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

  Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles84 84 his inimitable way, writes concerning Paul’s two references to “new creation”: those in Christ “are already creatures of the new world.” 46 Is This Realized Eschatology? If Paul did not modify an inherited two-age dualism, and if, then, he does not think in terms of already/not yet, does the apostle expect nothing more from God and Christ in the future? Me genoito! Paul clearly anticipates events that will finally defeat what remains of the present evil age. The climax of the coming battle will include the defeat of God’s last enemy— Death (1 Cor 15:26). It is critical to note, however, that Paul thinks that those in Christ are already freed from God’s last enemy by virtue of being in Christ. 47 They eagerly await the redemption of their bodies (Rom 8:23); they know that the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from the dead lives in them and will give their mortal bodies life (Rom 8:11); they know that they will be raised with Christ (2 Cor 4:14) and that there is a house from God waiting for them in the heavens (2 Cor 5:1). Paul personally exhibits the significance of such knowledge in relation to his own death. Writing to the Philippians, Paul faces the strong possibility that he will soon die and finds that possibility to be of no consequence. When he dies, it will in fact be gain (Phil 1:21). The death of his body will allow Paul to depart the flesh and be with Christ (Phil 1:23). In other words, as Paul exemplifies, believers know and experience and live now apart from this age that is shaped by God’s enemy—Death. Those in Christ will physically die, but they live. Put another way, God’s eschatological activity will not change the temporality in which those in Christ now live. For believers, the eschatological events will not change two overlapping ages into one age. This has already happened by virtue of their being in Christ. The final defeat of death at the eschatological climax will obliterate the age ruled by sin and death, but for those who are in Christ Jesus this has already happened. We will physically die, but we live. The eschaton is of less concern for believers than it should be for the defining actor of this present evil age—Death. At the eschaton those in Christ will continue to share Christ’s life and time, even to the point of ultimate subjection to God (1 Cor 15:28). For Death, however, Christ’s return means its obliteration. Living in Christ and so in Christ’s time is not realized eschatology. That believers do not live in eschatological tension (already/not yet) but in Christ is not the same as there being nothing more to come. There is more to come—more of Christ’s God- directed activity in Christ’s time. In particular, Paul looks ahead to Christ’s return when those who belong to Christ (1 Cor 15:23) will not only experience what he has

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

  When the 60 Minutes piece aired months later, local officials were quick to discredit it. The Mobile Press Register headline was “DA: TV Account of McMillian’s Conviction a ‘Disgrace’ ”; the article quoted Chapman: “For them to hold themselves up as a reputable news show is beyond belief, and irresponsible.” The publicity was characterized as further injuring Ronda Morrison’s parents. The local writers complained that the Morrisons had to worry and deal with the stress that new publicity “could lead many people to think McMillian is innocent.” The local media were eager to join the prosecutors in criticizing the 60 Minutes piece because it implicated their coverage, which had largely presented only the prosecution’s theory and characterization of Walter and the crime. But people in the community watched 60 Minutes all the time and generally trusted it. Despite the local media reaction, the CBS coverage gave the community a summary of the evidence we’d presented in court and created questions and doubts about Walter’s guilt. Some influential community leaders also thought it made Monroeville look backward and possibly racist in a way that was not good for the community’s image or efforts at recruiting business, and business leaders started asking tough questions of Chapman and law enforcement about what was going on in the case. People in the black community were thrilled to see honest coverage of the case. They had been whispering about Walter’s wrongful conviction for years. The case had so traumatized the black community that many had become preoccupied with each court development and ruling. We frequently got calls from people simply seeking an update. Some callers sought clarification of a particular point in the case that had been the subject of serious debate in a barbershop or at a social gathering. For many black people in the region, watching the evidence that we had presented in court now laid out on national television was therapeutic. In the 60 Minutes interview with Chapman, he dismissed as silly the suggestion of any racial bias in Walter McMillian’s prosecution. He calmly professed his complete confidence and certainty that McMillian was guilty and that he should be executed as soon as possible. He expressed contempt for Walter’s attorneys and “people who try to second-guess juries.” We later found out that privately, despite the confidence expressed in his statements to local media and to 60 Minutes, Chapman had begun to worry about the reliability of the evidence against Walter. He couldn’t ignore the problems in the case that had been exposed at the hearing. Given our success in other death penalty cases, he must have feared the very real possibility of the appellate court’s overturning Walter’s conviction. Chapman had become the public face defending the conviction, and he realized that he’d put his own credibility on the line by relying on the work of local investigators—work that was now revealed as almost farcically flawed.

