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.

Page 165 of 216 · 20 per page

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

  Forces of another character were working. In quiet pathways, the mystics walked with God and, though they did not repudiate the sacramental system, they called attention to the religion of the heart as the seat of religion. The Imitation of Christ was written once, for all ages. The Church had found its proper definition as the body of the elect and that idea stood in direct antithesis to the theory the hierarchy worked upon. The preaching of the Waldenses had been condemned by the Fourth Lateran Council, but there was a growing popular demand for instruction as well as the spectacle of the mass, and the catechetical manuals laid stress upon the sermon. The Albigenses had been completely blotted out, but the principles of Lollardism and Hussitism continued to flow, though as little rills. The Inquisition was still doing its work, but in Germany schools for all classes of children were being taught. The laity was asserting its rights in the domain of learning and culture. These influences were silently preparing the soil for the new teachings. In the 15th century, a potent force stirred Europe as Europe had never been stirred by it before,—Commerce. The industrial change, then going on, deserves more than a passing reference as a factor preparing the mind for intellectual and religious innovation. This, at least, is true of the German people. Explorations and the extension of commerce have, in more periods than one, preceded a revival of missionary enterprise. But, of all the centuries, none is so like the 19th as the last century of the Middle Ages,—vital with humanistic forces of all kinds. It was a time of revolution in the methods of trade and the comforts and prices of living. The world could never be again just what it had been before. There was marked restlessness among the artisan and peasant classes. This industrial unrest was adapted to encourage and to beget unrest in things ecclesiastical and to accustom the mind to the thought of change there. From Italy, whose harbors were the outfitting points for fleets during the Crusades, the centre of trade had shifted to the cities north of the Alps and to the Portuguese coast. Nürnberg, Ulm, Augsburg and Constance in Southern Germany; Bruges, Antwerp and other cities along the lower Rhine and in Flanders; and the cities of the Hanseatic League were bustling marts, turning out new and wonderful products of manufacture and drawing the products of the outside world through London, Lisbon, Lyons and Venice. Energy and enterprise were making Germany rich and her mercantile houses had their representatives and depots in Venice, Antwerp and other ports.1340

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

  "Les populations se précipitèrent, par une sorte du mouvement instinctif, dans une secte qui satisfaisait leur aspirations les plus intimes et ouvrait des ésperances infinies." Renan makes much account of the belief in immortality and the offer of complete pardon to every sinner, as allurements to Christianity; and, like Gibbon, he ignores its real power as a religion of salvation. This accounts for its success not only in the old Roman empire, but in every country and nation where it has found a home. § 6. Means of Propagation. It is a remarkable fact that after the days of the Apostles no names of great missionaries are mentioned till the opening of the middle ages, when the conversion of nations was effected or introduced by a few individuals as St. Patrick in Ireland, St. Columba in Scotland, St. Augustine in England, St. Boniface in Germany, St. Ansgar in Scandinavia, St. Cyril and Methodius among the Slavonic races. There were no missionary societies, no missionary

• From The Decameron (1353)

  I also think they would be good, honest company, not only for us, but for ladies much finer and fairer than ourselves. But since it is perfectly obvious that they are in love with certain of the ladies here present, I am apprehensive lest, by taking them with us, through no fault either of theirs or of our own, we should bring disgrace and censure on ourselves.’ ‘That is quite beside the point,’ said Filomena. ‘If I live honestly and my conscience is clear, then people may say whatever they like; God and Truth will take up arms in my defence. Now, if only they were prepared to accompany us, we should truly be able to claim, as Pampinea has said, that Fortune favours our enterprise.’ Filomena’s words reassured the other ladies, who not only withdrew their objections but unanimously agreed to call the young men over, explain their intentions, and inquire whether they would be willing to join their expedition. And so, without any further discussion, Pampinea, who was a blood relation to one of the young men, got up and walked towards them. They were standing there gazing at the young ladies, and Pampinea, having offered them a cheerful greeting, told them what they were planning to do, and asked them on behalf of all her companions whether they would be prepared to join them in a spirit of chaste and brotherly affection. The young men thought at first that she was making mock of them, but when they realized she was speaking in earnest, they gladly agreed to place themselves at the young ladies’ disposal. So that there should be no delay in putting the plan into effect, they made provision there and then for the various matters that would have to be attended to before their departure. Meticulous care was taken to see that all necessary preparations were put in hand, supplies were sent on in advance to the place at which they intended to stay, and as dawn was breaking on the morning of the next day, which was a Wednesday, the ladies and the three young men, accompanied by one or two of the maids and all three manservants, set out from the city. And scarcely had they travelled two miles from Florence before they reached the place at which they had agreed to stay. The spot in question 8 was some distance away from any road, on a small hill that was agreeable to behold for its abundance of shrubs and trees, all bedecked in green leaves. Perched on its summit was a palace, built round a fine, spacious courtyard, and containing loggias, halls, and sleeping apartments, which were not only excellently proportioned but richly embellished with paintings depicting scenes of gaiety. Delectable gardens and meadows lay all around, and there were wells of cool, refreshing water. The cellars were stocked with precious wines, more suited to the palates of connoisseurs than to sedate and respectable ladies.

