Hope

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 New Testament Words (1964)

  Simply to take the word aiōnios, when it refers to blessings and punishment, to mean lasting for ever is to oversimplify, and indeed to misunderstand, the word altogether. It means far more than that. It means that that which the faithful will receive and that which the unfaithful will suffer is that which it befits God’s nature and character to bestow and to inflict —and beyond that we who are men cannot go, except to remember that that nature and character are holy love. We must now turn to the greatest of all uses of the word aiōnios in the NT, its use in connexion with the phrase eternal life. We must begin by reminding ourselves of the fact which we have so often stressed, that the word aiōnios is the word of eternity in contrast with time, of deity in contrast with humanity, and that therefore eternal life is nothing less than the life of God himself. (i) The promise of eternal life is the promise that it is open to the Christian to share nothing less than the power and the peace of God himself. Eternal life is the promise of God (Titus 1.2; I John 2.25). God has promised us a share in his own blessedness, and God cannot break a promise. (ii) But the NT goes further than that—eternal life is not only the promise of God; eternal life is the gift of God (Rom. 6.23; I John 5.11). As we shall see, eternal life is not without its conditions; but the fact remains that eternal life is something which God out of his mercy and grace gives to man. It is something which we could neither earn nor deserve; it is the free gift of God to men. (iii) Eternal life is bound up with Jesus Christ. Christ is the living water which is the elixir of eternal life (John 4.14). He is the food which brings to men eternal life (John 6.27, 54). His words are the words of eternal life (John 6.68). He himself not only brings (John 17.2, 3) but is eternal life (I John 5.20). If we wish to put this very simply, we may say that through Jesus there is possible a relationship, an intimacy, a unity with God which are possible in no other way. Through what he is and does men may enter into the very life of God himself. (iv) This eternal life comes through what the NT calls belief in Jesus Christ (John 3.15, 16, 36; 5.24; 6.40, 47; I John 5.13; I Tim. 1.16). What does this belief mean? Clearly it is not simply intellectual belief. Belief in Jesus means that we believe absolutely and implicitly that what Jesus says about God is true.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It is something which has to be worked out with fear and trembling (Phil. 2.12). Great as it is, it can still be neglected (Heb. 2.3). The NT never forgets that the perilous free-will of man can frustrate the saving purpose of God. (iii) The place of Jesus in God’s sōtēria is central. In no one else is sōtēria, and there is no other name in heaven or earth by which men may be saved (Acts 4.12). He is the archēgos, the pioneer, the trail-blazer of sōtēria (Heb. 2.10). He is the aitios, the moving and essential cause of sōtēria (Heb. 5.9). Without himself and his work sōtēria is not possible. (iv) None the less he needs his human agents. It is Paul’s aim to do something to ‘save’ some of the Jews (Rom. 11.14). He is all things to all men that he may ‘save’ some (I Cor. 9.22). He exhorts the believing partner in marriage not to leave the unbelieving one for perhaps the believer may ‘save’ the unbeliever (I Cor. 7.16). Paul’s whole desire in God’s sight is to ‘save’ men (I Cor. 10.33). He blames the Jews for hindering him in this work (I Thess. 2.16). Timothy is to take heed to himself and his teaching that he may ‘save’ himself and others (I Tim. 4.16). The man who converts a sinner ‘saves’ a soul from death (James 5.20). Jesus Christ needs lips to speak for him, hands to work for him, men to be his heralds. (v) For this very reason the Christian message is certain things. (a) The Christian message is ‘the word of salvation’ (Acts 13.26; Eph. 1.13). It is the good news of God’s good will to men. (b) The Christian message is ‘the way of salvation’ (Acts 16.17). It shows a man the path that leads to life and not to death. (c) The Christian message is ‘the power of salvation’ (Rom. 1.16). It brings a man not only a task but also the strength to do it, not only a way but also the power to walk it, not only an offer but also the power to grasp it. (d) The ‘aim’ of the Christian message is salvation (Rom. 10.1; II Cor. 6.1). The aim of the Christian message is not to hold a man over the flames of hell but to lift him up to the life of heaven. We must now look at what we might call the NT elements of sōtēria, the things which bring ‘salvation’. (i) Sōtēria involves ‘repentance’. A godly sorrow produces a repentance that works towards salvation (II Cor. 7.10). Sōtēria is something which has to be worked out with ‘fear and trembling’ (Phil. 2.12). (ii) Sōtēria involves ‘faith’ (Eph. 2.8; II Tim. 3.15; I Pet. 1.9). It involves taking God at his word and casting oneself in utter trust on the offered mercy of God. It involves ‘belief’ (Rom.