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

  12 The Book of Jubilees may also be understood in the context of Jewish/Judean self-definition in and around the Maccabean Crisis. One might find it also helpful to read Jubilees in concert with later works such as 2 B ar. and 4 Ezra regarding the fall and Torah. 13 See later for more precision. New Creation Motif63 63 (2) but it is not caused by God; (3) therefore it comes from the angelic world, which has suffered a breach from God’s good order.” 14 Sin also brings about major disruptions in the orderly operation of the natural world. Animals’ original nature change and so they began to rebel against humans and lose the ability to speak. Jubilees 3:28 reads: “On that day the mouth of all the beasts and cattle and birds and whatever walked or moved was stopped from speaking because all of them used to speak with one another with one speech and one language (τὰ θηρία καὶ τὰ τετράποδα καὶ τὰ ἑρπετὰ ... ὁμόφωνα εἶναι πρὸ τῆς παραβάσεως τοῖς πρωτοπλάστοις· διότι ... ὁ ὄφις ἀνθρωπίνῃ φωνῇ ἐλάλησε τῇ Εὔᾳ).” 15 The earth itself was corrupted by the fall as a result of increasing sin. Jubilees further reads: “Behold, the land itself will be corrupted on account of all their deeds, and there will be no seed of the vine, and there will be no oil because their works are entirely faithless” (Jub. 23:18). Cosmic irregularities occur during times of extensive sin, such as during the pre-flood era and in the last days. These cosmic changes include earthquakes, widespread crop failure, plagues, birth defects, and disturbances among animals. Some of these changes in the natural world are based on Gen. 3:16-19, which discusses the pain of women in childbearing. The curse on the ground requires hard labor to grow crops (Jub. 3:25; 4:28) and death is the certain human fate (Jub. 4:3). Jubilees 23:13–14 describes the increasing futility of life due to the deterioration of the world from human sin: Plague came upon plague, and wound upon wound, and affliction upon affliction, and evil report upon evil report, and sickness upon sickness, and every evil judgment of this sort one upon another: sickness, and downfall, and sleet, and hail, and frost, and fever, and chills, and stupor, and famine, and death ... And all of this will come in the evil generation which sins in the land. In spite of the corruption of the present moment one may live with the hope that restoration will happen in the new age and the new creation. 16 The New Age and the New Creation The new age is seen as the true return from exile. Only those who confess their guilt will enjoy that return. The end of the exile and the coming of a new creation involve judgment upon the Gentiles and unfaithful Israelites alike, as well as blessings to those who are faithful and obedient. Then, they will be restored to health and live long and extraordinary ages in a new creation that brings the world back to its lost paradise status. In the victory of Judah, the destiny of Israel is realized. The Levites will rule over a nation whose true happiness is centered in the Temple on Mt. Zion, in keeping Torah, and in celebrating the festivals of the restored calendar. The hearts of the people will be

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

  The destinies of creation and human beings are also closely related, according to Paul. Creation is groaning as we groan together with it. As Jeremy Punts states, “Groaning is not tantamount to resigned patience, but participatory resistance aimed at the future realisation of new reality. It means creation is to be re-created, to be made over!” 46 Paul does not see everything in this present age as bleak as does the author of Jubilees. 47 For Paul, Christ has inaugurated the “presence of the future.” 48 Everything holds together in Jesus who has, by his death and resurrection, brought the creation to its very end and purpose. Jesus is the one who puts the whole universe under his power and has introduced the new creation. Romans 8:18–27 looks forward to a renovation of the present creation. There is nothing in this passage that suggests the destruction of the world and the creation the Apocalypses? An Evaluation of the “Apocalyptic Paul” in the Context of Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature (London: T&T Clark International, 2016). 45 Jubilees retells the narrative in Gen 3, but it does not have the power it gains in Paul. In fact, the reference to the sins of the evil generation in Jub. 23:15 sounds much more like the aftermath of the sin of the Watchers (like Gen 6 in the Bible) since the great sin story in this time and location was that of the Watchers, and not of Adam and Eve. 46 Jeremy Punt, Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation: Reframing Paul (Leiden: Brill 2016), 207. 47 This statement should be qualified with the caveat that for the author of Jubilees the end has begun but there are glimmers of hope even in the present. 48 I am borrowing from George E. Ladd’s title, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996).

