jars he monitored on the kitchen counter like a mad botanist; he once spent an hour describing the plot of Against Nature to me in exquisite detail, including his favorite scene, in which the eccentric and vile antihero encrusts a tortoise’s shell with exotic jewels and the poor creature, “unable to support the dazzling luxury imposed on it,” dies from the weight. When I first met John, he said to me, “I got a tattoo, do you want to see?” And I said, “Yes,” and he said, “Okay, it’s gonna look like I’m showing you my junk but I’m not, I swear,” and when he lifted the leg of his shorts high on his thigh there was a stick-and-poke tattoo of an upside-down church. “Is that an upside-down church?” I asked, and he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows—not lasciviously, but with genuine mischief— and said, “Upside down according to who?” Once, when Laura came out of their bedroom in cutoffs and a bikini top, John looked at her with real, uncomplicated love and said, “Girl, I want to dig you a watering hole.” Like a picara, I have spent my adulthood bopping from city to city, acquiring kindred spirits at every stop; a group of guardians who have taken good care of me (a tender of guardians, a dearheart of guardians). My friend Amanda from college, my roommate and housemate until I was twenty-two, whose sharp and logical mind, flat affect, and dry sense of humor witnessed my evolution from messy teenager to messy semiadult. Anne—a rugby player with dyed-pink hair, the first vegetarian and lesbian I ever met—who’d overseen my coming-out like a benevolent gay goddess. Leslie, who coached me through my first bad breakup with brie and two-dollar bottles of wine and time with her animals, including a stocky brown pit bull named Molly who would lick my face until I dissolved into hysterics. Everyone who ever read and commented on my LiveJournal, which I dutifully kept from ages fifteen to twenty-five, spilling my guts to a motley crew of poets, queer weirdos, programmers, RPG buffs, and fanfic writers. John and Laura were like that. They were always there, intimate with each other in one way and intimate with me in another, as if I were a beloved sibling. They weren’t watching over me, exactly; they were the protagonists of their own stories. But this story? This one’s mine.

• From In the Dream House (2019)

  To all of these writers, academics, archives, publications, and presses: thank you for your activism, your scholarship, and your wisdom. AcknowledgmentsThis book would have been impossible without the resources and support of the University of Pennsylvania, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Oregon, Yaddo, Playa, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and Bard College. Many thanks to Tracy Fontil, for her impeccable and thorough research, and the Bassini Foundation for sponsoring her apprenticeship. Thank you to Dorothy Allison for her wisdom; Elliott Battzekek and Sawyer Lovett at Big Blue Marble Bookstore for their insight; Jane Marie at the Hairpin for publishing my first writing on this subject; Jen Wang and Jess Row for their musical expertise; Kendra Albert for leading me to resources on archival silence; Kevin Brockmeier for reading and being encouraging about an early draft of this memoir; David Korzenik for his legal advice; Mark Mayer for his sharp line edits and tender encouragement; Michelle Huneven for her thoughtful edits on “A Girl’s Guide to Sexual Purity” when it was published in the Los Angeles Review of Books; Nikki Gloudeman for editing “Gaslight” for Medium and Matt Higginson for commissioning it; Sam Chang for her all-around excellence and also for directing me to Terry Castle’s The Professor; Sofia Samatar for our many conversations about the radical possibilities of nonfiction; Ted Chiang for teaching me about time travel; Yuka Igarashi at Catapult for editing and publishing “The Moon Over the River Lethe”; and the vultures who sat in a tree over my head as I finished this book, for clearing away the rot. I am, as always, in debt to my editors Ethan Nosowsky and Yana Makuwa (this book is infinitely better for their insight); my brilliant and scarily capable agent, Kent Wolf; and the entire team at Graywolf, for their tireless efforts, boundless faith, and endless good cheer. I am deeply grateful to Amy, Ben, Bennett, Carleen, E.J., Evan, John, Laura, Rebecca, Rebekah, and Tony for their love, friendship, and stabilizing presence during those days; Chris, Emma, Julia, Karen, Lara, and Sam for listening when my pain was fresh and inarticulate; Audrey, R.K., and all the other members of the weirdest, gayest First Wives’ Club ever, for trusting me with their stories; and Margaret, for putting the pieces together. And of course, the biggest thanks go to my wife, Val—my plot twist, my fate, my fairy-tale ending—who challenges me and comforts me and allows me to splash details of our lives all over the place. I’d do it all again, baby. It brought me you.