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  “Hi, everyone, I hope you don’t mind. I came in late. I’m Vanessa’s husband, Justin.” He gave Vanessa a sheepish wave with the palm of his hand and then looked back down at his feet. “I left Vanessa six months ago. It’s not that I wanted to. It ripped my guts out. I just didn’t think I had a choice. She shut me out, pushed me away with her silence, and we never had sex. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told her she had to get help for whatever was eating her alive. “I hadn’t heard a word from her for six months, and then I got a text from her the other day telling me she joined a women’s group and finally told her story. I don’t even know her story. She wondered if I wanted to come today. I didn’t answer her text . . .” he said, looking up at Vanessa, “because I didn’t know what to say. But today is the first day I have felt hope in months that maybe, just maybe, if we both let God in, our marriage might have a chance. What do you think, Vanessa? Do we have a chance? Do you want me back? Do you have any love for me left?” With that Justin shoved his hands deep into the recesses of his jean pockets. Every eye turned to the front of the room where Vanessa sat. She seemed frozen. “Vanessa,” Olivia prompted as she went and stood beside her, “would you like to respond to Justin?” Vanessa slowly got up from her chair and walked to the back of the room where Justin stood. She stood in front of him with her eyes locked on his. After what seemed like an eternity, she put her arms around his neck and put her head on his chest. Finally, she pleaded, “Please come home.” As silly as it sounds, the room erupted in cheers. Suddenly, Justin moved out of her embrace, everyone paused—maybe the rejection had been too much and he couldn’t risk letting her in—when a warm smile broke across his face. He said, “I would love to, with one condition.” “Yes, what is it?” Vanessa asked. “You stay in your women’s group, and we get connected with this group of people. We can’t do it alone. We both know that didn’t work, and it most likely never will. We are going to need all the help we can get to make it.” Vanessa nodded in agreement.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It is his vision that Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us (Heb. 7.25). With one of the greatest reaches of thought in the NT he still sees Christ pleading for men, carrying on his high priestly work, and still opening the way to God for men, the vision of a Christ who loved us from the first of time and who will love us to the last, and whose continued love is our eternal hope of sōtēria. In many cases in the NT sōtēria occurs as it were without explanation and without qualification. It is used as a word of whose meaning everyone would understand at least something. Such passages are Luke 19.9; Acts 11.14; 16.30; I Cor. 3.15; II Cor. 2.15). But if we are to get the full value and the full meaning out of this word, we must ask the question: What is a man saved from? What is the deliverance which sōtēria promises? Before we begin to examine the NT for this purpose we must note one thing. The verb sōzein means both to save a man in the eternal sense, and to heal a man in the physical sense. Salvation in the NT is ‘total salvation’. It saves a man, body and soul. (i) Sōtēria is salvation from ‘physical illness’ (Matt. 9.21; Luke 8.36, in both of which cases the verb is sōzein). Jesus was concerned with men’s bodies as well as with men’s souls. It is significant that the Church is rediscovering that today. Such salvation may not cure, but it always enables the sufferer to transmute the suffering into glory. (ii) Sōtēria is salvation from danger. When the disciples were in peril they cried out to be ‘saved’ (Matt. 8.25; 14.30). This does not mean protection from all peril and from all harm, but it does mean that the man who knows that he is within the sōtēria of God knows, as Rupert Brooke had it, that he is ‘safe when all safety’s lost’. It is the conviction that nothing in life or in death can separate him from the love of God. (iii) Sōtēria is salvation from ‘life’s infection’. A man is saved from a crooked and perverse generation (Acts 2.40). The man who knows the sōtēria of God has within him and upon him a prophylactic quality, a divine antiseptic which enables him to walk in the world and yet to keep his garments unspotted from the world. (iv) Sōtēria is salvation from ‘lostness’. It was to seek and to save the lost that Jesus came (Matt. 18.11; Luke 19.10). It was to rescue a man when he was on the way to a situation in which he would lose his life and lose his soul. It was to turn him from the way that led to the most deadly kind of death to the way that led to the most vital kind of life.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  Amadour was very glad to hear that Florida loved something, for he hoped, with the help of time, to be- come, not her husband, but her lover ; for her virtue caused him no uneasiness, his only fear being lest she should not love at all. He had little difficulty in intro- ducing himself to the son of the Fortunate Infante, and still less in gaining his goodwill, for he was expert in all the exercises which the young prince was fond of. He was, above all, a good horseman, skilled in feats of arms, and in all sorts of exercises befitting a young man. As war was then beginning again in Languedoc, Amadour was obliged to return with the governor ; but it was not without keen regret, for there was no prospect of his returning to the place where he could see Florida. Be- fore his departure he spoke to his brother, who was ma- jor-domo to the Queen of Spain, told him the good match he had in the Countess of Aranda's house in the Lady Aventurada, and begged him to do his best during his absence to further his marriage, and to procure on his ^4 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE \Ncrvel la