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

  Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles70 70 out from exile, like conveying the idea of the exodus and baptism, is the perfect image for the whole argument in Rom 5. This is clear in light of the parallel between the old creation and the new humanity in Christ. Israel was in bondage in Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaoh; so are those redeemed in the last days. Moses was chosen by God to lead Israel out of Egypt to the promised land. Likewise, Jesus is the one who is sent to lead his people through a second exodus. Moses and the people had to go through the water to the wilderness. Jesus and the new people of God go through the event of baptism by water before they experience the hardships of the wilderness of this life. 43 The symbolism of water as cleansing and judgment speaks of eschatological realities in new creation/new exodus language. The exile came to an end as Jesus came to play the role that was ascribed to Adam and then to Israel in a way to undo what they did. Christ inaugurated the new era, but the fulfillment of the kingdom of God is yet to experience its glorious consummation. In chapter 6, law, sin, and death characterize the old creation, whereas the new creation is grace, righteousness, and life. In Rom 6:17–18, Paul says: “Thanks be to God that you who once were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were committed, and, being set free from sin, become enslaved to righteousness.” The overlapping of the two worlds (Rom 7) creates struggles and temptations for the believer; it is a life lived between two creations. Those in Christ live in the new creation while still surrounded by the sin and effects of the old creation. Those in Christ certainly and already live in a new reality by virtue of being in him, but they eagerly await the redemption of their bodies (Rom 8:23). It is because of this wait and hope that there is now—always taken eschatologically in Paul—no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). They groan within themselves while awaiting the redemption of their bodies (8:23). They are in Christ, but they still need the help of the Spirit to intercede for them with inexpressible groanings (8:26). It is with this narrative substructure of Rom 1–8 that one may understand the whole creation motif developed in Rom 8:18–27 in light of a Jewish work such as Jubilees. 44 From Wright’s conclusion, one can infer that, in Paul’s understanding, Jesus is the true Israelite, who, on the cross went into exile bearing the sins of his people. However, in his resurrection he returned from exile. Thus, those who are united in him by faith are delivered from the exile of sin and its ensuing effects. Only those who confess their guilt will enjoy that return. The end of the exile and the coming of a new creation involve judgment upon the Gentiles and unfaithful Israelites alike and blessings to the faithful obedient ones. See also Sylvia Keesmaat C., Paul and His story: (Re) Interpreting the Exodus Tradition (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), particularly chapter 4, and Michael F. Bird, “Jesus and the Continuing Exile of Israel in the Writings of N.T. Wright,” JSHJ 13 (2015): 209–31.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  The city-state of Syracuse was the rising power on the island of Sicily. Syracuse was a critical ally of the Spartans, supplying them with much-needed resources. If the Athenians, with their great navy, could launch an expedition and take control of Syracuse, they would gain two advantages: it would add to their empire, and it would deprive Sparta of the resources it needed to continue the war. The Assembly voted to send sixty ships with an appropriate-sized army on board to accomplish this goal. One of the commanders assigned to this expedition, Nicias, had great doubts as to the wisdom of this plan. He feared the Athenians were underestimating the strength of Syracuse. He laid out all of the possible negative scenarios; only a much larger expedition could ensure victory. He wanted to squelch the plan, but his argument had the opposite effect. If a larger expedition was necessary, then that was what they would send—one hundred ships and double the number of soldiers. The Athenians smelled victory in this strategy and nothing would deter them. In the ensuing days, Athenians of all ages could be seen in the streets drawing maps of Sicily, dreaming of the riches that would pour into Athens and the final humiliation of the Spartans. The day of the launching of the ships turned into a great holiday and the most awe-inspiring spectacle they had ever seen—an enormous armada filling the harbor as far as the eye could see, the ships beautifully decorated, the soldiers, glistening in their armor, crowding the decks. It was a dazzling display of the wealth and power of Athens. As the months went by, the Athenians desperately sought news of the expedition. At one point, through the sheer size of the force, it seemed that Athens had gained the advantage and had laid siege to Syracuse. But at the last moment, reinforcements arrived from Sparta, and now the Athenians were on the defensive. Nicias sent off a letter to the Assembly describing this negative turn of events. He recommended either giving up and returning to Athens, or the sending of reinforcements right away. Unwilling to believe in the possibility of defeat, the Athenians voted to send reinforcements—a second armada of ships almost as large as the first. In the months after this, the Athenians’ anxiety reached new heights—for now the stakes had been doubled and Athens could not afford to lose. One day a barber in Athens’s port town of Piraeus heard a rumor from a customer that the Athenian expedition, every ship and almost every man, had been wiped out in battle. The rumor quickly spread to Athens. It was hard to believe, but slowly panic set in. A week later the rumor was confirmed and Athens seemed doomed, drained of money, ships, and men.

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

  õ Paul VI named him archbishop of Kraków in 1964, and named him a cardinal three years later. When Wojtyla was elected as pope himself in 1978 and became John Paul II, it’s fair to say that on matters of church doctrine, Wojtyla was known as a conservative. But he became a freedom fighter. õ At the end of his four-hour installation Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Polish pope held up his cross and told the crowd, “Be not afraid!” Those three words summed up John Paul II’s message not just to Catholics, but to all people struggling under communist regimes. He was a stubborn advocate for human rights, preaching about it in his sermons. õ Dissidents in Eastern Europe and secular Westerners came to see him as a man of principle who challenged the moral legitimacy of totalitarian regimes wherever he found them, not just the head of a big church who was looking out only for the privileges of his own flock. õ John Paul II’s first pilgrimage back to Poland was, from the point of view of the communists, a public relations disaster. As he stepped out onto the tarmac at the military airport near Warsaw, he dropped to his knees and kissed the ground. About 2 million people were screaming and cheering as a convertible drove him into the city. At Victory Square, 250,000 people were waiting for him to celebrate Mass. õ After the Mass he spoke for about 15 minutes. He did not explicitly denounce communism, but he stressed the role of Christianity in Polish history and identity. He linked it to a period of suffering and oppression: World War II, during which 6 million Poles—about 1 in 5— died, according to some estimates. õ He told the crowd that his celebration of the Eucharist that day embraced “the history of the motherland shaped for a thousand years by the succession of generations.” It was almost as if he was calling the Poles to have faith that this time of oppression, too, would not last forever. 258 The History of Christianity II

