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 The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  135 Religious Developments of the Exile Lecture 19 W hen we think of the Bible today, we associate it with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, known as the “religions of the book.” They are also known as the three great monotheistic faiths. This last association has led many people to assume that the Bible reflects monotheism. And if the Bible is monotheistic, it should logically follow that ancient Israel, the culture that produced the Bible, was also monotheistic. In this lecture, we will define monotheism and examine its development in biblical writings. This topic is appropriate as our closing lecture for the exilic period because the clearest articulation of monotheism in the Bible occurs in the writings of an exilic prophet known as Second Isaiah. Second Isaiah • Second Isaiah begins his book with an announcement of the end of exile in Babylonia (Isa. 40:1–2). Jerusalem has served her term of punishment for the sins that resulted in conquest and exile; now that she has been pardoned, she can look forward to the return of her exiled children. • In Isaiah 45, we learn the reason for the change in Jerusalem’s fortunes. Cyrus, the king of Persia, has emerged as a force that may take down Babylonia (which occurred in 539 B.C.E.) and will inaugurate a new policy whereby exiled people are allowed to return to their homelands. o Isaiah sees Cyrus as the “anointed one” of the Israelite god (Isa. 45:1). In Hebrew, “anointed one” is meshiah, meaning “messiah.” o Isaiah later quotes his god saying to Cyrus, “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me” (Isa. 45:4).

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

  Is. Aug. Dorner: On the formal, and the material Principle of the Reformation. Two essays, first published in 1841 and 1857, and reprinted in his Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1883, p. 48–187. Also his History of Protestant Theology, Engl. trans. 1871, 2 vols. Phil. Schaff: The Principle of Protestantism, Chambersburg, Penn., 1845 (German and English); Protestantism and Romanism, and the Principles of the Reformation, two essays in his "Christ and Christianity," N. York, 1885. p. 124–134. Also Creeds of Christendom, Vol. I. 203–219. Dan. Schenkel: Das Princip des Protestantimus. Schaffhausen, 1852 (92 pages). This is the concluding section of his larger work, Das Wesen des Protestantismus, in 3 vols. K. F. A. Kahnis: Ueber die Principien des Protestatismus. Leipzig, 1865. Also his Zeugniss von den Grundwahrheiten des Protestantismus gegen Dr. Hengstenberg. Leipzig, 1862. Charles Beard: The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in its relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge. Hibbert Lectures for 1883. London, 1883. A Unitarian view, written with ample learning and in excellent spirit. Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim: First Principles of the Reformation, or the 95 Theses and three Primary Works of Dr. M. Luther. London, 1885. The literature on the difference between Lutheran and Reformed or Calvinistic Protestantism is given in Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, l. 211. The spirit and aim of evangelical Protestantism is best expressed by Paul in his anti-Judaistic Epistle to the Galatians: "For freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage." Christian freedom is so inestimable a blessing that no amount of abuse can justify a relapse into a state of spiritual despotism and slavery. But only those who have enjoyed it, can properly appreciate it. The Reformation was at first a purely religious movement, and furnishes a striking illustration of the all-pervading power of religion in history. It started from the question: What must a man do to be saved? How shall a sinner be justified before God, and attain peace of his troubled conscience? The Reformers were supremely concerned for the salvation of the soul, for the glory of Christ and the triumph of his gospel. They thought much more of the future world than of the present, and made all political, national, and literary interests subordinate and subservient to religion.6 Yet they were not monks, but live men in a live age, not pessimists, but optimists, men of action as well as of thought, earnest, vigorous, hopeful men, free from selfish motives and aims, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, equal to any who had preceded them since the days of the Apostles. From the centre of religion they have influenced every department of human life and activity, and given a powerful impulse to political and civil liberty, to progress in theology, philosophy, science, and literature.