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

  BEDE. Having announced that the Lord, according to the declaration of the Prophet, would be born of the house of David, he now says, that the same Lord to fulfil the covenant He made with Abraham will deliver us, because chiefly to these patriarchs of Abraham’s seed was promised the gathering of the Gentiles, or the incarnation of Christ. But David is put first, because to Abraham was promised the holy assembly of the Church; whereas to David it was told that from him Christ was to be born. And therefore after what was said of David, he adds concerning Abraham the words, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, &c. ORIGEN. I think that at the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, both Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were partakers of His mercy. For it is not to be believed, that they who had before seen His day, and were glad, should afterwards derive no advantage from His coming, since it is written, Having made peace through the blood of his Cross, whether in earth or in heaven. (Coloss. 1:20.) THEOPHYLACT. The grace of Christ extends even to those who are dead, because through Him we shall rise again, not only we, but they also who have been dead before us. He performed His mercy also to our forefathers in fulfilling all their hopes and desires. Hence it follows, And to remember his holy covenant, that covenant, namely, wherein he said, Blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. (Gen. 22:17.) For Abraham was multiplied in all nations, who became his children by adoption, through following the example of his faith. But the fathers also, seeing their children enjoy these blessings, rejoice together with them, just as if they received the mercy in themselves. Hence it follows, The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us. BASIL. (Hom. in Ps. 29. et in Ps. 14. App. op.) But let no one, hearing that the Lord had sworn to Abraham, be tempted to swear. For as when the wrath of God is spoken of, it does not signify passion but punishment; so neither dos God swear as man, but His word is in very truth expressed to us in place of an oath, confirming by an unchangeable sentence what He promised. 1:7474. That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  PAROUSIA THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING The Greek word parousia has become naturalized in English as a technical term for the Second Coming of Christ. The use of the word in the secular Greek contemporary with the NT is extremely interesting. (i) In classical Greek it means quite simply the ‘presence’ or the ‘arrival’ of persons or things. It can be used in such phrases as the ‘presence’ of friends or the ‘presence’ of misfortunes. A man takes an oath that he will fulfil a certain duty in the presence of the brothers and the bishops. Quite often Paul uses parousia in that simple non-technical sense. He rejoices at the parousia, the ‘arrival’ of Stephanas (I Cor. 16.17). He is comforted by the parousia of Titus (II Cor. 7.6). He urges the Philippians to be as obedient in his absence as they were during his parousia with them (Phil. 2.12). The Corinthians fling the taunt at him that, however impressive his letters may be, his bodily parousia, presence, is weak (II Cor. 10.10). (ii) But, characteristically, in the NT parousia is the word for the Second Coming of Christ (Matt. 24.3, 27, 37, 39; I Thess. 2.19; 3.13; 4.15; 5.23; II Thess. 2.1, 8, 9; James 5.7, 8; II Pet. 1.16; 3.4, 12; I John 2.28). Let us study the contemporary secular use of the term to see what kind of picture it would convey to the minds of the early Christians. In the papyri and in Hellenistic Greek parousia is the technical word for the arrival of an emperor, a king, a governor or famous person into a town or province. For such a visit preparations have to be made. Taxes are imposed, for instance, to present the king with a golden crown. For the visit of Ptolemy Soter to the village of Cerceosiris 80 artabae of corn have to be collected. Always the coming of the king demands that all things must be ready. Further, one of the commonest things is that provinces dated a new era from the parousia of the emperor. Cos dated a new era from the parousia of Gaius Caesar in A.D. 4, as did Greece from the parousia of Hadrian in A.D. 124. A new section of time emerged with the coming of the king. Another common practice was to strike new coins to commemorate the visitation of the king. Hadrian’s travels can be followed by the coins which were struck to commemorate his visits. When Nero visited Corinth coins were struck to commemorate his adventus, advent, which is the Latin equivalent of the Greek parousia. It was as if with the coming of the king a new set of values had emerged. Parousia is sometimes used of the ‘invasion’ of a province by a general. It is so used of the invasion of Asia by Mithradates.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  flavors and then some, and she is beyond our peripheral vision, so we might want to turn our heads, because some day we’re gonna get hungry and eat all of the words we just said. And just about everybody I know loves those lines because they speak of heaven and of hope and the idea that some day a King will come and dictate, through some mystical act of love, an existence in which everybody has to eat their own words because we won’t be allowed to judge each other on the surface of things anymore. And this fills me with hope. Jean-Paul Sartre said hell is other people. But that Indian speaker I really like named Ravi Zacharias says that heaven can be other people, too, and that we have the power to bring a little of heaven into the lives of others every day. I know this is true because I have felt it when Penny or Tony tells me I mean something to them and they love me. I pray often that God would give me the strength and dignity to receive their love. My friend Julie from Seattle says the key to everything rests in the ability to receive love, and what she says is right because my personal experience tells me so. I used to not be able to receive love at all, and to this day I have some problems, but it isn’t like it used to be. My eye would find things on television and in the media and somehow I would compare myself to them without really knowing I was doing it, and this really screwed me up because I never for a second felt I was worthy of anybody’s compliments. I was dating this girl for a while, this cute writer from the South, and she was great, really the perfect girl, and we shared tastes on everything from music to movies, all the important stuff, and yet I could not really thrive in the relationship because I could never believe her deeply when she expressed affection. Our love was never a two-way conversation. I didn’t realize I was doing it, but I used to kick myself around quite a bit in my head, calling myself a loser and that sort of thing. There was nothing this girl could do to get through to me. She would explain her feelings, and I should have been happy with that, but I always needed more and then I resented the fact that I needed more because, well, it is such a needy thing to need more, and so I lived inside this conflict. I would sit on the porch at Graceland and watch cars go around the circle while all this stuff went around in my heart. There was no peace at all. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. Andrew the Protester, the one who looks like Fidel Castro, was living in the house back then, and he is such an amazing listener that I would

