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

  231Lecture 24—Apocalyptic Faith in the 1800s and Beyond DEFINING THE APOCALYPSE õThe word apocalypse comes from the Greek word for “uncovering.” It means “disclosure,” “lifting the veil,” or “revelation.” The last book of the New Testament is known as the Apocalypse, or Revelation, of St. John. In it, John receives a divine message about the victory of good over evil at the end of human history. The events that are predicted to occur are revealed to him. That’s how people normally use the term revelation—it’s a prophetic message. õChristianity itself began as an apocalyptic movement. Both Jesus and John the Baptist were apocalyptic prophets, and that means they told their followers of an abrupt world change that was right around the corner. This change would overturn the present order and mark the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. õJesus’s message came out of the Jewish apocalyptic tradition, which began in the writings of the ancient Hebrew prophets. Prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel told the ancient Israelites that they had a message straight from God. This message confirmed the final vindication of God’s chosen people, Israel, at a time when God would separate the righteous from the wicked. õThe prophets warned that when that happened, there would be bloody wars. The enemies of Israel would fall, and God would signal this time with a series of natural disasters. õThe New Testament picked up on these themes. For instance, in three of the gospels, there’s a passage known as the Little Apocalypse. Here, the authors give an account of Jesus’s speech to his disciples two days before his own death. In this speech, Jesus tells them about the signs of the last days. õJesus warns them of “wars and rumors of wars,” and says that when Jesus’s followers have preached the gospel to all nations, then the end will come. The earliest Christians believed that this end-time scenario would happen within their own lifetimes, and they would live to see Jesus return to earth.

• From Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (2006)

  Modern relationships are cauldrons of contradictory longings: safety and excitement, grounding and transcendence, the comfort of love and the heat of passion. We want it all, and we want it with one person. Reconciling the domestic and the erotic is a delicate balancing act that we achieve intermittently at best. It requires knowing your partner while recognizing his persistent mystery; creating security while remaining open to the unknown; cultivating intimacy that respects privacy. Separateness and togetherness alternate, or proceed in counterpoint. Desire resists confinement, and commitment mustn’t swallow freedom whole. At the same time, eroticism in the home requires active engagement and willful intent. It is an ongoing resistance to the message that marriage is serious, more work than play; and that passion is for teenagers and the immature. We must unpack our ambivalence about pleasure, and challenge our pervasive discomfort with sexuality, particularly in the context of family. Complaining of sexual boredom is easy and conventional. Nurturing eroticism in the home is an act of open defiance. Notes1: From Adventure to Captivity The original primordial fire: Octavio Paz. 1995. The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism. San Diego, Calif.: Harvest, p. x. Hence the division between the romantics and the realists: Ethel Spector Person. 1988. Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Passion. New York: Penguin. Stephen Mitchell: Stephen A. Mitchell. 2002. Can Love Last?: The Fate of Romance over Time. New York: Norton. Anthony Giddens describes: Anthony Giddens. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. The motivational expert Anthony Robbins: At a workshop in Fiji, 2005. As Stephen Mitchell points out: Can Love Last?, p. 44. In the words of Proust: Marcel Proust, from http://www.quotation spage.com/quote/31288.xhtml. Mark Epstein explains: Mark Epstein. 2005. Open to Desire: Embracing a Lust for Life. New York: Gotham, p. 45. 2: More Intimacy, Less Sex Love and lust: Jack Morin. 1995. The Erotic Mind. New York: HarperCollins, p. 200. Ethel Specter Person writes: Ethel Spector Person. 1988. Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Passion. New York: W.W. Norton, p. 30. Dr. Patricia Love gives voice: Patricia Love and Jo Robinson. 1995. Hot Monogamy: Essential Steps to More Passionate, Intimate Lovemaking. New York: Plume. p. 95. The psychologist Michael Vincent Miller: Michael Vincent Miller. 1995. Intimate Terrorism: The Crisis of Love in an Age of Disillusion. New York: Norton, p. 39. The psychoanalyst Michael Bader: Michael J. Bader. 2002. Arousal: The Secret Logic of Sexual Fantasies. New York: St. Martin’s. The sex therapist Dagmar O’Connor: Dagmar O’Connor. 1986. How to Make Love to the Same Person for the Rest of Your Life and Still Love It. London: Virgin. The psychologist Virginia Goldner: Virginia Goldner. 2004. “Review Essay: Attachment and Eros—Opposed or Synergistic?” Psa Dialogues, 14(3), pp. 381–96. Simone de Beauvoir writes: Simone de Beauvoir. 1952. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, p. 446.