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

  The North had no Dante and Petrarca and Boccaccio or Thomas Aquinas, but it had its Tauler and Thomas à Kempis and its presses sent forth the first Greek New Testament. This was a positive preparation for the coming age as much as the Greek language was a preparation for the spread of Christianity through Apostolic preaching in the 1st century. German printers went to Rome in 1467 and as far as Barcelona. In his work on the new invention,1507, Wimpheling1348 declared "that as the Apostles went forth of old, so now the disciples of the sacred art go forth from Germany into all lands and their printed books become heralds of the Gospel, preachers of the truth and wisdom." Germany became the intellectual market of Europe and its wares went across the North Sea to that little kingdom which was to become the chief bulwark of Protestantism. In vain did Leo X. set himself against the free circulation of literature.1349 The Greek edition of the New Testament and the printing-press,—that invention which cleaves all the centuries in two and yet binds all the centuries together—were the two chief providential instruments made ready for Martin Luther. But he had to find them. They did not make him a reformer, the leader of the new age. Erasmus, whom Janssen mercilessly condemns, remained a moralizer. He lacked both the passion and the heroism of the religious reformer. The religious reformer must be touched from above. Reuchlin, Erasmus and Gutenberg prepared the outward form of the Greek and Hebrew Bible. Luther discovered its contents, and made them known. Such were the complex forces at work in the closing century of the Middle Ages. The absolute jurisdiction of the papacy was solemnly reaffirmed. The hierarchy virtually constituted the Church. Religious dissent was met with compulsion and force, not by persuasion and instruction. Coercion was substituted for individual consent. Popular piety remained bound in the old forms and was strong. But there were sounds of refreshing rills, flowing from the fresh fountain of the water of life, running at the side of the old ceremonials, especially in the North. The Revival of Letters aroused the intellect to a sense of its sovereign rights. The movement of thought was greatly accelerated by the printed page. The development of trade communicated unrest. But the lives of the popes, as we look back upon the age, forbade the expectation of any relief from Rome. The Reformatory councils had contented themselves with attempts to reform the administration of the Church. Nevertheless, though men did not see it, driftwood as from a new theological continent was drifting about and there were prophetic voices though the princes of the Church listened not to them. What was needed was not government, was not regulations but regeneration. This the hierarchy could not give, but only God alone.1350

• From Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)

  Trauma need not be a life sentence. Of all the maladies that attack the human organism, trauma may ultimately be one that is recognized as beneficial. I say this because in the healing of trauma, a transformation takes plac e— one that can improve the quality of life. Healing doesn’t necessarily require sophisticated drugs, elaborate procedures, or long hours of therapy. When you understand how trauma occurs and when you learn to identify the mechanisms that prevent it from resolving, you will also begin to recognize the ways in which your organism attempts to heal itself. By using a few simple ideas and techniques, you can support rather than impede this innate capacity for healing. The tools presented here will help you move through the trauma and continue on your way with a fuller, more sure sense of yourself. While trauma can be hell on earth, trauma resolved is a gift of the god s— a heroic journey that belongs to each of us. No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. from Women Who Run With The Wolves Section I. The Body As Healer …our mind still has its darkest Africas, its unmapped Borneos and Amazonian basins. Aldous Huxley 1. Shadows From a Forgotten Past Nature’s Plan A herd of impala grazes peacefully in a lush wadi. Suddenly, the wind shifts, carrying with it a new, but familiar scent. The impala sense danger in the air and become instantly tensed to a hair trigger of alertness. They sniff, look, and listen carefully for a few moments, but when no threat appears, the animals return to their grazing, relaxed yet vigilant. Seizing the moment, a stalking cheetah leaps from its cover of dense shrubbery. As if it were one organism, the herd springs quickly toward a protective thicket at the wadi’s edge. One young impala trips for a split second, then recovers. But it is too late. In a blur, the cheetah lunges toward its intended victim, and the chase is on at a blazing sixty to seventy miles an hour. At the moment of contact (or just before), the young impala falls to the ground, surrendering to its impending death. Yet, it may be uninjured. The stone-still animal is not pretending to be dead. It has instinctively entered an altered state of consciousness shared by all mammals when death appears imminent. Many indigenous peoples view this phenomenon as a surrender of the spirit of the prey to the predator, which, in a manner of speaking, it is.