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

  Let us also reflect that our hope reaches up to God through Christ, according to Romans 5:1 ff.: “Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access through faith into this grace wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.” Through Him who is the only-begotten Son of God by nature, we are made adopted sons: “God sent His Son... that we might receive the adoption of sons,” as is said in Galatians 4:4 ff. Hence, in acknowledging that God is our Father, we should do so in such a way that the prerogative of the Only-begotten is not disparaged. In this connection Augustine admonishes us: “Do not make any exclusive claims for yourself. In a special sense, God is the Father of Christ alone, and is the Father of all the rest of us in common. For the Father begot Him alone, but created us” [really Ambrose, De sacramentis, V. 19]. This, then, is why we say: “Our Father.” CHAPTER 6 GOD’S POWER TO GRANT OUR PETITIONSWhen hope is abandoned, the reason is usually to be found in the powerlessness of him from whom help was expected. The confidence characteristic of hope i’s not wholly grounded on the mere willingness to help professed by him on whom our hope rests: power to help must also be present. We sufficiently express our conviction that the divine will is ready to help us when we proclaim that God is our Father. But to exclude all doubt as to the perfection of His power, we add: “who art in heaven.” The Father is not said to be in heaven as though He were contained by heaven; on the contrary, He encompasses heaven in His power, as is said in Sirach 24:8: “1 alone have compassed the circuit of heaven.” Indeed, God’s power is raised above the whole immensity of heaven, according to Psalm 8:2: “Your magnificence is elevated above the heavens.” And so, to strengthen the confidence of our hope, we hail the power of God which sustains and transcends the heavens.

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

  Accordingly, even when we have faith, there still remains in the soul an impulse toward something else, namely, the perfect vision of the truth assented to on faith, and the attainment of whatever can lead to such truth. As we pointed out above, among the various teachings of faith there is one according to which we believe that God exercises providence over human affairs. In consequence of this belief, stirrings of hope arise in the soul of the believer that by God’s help he may gain possession of the goods he naturally desires, once he learns of them through faith. Therefore, as we mentioned at the very beginning, next after faith, the virtue of hope is necessary for the perfection of Christian living. CHAPTER 2 PRAYER AND HOPEin the order of divine providence, each being has assigned to it a way of reaching its end in keeping with its nature. To men, too, is appointed a suitable way, that befits the conditions of human nature, of obtaining what they hope for from God. Human nature inclines us to have recourse to petition for the purpose of obtaining from another, especially from a person of higher rank, what we hope to receive from him. And so prayer is recommended to men, that by it they may obtain from God what they hope to secure from Him.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  (vi) Eternal life is the reward of the adventurer of Christ (John 12.25). It is for the man who hates his life and who is prepared to throw it away for the sake of Jesus Christ. It is for the man who is ever ready ‘to venture for thy name’. It is for the man who accepts the risks of the Christian life, and who is prepared ‘to bet his life that there is a God’. (vii) Eternal life is the result of that righteousness which comes through the grace of Jesus Christ (Rom. 5.21). The essential meaning of righteousness is a new relationship with God through that which Jesus Christ has done for us. And so we end where we began—eternal life is the life of God himself, and into that life we, too, may enter when we accept what Jesus Christ has done for us, and what he tells us about God. We shall never enter into the full ideas of eternal life until we rid ourselves of the almost instinctive assumption that eternal life means primarily life which goes on for ever. Long ago the Greeks saw that such a life would be by no means necessarily a blessing. They told the story of Aurora, the goddess of dawn, who fell in love with Tithonus, the mortal youth. Zeus offered her any gift she might choose for her mortal lover. She asked that Tithonus might never die; but she forgot to ask that he might remain for ever young. So Tithonus lived for ever growing older and older and more and more decrepit, till life became a terrible and intolerable curse. Life is only of value when it is nothing less than the life of God—and that is the meaning of eternal life. AKOLOUTHEIN THE DISCIPLE’S WORD Akolouthein is the common and normal Greek verb which means to follow. It is a word with many uses and with many associations and all of them add something to its meaning for the follower of Christ. First, let us look at its usage and its meaning in classical Greek. (i) It is the common and the usual word for soldiers following their leader and commander. Xenophon (Anabasis 7.5.3) speaks about the generals and captains who have followed the leader for whom they are fighting. (ii) It is very commonly used of a slave following or attending his master. Theophrastus, in his character sketch of the Distrustful Man, says that such a man compels his slave to walk before him instead of following behind him, as a slave would normally do, so that he can be sure the slave will not dodge away (Theophrastus, Characters 18.8). (iii) It is commonly used for following or obeying someone else’s advice or opinion. Plato says that it is necessary to find out those who are fitted by nature to be leaders in philosophy and government, and those who are fitted by nature to be followers of the leader (Plato, Republic 474c).