• From The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  173 o What follows is a wager proposed by the satan and accepted by God. God will remove Job’s wealth, children, and health and see whether Job still blesses his god. o God agrees to the wager, and Job loses everything. But like Abraham before him, Job does not curse God. He remains upright and blesses God. Structure of the Book of Job • The stylistic shift in the Book of Job—from narrative to poetry and back to narrative—has caused scholars to consider the prose framework of the book as a unit related to, but distinct from, the poetic dialogues that make up the body of the book. • If we follow this suggestion and jump from chapter 2 to 42, we find that in the first two chapters, Job does not curse God; he endures his losses and blesses God. Then, three friends arrive, having heard of Job’s misfortune. They come to offer comfort, but when they see the devastated state of their friend, they can say nothing. • Jumping to chapter 42, we find that Job’s fortunes are restored and he lives to the age of 140. In this prose ending, Job passes the divine test. He shows that his piety is not self-interested, and as a reward, his wealth and children are restored. • The prose narrative also provides an interesting answer to the exilic question: Why were the chosen people conquered? The answer, in this case, is that the conquest was the result of a divine wager that got out of hand. Like Abraham, the Job of the prose narrative is put to a test for seemingly no good reason. He endures an unspeakable loss, only to have it replaced at the end when he is deemed faithful. • Both of these stories would hold meaning and hope for an exilic community in their acknowledgement of loss, their identification of God as in some way responsible for the loss, and the lesson they teach that those who remain faithful will experience a restoration.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  But as your liberality is such as to disarm my natural shame, I shall do it. Of this you may be certain, however, that I do it in the knowledge that you are not only giving me the woman I love, but also saving my life. Thus does your compassion for my plight exceed my own, and I pray that the gods may grant me the means whereby I may yet make you honourable amends and show you how deeply I prize the blessing you have conferred upon me.’ When Titus had finished speaking, Gisippus said: ‘If we want our plans to succeed, Titus, this is what I think we ought to do. As you know, it was only after long discussions between Sophronia’s kinsfolk and my own that she became my promised bride, and hence, if I were suddenly to announce that I no longer wish to marry her, there would be an awful scandal and I would cause distress to both our families. This would not worry me in the least, if I could see her being married to you as a result. But if I were to leave her in the lurch like this, I fear that her kinsfolk would promptly marry her off to some other fellow, and not necessarily to you, in which case you will have lost Sophronia and I shall have gained nothing. So it seems to me that if you are in agreement I should carry on with what I have begun, fetch her back here as my wife, and celebrate the nuptials, after which you and Sophronia, by whatever secret means we shall devise, will sleep together as man and wife. Later on, when the time and the place are appropriate, we shall disclose how matters stand; if they like the idea, all well and good; but if they don’t, they’ll have to lump it, because by that time the deed will be done and there’ll be no way of setting things in reverse.’ Titus agreed to the plan, and so Gisippus went ahead and welcomed Sophronia to his house as his bride, by which time Titus was strong and well again. A great feast was held, and when night had descended, the waiting maids left the new bride in her husband’s bed and departed. Now the rooms of Titus and Gisippus were adjacent, and it was possible to pass freely from the one to the other; so on entering his room, Gisippus extinguished all the lights, betook himself quietly to Titus, and bade him go sleep with his lady. Titus was overcome with embarrassment, began to have second thoughts, and refused to go. But Gisippus, after remonstrating with him at length, sent him all the same, being no less prepared to do Titus’ pleasure than he had claimed.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  And turning to Buffalmacco, he said: ‘Calandrino appears to be talking sense, but there’s no point in going there at this time of day, because the sun is shining straight down on the Mugnone and it will have dried all the stones, so that the ones that seem black in the early morning, before the sun gets at them, will be just as white as the others. Besides, as it’s the middle of the week there’ll be a lot of people along the Mugnone, and if they were to see us they might guess what we were up to, in which case they might follow our example, and come across the stone before we do. We don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Wouldn’t you agree, Buffalmacco, that we ought to do this job in the early morning, so that we can distinguish the black stones from the white ones, and that we should wait until the weekend, when nobody will see us?’ Since Bruno’s advice was supported by Buffalmacco, Calandrino agreed to wait, and it was arranged that on the following Sunday morning they would all go and look for the magic stone. Meanwhile Calandrino pleaded with them not to breathe a word of this to anyone, as it had been revealed to him in strict confidence, and he then went on to tell them what he had heard about the land of Cornucopia, declaring with many an oath that he was speaking the gospel truth. And when he had taken his leave of them, they put their heads together and agreed on their plan of campaign. Calandrino looked forward eagerly to Sunday morning, and when it came, he got up at crack of dawn and went round to call for his friends. Then they all proceeded to the Mugnone by way of the Porta San Gallo and began to work their way downstream, looking for the stone. Being the keenest of the trio, Calandrino went on ahead, darting this way and that, and whenever he caught sight of a black stone he leapt on it, picked it up, and stuffed it down his shirt, while the other two trailed along behind, occasionally picking up an odd stone here and there. Before he had gone very far, Calandrino found that there was no more room in his shirt, so he gathered up the hem of his skirt, which was not cut in the Hainaut style, 7 attached it securely to his waist all round, and turned it into a capacious bag, which took him no long time to fill, after which he made a second bag out of his cloak, which in no time at all he had likewise filled up with stones.