• From In the Dream House (2019)

  Acknowledgments This book would have been impossible without the resources and support of the University of Pennsylvania, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Oregon, Yaddo, Playa, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and Bard College. Many thanks to Tracy Fontil, for her impeccable and thorough research, and the Bassini Foundation for sponsoring her apprenticeship. Thank you to Dorothy Allison for her wisdom; Elliott Battzekek and Sawyer Lovett at Big Blue Marble Bookstore for their insight; Jane Marie at the Hairpin for publishing my first writing on this subject; Jen Wang and Jess Row for their musical expertise; Kendra Albert for leading me to resources on archival silence; Kevin Brockmeier for reading and being encouraging about an early draft of this memoir; David Korzenik for his legal advice; Mark Mayer for his sharp line edits and tender encouragement; Michelle Huneven for her thoughtful edits on “A Girl’s Guide to Sexual Purity” when it was published in the Los Angeles Review of Books ; Nikki Gloudeman for editing “Gaslight” for Medium and Matt Higginson for commissioning it; Sam Chang for her all-around excellence and also for directing me to Terry Castle’s The Professor ; Sofia Samatar for our many conversations about the radical possibilities of nonfiction; Ted Chiang for teaching me about time travel; Yuka Igarashi at Catapult for editing and publishing “The Moon Over the River Lethe”; and the vultures who sat in a tree over my head as I finished this book, for clearing away the rot. I am, as always, in debt to my editors Ethan Nosowsky and Yana Makuwa (this book is infinitely better for their insight); my brilliant and scarily capable agent, Kent Wolf; and the entire team at Graywolf, for their tireless efforts, boundless faith, and endless good cheer. I am deeply grateful to Amy, Ben, Bennett, Carleen, E.J., Evan, John, Laura, Rebecca, Rebekah, and Tony for their love, friendship, and stabilizing presence during those days; Chris, Emma, Julia, Karen, Lara, and Sam for listening when my pain was fresh and inarticulate; Audrey, R.K., and all the other members of the weirdest, gayest First Wives’ Club ever, for trusting me with their stories; and Margaret, for putting the pieces together. And of course, the biggest thanks go to my wife, Val—my plot twist, my fate, my fairy-tale ending—who challenges me and comforts me and allows me to splash details of our lives all over the place. I’d do it all again, baby. It brought me you. The text of In the Dream House is set in Adobe Caslon Pro. Book design by Rachel Holscher. Composition by Bookmobile Design and Digital Publisher Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Manufactured by Friesens on acid-free, 100 percent postconsumer wastepaper.

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

  was a very decent banjo player. For a night of songs and games, we just played and played together while others were singing. I knew right then that there was something fascinating about this person. Later on, I learned that his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto was in Mathematics. One can see traces of that training in his work as a biblical scholar. There is always in his work a search for precision and for beauty, for balance and for nuance, for logical development and for capturing vast amounts of information in ways that help one see patterns without ever imposing rigid or formulaic propositions on the materials under study. One may, for example, refer especial y to Terry’s Judaism and the Gentiles for this kind of careful approach.2 In that magisterial work Donaldson summarizes the ways in which Jews envisaged Gentile relation to the covenantal Jewish God in four distinct ways: sympathizing with Judaism, being ethical monotheists, participating in eschatological salvation, or converting to Judaism. When I finished my M.T.S. and was accepted to do my Ph.D. with the Religious Studies Department at the University of Toronto, I was very glad to have Terry as the cosupervisor of my doctoral dissertation, alongside Professor John W. Marshal . I could not have asked for a better team to guide and help me in my scholarly journey. Throughout my years of research and development as a young scholar, Terry has always been a firm, gentle, and quiet mentor. His notes on what I needed to do in my work were always clear. The distance between professor and student was appropriately maintained. I was lucky to be an apprentice learning how the craft was done from two great masters. After I successful y defended my dissertation on February 7, 2014, Terry invited me to have lunch with him. I was surprised and glad. I thanked him for being there for me and also for being such a great model of a scholar, mentor, husband, and genuine and caring human being.