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

  Almighty God, the Lover of mankind, makes use of us, as St. Augustine says (I De doctrina christiana), both for the sake of His own goodness, and for our advantage. He makes use of us for His own goodness, that man may glorify Him. “Every one who calls upon My name, I have created him for My glory” (Isa. xliii 3). He likewise makes use of us for our own advantage, in order that He may give salvation to all. “Who wishes all men to be saved” (1 Tim. ii. 4). At the birth of Our Lord, an angel proclaimed this harmony between God and man, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will” (Luke ii. 14). But, although God, who is Almighty, could, of Himself alone, have caused man to glorify Him, and to obtain salvation, He has willed that a certain order should. be preserved in this work of salvation. Consequently He has appointed ministers, by whose labours the twofold end of man’s creation is to be accomplished. These ministers are rightly spoken of as God’s coadjutors” (1 Cor. iii. 9). But Satan strives, in his jealousy, to hinder both the Divine glory and the salvation of mankind. He, in like manner, endeavours to effect his purpose by means of his ministers, whom he incites to persecute the servants of God, The emissaries of Satan show clearly that they are the enemies both of God, whose glory they endeavour to frustrate, and, of man, against whose salvation they wage war. More especially do they show themselves hostile to the ministers of God, whom they persecute. “They, have persecuted us; and they do not please God; they are adversaries to all men (1 Thes, ii, 15). On this account, the Psalmist, in the verse which we have quoted, enumerates three points. First he mentions the hatred borne by the ministers of Satan to God. “Lo, your, enemies have made a noise,” i.e. they who formerly spoke secretly against You, do not fear now to oppose You publicly. The Gloss tells us, that these words refer to the days of Antichrist, when, the enemies of the Lord, being no longer subdued by fear, will cry out, against Him aloud. And, as their clamour will be an unreasoning tumult, it is spoken of as a noise, rather than a voice. They will not, however, manifest their hatred of God by sound only, but also by deeds. “Those who hate you have lifted up, their head,” ie., Antichrist, as the Gloss says. And not only Antichrist, the head himself, but likewise his members, who we heads under his head, and being governed by him as their head, are able so much the more efficaciously to persecute the saints of God.

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

  Presumption seems obviously opposed to fear, especially to servile fear, since servile fear is afraid of the punishment which comes from God ’ s justice, while presumption hopes that this will be remitted. It is nevertheless more opposed to hope, by reason of the false similarity which it bears as a kind of inordinate hope in God. Things which belong to the same genus are more opposed than things which belong to different genera (since contraries belong to the same genus), and for this reason presumption is more opposed to hope than it is to fear. For presumption and hope look to the same object, in which they both trust. Hope trusts ordinately, and presumption inordinately. On the first point: just as we speak of hope loosely in reference to what is evil, although rightly only in reference to what is good, so is it with presumption. It is in this loose way that inordinate fear is called presumption. On the second point: things are contrary when they are farthest removed within the same genus. Now presumption and hope imply movements which belong to the same genus, and which may be either ordinate or inordinate. Presumption is therefore more directly contrary to hope than to fear. For it is contrary to hope by reason of its specific difference, as the inordinate is contrary to the ordinate, while it is contrary to fear by reason of the difference which distinguishes its genus (namely, by the anxiety which is of hope). On the third point: presumption is opposed to fear by reason of the difference which distinguishes its genus. But it is opposed to hope by reason of its own specific difference. Hence it is owing to the genus to which it belongs that presumption excludes fear entirely, while it excludes hope only to the extent to which its own specific difference excludes the ordinateness of hope. ARTICLE FOUR Whether Presumption is Caused by Vainglory1. It seems that presumption is not caused by vainglory. For presumption appears to trust especially in the divine mercy, and mercy relates to misery, which is the opposite of glory. Hence presumption is not the result of vainglory. 2. Again, presumption is the opposite of despair, and despair is caused by sadness, as was said in Q. 20, Art. 4, ad 2. Now the causes of opposites are themselves opposite. Hence it appears that presumption is due to pleasure, and therefore to carnal vices, which are more voluptuous than others. 3. Again, the vice of presumption consists in aiming at an impossible good as if it were possible. But it is due to ignorance that one thinks a thing to be possible when it is impossible. Hence presumption is the result of ignorance, rather than of vainglory. On the other hand: Gregory says (31 Moral. 17): “ the presumption of novelties is the child of vainglory. ”