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  Oliver Sacks, the author of Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Migraine, describes in the third of these books the compelling attacks of several patients. Migraines are a nervous system stress reaction that is quite similar and often related to post-traumatic (freezing) reactions. Sacks gives a fascinating account of a mathematician with a weekly migraine cycle. On Wednesday the mathematician would get nervous and irritable. By Thursday or Friday the stress would worsen so much that he was unable to work. On Saturday he would become greatly agitated, and on Sunday he would have a full-blown migraine attack. By that afternoon, however, the migraine dissipated and died away. In the wake of the migraine discharge, the man experienced a creative, hopeful rebirth. On Monday and Tuesday he would feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and renewed. Calm and creative, he would work effectively until Wednesday, when the irritability started again and the whole cycle would repeat. By using medication to alleviate this patient’s migraine symptoms, Sacks realized that he had also blocked the man’s creative source. Dr. Sacks laments, “When I ‘cured’ this man of his migraines, I also ‘cured’ him of his mathematics … Along with the pathology, the creativity also disappeared.” Sacks explains that patients may break into a gentle sweat and pass pints of urine in what he describes as “a physiological catharsis” after migraine attacks. Such reactions did not occur when the man was medicated. Similarly, gentle beads of warm sweat often accompany the resolution and healing of trauma. In moving through apprehensive chills to mounting excitement and waves of moist tingling warmth, the body, with its innate capacity to heal, melts the iceberg created by deeply frozen trauma. Anxiety and despair can become a creative wellspring when we allow ourselves to experience bodily sensations, such as trembling, that stem from traumatic symptoms. Held within the symptoms of trauma are the very energies, potentials, and resources necessary for their constructive transformation. The creative healing process can be blocked in a number of way s— by using drugs to suppress symptoms, by overemphasizing adjustment or control, or by denial or invalidation of feelings and sensations. Trauma Is Not a Disease But a Dis-Ease In his 1992 New York Times article, “Wounds That Can Not Heal,” Daniel Golman, a leading popular science writer, reports on the prevalent medical view that trauma is an irreversible disease. Hope is held that a magic bullet (like Prozac) will be found to cure this “brain disease.” Golman quotes Dr. Dennis Charney, a Yale psychiatrist: It does not matter if it was the incessant terror of combat, trapped in a hurrican e… or an auto acciden t… all uncontrollable stress can have the same biological impac t… Victims of a devastating trauma may never be the same biologically. [emphasis added].”

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

  cemeteries by the frequency of Scripture passages in the epitaphs, and the expressions of hope and joy in prospect of the immediate transition of the pious dead to the presence of Christ. The catacombs have a character of their own, which distinguishes them from Roman Catholic as well as Protestant cemeteries. Their most characteristic symbols and pictures are the Good Shepherd, the Fish, and the Vine. These symbols almost wholly disappeared after the fourth century, but to the mind of the early Christians they vividly expressed, in childlike simplicity, what is essential to Christians of all creeds, the idea of Christ and his salvation, as the only comfort in life and in death. The Shepherd, whether from the Sabine or the Galilean hills, suggested the recovery of the lost sheep, the tender care and protection, the green pasture and fresh fountain, the sacrifice of life: in a word, the whole picture of a Saviour.561 The popularity of this picture enables us to understand the immense popularity of the Pastor of Hermas, a religious allegory which was written in Rome about the middle of the second century, and read in many churches till the fourth as a part of the New Testament (as in the Sinaitic Codex). The Fish expressed the same idea of salvation, under a different form, but only to those who were familiar with the Greek (the anagrammatic meaning of Ichthys) and associated the fish with daily food and the baptismal water of regeneration. The Vine again sets forth the vital union of the believer with Christ and the vital communion of all believers among themselves. Another prominent feature of the catacombs is their hopeful and joyful eschatology. They proclaim in symbols and words a certain conviction of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, rooted and grounded in a living union with Christ in this world.562 These glorious hopes comforted and strengthened the early Christians in a time of poverty, trial, and persecution. This character stands in striking contrast with the preceding and contemporary gloom of paganism, for which the future world was a blank, and with the succeeding gloom of the mediaeval eschatology which presented the future world to the most serious Christians as a continuation of penal sufferings. This is the chief, we may say, the only doctrinal, lesson of the catacombs. On some other points they incidentally shed new light, especially on the spread of Christianity and the origin of Christian art. Their immense extent implies that Christianity was numerically much stronger in heathen Rome than was generally supposed.563 Their numerous decorations prove conclusively, either that the primitive Christian aversion to pictures and sculptures, inherited from the Jews, was not so general nor so long continued as might be inferred from some passages of ante-Nicene writers, or, what is more likely, that the popular love for art inherited from the Greeks and Romans was little affected by the theologians, and ultimately prevailed over the scruples of theorizers. The first discovery of the catacombs was a surprise to the Christian world, and gave birth to wild fancies about the incalculable number of martyrs, the terrors of persecution, the subterranean assemblies of the early Christians, as if they lived and died, by necessity or preference, in darkness beneath the earth. A closer investigation has dispelled the romance, and deepened the reality. There is no contradiction between the religion of the ante-Nicene monuments and the religion of the ante-Nicene literature. They supplement and illustrate each other. Both exhibit to us neither the mediaeval Catholic nor the modern Protestant, but the post-apostolic Christianity of confessors and martyrs, simple, humble, unpretending, unlearned, unworldly, strong in death and in the hope of a blissful resurrection; free from the distinctive dogmas and usages of later times; yet with that strong love for symbolism, mysticism, asceticism, and popular superstitions which we find in the writings of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen.