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

  A review of the other factors set out above does not provide conclusive evidence that the witness, Ralph Meyers, perjured himself at the original trial. There is ample evidence that pressure has been brought to bear on Ralph Meyers since his trial testimony which could tend to discredit his recantation. There is absolutely no evidence in the trial record or the recantation testimony that places Ralph Meyers somewhere other than the scene of the crime at the time it was committed. This case having been remanded to the Court for a determination of whether there is evidence to support the theory that Ralph Meyers perjured himself at the original trial and this court having determined that there is insufficient evidence to support that theory, it is therefore ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that the trial testimony of Ralph Myers is not found to have been perjured testimony. Done this 19th day of May, 1992. THOMAS B. NORTON, JR. Circuit Judge While Chapman had suggested that Myers must have been pressured to recant, the district attorney presented no actual evidence to support that claim, which made the judge’s ruling hard to understand. I had advised Walter and his family that we would likely need to go to an appellate court for any real chance of relief, despite how positive everyone thought the hearing had been. I was optimistic about what our evidence might accomplish in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. We were now regularly arguing cases in front of that court. Following my first McMillian argument, we had filed almost two dozen death penalty appeals, and the court was starting to respond to our advocacy. We had won four reversals in death penalty cases in 1990, four more in 1991, and by the end of 1992, we’d won relief for another eight death row prisoners. The court frequently complained about being forced to order new trials or grant relief, but nonetheless ruled in our favor. In a few years, some of the appellate court judges would be attacked and replaced in partisan judicial elections by candidates who complained about the court’s rulings in death penalty cases. But we persisted and continued raising reversible errors in capital cases. We were pushing the court to enforce the law in these cases, and when they refused, we were having success getting the Alabama Supreme Court and federal courts to grant relief. Based on this recent experience, I thought we could win relief for McMillian on appeal. Even if the court was unwilling to rule that Walter was innocent and should be released, the withholding of exculpatory evidence was extreme enough that the court would have a hard time avoiding the case law requiring a new trial. Nothing could be assured, but I explained to Walter that we were only just now getting to a court where our claims would be seriously considered.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  not assertive enough. She decided she needed to voice her opinion to one of the most powerful production chiefs on the MGM lot, Irving Thalberg. Little did she realize that Thalberg viewed this as impudence and that he was vindictive by nature. He therefore cast her in a Western, knowing that was the last thing she wanted and that such a fate was a dead end for many an actress. Joan had learned her lesson and decided to embrace her fate. She made herself love the genre. She became an expert rider. She read up on the Old West and became fascinated by its folklore. If that’s what it took to get ahead, she decided to become the leading actress of Westerns. At the very least this would expand her acting skills. This became her lifelong attitude toward work and the supreme challenges an actress faced in Hollywood, where careers were generally very short. Every setback was a chance to grow and develop. In 1946 twenty-year-old Malcolm Little (later known as Malcolm X) began serving an eight-to-ten-year prison sentence for burglary. Prison generally has the effect of hardening the criminal and narrowing his already narrow view of the world. Instead, Malcolm decided to reassess his life. He began to spend time in the prison library and fell in love with books and learning. As he saw it now, prison afforded him the best possible means of changing himself and his attitude toward life. With so much time on his hands, he could study and earn himself a degree. He could develop the discipline he had always been missing. He could train himself to become an expert speaker. He embraced the experience without any bitterness and emerged stronger than ever. Once he left prison, he saw any difficulty, large or small, as a means to test and toughen himself. Although adversity and pain are generally beyond your control, you have the power to determine your response and the fate that comes from that. How to view yourself: As we get older, we tend to place limits on how far we can go in life. Over the years we internalize the criticisms and doubts of others. By accepting what we think to be the limits of our intelligence and creative powers, we create a self-fulfilling dynamic. They become our limits. You do not need to be so humble and self-effacing in this world. Such humility is not a virtue but is rather a value that people promote to help keep you down. Whatever you are doing now, you are in fact capable of much more, and by thinking that, you will create a very different dynamic. In ancient times, many great leaders, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, felt that they were descended from gods and part divine. Such self-belief would translate into high levels of confidence that others would feed off and recognize. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. You do not need to indulge in such grandiose

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

  PROTESTANT MISSIONS AND REVIVAL õ The first Protestant missionary to have real impact in Korea was a Scot named John Ross, who worked for a Presbyterian mission in northern China and collaborated with a team of Korean merchants to translate the New Testament into Korean. Bits and pieces of this New Testament started circulating in Korea in the early 1880s. Around the same time, the Korean monarchy started allowing American missionaries to roam about, but it was mainly Koreans who passed around the first translations of scripture and made the first converts. õ The major reason why the Christian message resonated with Koreans is because they were living in a small, relatively weak country surrounded by powerful countries that all wanted a piece of Korea. õ Korean history up through World War II is a long story of invasions and proxy wars. They were interested in an ideology that said: We are different from the Chinese and the Japanese because we are Christian. The ideology also said: Don’t look to the political authorities of this world for ultimate justice, because it’s coming when Christ returns. 344 The History of Christianity II