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  I. Title. RC552.T7L483 2010 616.85′21—dc22 2010023653 v3.1_r1 In all things in nature there is something of the marvelous. —Aristotle (350 BC ) Acknowledgments Everything responsible for our “human existence” is due to an anonymous multitude of others who lived before us, whose achievements have been bestowed upon us as gifts. —H. Hass (1981) F OR WHERE I STAND TODAY , I am indebted to the great scientific tradition and lineage of the ethologists, those scientists who study animals in their natural environments, who have contributed greatly to my naturalistic vision of the human animal. A most personal thanks to Nobel Laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen, whose suggestions and kind words of support encouraged me to pursue this naturalistic worldview. Though I have never met them, except through their written gifts to history, I would like to honor Konrad Lorenz, Heinz von Holst, Paul Leyhausen, Desmond Morris, Eric Salzen and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt. Other “virtual” teachers include Ernst Gellhorn, who informed my early neurophysiological thinking, and Akhter Ahsen, who helped consolidate my vision of the “undifferentiated and welded unity of the body and mind.” A giant, whose broad shoulders I stand on, is Wilhelm Reich, MD. His monumental contribution to the understanding of “life-energy” was taught to me by Philip Curcuruto, a man of few words and simple wisdom. My deep appreciation and personal debt go to Richard Olney and Richard Price, who taught me what little I know about self-acceptance. Having known (and been inspired by) Dr. Ida Rolf has been a catalyst in forming my identity as a scientist-healer. To Dr. Virginia Johnson, I thank you for your critical understanding of altered states of consciousness. And to Ed Jackson, thanks for trusting my nascent body/mind practice in the 1960s and for referring Nancy, my first trauma client. I am grateful for the tremendous support and help from my friends. Over the years (beginning in 1978) I have had many stimulating discussions with Stephen Porges, already a leading figure in the field of psychophysiology. Over the following decades, our paths have continued to cross as we shared our parallel and interwoven developments and a special friendship. Thanks and admiration to Bessel van der Kolk for his voracious inquiring mind, his broad comprehensive vision of trauma, his professional life of research advancing the field of trauma to its modern status, and his courage to challenge existing structures. I fondly recollect our sharing Vermont summers on the banks of East Long Lake, swimming, laughing and talking trauma into the wee hours.

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

  Before long there will be great need of an historic architect who will construct a beautiful and comfortable building out of the vast material thus brought to light. The Germans are historic miners, the French and English are skilled manufacturers; the former understand and cultivate the science of history, the latter excel in the art of historiography. A master of both would be the ideal historian. But God has wisely distributed his gifts, and made individuals and nations depend upon and supplement each other. The present volume is an entire reconstruction of the corresponding part of the first edition (vol. I p. 144–528), which appeared twenty-five years ago. It is more than double in size. Some chapters (e.g. VI. VII. IX.) and several sections (e.g. 90–93, 103, 155–157, 168, 171, 184, 189, 190, 193, 198–204, etc.) are new, and the rest has been improved and enlarged, especially the last chapter on the literature of the church. My endeavor has been to bring the book up to the present advanced state of knowledge, to record every important work (German, French, English, and American) which has come under my notice, and to make the results of the best scholarship of the age available and useful to the rising generation. In conclusion, I may be permitted to express my thanks for the kind reception which has been accorded to this revised edition of the work of my youth. It will stimulate me to new energy in carrying it forward as far as God may give time and strength. The third volume needs no reconstruction, and a new edition of the same with a few improvements will be issued without delay. Philip Schaff. Union Theological Seminary, October, 1883. ——————————— § 1. Literature on the Ante-Nicene Age I. Sources 1. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers, the Apologists, and all the ecclesiastical authors of the 2nd and 3rd, and to some extent of the 4th and 5th centuries; particularly Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and Theodoret. 2. The writings of the numerous heretics, mostly extant only in fragments. 3. The works of the pagan opponents of Christianity, as Celsus, Lucian, Porphyry, Julian the Apostate. 4. The occasional notices of Christianity, in the contemporary classical authors, Tacitus, Suetonius, the younger Pliny, Dion Cassius. II. Collections of Sources, (besides those included in the comprehensive Patristic Libraries): Gebhardt, Harnack, and Zahn: Patrum Apostolicorum Opera. Lips., 1876; second ed. 1878 sqq. Fr. Xav. Funk (R.C.): Opera Patrum Apost. Tübing., 1878, 1881, 1887, 2 vols. The last edition includes the Didache. I. C. Th. Otto: Corpus Apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi. Jenae, 1841 sqq., in 9 vols.; 2nd ed. 1847–1861; 3rd ed. 1876 sqq. ("plurimum aucta et emendata").