• From In the Dream House (2019)

  Dream House as Road Trip to Savannah It was your idea to go to Georgia over spring break. You’ve never been to the South, not properly, and you’re writing a story about Juliette Gordon Low and her house in Savannah. It’s a twelve-hour drive, a sneeze. Plus, it’s March, and freezing, and it’s been a long winter. You want some sun. So you ask her if she’d like to come with you. She says yes. You buy new underwear at the mall. She gets behind the wheel of your car, and you leave Iowa before the sun rises. You fall asleep almost immediately and when you wake it is snowing and she is speeding. You sit up, pick crust from the edges of your eyes. Road signs indicate that the lane is ending and she has to merge; she makes her move too late and hits a pothole at a diagonal. The tire blows. You are somewhere outside St. Louis. She pulls over; you call AAA. They come and put on the spare, and the guy recommends a place down the road to get a new tire. You do as he suggests, and when it’s done she takes the wheel again, but within a few miles back on the highway the new tire is flat too. You pull into a repair shop exclusively for eighteen-wheelers; there is something hysterical about your tiny Hyundai with all its liberal bumper stickers sitting among those behemoths. It is the early months of 2011; marriage equality is smoldering, catching fire in some states, doused with water in others. The Justice Department says it will no longer enforce the Defense of Marriage Act. Things are happening. As the two of you sit there, you start crying. You are embarrassed that your car has failed you so early in your journey. She apologizes, says it was her fault, and you tell her it wasn’t. “It’s not a great car,” you say, by way of explanation. She laughs. “I guess this is part of the adventure. And we haven’t even gotten there yet!” The mechanic seems to notice the two of you—that is to say, he notices your unbearable levels of queerness, the proximity of your bodies, the constellation formed by those details and the bumper stickers and, maybe, he just has a sixth sense—but he doesn’t say anything, for which you are grateful. He explains that the tire that was sold to you is full of huge, unpatchable holes. He’d put on a new one, but your car takes strange, specific tires in an uncommon size, and you’ll have to go to a bigger city to find them. He puts the spare back on. This time, you drive. Somewhere in Illinois, you get a tire that fits. When you pull into the parking space outside the hotel, she leans over and kisses you. She kisses your top lip, then the lower one, like each one deserves its own tender attention.

• From Momma and the Meaning of Life (1999)

  That is an extreme position, more radical even than Jung’s suggestion, many years ago, that we create a new therapy language for each patient. But radical positions for these radical times. The contemporary managed-care movement in health care poses a deadly threat to the field of psychotherapy. Consider its mandates: (1) that therapy be unrealistically brief, focusing exclusively on outward symptoms rather than on the underlying conflicts that breed those symptoms; (2) that therapy be unrealistically inexpensive (which is punishing both to the professionals who have invested the necessary years for in-depth training and to the patients who are forced to consult inadequately trained therapists); (3) that therapists mimic the medical model and go through the charade of formulating precise medical-like goals and conducting weekly evaluations of them; and (4) that therapists employ only empirically validated therapies (EVTs), thus favoring brief, apparently precise cognitive-behavioral modes that demonstrate symptom alleviation. But of all these wrongheaded and catastrophic assaults on the field of psychotherapy, none is more ominous than the trend toward protocol-driven therapy. Thus, some health plans and HMOs require that the therapist follow a prescribed plan for the course of therapy, at times even a schedule of items to be covered in each of the allowed sessions. The profit-hungry health care executives and their misguided professional advisers assume that successful therapy is a function of information obtained or dispensed rather than the result of the relationship between patient and therapist. This is a grievous error. Of the eighty bereaved men and women I had studied in my research before seeing Irene, not one was like her. None suffered the same constellation of recent (and cumulative) losses—husband, father, mother, friend, godson. None had been traumatized in just the way she had by the earlier loss of a dearly loved sibling. None had had the interdependent relationship she had had with her husband. None had watched a spouse deconstitute, bit by bit, cruelly devoured by a brain tumor. None had been a physician who understood all too well the nature of her husband’s pathology and its prognosis. No, Irene was unique and required a unique therapy, one she and I had to construct together. And it wasn’t that she and I constructed a therapy and then set about employing it—quite the contrary: the project of constructing a new, unique therapy was the therapy itself. I looked at my watch. Where was Irene? I walked to the door of the café and peered out. There she was, a block away, walking hand in hand with a man who must be Kevin. Irene and a man hand in hand. Was it possible? I thought of all the countless hours I had spent trying to reassure her that she was not doomed to being alone, that ultimately there would be another man in her life. God, she had been stubborn!