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  These concerns are legitimate. However, as you begin to gain mastery through practice, rather extraordinary things may begin to happen. You will be moving toward some of the root causes of these tension patterns. These stale constellations of habitual discomfort form the underlying maladaptive organization of all conflicts and unresolved traumatic residue. Through the following experiential exercises you have the opportunity to “see” for yourself, rather than believe on my word alone, the hypothesis that is spelled out in this text. Although it may take persistence and dealing with an intensification of the resistance associated with these complexes, the potential benefits range from greater relaxation and alertness and deeper sleep to more vitality and aliveness. It is also possible to eliminate, sometimes instantaneously, psychosomatic, emotional and psychological symptoms that may have plagued you for decades. One of the keys in this process is to eliminate the idea that any of these sensations are insignificant. While they may appear that way to you, labeling them as such interferes with their advancing in a manner that reveals their significance. Secondly, as you begin to notice the increasing amount and intensity of aches, pains and other disturbing sensations, you might be worried that they will interfere with your daily functioning and that you will become more symptomatic. Though this might be a fear of yours, it is highly unlikely. If you do feel overwhelmed or “stuck,” please enlist the help of a competent therapist trained in body-oriented therapy.b It is hardly my intention to just open you up to the malfunctioning of your organism and leave you stuck there without an effective course of action or without a way even to retreat. Specifically, it is the purpose of this phase of the experiment to have you explore the chronic patterns of seemingly meaningless tensions and sensations that have become all-too-familiar features. Realize that these sensations were there long before you became deliberately aware of them. Furthermore, you will find that continuing application of directed awareness is exactly what will allow for “corrective procedures”—not so much by doing anything but by standing out of the way of your own organism’s innate capacity for self-regulation. The Continuity of ExperienceThe previous explorations involved proprioception and kinesthesia as the basis for awareness of the body’s tendency toward action. In this exercise we now begin to explore the fusion of internal with external experience. This processing of the organism/environmental field is what steers our forward course.

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

  17 OTP 2, trans. Wintermute, 54–5. 18 R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees or The Little Genesis (Jerusalem: Makor, 1972; orig. pub.: London: Black, 1902), 9. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid., 10. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. New Creation Motif65 65 of the new creation will be accompanied by a renewed study of the law. We read in 23:26, “And in those days the children will begin to study the laws, and to seek the commandments, and to return to the paths of righteousness.” In the new creation human beings will be able to attain the number of years originally designed for them. Jubilees 23:27–29 states: And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst those children of men, till their days draw nigh to one thousand years, and to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days. 28. And there will be no old man, nor one who is not satisfied with his days, for all will be as children and youths. 29. And all their days they will complete and live in peace and in joy, and there will be no Satan nor any evil destroyer; for all their days will be days of blessing and healing. At times we have the impression that in this new creation there is hope not only for Israel but also for the whole world. We recall that in Jub. 19:25 the seed of Abraham and Jacob will be blessed so that “they will serve to establish heaven and to strengthen the earth and to renew all of the lights which are above the firmament.” In 22:13 Abraham prays that his seed would have the same new creation blessings “with which he [God] blessed Noah and Adam,” so that they might be a blessing in and for all the earth. In this sense, there is a multiple blessing by God focused on Israel “in the earth” and “for the earth” in the eschatological age. Summary In Jubilees we find that the Hebrew Bible faith is alive and well during the second century BCE. Its themes and concerns indicate that very well. The present situation of the world is marred by corruption and sin but it is progressively being renewed. In spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God has remained faithful and his faithfulness would some day make a place for Jews (and Gentiles?) 24 in a renewed world as the Hebrew Bible writers had anticipated. God will bring the end of the exile and introduce the coming of a new era. Then, there will be judgment upon the Gentiles and unfaithful Israelites alike. All Israel’s enemies will be put to death and the nation will be restored to health in a renewal as wide as the creation itself. The hearts of the people will be

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

  I had promised Joe, whose name and case were constantly being discussed on television, that I would visit him after the argument in the Supreme Court. At first Joe was very excited by all the attention his case was generating, but then the guards and other prisoners started making fun of him and treating him more harshly than usual. They seemed to resent the attention he was getting. I told him that now that the argument was over, things would calm down. For weeks he’d been working on memorizing a poem he said he’d written. When I asked if he had really written it, he acknowledged that another inmate had helped him, but his excitement about the poem was undiminished. He had repeatedly promised that he would recite it for me when I visited him after the argument. When I arrived at the prison, Joe was wheeled into the visitation area without any difficulty. I talked to him about the argument in Washington, but he was much more interested in preparing me to hear his poem. I could tell he was nervous about whether he’d be able to do it. I cut short my report about his case so I could hear his poem. He closed his eyes to concentrate and then began to recite the lines: Roses are red, violets are blue. Soon I’ll come home to live with you. My life will be better, happy I’ll be, You’ll be like my Dad and my family. We’ll have fun with our friends and others will see, I’m a good person…uh…I’m a good person…I’m…a…good…person…uh… He couldn’t remember the last line. He looked up at the ceiling, then at the floor straining to remember. He squeezed his eyes, trying to force the last words to mind, but they wouldn’t come. I was tempted to supply him a line just to help him get through it—“so be happy for me” or “now people will see.” But I realized that creating a line for him wasn’t the right thing to do, so I just sat there. Finally, he seemed to accept that he wouldn’t remember the line. I thought he’d be upset, but when it was clear that he wouldn’t remember the last line, he just started laughing. I smiled at him, relieved. For some reason it became funnier and funnier to him that he couldn’t think of the last line—until he abruptly stopped laughing and looked at me. “Oh, wait. I think the last line…actually, uh, I think the last line is just what I said. The last line is just ‘I’m a good person.’ ” He paused, and I looked at him skeptically for several seconds. I said it before I thought about it. “Really?” I should have stopped, but I continued, “We’ll have fun with our friends and others will see, I’m a good person?”