• From Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out (2014)

  These disclosures offered immediate evidence that the group influence and control were fading away and that her own previously innate ability to think independently and critically analyze the facts had returned. At the end of the intervention the young woman’s primary concern was how to warn others not to become involved with the Call of God. We discussed the possibility of sharing information online through the Web in some effective way so she might warn others. The young woman ceased her involvement with the Call of God and moved on with her life. She was grateful that her family had made the effort to help her through the intervention effort. CHAPTER 12 FALUN GONG Before discussing an intervention involving the controversial movement Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, understanding the history and issues surrounding the organization and its founder, Li Hongzhi, is important. The group has been officially declared an “evil cult” in China, and Li now lives as an exile in the United States. At one time there were reportedly millions of Falun Gong adherents in China, though the number of Chinese devotees seems to have steadily dwindled. Falun Gong reportedly has as many as ten thousand practitioners in the United States and four thousand in Canada.782 2001—Self-Immolation in Tiananmen Square A particularly horrific event focused media attention on Falun Gong in 2001. This single event, perhaps more than any other, defined Falun Gong as an “evil cult” in the minds of the Chinese public. On the eve of the Chinese New Year, January 23, 2001, a small group of seven Falun Gong practitioners traveled within China from the city of Kaifeng to Beijing. Once in Beijing the group went to Tiananmen Square and set themselves on fire. A mother and her twelve-year-old daughter died. One man, Wang Jindong, survived but was hospitalized with severe burns. Two women, Hao Huijun and her daughter, Chen Guo, were both hospitalized with very extreme injuries. The two remaining Falun Gong members, including the man who had organized the self-immolation, weren’t seriously injured. Chen Guo later explained, “We wanted to strengthen the force of Falun Gong. We decided burning ourselves was the best way.”783 Chen Guo, once a promising musician, lost both of her hands. Her mother was also severely disabled and disfigured.784 As the story of the self-immolations was broadcast around the world, Falun Gong refused to accept any responsibility for the tragedy. Spokespeople for the group insisted it was not their teachings or influence that had led to the tragedy; rather it was somehow a Chinese government conspiracy to discredit the organization.785 Li Hongzhi Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, was born in northeastern China. He reportedly graduated from high school, worked on a farm, and played the trumpet. During the 1980s he was a clerk at a cereal company. But by 1992 Li decided to join the growing ranks of self-proclaimed “qigong masters” and began giving lectures.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  Furthermore, the assistance given by Susan Perry at Orbis Books during the creation of this book is greatly appreciated. Her constant editing, constructive criticism, and challenging questions made the finished product exceedingly better than the original. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my family, specifically my wife, Deborah, my son, Vincent, and my daughter, Victoria. They constantly put up with me storming around the house, complaining about having to finish a section by tomorrow. They believed and supported me when I doubted myself. Their constant unconditional love provided the emotional support needed to finish this book. For this, and much more, thank you. IntroductionAll football players are damned! According to the Scriptures, anyone who plays football is cursed by God and will spend eternity in hell. The Bible is very clear about this. According to Deuteronomy: “The pig, because its hoof is divided and it does not chew its cud, is unclean. You shall not eat its flesh, nor touch its dead skin ” (14:8).1 So anyone who touches a “pigskin,” another name for a football, is cursed. During my adolescent years, I did not participate in high school football. In fact, most of the team members were bullies who would ambush and beat me up. So I was pleased to find that the Bible provides the justification for their condemnation. Even God forbids the throwing around of the “pigskin,” and who am I to question God's commands? All I'm called to do is obey God's word and proclaim God's displeasure with this barbaric sport. Even though you, along with the vast majority of Christendom, may question my reading of this biblical text, it is a tenable interpretation. All biblical interpretations are valid to the one who is doing the interpreting. Yet my understanding of Deuteronomy 14:8, regardless of how legitimate and logical it may be to me, is still rejected by the majority of Christians. Why? Because my interpretation of this text attempted to justify my bias toward a group of people whom I loathed, football players. Through my interpretation I justified my hatred toward them, and if I am in a position of power within a community, I could use my interpretation to create social structures that would turn my biases into societal norms, justifying and legitimizing the oppression of football players. It is easy to see how I fuse and confuse what I proclaim the Bible says with what the Bible actually states. In my mind, they are the same. My hatred for football becomes the Bible's condemnation of the sport. Here lies the first major lesson we can learn about reading the Bible. While we may claim that the biblical text is true and authoritative, not all interpretations are true and authoritative. My interpretation of the Deuteronomy passage cannot be confused with what the text actually says, nor with its possible application to our lives today. Yet, we do this all the time.