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

  Just as Conway doesn’t want to see the founders trapped in something that’s failing, the founders shouldn’t want that for their employees. In an ideal world, we would be as rational about our quitting decisions as someone who is fresh to the choice. But we know that we can’t do that. Once you have a history with a choice, with all the accumulated debris that goes along with that, you will be subject to the forces that make it hard to walk away. Essentially, what Ron Conway is doing is offering the fresh perspective to his founders that all of us have trouble seeing when we’re in it. That perspective, and his deft use of kill criteria, are what make him a legendary quitting coach. (Over) Optimism Helen Keller said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” This belief that optimism will get you to where you want to go faster is deeply embedded in popular culture, as evidenced by a host of perennial bestsellers, such as Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and The Secret, to name just a few. Combined, these three titles alone have sold over seventy-four million copies. And let’s not forget the classic children’s book The Little Engine That Could, with its message of “I think I can.” The mandate, soaked up by a massive audience, is unchanged. Just believe in yourself and your chances of success will increase. Even William James, the father of modern psychology, said, “Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.” James believed in the power of positive visualization, which he described with an example involving, of all things, mountaineering. He asserted that if you’re climbing a mountain and get stuck in a spot where you need to take a “bold dangerous leap,” you should imagine that you can do it, that confidence will help you succeed. But if you waver through self-doubt, you’ll leap in despair and fall into a crevasse. Don Moore, a professor at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, has called out the absurdity of James’s example. In his 2020 book, Perfectly Confident, Moore makes the point that even if optimism helps you in that situation, there must be limits to how much it helps. Let’s say that sufficiently energetic optimism could help you leap a six-foot crevasse. If

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  lived or even her health itself was her writing, expressing all of the ideas and impressions she had accumulated in her short life. She had so many more stories to write, and another novel or two. Perhaps, in some strange way, this forced return home was a blessing in disguise, part of some other plan for her. In her room at Andalusia, far from the world, she would have no possible distractions. She would make it clear to her mother that those two or more hours of writing in the morning were sacred to her and she would not tolerate any interruptions. Now she could focus all her energy on her work, get even deeper into her characters, and bring them to life. Back in the heart of Georgia, listening closely to visitors and farmhands, she would be able to hear the voices of her characters, their speech patterns, reverberating in her head. She would feel even more deeply connected to the land, to the South, which obsessed her. As she moved about in these first months back home, she began to feel the presence of her father—in photographs, in objects that he cherished, in notebooks of his that she discovered. His presence haunted her. He had wanted to become a writer; she knew that. Perhaps he had wanted her to succeed where he had failed. Now the fatal disease they shared tied them together even more tightly; she would feel the same form of pain that afflicted his body. But she would write and write, insensitive to the pain, somehow realizing the potential that her father had seen in her as a child. Thinking in this way, she realized she had no time to waste. How many more years would she live and have the energy and clarity to write? Being so focused on her work would also help rid her of any anxiety about the illness. When she was writing, she could completely forget herself and inhabit her characters. It was a religious-like experience of losing the ego. As she wrote to a friend with the news of her illness, “I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing.” There were other blessings to count as well: Knowing early on about her disease, she would have time to get used to the idea of dying young, and it would lessen the blow; she would relish every minute, every experience, and make the most of her limited encounters with outsiders. She could not expect much from life, so everything she got would mean something. No need to complain or feel self-pity—everyone had to die at some point. She would find it easier now to not take so seriously the petty concerns that seemed to roil others so much. She could even look at herself and laugh at her own pretensions as a writer, and mock how ridiculous she looked with her bald head, stumbling around with a cane.