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

  This isn’t just for Silicon Valley folks and iconic comedians. Trying something and having the ability to quit is vital to how we all live our lives. A simple example we all use is dating, which is a version of MVP. You need to know much less about a person you’re going to go on a date with than a person you’re going to marry because you can easily choose never to see your date again. In addition, all those dates help you reveal and refine your preferences and make your decisions about long-term relationships much better. Having the option to quit allows you to walk away when you find out that the thing that you’re doing is broken. If you’re near the top of Everest and the weather changes, you want to turn around. If your fight doctor lets you know that your kidneys are damaged, you can retire from the sport. The same is true for your major, or your job, or the direction of your career, or a relationship, or piano lessons, or even something as small as a movie you’re watching. The Siren Song of Certainty While it is true that quitting is one of your most important tools for making good decisions under uncertainty, it is also true that uncertainty is an impediment to making good decisions about quitting. That’s because quitting is, itself, a decision made under uncertainty. Just as you can’t be 100% sure how a decision is going to turn out when you enter into a course of action, you also can’t be 100% sure how it will turn out when you are considering exiting it. If you think about Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke, when they first decided to climb Everest, they didn’t know how it would work out. They didn’t know how things would turn out when they were at Base Camp, or how summit day would go when they left Camp 4 at midnight. The same, of course, was the case when they were deciding at 11:30 a.m. whether or not to continue with the other climbers up the mountain or turn around. When you make the decision to get married, you can’t be certain of how that decision will work out. When you make the decision to get divorced, you also can’t know how that decision will work out. That’s true whether you are deciding about choosing a major or changing it, or starting a job or quitting it, or starting a project or abandoning it.

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

  transformed so that never again will they desire to stray from the covenant. Annual y, they will come to Jerusalem to renew the covenant on Mt. Zion in the purified Temple, from which blessings will flow over the entire earth. Humans will live out their lives in peace and health, and when they die, they will rest in peace knowing that God has remembered his promises to Israel, driven out the enemy, vanquished the wicked angels, and established Israel in her glory. Jubilees 1:29 is well worth quoting at length: And the angel of the presence who went before the camp of Israel took the tables of the divisions of the years from the time of the creation of the law and testimony of their weeks (of years), according to the jubilees, year by year throughout the full number of jubilees, from [the day of creation until] the day of the new creation when the heaven and earth and all their creatures shall be renewed according to the powers of the heaven and according to the whole nature of earth, until the sanctuary of the LORD is created in Jerusalem upon Mount Zion. And all the lights will be renewed for healing and peace and blessing for all the elect of Israel and in order that it may be thus from that day and unto all the days of the earth.17 In this verse there is a movement from creation to new creation that is quite explicit. The heavens and the earth shall be renewed but it is a renewal that is not sudden. R. H. Charles observes that “this renewal of the creation is not to be instantaneous and catastrophic, but gradual, and its progress to be conditioned ethical y by the conduct of Israel.” 18 Because the renewal of the creation is gradual in Jubilees, there is reason to hesitate when considering a two-age type of eschatology in this work. Charles notes that according to the author of Jubilees, God is to renew His creation at three distinct periods. 19 The first occasion was the Deluge when He destroyed all that was corrupt (v.11) and “made for all His works a new and righteous nature. ”20 The next renewal, to synchronize with the foundation of the Jewish community in Jacob, which should

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

  I chuckled, since I don’t have a favorite color. But I wanted to respond to him. “Brown.” “Okay, my last question is the most important.” He looked up at me briefly with big eyes and smiled. He then became serious and read his question. “Who is your favorite cartoon character?” He was beaming when he looked at me. “Please, tell the truth. I really want to know.” I couldn’t think of anything and had to force myself to keep smiling. “Wow, Joe, I honestly don’t know. Can I think about that and get back to you? I’ll write you with my answer.” He nodded enthusiastically. — Over the next three months I received a flood of scrawled letters from Joe, one almost every day. The letters were usually short statements about what he’d eaten that day or what show he’d seen on television. Sometimes they were just two or three Bible verses he had copied. He would always ask me to write him back and let him know if his handwriting was improving. Sometimes the letters contained only a few words or a single question like, “Do you have friends?” We filed a petition to challenge Joe’s sentence as unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. We knew that there would be procedural objections to filing it nearly twenty years after his sentencing, but we thought the Supreme Court’s recent decision banning the death penalty for juveniles could provide a basis for relief. In 2005, the Court recognized that differences between children and adults required that kids be shielded from the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment. My staff and I discussed how we might use the constitutional reasoning that banned the execution of children as a legal basis for challenging juvenile life-without-parole sentences. We filed similar challenges to life-without-parole sentences in several other cases involving children, including Ian Manuel’s case. Ian was still being held in solitary confinement in Florida. We filed cases in Missouri, Michigan, Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arkansas, Delaware, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and South Dakota. We filed a case in Pennsylvania to help Trina Garnett, the girl who had been convicted for arson. She was still struggling at the women’s prison but was excited about the possibility of our doing something to change her sentence. We filed a case in California for Antonio Nuñez.