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

  Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles142 142 of women as central players in the fulfilment of the covenant promises finds a parallel in Jubilees and in Pseudo-Philo. Second Temple Context: Jubilees, Pseudo-Philo, and the Voices of Women As Rahab in Joshua sees God’s purpose and speaks God’s blessing on the Israelites, so too does Rebekah in Jubilees. In Jubilees, it is Rebekah and not Isaac who repeatedly— and unexpectedly, for Jubilees is not known for its positive depictions of women—is the voice of God’s purpose. It is Rebekah and not Isaac who knows that Jacob bears God’s blessing (Jub. 19:30–31) and tells him so (25:1–3). It is Rebekah and not Isaac (in contrast to Gen 28) who tells Jacob to marry a wife from his own kin and not a Canaanite (25:1–3). It is Rebekah and not Isaac who first blesses Jacob, in a formal blessing vividly depicted: And then she lifted her face toward heaven and spread out the fingers of her hands and opened her mouth and blessed the Most High God ... and at that time, when a spirit of truth descended upon her mouth, she placed her two hands upon the head of Jacob and said, “Blessed are you, O Lord ..., and may he bless you more than all the generations of man ... The womb of the one who bore you blesses you. My affection and my breasts are blessing you. 48 And it is Rebekah whose voice Jacob heeds: “And now my son, heed my voice and do the will of your mother” (25:2). “Do not fear, O mother,” Jacob replies, “Trust that I will do your will” (25:10). Betsy Halpern-Amaru notes that in Jubilees it is the women who see the promises of God. Each matriarch “uses that knowledge to guide and nurture not only the men in her life, but the covenantal future as well.” 49 Just so, I have suggested, for Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth in Matthew’s genealogy. In Pseudo-Philo, whose interest in Tamar and her scriptural story we have already noted, this attention to Rebekah’s voice and knowledge of God’s purpose expands into a virtually programmatic depiction of strong-voiced women. In the same passage in which Tamar appears as model of righteous faithfulness, the child Miriam speaks of God’s saving purpose. “Go and say to your parents,” the spirit of God says to her in a dream, “Behold, he who will be born from you will be cast forth into the water; likewise through him signaled by the ominous statement, “David had a son by the wife of Uriah”? For more on the wife of Uriah, see my discussion in Death of Jesus in Matthew. 48 Jub. 25:11, 14, 19. Translations of Jubilees are from O. S. Wintermute, “Jubilees: A New Translation and Introduction,” in OTP, 35–142.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  I was cold as I knelt there, I had broken out in a sweat. The man was breathing heavily too, he had exerted himself, the rest was as much for him as for me. He knew what he was doing, I thought with sudden admiration; he knew how far to push and when to ease off, and I was excited at the thought of being taken further by him, into territories I had only glimpsed or had intimations of. Then, still keeping one hand on my head, he reached down and very quickly removed first one and then the other clamp from my chest, at which there was a quick flare of pain, making me cry out again, and then a flood of extraordinary pleasure, not sexual pleasure exactly but something like euphoria, a lifting and lightness and unsteadiness, as with certain drugs. He returned his hand to my head and gripped me firmly again, still not moving, having grown very still; even his cock had softened just slightly, it was large but more giving in my mouth. And then he repeated the word I didn’t know but that I thought meant steady and suddenly my mouth was filled with warmth, bright and bitter, his urine, which I took as I had taken everything else, it was a kind of pride in me to take it. Kuchko, he said as I drank, speaking softly and soothingly, addressing me again, mnogo si dobra, you’re very good, and he said this a second time and a third before he was done.