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

  charge against him. Gregory died in the summer of 1241, at an age greater than the age of Leo XIII. at that pope’s death. But he died, as it were, with his armor on and with his face turned towards his imperial antagonist, whose army at the time lay within a few hours of the city. He had fought one of the most strenuous conflicts of the Middle Ages. To the last moment his intrepid courage remained unabated. A few weeks before his death he wrote, in sublime confidence in the papal prerogative: "Ye faithful, have trust in God and hear his dispensations with patience. The ship of Peter will for a while be driven through storms and between rocks, but soon, and at a time unexpected, it will rise again above the foaming billows and sail on unharmed, over the placid surface." The Roman communion owes to Gregory IX. the collection of decretals which became a part of its statute book.253 He made the Inquisition a permanent institution and saw it enforced in the city of Rome. He accorded the honors of canonization to the founders of the mendicant orders, St. Francis of Assisi and Dominic of Spain. § 44. The First Council of Lyons and the Close of Frederick’s Career. 1241–1250. Additional Literature.—Mansi, XXIII. 605 sqq.; Hefele, V. 105 sqq.— C. Rodenberg: Inn. IV. und das Königreich Sicilien, Halle, 1892.—H. Weber: Der Kampf zwischen Inn. IV. und Fried. II. Berlin, 1900.—P. Aldinger: Die Neubesetzung der deutschen Bisthümer unter Papst Inn. IV., Leipzig, 1900.—J. Maulbach: Die Kardinäle und ihre Politikum die Mitte des XIII. Jahrhunderts, 1243–1268, Bonn, 1902. Gregory’s successor, Coelestin IV., survived his election less than three weeks. A papal vacancy followed, lasting the unprecedented period of twenty months. The next pope, Innocent IV., a Genoese, was an expert in the canon law and proved himself to be more than the equal of Frederick in shrewdness and quickness of action. At his election the emperor is reported to have exclaimed that among the cardinals he had lost a friend and in the pope gained an enemy. Frederick refused to enter into negotiations looking to an agreement of peace until he should be released from the ban. Innocent was prepared to take up Gregory’s conflict with great energy. All the weapons at the command of the papacy were brought into requisition: excommunication, the decree of a general council, deposition, the election of a rival emperor, and the active fomenting of rebellion in Frederick’s dominions. Under this accumulation of burdens Frederick, like a giant, attempted to bear up, but in vain.254 All Western Christendom was about to be disturbed by the conflict. Innocent’s first move was to out-general his antagonist by secretly leaving Rome. Alexander III. had set the precedent of delivering himself by flight.

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

  It is the subject of Paul’s first Epistles, those to the Thessalonians, and is prominently discussed in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. He declares the Christians "the most pitiable," because the most deluded and uselessly self-sacrificing, "of all men," if their hope in Christ were confined to this life. The ante-Nicene church was a stranger in the midst of a hostile world, and longed for the unfading crown which awaited the faithful confessor and martyr beyond the grave. Such a mighty revolution as the conversion of the heathen emperor was not dreamed of even as a remote possibility, except perhaps by the far-sighted Origen. Among the five causes to which Gibbon traces the rapid progress of the Christian religion he assigns the second place to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. We know nothing whatever of a future world which lies beyond the boundaries of our observation and experience, except what God has chosen to reveal to us. Left to the instincts and aspirations of nature, which strongly crave after immortality and glory, we can reach at best only probabilities; while the gospel gives us absolute certainty, sealed by the resurrection of Christ. 1. The heathen notions of the future life were vague and confused. The Hindoos, Babylonians, and Egyptians had a lively sense of immortality, but mixed with the idea of endless migrations and transformations. The Buddhists, starting from the idea that existence is want, and want is suffering, make it the chief end of man to escape such migrations, and by various mortifications to prepare for final absorption in Nirwana. The popular belief among the ancient Greeks and Romans was that man passes after death into the Underworld, the Greek Hades, the Roman Orcus. According to Homer, Hades is a dark abode in the interior of the earth, with an entrance at the Western extremity of the Ocean, where the rays of the sun do not penetrate. Charon carries the dead over the stream Acheron, and the three-headed dog Cerberus watches the entrance and allows none to pass out. There the spirits exist in a disembodied state and lead a shadowy dream-life. A vague distinction was made between two regions in Hades, an Elysium (also "the Islands of the Blessed") for the good, and Tartarus for the bad. "Poets and painters," says Gibbon, peopled the infernal regions with so many phantoms and monsters, who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so little equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, was oppressed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions. The eleventh book of the Odyssey gives a very dreary and incoherent account of the infernal shades.