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

  313 LECTURE 32 LIBER ATION THEOLOGIES IN LATIN AMERICA I n 1910, two Swedish-American Pentecostals attended a revival in South Bend, Indiana. There, they received a prophecy that they were sure came straight from the Holy Spirit: They were told to do good works in a place called Pará. That is a state in the north-central part of Brazil—a very Catholic country, with only a handful of Protestants. But these Swedes were determined. They went to Pará. A few years after they got there, they connected with the brand-new American denomination, the Assemblies of God, and launched it in Brazil. Today, more than 20 million Brazilians belong to an Assemblies of God church. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, Protestants of various denominations make up about 20 percent of the Latin American population. That’s remarkable growth, but Latin American Protestants are still a minority in a Catholic civilization, one with a complicated political history in which church and state have always been deeply intertwined. This lecture traces the dynamics between the growing Protestant population and the political turmoil of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, as well as the evolving attitude of Catholics toward religious pluralism. 314The History of Christianity II EARLY IMMIGRANTS õA handful of Protestant immigrants came to Latin America as early as the 16 th century. In fact, John Calvin himself sent a small team of pastors and theology students to Brazil in the 1550s. But these efforts were pretty limited and generally didn’t go well. õA different plot line begins in the early 19 th century, as the countries of Latin America gradually won their independence from Europe. The ruling elite in countries like Argentina and Brazil wanted to modernize their economies. Members of this elite were, of course, Catholic and were completely sure that Protestants were heretics. õHowever, some of them argued that offering limited religious freedom to new immigrants could serve a practical purpose: It would attract wealthy Protestant traders and businessmen who would see Latin America as a promising place to expand their businesses, claim some cheap land, and make money. And to some extent, they were right.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  To read the Bible cognizant that Jesus Christ suffered marginality is to rebel against the assumption of the Euroamerican church that the task of all Bible readers is to discover the one single interpretation of the text, which by definition becomes the interpretation of the dominant culture. To read the Bible from the margins debunks these interpretations and unmasks how they have been used historically to justify the power and privilege of the few at the expense of the many. While the dominant culture may debate the existence of God, people of the margins attempt to ascertain the character of God. Jesus Christ becomes the point of departure in discerning God's character. While the Bible provides crucial revelations of God's character, we must remember that the Bible is not God. To assert the biblical text as divine borders on heresy in the same way that the Israelites confused the raised bronzed serpent with God.29 The purpose of the Bible is to give testimony to Christ's liberative and salvific message. The Bible does not save, only God can. This does not minimize or cheapen the importance of the biblical text; it only puts it in its proper relationship to Jesus Christ, by whom we can behold the character of God. God Sides with Today's Crucified People I have two children, a ten-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl. I love both children deeply and would gladly lay down my life for either one of them. Yet they do one thing that drives me crazy. They love to fight, and not a day goes by that they are not arguing over something trivial. Now, my son is about a foot taller than my daughter, a year older, and a bit stronger. When their verbal fights become physical, my son has the clear advantage. He can easily pin her to the ground and use the privilege of his gender and height to win the confrontation. When I see them physically fighting, I step in, pick him up by the nap of his neck, and defend my daughter. Imagine if my son would look at me and say, “Wait a minute, father, you are being unfair. You are choosing sides; specifically, you are choosing her side. As a father who loves us equally, you should not take sides; it is simply unfair.” You can imagine my response, “I love you dearly, and my taking her side does not mean I love you any less. However, I will side with the one being abused. I will side with the one being oppressed. Not because I love her more but because she is being oppressed, even if it means that I take a stand against you.” Likewise, Christ sides with those who are being oppressed, those who are today's crucified. This means that Christ takes a stand against those who are oppressing them, that is, those from the dominant culture who, due to unwarranted power and privilege, benefit at the expense of the powerless.

• From Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (2006)

  It takes two people to create a pattern, but only one to change it. James gleefully described himself in a later session as “bold and persistent,” and was amazed by how the feeling of being in charge literally charged him up. By taking control he was finally able to lose control. The sexual prison he and Stella had carefully constructed had begun to unlock. Freeing himself from his chronic reactive stance, even momentarily, filled him with hope and gave him a glimpse into the erotic possibilities that lay ahead. For the first time in years he found himself fantasizing about his wife—what they might do together, where they might do it. He reclaimed a part of himself that had been completely lost in anxiety. It’s worth pointing out that in this encounter (and subsequent ones) James had no problem with coming too soon, or even with worrying that he might. When sex feels like an obligation it’s very efficacious to come fast—it brings a quick end to the discomfort. When lovers engage sexually as free agents, turning surrender into an act of self-assertion, there is no need to get it over with. Precipitating the grand finale isn’t so much the point as savoring the mutual trust and intimacy along the way. Premature ejaculation is a misnomer. It is not a matter of timing; it has to do with lack of intent. It would be better described as “involuntary ejaculation.” Once James was in charge of his desire, he was in charge of his ejaculation as well. In an interesting twist to the saga, James also told me that each time he and Stella have made love since beginning therapy it has been after an argument. “I’m a little bothered by that,” he confessed. “I’d like for us to be able to make love without preceding it with whatever that is.” “Anger and excitement have a complicated relationship,” I explain. “Physiologically, anger and arousal have a lot in common. Psychologically, too. In your case, I think the anger emboldens you. It relieves you of compliance, and leaves you feeling more entitled. Anger highlights separateness and is a counterpoint to dependence; this is why it can so powerfully stoke desire. It gives you the distance you need. As a habit it can be problematic, but there’s no denying that it’s a powerful stimulant.” Over the years I’ve met more than a few people like James and Stella, couples whose otherwise colorful relationship teeters on the brink of sensual austerity. Together we investigate the emotional undercurrents of their erotic stagnation. We trace the origins of the blocks as well as the relational dynamics that keep them in place. They find it useful to begin this way, and are comforted to learn that understanding the past can help them change the present. On the Importance of Being Ruthless