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  He said a word I didn’t understand then, which from his tone I took as something like steady, the kind of mixed reassurance and admonishment one might give a startled horse, and his grip on my head softened, he flexed his fingers again in that gesture that was almost a caress. I was surprised at what I felt then, which was outsized and overwhelming, gratitude at what seemed like kindness from this man who had been so stern; it was something I hadn’t felt before, or not for a very long time. I began moving again, having frozen at the shock of the first blow, brought back by his caress or perhaps there had been a very slight pressure from his hand, I’m not sure. I took the whole length of him, and I felt his hand rise and fall again, this time more gently, and since I had warning it didn’t interrupt the motion I had fallen into, it became a part of that motion; we fell into a rhythm together, and as his strokes grew quicker and more intense so did my own. Soon enough I was in real pain, my back had grown tender, and I realized that I had begun making noises, little whimpers and cries, and they too became part of the rhythm we had fallen into, his arm rising and falling and my own movement forward and back, and with that movement the swinging of the smaller chain at my chest, the ache that had grown dull but that shifted as I swayed. Then he broke our rhythm, suddenly pulling me to him and thrusting his hips forward at the same time, his grip tight, and as he ground me against him he struck me several times quickly and very hard, and I cried out with real urgency, an animal objection. But I couldn’t cry out, the passage was blocked, and with the effort I began to choke, the mechanism failed and I struggled against him; I tried to wrench my head away, I even brought my hands to his thighs but he held me firm. He struck me five or six times in this way, or maybe seven or eight, they were indistinct as I struggled, moving incoherently, at once pushing myself back from him and flinching at the blows. Then he was still, and though he didn’t release me he drew back, letting me breathe and grow calm again. Dobra kuchka, he said, again not addressing me but praising me to the air, and his hands were gentle as he held me, not constraining but steadying, a comfort for which I felt again that strange, inappropriate gratitude.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  Power to Direct the Discourse Power to Name Power Not to See a Need to Repent Power to Become the “Real” Victim Cheap Forgiveness What the Center Can Learn about the Bible Exodus: God the Liberator Amos: God the Seeker of Justice The Gospels: God the Doer Acts and the Letters from Paul: God the Subverter The Bible in the Twenty-First Century Notes Bibliography PrefaceThis book was forged in the classroom. Upon first coming to Hope College as an assistant professor, I was asked to design a course that would expose a predominantly Euroamerican student body to non-Eurocentric Christian thought. This was not an easy task, and at times the very nature of the subject matter created tension, if not conflict, within the campus community. Nevertheless, my colleagues in the Religion Department totally supported and encouraged me, even when some of them disagreed with my perspectives. Their commitment to intellectual freedom is greatly appreciated. Furthermore, they provided advice and important feedback on sections of this work, and for that I am also in their debt. One of the courses I developed was titled “Reading the Bible from the Margins.” The objective of the course was to read the biblical text through the eyes of non-Euroamericans, in hopes of discovering how the Bible is incorporated by the disenfranchised seeking to foster liberation from oppressive social structures that foster racism, sexism, and classism. Additionally, the course contested how Euroamerican students traditionally read the biblical text, challenging their interpretations constructed within their culture. Many began to read and understand the Bible from the perspective of other groups, with new eyes that inform, strengthen, and complete their faith. If it wasn't for the students who took this course, this book would not exist. On the basis of that experience, I attempted to answer the questions and objections these students raised in the classroom. Any success this book might have is due to the lively discussions that occurred during class. For this I offer my sincerest thanks. I am also grateful to the administration at Hope College, which made a commitment for a more diverse campus, recognizing that there is much to be learned from those who historically represent marginalized groups within our society. The college's faithfulness in soliciting and hearing voices of color, rather than seeking political correctness by simply displaying faces of color, is an encouragement for those who at times grow weary of trying to develop a more just community. This dedication was expressed to me by the administration when it graciously provided a summer writing grant through The Jobe and Julie Morrison Family Faculty Development Fund in combination with The Norman and Ruth Peale Fund. Because of this generosity, the necessary time required to finish the project became available. I would be remiss if I did not mention the copyediting done by Jonathan Schakel. Additionally, I am grateful to Anthony Guardado of the Van Wyler Library for his assistance in tracking down sources and obtaining specific articles.