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  "That is true, I confess," said T.ongarine ; "and therefore the best course is not to love at all." "We appeal from that sentence,' said Dagoucin ; " for if we believed that the ladies were without love, we would raLher be without life. I speak of those who live only to win love ; and even if it does not come to them, the hope of it supports them, and makes them do a thousand honourable things, until old age changes that fair passion into other pains. But if we thought that the ladies did not love, instead of following the profes- sion of arms we should have to turn merchants, and in- stead of winning glory, to think only of amassing wealth." " You mean to say, then," said Hircan, " that if there were no ladies we should be all caitiffs, as if we had no spirit but what they inspire us with. I am of the con- trary opinion ; and I assert that nothing is more lower- ing to the spirit of a man than devoting himself too much to the society of women, and loving them to excess. It was for that very reason that the Hebrews prohibited a man from going to war the year he was married, lest the love of his wife should make him recoil from the dangers he ought to seek." 544 ^-^^ HEPTAMEROiV OF THE [AW/ ;& " I do not think there was much sense in that law," said Saffredent, " for there is nothing that makes a man readier to leave home than being married, the reason being that no war without is more intolerable than that within. I am convinced that to give men a taste for going into foreign parts, and not loitering by their own firesides, nothing more need be done than to marry them." " It is true," said Ennasuite, " that marriage exon- erates them from care for the house ; for that they commit to their wives, and think only of acquiring glory, relying on it that their wives will attend sufficiently to their interest." " Be it how it may," said Saffredent, " I am very happy that you are of my opinion." " But," observed Parlamente, " you do not discuss the most remarkable point — namely, why the gentleman who was the cause of all the mischief did not die of grief as promptly as his mistress, who was innocent." " That was because women love better than men," said Nomerfide.