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  This little exercise may seem banal. However, to actually become aware of our body without being distracted by what’s going on around us or by our thoughts and images (about the action) can be truly a Herculean task. Yet it is a task with rich rewards. Our tendency is to identify with our thoughts to such an extent that we confuse them with reality; we believe that we are our thoughts. With this exercise you can detect the fundamental difference between your visual image of your body and your actual “interoceptive” experience. Body awareness helps us get some distance from our negative emotions and belief systems as well as contacting those of goodness. In discovering that we are not just our thoughts and images, we begin a journey to fullness as living, participating, sentient, embodied creatures. In the BeginningWhat follows is a brief review of humanity’s experience with embodiment and awareness. This admittedly speculative exploration is offered in the hope that it will better illustrate how the two important concepts of embodiment and awareness have been perceived and have developed over the ages. Biologically, we have evolved powerful movement systems designed for protection, hunting and avoiding being hunted. These automatic (instinctual) action systems—things that the body does to protect itself—were designed for rapid response when we come upon a snake or tiger. Without thinking we immediately react—escaping, fighting or freezing. For our earliest ancestors, physical readiness was a basic survival requirement. They had to be in the “here and now” every single moment of every single day. They were prepared to respond instantaneously and meaningfully to a few molecules of a novel scent or to the sound of a twig snapping in the distance. Simply put, they had to react from their guts. Without these compelling sensory prompts, our hunter-gatherer forbearers would not have lived to tell the tale. The degree to which they were “self-aware” of their instinctual responses remains, however, an unanswered question. Instincts, at their archaic roots, are compelled actions. They are movements that the body does or postural adjustments that prepare us for those actions. For this reason, physical sensations that guide these actions are the vehicle for direct knowledge of our instinctual selves. The advent of tools, symbols and then a rudimentary language allowed our ancestors to communicate with each other, sharing which action patterns worked and which didn’t, thereby refining their collective behaviors. To this end, one might speculate that they embraced art, dance and storytelling—and in the process attained, cultivated and developed, over time, reflective self-awareness. Cave paintings and other archaeological evidence record the saga of the evolution of embodied human consciousness as it blossomed in self-knowledge, in abstract symbols and finally in written language.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  509 00:24:34,873 --> 00:24:38,510 you solving their problems, you giving them answers. 510 00:24:38,610 --> 00:24:42,914 And then the next step is you lock them in. 511 00:24:43,014 --> 00:24:45,016 [Kelly] By the end of the five-day course... 512 00:24:46,852 --> 00:24:48,887 ...I have to say, I was all in. 513 00:24:49,688 --> 00:24:51,656 I was hungry for purpose, and so 514 00:24:51,756 --> 00:24:54,259 this seemed like a great opportunity. 515 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:58,497 If you, uh, take a few tests and answer a few questions 516 00:24:58,597 --> 00:25:01,500 and sign some papers, um, you can become a coach. 517 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,503 And then after that, uh, you start earning stripes. 518 00:25:04,603 --> 00:25:05,837 People can come. 519 00:25:05,937 --> 00:25:07,305 They can take classes as much as they want 520 00:25:07,405 --> 00:25:08,740 forever and ever and ever. 521 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:10,842 They can satiate in our curriculum. 522 00:25:10,942 --> 00:25:13,812 But what Vanguard has wanted us to do for a very long time 523 00:25:13,912 --> 00:25:17,549 is have people working the stripe method. 524 00:25:17,649 --> 00:25:19,417 [Narrator] Stripes that are added to the sashes, 525 00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:21,453 all students, coaches, and instructors 526 00:25:21,553 --> 00:25:23,788 are required to earn. 527 00:25:23,889 --> 00:25:26,958 As you went up the ladder, so to speak, 528 00:25:27,058 --> 00:25:29,661 you got a different sash with a different color 529 00:25:29,761 --> 00:25:32,998 that showed that you achieved certain levels. 530 00:25:33,098 --> 00:25:36,768 It's very much just cribbing completely from the belts of 531 00:25:36,868 --> 00:25:39,004 different martial arts programs. 532 00:25:39,771 --> 00:25:41,406 You start off as a student. 533 00:25:41,506 --> 00:25:42,841 Students have a white sash. 534 00:25:42,941 --> 00:25:44,910 And you started to earn stripes after a while. 535 00:25:45,010 --> 00:25:47,279 And then you can become a coach. 536 00:25:47,379 --> 00:25:49,080 Coaches get a yellow sash. 537 00:25:49,180 --> 00:25:50,749 And then eventually, you earn enough stripes 538 00:25:50,849 --> 00:25:52,751 to become a proctor. 539 00:25:52,851 --> 00:25:56,788 Our new one-stripe full proctors. 540 00:25:56,888 --> 00:25:58,523 [Narrator] While it sounds easy, 541 00:25:58,623 --> 00:26:02,327 advancement is actually quite difficult. 542 00:26:02,427 --> 00:26:07,465 You kind of have to buy your way through the ranks up to the top. 543 00:26:07,566 --> 00:26:10,101 It's very similar to when you talk to people in Scientology 544 00:26:10,201 --> 00:26:12,737 who have had to buy their way up the Bridge. 545 00:26:12,837 --> 00:26:16,274 It's a similar structure, just not as many steps. 