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

  AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) We might have supposed that some of the women stood afar off, as three Evangelists say, and others near the cross, as John says, had not Matthew and Mark reckoned Mary Magdalen among those that stood afar off, while John puts her among those that stood near. This is reconciled if we understand the distance at which they were to be such that they might be said to be near, because they were in His sight; but far off in comparison of the crowd who stood nearer with the centurion and soldiers. We might also suppose that they who were there together with the Lord’s mother, began to depart after He had commended her to the disciple, that they might extricate themselves from the crowd, and looked on from a distance at the other things which were done, so that the Evangelists, who speak of them after the Lord’s death, speak of them as standing afar off. 27:57–6157. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: 58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. 61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. GLOSS. (non occ.) When the Evangelist had finished the order of the Lord’s Passion and death, he treats of His burial. REMIGIUS. Arimathea is the same as Ramatha, the city of Helcana and Samuel, and is situated in the Chananitic country near Diospolis. This Joseph was a man of great dignity in respect of worldly station, but has the praise of much higher merit in God’s sight, seeing he is described as righteous. Indeed he that should have the burial of the Lord’s body ought to have been such, that he might be deserving of that office by righteous merit. JEROME. He is described as rich, not out of any ambition on the part of the writer to represent so noble and rich a man as Jesus’ disciple, but to shew how he was able to obtain the body of Jesus from Pilate. For poor and unknown individuals would not have dared to approach Pilate, the representative of Roman power, and ask the body of a crucified malefactor. In another Gospel this Joseph is called a counsellor; and it is supposed that the first Psalm has reference to him, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. (Ps. 1:1.)