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

  Remarkable the Middle Ages were for their bold enterprises in thought and action and they are an important part of the history of the Church. We acknowledge our debt, but their superstitions and errors we set aside as we move on in the pathway of a more intelligent devotion and broader human, sympathies, towards an age when all who profess the Gospel shall unite together in the unity of the faith in the Son of God. Remarkable the Middle Ages were for their bold enterprises in thought and action and they are an important part of the history of the Church. We acknowledge our debt, but their superstitions and errors we set aside as we move on in the pathway of a more intelligent devotion and broader human, sympathies, towards an age when all who profess the Gospel shall unite together in the unity of the faith in the Son of God. VOLUME VII. MODERN CHRISTIANITY -THE GERMAN REFORMATION———— This is a reproduction of the Second Edition, Revised ———— PREFACE.–––––––– I publish the history of the Reformation in advance of the concluding volume on the Middle Ages, which will follow in due time. The Reformation was a republication of primitive Christianity, and the inauguration of modern Christianity. This makes it, next to the Apostolic age, the most important and interesting portion of church history. The Luther and Zwingli celebrations of 1883 and 1884 have revived its memories, and largely increased its literature; while scholars of the Roman Church have attempted, with great ability, an ultramontane reconstruction of the history of Germany and Europe during the period of the Reformation. The Cultur-Kampf is still going on. The theological battles of the sixteenth century are being fought over again in modern thought, with a slow but steady approach to a better understanding and filial settlement. Protestantism with its freedom can afford to be fair and just to Romanism, which is chained to its traditions. The dogma of papal infallibility is fatal to freedom of investigation. Facts must control dogmas, and not dogmas facts. Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is the aim of the historian; but truth should be told in love (Eph. 4:15). The signs of the times point to a new era in the ever onward March of Christ’s kingdom. God alone foreknows the future, and sees the end from the beginning. We poor mortals know only "in part," and see "in a mirror, darkly." But, as the plans of Providence unfold themselves, the prospect widens, old prejudices melt away, and hope and charity expand with our vision. The historian must be impartial, without being neutral or indifferent. He must follow the footsteps of Divine Providence, which shapes our ends, and guides all human events in the interest of truth, righteousness, and peace.

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

  Notes. I. The Prayer of the Roman Church from the newly recovered portion of the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, ch. 59–61 (in Bishop Lightfoot’s translation, St. Clement of Rome, Append. pp. 376–378): "Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope on Thy Name which is the primal source of all creation, and open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know Thee, who alone abidest Highest in the highest, Holy in the holy; who layest low the insolence of the proud: who scatterest the imaginings of nations; who settest the lowly on high, and bringest the lofty low; who makest rich and makest poor; who killest and makest alive; who alone art the Benefactor of spirits and the God of all flesh; who lookest into the abysses, who scannest the works of man; the Succor of them that are in peril, the Saviour of them that are in despair; the Creator and Overseer of every spirit; who multipliest the nations upon earth, and hast chosen out from all men those that love Thee through Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through whom Thou didst instruct us, didst sanctify us, didst honor us. We beseech Thee, Lord and Master, to be our help and succor. Save those among us who are in tribulation; have mercy on the lowly; lift up the fallen; show Thyself unto the needy; heal the ungodly; convert the wanderers of Thy people; feed the hungry; release our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort the faint-hearted. Let all the Gentiles know that Thou art God alone, and Jesus Christ is Thy Son, and we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pastures "Thou through Thine operation didst make manifest the everlasting faithful of the world. Thou, Lord, didst create the earth. Thou art faithful throughout all generations, righteous in Thy judgments, marvellous in strength and excellence. Thou that art wise in creating and prudent in establishing that which Thou hast made, that art good in the things which are seen and faithful with them that trust on Thee, pitiful and compassionate, forgive us our iniquities and our unrighteousnesses and our transgressions and shortcomings. Lay not to our account every sin of Thy servants and Thine handmaids, but cleanse us with the cleansing of Thy truth, and guide our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and singleness of heart, and to do such things as are good and well- pleasing in Thy sight and in the sight of our rulers. Yea Lord, make Thy face to shine upon us in peace for our good, that we may be sheltered by Thy mighty hand and delivered from every sin by Thine uplifted arm. And deliver up from them that hate us wrongfully.