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

  QUALITIES OF THE RISEN CHRISTChrist recovered for the human race not merely what Adam had lost through sin, but all that Adam could have attained through merit. For Christ’s power to merit was far greater than that of man prior to sin. By sin Adam incurred the necessity of dying, because he lost the power which would have enabled him to avoid death if he had not sinned. Christ not only did away with the necessity of dying, but even gained the power of not being able to die. Therefore His body after the resurrection was rendered impassible and immortal. Thus Christ’s body was not like that of the first man, which had the power not to die, but was absolutely unable to die. And this is what we await in the future life for ourselves. Another consideration: Christ’s soul before His death was capable of suffering in company with the suffering of His body. Consequently, when His body became incapable of suffering, His soul also became incapable of suffering. Furthermore, the mystery of man’s redemption was now accomplished. To enable Christ to achieve that end, the glory of fruition had, in God’s dispensation, been restricted to the higher regions of His soul, so that no overflowing to the lower parts and to the body itself would occur, but each faculty would be allowed to do or suffer what was proper to it. But now the body and the lower powers were wholly glorified by an overflow of glory from the higher regions of the soul. Accordingly Christ, who before the passion had been a comprehensor because of the fruition enjoyed by His soul and a wayfarer because of the passibility of His body, was now, after the resurrection, no longer a wayfarer, but exclusively a comprehensor. CHAPTER 238 ARGUMENTS DEMONSTRATING CHRIST’S RESURRECTIONAs we stated above, Christ anticipated the general resurrection in order that His resurrection might bolster up our hope of our own resurrection. To foster our hope of resurrection, Christ’s resurrection and the qualities of His risen nature had to be made known by suitable proofs. He manifested His resurrection, not to all alike, in the way that He manifested His human nature and His passion, but only “to witnesses preordained by God” (Acts 10:41), namely, the disciples whom He had selected to bring about man’s salvation. For the state of resurrection, as was mentioned above, belongs to the glory of the comprehensor, and knowledge of this is not due to all, but only to such as make themselves worthy. To the witnesses He had chosen Christ revealed both the fact of His resurrection and the glory of His risen nature.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  7.11 where Paul lays it down that a woman who has left her husband must not marry another, but must be reconciled to him. The other case is the single usage in the NT of the kindred word sunallassein . It is used in Acts 7.26 of Moses when he tried to set at one the two Israelites who were quarrelling in Egypt. Even when this word is used in connexion with human relationships, it always refers to the restoration of a broken friendship and an interrupted fellowship. It is only Paul who uses this group of words in the NT; and he always uses these words of the restoration of the relationship between man and God. In Rom. 5.11 he speaks of Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the atonement (katallagē ). In Rom. 11.15 he explains the casting away of the Jews by saying that the casting away was necessary for the reconciling of the world katallagē ). In II Cor. 5.18, 19 he speaks of the ministry and the word of reconciliation ( katallagē ). In Rom. 5.10 he says that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ( katallassein ). In II Cor. 5.18-20 there is a whole series of uses of this word. God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We pray you to be reconciled to God. Twice Paul uses a kind of intensified form of this word, apokatallassein . In Eph. 2.16 he tells how Jesus Christ has reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other, and both to God; and in Col. 1.21 he tells how Jesus Christ has reconciled all things and all men to God. (i) First and foremost, Paul sees the work of Jesus Christ as above and beyond all else a work of reconciliation. Through that which he did, the lost relationship between man and God is restored. Man was made for friendship and fellowship with God. By his disobedience and rebellion he ended up at enmity with God. That which Jesus did took that enmity away, and restored the relationship of friendship which should always have existed, but which was broken by man’s sin. (ii) It is to be carefully noted that Paul never speaks of God being reconciled to men, but always of men being reconciled to God. The most significant of all the passages, II Cor. 5.18-20, three times speaks of God reconciling man to himself. It was man, not God, who needed to be reconciled. Nothing had lessened the love of God; nothing had turned that love to hate; nothing had ever banished that yearning from the heart of God.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  1.9). To hear and answer the call is at one and the same time to be saved from the penalty of sin and armed with strength for life for the future. It is a call which rescues from penalty and which clothes with power. Now ‘salvation’ is something which is eschatological. That is to say, it begins on this earth, but it goes beyond this earth. It has its beginning in time, but it has its consummation in eternity; and there are a number of associations of this group of words with conceptions and ideas which embrace both this world and the next. (ii) The Christians are people who are ‘called to be saints’ (klētoi hagioi). Now hagios literally means ‘separated’; a person who is hagios in the Christian sense of the term is a person who has separated himself from the world in order to consecrate himself to God. Sainthood, in the NT sense of the term, is concerned, not so much with where a man is, but with the direction in which he is facing. The Christian is called to be a man the direction of whose life is towards God, who lives with God now, and who will see God face to face hereafter. (iii) The Christian is called ‘out of darkness into light’ (I Pet. 2.9). He is called out of the shadows of the world’s sin and frustration and death into the light of the knowledge and the life of God. The Christian is the man who is living, not in the twilight of the gathering dark, but in the light of the breaking dawn. (iv) The Christian is called ‘to eternal life and to an eternal inheritance’ (I Tim. 6.12; Heb. 9.15). In the NT the word ‘eternal’ (aiōnios) has much more to do with quality than duration of life. We may put it this way. Aiōnios, ‘eternal’, is the word which properly and uniquely belongs to God; therefore ‘eternal life’ is the kind of life which belongs to God. The Christian is ‘called’ out of his troubled, soiled, frustrated, dying life into the blessedness of the life of God himself. (v) Sometimes this is put in other ways. The Christian is ‘called’ by God to ‘honour’ (Heb. 9.15). He is ‘called’ to obtain ‘the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (II Thess. 2.14). He is ‘called’ to obtain ‘the eternal glory of God’ (I Pet. 5.10). The Christian is a man who is called to glory. The calling of God makes great demands, but equally it makes tremendous promises. ‘Glory’ is everything that heaven offers. The Christian is invited to share nothing less than the splendour of the life of God. The NT thinks not so much of the punishment that a man will suffer if he refuses the call, but far more of the splendour he will miss.

• From The Triumph of Christianity (2018)