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

  CHRYSOSTOM. (in Joan. Hom. xiv. [xiii.] 1) Or thus; John the Evangelist here adds his testimony to that of John the Baptist, saying, And of his fulness have we all received. These are not the words of the forerunner, but of the disciple; as if he meant to say, We also the twelve, and the whole body of the faithful, both present and to come, have received of His fulness. AUGUSTINE. (in Joan. Tr. iii. c. 8. et seq.) But what have ye received? Grace for grace. So that we are to understand that we have received a certain something from His fulness, and over and above this, grace for grace; that we have first received of His fulness, first grace; and again, we have received grace for grace. What grace did we first receive? Faith: which is called grace, because it is given freely3. This is the first grace then which the sinner receives, the remission of his sins. Again, we have grace for grace; i. e. in stead of that grace in which we live by faith, we are to receive another, viz. life eternal: for life eternal is as it were the wages of faith. And thus as faith itself is a good grace, so life eternal is grace for grace. There was not grace in the Old Testament; for the law threatened, but assisted not, commanded, but healed not, shewed our weakness, but relieved it not. It prepared the way however for a Physician who was about to come, with the gifts of grace and truth: whence the sentence which follows: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth were made by Jesus Christ. The death of thy Lord hath destroyed death, both temporal and eternal; that is the grace which was promised, but not contained, in the law.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  Do people take care of each other in America, he said then, the first question he had asked me though he didn’t want an answer, he went on right away, I know they do, he said, I’ve never been to America but I have the idea that you care for each other there. We were still stopped in traffic, he shifted anxiously in his seat. That’s good about the protests, maybe, he said, they show that people believe in solidarity, the young people, we’ve forgotten but to them it’s still important. Mozhe bi , he said again, maybe, I don’t know. He took his pack of cigarettes from a cupholder in the center console and knocked one into his palm. Well, he said, lighting it, buddy, priyatelyu , this traffic isn’t going to move anytime soon. He suggested I get out and walk, that way he could take the next exit and head back to Mladost. We settled up then, I grabbed my backpack from between my legs and hooked my fingers through the latch of the door. Blagodarya , I said, hesitating a moment before leaving the little intimacy his speech had made, and he held out his hand. Uspeh , he said as I took it, good luck, and then he released it to fiddle with the radio, dismissing me with a blast of American rock. It was a bit of a walk to the gathering point, which was in front of the Archaeological Museum, on a stretch that featured the city’s most impressive architecture, its public face: the huge cathedral, with its domes and bells, and state buildings, the university and National Assembly, august and classical. It was an architecture of aspiration, a new nation declaring its ideals. Much of the protesters’ anger had converged here, at the Assembly especially, where there had been a dramatic moment in an earlier wave of protests, a couple of months before. It had been late, almost midnight, and the representatives were huddling inside, waiting for the protesters to leave, as they always did, once they had spent their anger in shouting. But something happened that evening, there was a shift, the anger didn’t disperse but grew ominous, dense and pressured. With every representative who left the protesters had grown angrier, their insults more virulent, their chants more raucous, to the point that the politicians who remained were too frightened to leave, the police had to intervene, they brought in a bus to evacuate them.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  He said a word I didn’t understand then, which from his tone I took as something like steady, the kind of mixed reassurance and admonishment one might give a startled horse, and his grip on my head softened, he flexed his fingers again in that gesture that was almost a caress. I was surprised at what I felt then, which was outsized and overwhelming, gratitude at what seemed like kindness from this man who had been so stern; it was something I hadn’t felt before, or not for a very long time. I began moving again, having frozen at the shock of the first blow, brought back by his caress or perhaps there had been a very slight pressure from his hand, I’m not sure. I took the whole length of him, and I felt his hand rise and fall again, this time more gently, and since I had warning it didn’t interrupt the motion I had fallen into, it became a part of that motion; we fell into a rhythm together, and as his strokes grew quicker and more intense so did my own. Soon enough I was in real pain, my back had grown tender, and I realized that I had begun making noises, little whimpers and cries, and they too became part of the rhythm we had fallen into, his arm rising and falling and my own movement forward and back, and with that movement the swinging of the smaller chain at my chest, the ache that had grown dull but that shifted as I swayed. Then he broke our rhythm, suddenly pulling me to him and thrusting his hips forward at the same time, his grip tight, and as he ground me against him he struck me several times quickly and very hard, and I cried out with real urgency, an animal objection. But I couldn’t cry out, the passage was blocked, and with the effort I began to choke, the mechanism failed and I struggled against him; I tried to wrench my head away, I even brought my hands to his thighs but he held me firm. He struck me five or six times in this way, or maybe seven or eight, they were indistinct as I struggled, moving incoherently, at once pushing myself back from him and flinching at the blows. Then he was still, and though he didn’t release me he drew back, letting me breathe and grow calm again. Dobra kuchka, he said, again not addressing me but praising me to the air, and his hands were gentle as he held me, not constraining but steadying, a comfort for which I felt again that strange, inappropriate gratitude.