• 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)

  Pindar and Virgil have embellished the picture; but even those poets, though more correct than their great model, are guilty of very strange inconsistencies."1103 Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch rose highest among the ancient philosophers in their views of the future life, but they reached only to belief in its probability—not in its certainty. Socrates, after be was condemned to death, said to his judges: "Death is either an eternal sleep, or the transition to a new life; but in neither case is it an evil;"1104 and he drank with playful irony the fatal hemlock. Plato, viewing the human soul as a portion of the eternal, infinite, all-pervading deity, believed in its pre-existence before this present life, and thus had a strong ground of hope for its continuance after death. All the souls (according to his Phaedon and Gorgias, pass into the spirit-world, the righteous into the abodes of bliss, where they live forever in a disembodied state, the wicked into Tartarus for punishment and purification (which notion prepared the way for purgatory). Plutarch, the purest and noblest among the Platonists, thought that immortality was inseparably connected with belief in an all-ruling Providence, and looked with Plato to the life beyond as promising a higher knowledge of, and closer conformity to God, but only for those few who are here purified by virtue and piety. In such rare cases, departure might be called an ascent to the stars, to heaven, to the gods, rather than a descent to Hades. He also, at the death of his daughter, expresses his faith in the blissful state of infants who die in infancy. Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions and treatise De Senectute, reflects in classical language "the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul." Though strongly leaning to a positive view, he yet found it no superfluous task to quiet the fear of death in case the soul should perish with the body. The Stoics believed only in a limited immortality, or denied it altogether, and justified suicide when life became unendurable. The great men of Greece and Rome were not influenced by the idea of a future world as a motive of action. During the debate on the punishment of Catiline and his fellow-conspirators, Julius Caesar openly declared in the Roman Senate that death dissolves all the ills of mortality, and is the boundary of existence beyond which there is no more care nor joy, no more punishment for sin, nor any reward for virtue. The younger Cato, the model Stoic, agreed with Caesar; yet before he made an end to his life at Utica, he read Plato’s Phaedon. Seneca once dreamed of immortality, and almost approached the Christian hope of the birth-day of eternity, if we are to trust his rhetoric, but afterwards he awoke from the beautiful dream and committed suicide. The elder Pliny, who found a tragic death under the lava of Vesuvius,

• From The World of Biblical Israel (2013)

  26 Lecture 3: ancestor Narratives in Genesis “a great nation.” Many will also build wealth in the land to which they are exiled. o And when they return to the land of Judah during the Persian period, they return not as Judah but as all Israel. They, too, are renamed before crossing the river Jordan back into the Promised Land. Hendel, Remembering Abraham, pp. 3–56. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, pp. 55–68. 1. How does a genealogy function as a form of social and political organization? 2. When you read the stories of Genesis and keep in mind the exile as the context within which they were preserved and edited, what new details emerge as significant? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider 27 moses—The Torah’s Central hero Lecture 4 I n the story of Moses, who spent his life in Egypt, we see a repetition of the pattern established with the patriarchs of living outside the Promised Land. Still, we sense geographic movement in Moses’s story, from the rescue of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, to the crossing of the desert wilderness, to the arrival on the banks of the Jordan River. Once again, we must imagine the exiled Judeans telling this story to their children and preserving it in writing. The story of Moses and the divine rescue of an enslaved people would not only build a sense of identity among the exiles, but it would also generate hope for a restored community in the Promised Land. The Call of Moses • The closing chapters of Genesis and the opening chapters of Exodus bridge the Torah’s two stories of origins—the story of the ancestors and the story of Moses—genealogically and religiously. • The story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, locates Joseph in Egypt, where he rises to a position of power in Pharaoh’s court. o During a time of famine, Joseph’s family resettles in Egypt, where Joseph secures their survival through distributing grain from Pharaoh’s storehouses. Genesis ends with the death of Joseph and his deathbed promise to his brothers: “God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (Gen. 50:24). o The book of Exodus opens with the descendants of the house of Jacob being fruitful to the point that “the land was filled with them.” And a pharaoh arises in Egypt “who does not know Joseph”; out of fear of this numerous people, the pharaoh enslaves them.