• From The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  119 hope to the exiles that they will live again as a mighty nation in their own land, but it also begins to articulate a change in the views of the afterlife that occurred during and after the exile. By the 2 nd century B.C.E., some segments of the Judean population had developed a belief in the resurrection of the dead. Theological Developments in Response to Exile • As we saw at the beginning of the course, in Psalm 137, captive Judeans asked: How can we sing the Lord’s song in a land that is not our own? After the conquest of the northern kingdom and, again, after the conquest of the southern kingdom, they asked: If our god is all powerful, and we are his chosen, covenantal people, why didn’t our god protect us from our enemies? Ezekiel’s visions provide answers. • In the opening vision of the book of Ezekiel, the prophet sits among the exiles by the river Chebar and receives a visitation from the Israelite god, enthroned on a winged, wheeled chariot. o In the face of conquest and destruction, this first vision communicates the idea that the Israelite god has become mobile. The fact that he appears to Ezekiel in exile is evidence that this is a god who can travel. o Thus, the exiles’ first question is partially answered: They can sing the Lord’s song in a different land because the Lord is present with them in exile. • Ezekiel’s answer to the second question comes in chapter 8 of his book. This vision is dated to 592, before the final conquest of Jerusalem. o Here, God shows Ezekiel Israelites engaged in foreign worship practices in the Jerusalem temple. The deity commands that those who are engaged in these practices shall be purged. Ezekiel then sees his god mount his chariot and depart his temple and his city. 120 Lecture 16: Ezekiel—Exilic Informant o This divine departure answers the second exilic question: How is it that we were conquered if we are the covenantal partners of an all-powerful god? The answer is that the Jerusalem temple had become so polluted with foreign worship practices that it was no longer a suitable dwelling place for the Israelite god. Thus, like Ezekiel, this god must go into exile. When he vacates his temple and abandons the city of Jerusalem, he leaves it vulnerable to foreign attack and conquest. Bloch-Smith, Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead. Carr, An Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 165–186. 1. How do some of the behaviors exhibited by Ezekiel match up with what we associate today with the trauma of war and dislocation? 2. What can we say about a Judean understanding of the afterlife based on Ezekiel’s experiences and visions of death? 3. Why is the mobility of the Israelite god important theologically for later Judaism and Christianity? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider

• From The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  123 • We have few primary source materials that can tell us what life was like for the exiles in Babylonia. Instead, we find snippets of information that give us hints about exilic life. o The exiles were settled in villages near the city of Nippur along the Chebar River, an offshoot of the Euphrates. The names of these villages suggest that they may have been ruins of former cities. o Prophets who wrote during the exile described the exilic experience as a “yoke” they were forced to bear. When Jeremiah predicts the Israelite god’s rescue of the exiles, his language evokes servitude: “I will break the yoke from off their neck, and I will burst their bonds, and strangers shall no more make servants of them” (Jer. 30:8). o Nebuchadrezzar’s records list by name some of the Judean exiles from the first wave in 597. Significantly, these men included artisans and a gardener, people with skills that Babylonia could put to work. o Additional Babylonian records indicate that exiles as a whole, not the Judeans in particular, were used as forced labor in massive building projects. • In addition to these details that suggest the difficulty of life in exile, there are other factors that point to the gradual adaptation of the Judeans to their new lives in Babylonia. Still other details point to Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles proved accurate: They would put down roots in their new land for a period of 70 years before being rescued by the Israelite god. © Getty Images/Photos.com/Thinkstock. 124 Lecture 17: Life in Exile, Life in Judah an improvement in their living conditions, as we see in the story of King Jehoiachin. o Nebuchadrezzar’s records mention Jehoiachin by name and indicate that he and his five sons, along with other dignitaries deported from Jerusalem, received food rations. These records date to 592, just a few years after Jehoiachin was carried into exile. o At some point in Jehoiachin’s exile, he was imprisoned, but the final chapter of 2 Kings tells us that he was freed in the 37 th

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  We engaged Sammy in playing the game with Pooh Bear at least ten times. Sammy was able to renegotiate his traumatic responses fairly quickly. Another child might require more time. Don’t be concerned about how many times you have to go through what seems to be the same old thing. If the child is responding, forget your concerns and enjoy the game. 4. Be patien t- A Good Container. Remember that nature is on your side. For the adult, perhaps the most difficult and important aspect of renegotiating a traumatic event with a child is maintaining your own belief that things will turn out OK. This feeling comes from inside of you and is projected out to the child. It becomes a container that surrounds the child with a feeling of confidence. This may be particularly difficult if your child resists your attempts to renegotiate the trauma. Be patient and reassuring. A big part of the child wants to re-work this experience. All you have to do is wait for that part to assert itself. If you are excessively worried about whether the child’s traumatic reaction can be transformed, you may inadvertently send a conflicting message to your child. Adults with their own unresolved trauma may be particularly susceptible to falling into this trap. Don’t let your child suffer as a result of your own unresolved experiences. Ask someone else to help the child and help yourself. 5. If you feel that your child is genuinely not benefiting from the play, stop. Sammy was able to renegotiate his experience in one session, but not all children will. Some children may take a few sessions. If, after repeated attempts, the child remains constricted and does not move toward triumph and joy, do not force the issue. Consult qualified professional help. Healing trauma in children is an immensely important and complex issue. Consequently, I am now working on a book dedicated solely to this subject. It will include detailed information that can be used by parents, teachers, and therapists. “Curse the mind that mounts the clouds in search of mythical kings and only mystical things, mystical things cry for the soul that will not face the body as an equal place and I never learned to touch for real down, down, down where the iguanas feel.” “Iguana Song” by Dory Previn Epilogue Three Brains, One Mind In our exploration of trauma we have learned about the primordial energies that reside within the reptilian core of our brains. We are not reptiles, but without clear access to our reptilian and mammalian heritage, we are not able to be fully human. The fullness of our humanity lies in the ability to integrate the functions of our triune brain. We see that to resolve trauma we must learn to move fluidly between instinct, emotion, and rational thought. When these three sources are in harmony, communicating sensation, feeling, and cognition, our organisms operate as they were designed to.