  < 63 < Lecture 9  Paul: The Apostle of the Gentiles yIn 1 Corinthians 15:3–8, he summarizes his gospel message: Christ died for the sins of others, in accordance with what was predicted in the scriptures, and God raised him from the dead, again as scripture predicted. yIt would be a mistake to think this brief summary in 1 Corinthians is the only thing Paul said. Here he is reminding his readers of the heart of his message. yMoreover, Paul’s message to Gentiles had to be different in a key respect to any message to Jews. The people Paul was speaking with were pagans who worshiped many gods in all sorts of ways. yFor a Christian missionary to convert Jews would mean convincing them that Jesus really was the messiah. But to convert pagans would mean first convincing them to abandon all their past religious practices and then to worship only the God of Israel. `We get one hint as to how Paul did this in 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10. Paul worked to convince his pagan hearers that their gods were lifeless and powerless. yBy contrast, the God of Israel—that is, the God of Jesus—was alive and powerful. The most powerful God is the only one that should be worshiped. yWhen it came to convincing people that the God of Jesus was the most powerful, Paul would have been in his wheelhouse. He was personally convinced that his God could control the weather, feed the hungry, and heal the sick. yMoreover, his God was more powerful than death itself. God had raised a man from the dead. This was beyond the power of the pagan gods. Paul knew it was true because he believed he had seen it with his own eyes. yYears after Jesus was dead, Paul insisted he saw him alive. God must have raised him from the dead. God had the power of life and death. Lecture 9  Paul: The Apostle of the Gentiles < 64 < `Everything else followed. If God raised Jesus, then Jesus was the one specially favored by God. That means his death must have been planned by God. yPagans no longer needed their gods or the sacrifices they made to please the gods. Christ has been sacrificed. ySalvation came by believing in his death and resurrection. And the power that would bring salvation in the world to come was at work in the world here and now. yMoreover, since Jesus was raised, the future resurrection of the dead predicted by the Jewish prophets had started. The end was coming soon. People needed to turn to Christ before it was too late. The day of judgment was coming. Only believers would escape and enter God’s glorious kingdom.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  The story of how my friend Penny came to know God gave me hope for Laura. I was first introduced to Penny at a party on the front lawn, but I thought she was too good looking to talk to, so I sort of slid off into the crowd. Later she showed up at a prayer meeting we had in my friend Iven’s room, and I got to know her pretty well. We discovered that we were both ridiculously insecure, and so we became friends. Penny is living proof that Jesus still pursues people. Even Reedies. Penny had a crazy experience with God while she was studying in France. She gives all the credit to Nadine, another of the very few Christians at Reed, and a member of our little rebel religious outfit. When Penny and Nadine first met, Penny wasn’t a Christian. They had both spent their freshman years at Reed but never knew each other. Individually they decided to study at the same school in France during their sophomore year. Penny wanted nothing to do with religion. Her perception of Christians was that they were narrow-minded people, politically conservative and hypocritical. Penny disliked Christians because it seemed on every humanitarian issue, she found herself directly opposing the opinions held by many evangelicals. She also felt that if Christianity were a person, that is all Christians lumped into one human being, that human being probably wouldn’t like her. After arriving in France, Penny was scheduled to spend a few weeks in Paris on vacation before heading north to Sarah Lawrence College in Rennes. When she arrived, she contacted some of the girls she would be studying with. One of these girls happened to be Nadine. You have to know that Penny and Nadine are very different, opposites in fact. It is amazing that they hit it off at all. Not only did they have completely different religious ideas, but they also came from starkly contrasting backgrounds. Nadine, for instance, descended from Scottish royalty, still having a copious amount of pomp in her bloodline. Penny was born in a green army tent on a hippie commune in the Pacific Northwest. I should paint the background for you a little bit so you can understand why I find it so interesting these girls became friends: Nadine’s grandmother was born into the Stuart clan, a royal family in Scotland. Her grandmother married and moved to the Congo where the family was stationed as diplomats for the Belgian government. Nadine’s mother was raised with a slew of servants including a driver, a cook, a butler, and a nanny. She was never allowed to speak to her parents unless spoken to first. Nadine’s mother ran her home in similar fashion, passing down many of the traditions of aristocracy.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  8.24). The hope that God is as Jesus said he was is the basis of all salvation. It is not until we begin to see God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can even contemplate salvation as a possibility for sinful man. (iv) Hope keeps the Christian steadfast. This is one of the great key-notes of the letter to the Hebrews (Heb. 3.6; 6.11, 18). The Christian is the man who can battle and struggle on, who can fight against himself and his temptations, who can endure the hardness of being a Christian, because he has something infinitely precious to look forward to. Lastly, let us look as what we may call the foundations of hope. (i) Hope is in Christ (I Thess. 1.3). We hope, not because of any strength that we can bring to life, but because we are now sure of the help that Christ can bring. (ii) Hope is grounded in God (I Tim. 4.10), for God is that God of hope (Rom. 15.13). God is the God who gives hope. The character of God as Jesus told it to us is the ultimate ground of all our hope. (iii) Hope looks to God. It faces God (Acts 24.15; I Peter 1.21; 3.5; I Tim. 5.5). The Christian is the man of hope because he keeps his eyes fixed on God. Augustine told a wretched man who thought of nothing but his sins, ‘Look away from yourself and look to God.’ The Godward look is the secret of the Christian hope. The Christian hope is not simply a trembling, hesitant hope that perhaps the promises of God may be true. It is the confident expectation that they cannot be anything else than true. ENERGEIA, ENERGEIN, ENERGĒMA, ENERGĒS DIVINE POWER IN ACTION It is quite clear to anyone that the Greek words have in them the root of our English word energy. In the NT they are never used to describe any human power. Always they describe the action of some power which is beyond the power of man and the power of this world. On certain infrequent occasions they describe the action of a malignant power, demonic, and hostile to God; but far more frequently they describe the action of God himself. They are therefore very important words, for through them we shall learn something of the power of God in action in Christ, in the world, and in the lives of men. These words came into Christianity with a long and an important history and their history goes a long way towards helping us to understand their Christian flavour and usage. So then, first of all, let us study their usage in classical Greek. We may best get at their classical meaning by studying the word energos, which does not occur in the NT at all, but which has in it the germs of all the other meanings.