546 00:26:16,374 --> 00:26:19,678 [Kelly] However, the rules were constantly changing. 547 00:26:19,778 --> 00:26:21,479 You're constantly being critiqued 548 00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:22,948 and constantly being told 549 00:26:23,048 --> 00:26:25,350 you're not good enough to move up. 550 00:26:25,450 --> 00:26:29,087 You are in the way of yourself, and you're not growing enough. 551 00:26:29,187 --> 00:26:31,122 They would say, you need to take the curriculum again.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  (All too often, the dominant culture assumes that it knows what is best for the marginalized; hence it creates programs and begins projects to help the poor, never stopping to ask what kind of help those who are marginalized believe they really need!) In this case, the blind man requested his sight. Jesus responded, “Your faith has saved you.” The salvation of the poor and outcast is tied to their dependence on Christ. The two rich men, who serve as bookends to this central message, were also asked to depend totally on Christ; because they had much, much was expected. It is easier for the poor, who have nothing, to imitate and follow the disenfranchised status of Jesus than for the rich to follow by disengaging from the security—even though it is false—of their wealth. The first man refused, preferring to depend on his own power and privilege, choosing to maintain a facade of religiosity by keeping the commandments. The second rejected his unethically earned status by committing himself to justice. He immediately began to dismantle the structures created to benefit him. Salvation ceases to be knowledge, recognition, or acceptance of God's incarnation in the personhood of Jesus; rather, salvation is linked to what Jesus did for the marginalized of his time and ours. Salvation is grounded in imitating the actions Jesus took toward bringing about liberation, not in the intellectual acceptance of a belief. OF SHEEP AND GOATS Matthew 25:31–46 describes the last day when the risen Christ will return to earth in all his splendor, escorted by the host of heaven, to take his seat on the throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him as he separates people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from goats. The sheep he will place on his right hand, and the goats on his left. Then the ruler of all will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father considers blessed, take for your heritage the reign prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was an alien and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” But to those on his left hand he will say, “Depart from me you cursed ones, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  Sin destroys fellowship with God and with other human beings, and thus it cannot be eradicated except by the unmerited redemptive love of God, received by faith and in communion with one another.5 Sin as alienation from God is manifested as injustice and oppression toward our fellow human beings. Scholars from the margins usually construct well-defined categories as to who are the perpetrators of injustices and who are the victims. However, there is also a tendency among some theologians on the margins to identify the sins of the dominant Euroamerican culture while overlooking the sins of their own communities, specifically their own brands of sexism, racism, and classism. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans “that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (3:23). The plight of those who live on the margins is glamorized when they are seen purely as being noble, devoid of sin. A danger exists of structuring the reality of those who are disenfranchised as only victims. If in fact, because they are marginalized, they then have nothing to confess and do not have a need to seek salvation, then we have romanticized their existence. Yet, even within marginalized groups, internal structures of oppression exist. If we define sin as injustice, caused by broken vertical and horizontal relationships, then we are indeed all sinners. The broken horizontal relationship manifests the original broken vertical relationship with the Creator. Because sin is the source of social injustice and human oppression, it rejects fellowship with God, consequently causing a rejection of fellowship with other humans.6 God's reign can be understood as community, people created to live in a positive relation with the divine and with each other. The nemesis of this order is the reduction of individuals to their economic value. This is the basis of sin; hence the writer of 1 Timothy writes, “The root of all evil is the love of money” (6:10). Likewise, Amos observes that the love of money leads the powerful to “trade the poor for a pair of sandals” (2:6). Today person-to-person relationships are often abandoned for subject-to-object relationships. Those who are privileged by society, either consciously or unconsciously, transform everything, including humans, into objects for possession, domination, and domestication. As disposable objects, humans are measured by their production value, with the profit generated going to the one who controls these objects. This “praxis of domination” causes separation from God and separation within the community created by God.7 The cross does not exist for the earth's downtrodden to figure out why it is there or why Jesus had to hang from it. Rather, the cross exists to show the marginalized how their sufferings, their rejection by the privileged of society, and their death become the suffering, rejection, and death of God. Those who are disenfranchised can have faith in a God who intimately knows their pain because God experienced their pain, creating a solidarity with those who are oppressed.