• From Crazy Brave (2012)

  Eighteen was the legal age for marriage in the state of Oklahoma. My mother must have known that fact, but she asked me no questions. I recognized that it would be a relief to get me out of the house. I was the cause of the tension. After two weeks, when there was no letter or bus ticket, I asked my brother Allen for the money to get to Tahlequah. Allen always had money. Once I had to break up a sweatshop he had going with our sister, Margaret. He hired her to weave cheap loop potholders for a nickel apiece, then sold them for a dollar each. I told her she should charge more and she quit. He soon found another way to make money. He needed it for all of his bike and race projects. He was brilliant with his ongoing constructions, which included upside-down bikes and fast go-carts hammered together with found items. He and I sold white paper bags of Daylight Doughnuts door-to-door in Skiatook, Oklahoma. The shop’s owner would sip coffee and read his paper in his car as my brother and I sold to women in housecoats, men who were already downing their morning beer, and families watching Saturday-morning cartoons. I spent my money on photography. I bought film and paid for development. I also bought art supplies and fabric to make clothes. Allen and I covered for each other. I never told our mother of the time he hot-wired a huge yellow earthmover parked at the church down the street. He took it on a joyride through the neighborhood while she was at work. He must have been only ten or eleven years old. My brother loaned me the money, and I bought my bus ticket and told my mother that my boyfriend had sent for me. When the bus left from the Tulsa Greyhound station, everything I owned fit in my army-surplus Indian school footlocker. I left with about ten dollars in cash. As Tulsa, the city of my birth, fell behind me, I barely noticed the landscape while the bus navigated the country two-lanes that carried me toward an uncertain future. I imagined what would happen when I arrived at the bus station in Tahlequah. He would be there to greet me. I would go with him. Somewhere. I knew he was living with his mother, and she was taking care of his young sister, who was still in elementary school, and his daughter, Ratonia, a two-year-old. His mother knew nothing of me. I pulled out the photograph he’d given me at Indian school of his daughter, taken the summer before. Squinting her eyes at the sun was a wiry and energetic one-and-a-half-year-old who, with her Cherokee nose and smiling eyes, resembled her father, the man I loved. His daughter’s mother was my age when they got pregnant. They were living in Oregon, where his mother worked in a clinic. He had heard that his baby’s mother was drinking.

• From The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  24 Lecture 3: ancestor Narratives in Genesis of fertility sees God as the one who opens and closes wombs, allowing or preventing conception. o This scenario of a dual marriage plays out in a kind of birthing war that ensues between the rival sisters. First, Leah gives birth to four sons. Rachel offers her maidservant, Bilhah, as a wife to Jacob, and Bilhah bears two more sons. Leah then offers her maidservant, Zilpah, to Jacob; she bears two sons. Leah bears two more sons and a daughter. Finally, Rachel gives birth to two sons. o In this way, the house of Jacob is made up of two primary wives and two secondary maidservant wives. Each wife seeks to secure and even elevate her status in her husband’s house by bearing children. • The sons born to these four women are not regarded equally, not in the family story and not in the national story that grows out of this family. Firstborn sons stood to inherit a double portion from their father’s estate. In Jacob’s house, his firstborn son is Reuben, but it is Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, who inherits the covenantal promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. • When Jacob ultimately returns home to Canaan, it is under the guidance and at the call of the Israelite god. o Before reaching Canaan, Jacob camps on the eastern side of the river Jordan, spending a night alone. It is here that he wrestles with a mysterious “man” and is renamed “Israel.” o The identity of the midnight wrestler remains obscure. He refuses to give his name to Jacob, and although he is referred to as a man, Jacob ultimately concludes that he had wrestled with none other than God. He names the place of this encounter Peniel, meaning “face of God,” because he says, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 25 o Thus, the process through which Jacob becomes “Israel” is a long and arduous one. It has involved fleeing, exile, and hard labor. It has also involved fulfilling one of the patriarchal promises as he “becomes a great nation” through the birth of his twelve sons. o Now that he is “Israel,” he crosses the river Jordan, returning to the land of Canaan, the place where he has been promised a perpetual landholding. • From the perspective of a people exiled from their land, living in Mesopotamia, the story of Jacob would be a powerful one of redemption. o The tribe of Judah, which ends up in exile in Babylonia, will likewise endure hard labor. They will take wives and build families, replenishing themselves into something resembling Jacob experiences a divine threat to his life when he wrestles with God throughout a night, barely surviving. © Bill Dauster/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.