• 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 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 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

• From Push (1996)

  So ugly, worth nuffin'. I could just sit here wif my muver everyday wif the shades drawed, watching TV, eat, watch TV, eat. Carl come over fuck us'es. Go from room to room, slap me on my ass when he through, holler WHEEE WHEEE! Call me name Butter Ball Big Mama Two Ton of Fun. I hate hear him talk more than I hate fuck. Sometimes fuck feel good. That confuse me, everything get swimming for me, floating like for days sometimes. I just sit in back classroom, somebody say something I shout on 'em, hit 'em; rest of the time I mine my bizness. I was on my way to graduate from I.S. 146 'n then mckface Miz Lichen-stein mess shit up. I..., in my inside world, I am so pretty, like a advertisement girl on commercial, 'n someone ride up here in car, someone look like the son of that guy that got kilt when he was president a long time ago or Tom Cruise—or anybody like that pull up here in a car and I be riding like on TV chile—JeeZUS! It's 8 a.m. o'clock! I know I woketed up at 6 a.m., lord where the time go! I got to get dress for school. I got to be at school by 9 a.m. Today is first day. I been tessed. I been incomed eligible. I got Medicaid card and proof of address. All that shit. I is ready. Ready for school. School something (this nuthin'l). School gonna help me get out dis house. I gotta throw some water on my ass and git up. What I'm gonna wear what I'm gonna wear? One thing I do got is clothes, thanks to my muver's charge at Lane Bryant 'n man sell hot shit. Come to building go from door to door, I got your size he call out in hallway I got your size. I got to get dress. I wear my pink stretch pants? I think so, wif my black pesint blouse. I go splash some water on my ass, which mean I wash serious between my legs and underarm. I don't smell like my muver. I don't. I ain' got no money for lunch or McDonald's for breakfast. I take piece of ham out frigidare, wrap it in aluminum foil, I'll eat it walking down Lenox, not as good as Egg McMuf-fin but beat nuffin'. I double back to my room. On top my dresser is notebook. Ol' Cornrows say bring self, pencil, and notebook. I got self, pencil, and notebook. Can I get a witness! I'm outta here! I always did like school, jus' seem school never did like me. Kinnergarden and first grade I don't talk, they laff at that. Second grade my cherry busted. I don't want to think that now. I look across the street at McDonald's but I ain't got no money so I unwrap ham and take a bite.

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

  and Revel.), Martensen, Rothe, von Hofmann, Löhe, Delitzsch, Volck, Luthardt. 2) On the anti-millennial side—(a) English and American: Bishop Hall, R. Baxter, David Brown (Christ’s Second Advent), Fairbairn, Urwick, G. Bush, Mos. Stuart (on Revel.), Cowles (on Dan. ind Revel.), Briggs, etc. (b) German: Gerhard, Maresius, Hengstenberg, Keil, Kliefoth, Philippi, and many others. See the articles "Millennarianism" by Semisch, and "Pre-Millennarianism" by Kellog, in Schaff-Herzog, vols. II. and III., and the literature there given. The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millennarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment.1160 It was indeed not the doctrine of the church embodied in any creed or form of devotion, but a widely current opinion of distinguished teachers, such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, and Lactantius; while Caius, Origen, Dionysius the Great, Eusebius (as afterwards Jerome and Augustin) opposed it. The Jewish chiliasm rested on a carnal misapprehension of the Messianic kingdom, a literal interpretation of prophetic figures, and an overestimate of the importance of the Jewish people and the holy city as the centre of that kingdom. It was developed shortly before and after Christ in the apocalyptic literature, as the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of Baruch, 4th Esdras, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Sibylline Books. It was adopted by the heretical sect of the Ebionites, and the Gnostic Cerinthus.1161 The Christian chiliasm is the Jewish chiliasm spiritualized and fixed upon the second, instead of the first, coming of Christ. It distinguishes, moreover, two resurrections, one before and another after the millennium, and makes the millennial reign of Christ only a prelude to his eternal reign in heaven, from which it is separated by a short interregnum of Satan. The millennium is expected to come not as the legitimate result of a historical process but as a sudden supernatural revelation. The advocates of this theory appeal to the certain promises of the Lord,1162 but particularly to the hieroglyphic passage of the Apocalypse, which teaches a millennial reign of Christ upon this earth after the first resurrection and before the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.1163 In connection with this the general expectation prevailed that the return of the Lord was near, though uncertain and unascertainable as to its day and hour, so that believers may be always ready for it.1164 This hope, through the whole age of persecution, was a copious fountain of encouragement and comfort under the pains of that martyrdom which sowed in blood the seed of a bountiful harvest for the church.