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

  The facts, set forth in this volume, leave no room for the contention of the recent class of historians in the Roman Church,—Janssen, Denifle, Pastor, Nicolas, Paulus, Dr. Gasquet—who have devoted themselves to the task of proving that an orderly reform-movement was going on when the Reformation broke out. That movement, they represent as an unspeakable calamity for civilization, an apostasy from Christianity, an insurrection against divinely constituted authority. It violently checked the alleged current of progress and popes, down to Pius IX. and Leo XIII., have anathematized Protestantism as a poisonous pestilence and the mother of all modem evils in Church and state. In the attempt to make good this judgment, these recent writers not only have laid stress upon "the good old times,"—a description which the people of the 16th century would have repudiated,1351 — but have resorted to the defamation of the German Reformer’s character, setting aside the contemporaries who knew him best, and violently perverting Luther’s own words. Imbart de la Tour, the most recent French historian of this school, on reaching the year 1517, exclaims, "The era of peaceful reforms was at an end; the era of religious revolution was about to open."1352 Lefèvre d’Etaples was not alone when he uttered the famous words: — The signs of the times announce that a reformation of the Church is near at hand and, while God is opening new paths for the preaching of the Gospel by the discoveries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards, we must hope that He will also visit His Church and raise her from the abasement into which she has now fallen. The Philosophy of Christ,—the name which Erasmus gave to the Gospel in his Paraclesis, prefixed to his edition of the New Testament,—was to a large degree covered over by the dialectical theology of the Schoolmen. What men needed was the Gospel and the bishop of Isernia, preaching at the Fifth Lateran council in its 12th session, spoke better than he knew when he exclaimed: "The Gospel is the fountain of all wisdom, of all knowledge. From it has flowed all the higher virtue, all that is divine and worthy of admiration. The Gospel, I say the Gospel." The words were spoken on the very eve of the Reformation and the council of the Middle Ages failed utterly to offer any real remedy for the religious degeneracy. The Reformer came from the North, not from Rome and as from another Nazareth. The angel of God had to descend again and trouble the waters and a single personality touched in conscience proved himself mightier than the wisdom of theology and wiser than the rulers of the visible Church.

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  Feelings of pleasure and expansion are evidence that the organism is moving into the healing vortex. The key to letting the healing vortex support the process of transformation lies in the ability to let go of preconceived ideas about how an event “should be” remembered. In other words, you have to be able to give the felt sense free license to communicate without censoring what it has to say. Paradoxically, this doesn’t negate the liberating significance of acknowledging “what really happened.” This truth is experienced in moving fluidly between the healing and trauma vortices. There is a deep acceptance of the emotional impact of events in our lives along with a simultaneous quality of waking up from a nightmare. One awakens from this dream with a sense of wonder and gladness. The Courage to Feel If you want to know whether an event “really” happened, all I can do is wish you well and tell you what you already know. You may have taken on an impossible task. In my view, neither this book nor anything else will help you know the truth of what you are seeking. If, on the other hand, your primary goal is to heal, there is much here that can help you. If healing is what you want, your first step is to be open to the possibility that literal truth is not the most important consideration. The conviction that it really happened, the fear that it may have happened, the subtle searching for evidence that it did happen, can all get in your way as you try to hear what the felt sense wants to tell you about what it needs to heal. By committing yourself to the process of healing, you will come to learn more about the truth behind your reactions. In spite of the fragmentation that occurs in the wake of trauma, the organism does retain associations that are connected with the events that caused its debilitation. The felt sense may reveal these events to you, or it may not. Keep reminding yourself that it doesn’t matter. Because if healing is what you want, it doesn’t matter whether you know the concrete truth. Desire and Healing The process of healing begins from within. Even before the cast is set on our broken bones, our bones begin to knit themselves back together. Just as there are physical laws that affect the healing of our bodies, there are laws that affect the healing of our minds. We have seen how our intellects can override some powerful instinctual forces of our organisms.

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  For a traumatized person, the journey toward a vital, spontaneous life means more than alleviating symptom s it means transformation. When we successfully renegotiate trauma, a fundamental shift occurs in our beings. Transformation is the process of changing something in relation to its polar opposite. In the transformation between a traumatic state and a peaceful state, there are fundamental changes in our nervous systems, feelings, and perceptions that are experienced through the felt sense. The nervous system swings between immobility and fluidity, emotions fluctuate between fear and courage, and perceptions shift between narrow-mindedness and receptivity. Through transformation, the nervous system regains its capacity for self-regulation. Our emotions begin to lift us up rather than bring us down. They propel us into the exhilarating ability to soar and fly, giving us a more complete view of our place in nature. Our perceptions broaden to encompass a receptivity and acceptance of what is, without judgment. We are able to learn from our life experiences. Without trying to forgive, we understand that there is no blame. We often obtain a surer sense of self while becoming more resilient and spontaneous. This new self-assuredness allows us to re-lax, enjoy, and live life more fully. We become more in tune with the passionate and ecstatic dimensions of life. This is a profound metamorphosi s a change that affects the most basic levels of our beings. We will no longer view our world through fearful eyes. Though our planet can be a dangerous place, we will no longer suffer from the constant fear that creates hypervigilanc e a feeling that danger always lurks and the worst often happens. We begin to face life with a developing sense of courage and trust. The world becomes a place where bad things may happen but they can be overcome. Trust, rather than anxiety, forms the field in which all experience occurs. Transformation ripples out into every corner of our lives, much like the debilitating effects of trauma once did. Tim Cahill, the adventurer and writer, puts it this way, “I put my life on the line to save my soul. ” [9] In trauma we have already put our lives on the line, but the reward of salvation is yet to be claimed. Two Faces of Trauma

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  Trauma is a pervasive fact of modern life. Most of us have been traumatized, not just soldiers or victims of abuse or attack. Both the sources and consequences of trauma are wide-ranging and often hidden from our awareness. These include natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, and fires), exposure to violence, accidents, falls, serious illnesses, sudden loss (i.e., a loved one), surgical and other necessary medical and dental procedures, difficult births, and even high levels of stress during gestation. Fortunately, because we are instinctual beings with the ability to feel, respond, and reflect, we possess the innate potential to heal even the most debilitating traumatic injuries. I am convinced, as well, that we as a global human community can begin to heal from the effects of large-scale social traumas such as war and natural disaster. It’s About Energy Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the “triggering” event itself. They stem from the frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and spirits. The long-term, alarming, debilitating, and often bizarre symptoms of PTSD develop when we cannot complete the process of moving in, through and out of the “immobility” or “freezing” state. However, we can thaw by initiating and encouraging our innate drive to return to a state of dynamic equilibrium. Let’s cut to the chase. The energy in our young impala’s nervous system as it flees from the pursuing cheetah is charged at seventy miles an hour. The moment the cheetah takes its final lunge, the impala collapses. From the outside, it looks motionless and appears to be dead, but inside, its nervous system is still supercharged at seventy miles an hour. Though it has come to a dead stop, what is now taking place in the impala’s body is similar to what occurs in your car if you floor the accelerator and stomp on the brake simultaneously. The difference between the inner racing of the nervous system (engine) and the outer immobility (brake) of the body creates a forceful turbulence inside the body similar to a tornado. This tornado of energy is the focal point out of which form the symptoms of traumatic stress. To help visualize the power of this energy, imagine that you are making love with your partner, you are on the verge of climax, when suddenly, some outside force stops you. Now, multiply that feeling of withholding by one hundred, and you may come close to the amount of energy aroused by a life-threatening experience. A threatened human (or impala) must discharge all the energy mobilized to negotiate that threat or it will become a victim of trauma. This residual energy does not simply go away. It persists in the body, and often forces the formation of a wide variety of symptoms e.g., anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic and behavioral problems. These symptoms are the organism’s way of containing (or corralling) the undischarged residual energy.

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

  "In fine, that I may not approach your Holiness empty-handed, I bring with me this little book,255 published under your name, as a good omen of the establishment of peace and of good hope. By this you may perceive in what pursuits I should prefer and be able to occupy myself to more profit, if I were allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your impious flatterers. It is a small book, if you look to the paper; but, unless I mistake, it is a summary of the Christian life put together in small compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my poverty, have no other present to make you; nor do you need any thing else than to be enriched by a spiritual gift. I commend myself to your Holiness, whom may the Lord Jesus preserve for ever. Amen. "Wittenberg, 6th September, 1520." § 47. The bull of Excommunication. June 15, 1520. The bull "Exurge, Domine," in the Bullarium Romanum, ed. CAR. Cocquelines, Tom. III., Pars III. (ab anno 1431 ad 1521), pp. 487–493, and in Raynaldus (continuator of Baronius): Annal. Eccl., ad ann. 1520, no. 51 (Tom. XX. fol. 303–306). Raynaldus calls Luther "apostatam nefandissimum," and takes the bull from Cochlaeus, who, besides Eck and Ulemberg (a Protestant apostate), is the chief authority for his meager and distorted account of the German Reformation. A copy of the original edition of the bull is in the Astor Library, New York. See Notes. U. v. Hutten published the bull with biting glosses: Bulla Decimi Leonis contra errores Lutheri et sequacium, or Die glossirte Bulle (in Hutten’s Opera, ed. Böcking, V. 301–333; in the Erl. ed. of Luther’s Op. Lat., IV. 261–304; also in German in Walch, XV. 1691 sqq.; comp. Strauss: U. v. Hutten, p. 338 sqq.). The glosses in smaller type interrupt the text, or are put on the margin. Luther: Von den neuen Eckischen Bullen und Lügen (Sept. 1520); Adv. execrabilem Antichristi bullam (Nov. 1520); Wider die Bullen des Endchrists (Nov. 1520; the same book as the preceding Latin work, but sharper and stronger); Warum des Papsts und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind (Lat. and Germ., Dec. 1520); all in Walch, XV. fol. 1674–1917; Erl. ed., XXIV. 14–164, and Op. Lat. V. 132–238; 251–271. Luther’s letters to Spalatin and others on the bull of excommunication, in De Wette, I. 518–532. Ranke: I. 294–301. Merle D’Aubigné, bk. VI. ch. III. sqq. Hagenbach, III. 100–102. Kahnis: I. 306–341. Köstlin: I. 379–382. Kolde: I. 280 sqq. Janssen: II. 108 sqq. After the Leipzig disputation, Dr. Eck went to Rome, and strained every nerve to secure the condemnation of Luther and his followers.256 Cardinals Campeggi and Cajetan, Prierias and Aleander, aided him. Cajetan was sick, but had himself carried on his couch into the sessions of the consistory. With considerable difficulty the bull of excommunication was drawn up in May, and after several amendments completed June 15, 1520.257