• From Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (2006)

  Warren and Stephanie are headed in the right direction, but the forces of eros are not yet aligned. Warren’s most elaborate seduction rituals are thwarted, repeatedly and pitifully, by an unaccommodating home life. There is something absurd about the extent to which their lives revolve around their children: weekends filled with Pee Wee baseball and birthday parties; kids who go to bed a mere half hour before their parents; an open-door policy for the marital bed. In six years, Warren and Stephanie have not spent a single weekend together, away from their kids. They have stopped factoring their own needs into the family budget, and a babysitter is considered a rare luxury rather than a vital necessity. Simply put, they have never carved out the time and space they need to unwind and replenish themselves, either as individuals or as a couple. No longer focused on one another, they have turned to the children to compensate for what they are missing. I have noticed over the years that child-centrality isn’t just a matter of lifestyle; it is sometimes an emotional configuration as well. Children are indeed a source of nurturance for adults. Their unconditional love and utter devotion infuse our lives with a heightened sense of meaning. The problem arises when we turn to them for what we no longer get from each other: a sense that we’re special, that we matter, that we’re not alone. When we transfer these adult emotional needs onto our children, we are placing too big a burden on them. In order to feel safe, kids need to know that there are limits to their power, and to what is surreptitiously asked of them. They need us to have our own loving relationships, in whatever form they take. When we are emotionally and sexually satisfied (at least reasonably so; let’s not get carried away here), we allow our children to experience their own independence with freedom and support. If Warren and Stephanie are going to get their groove back, they need to free themselves, both emotionally and practically, from the disproportionate focus on their kids. Spontaneity is desirable, but the reality of family life demands planning. Couples without kids can initiate sex on a whim, but parents need to be more practical. Be it a regular date night, a weekend away every few months, or an extra half hour in the car, what matters is that couples cordon off erotic territory for themselves. When Warren and Stephanie balk at the idea of premeditated sex, I respond, “Planning can seem prosaic, but in fact it implies intentionality, and intentionality conveys value. When you plan for sex, what you’re really doing is affirming your erotic bond. It’s what you did when you were dating. Think of it as prolonged foreplay—from twenty minutes to two days.”

• From Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (2006)

  Planning has proved to be most useful for Stephanie. She elaborates, “Warren’s idea of a date is this: he approaches me for sex at eleven on Tuesday, and when I turn him down he says, ‘Can we have a date tomorrow night?’ I’ve had to explain to him that, for me, scheduled intercourse is not a date. I need to go out. I want food that someone else has cooked, on dishes that someone else is going to wash. When we go out, we talk, we kiss, we joke. We can finish a sentence without being interrupted. He pays attention to me, and it makes me feel sexy.” Not only do their rendezvous help maintain the emotional connection so critical for Stephanie; they also help her to make the transition from full-time mom to lover. “For so long, my thinking about sex was about how to avoid it. Knowing that Warren and I have a date has helped me to anticipate it instead. I pamper myself. I take a shower, shave my legs, put on makeup. I make a special effort to block the negativity and to give myself permission just to be sexual.” The story of Stephanie and Warren is typical of the effect of parenthood on eroticism, but it is only one among many. It is the story of a straight, white, legally married, middle-class couple whose egalitarian ideals and romantic aspirations were mercilessly undone in the transition from two to three. My work with them isn’t finished. Things have definitely improved, but for this couple, and for this woman, caring for small kids doesn’t agree with eroticism. I suspect that when they reach the next life stage—when the kids are both in school full time and Stephanie is back at work, as she plans—new energy will be released. In the meantime, thinking of this as but one phase in a lifelong relationship helps them remain patient and hopeful. Sexy Mamas Do Exist Today we arrive at parenthood with a sexual identity that’s often fully sprung. All of us benefited when sexuality was cut loose from reproduction. As regular users of birth control, we have been granted the privilege of a risk-free romp that can go on for years. We enjoy desire with impunity, at least for a time, and we expect sexual fulfillment in our committed relationships. For our parents and grandparents, sex after kids probably wasn’t all that different from sex before kids—pregnancy, and the heavy responsibility that went with it, was always a looming possibility. But for baby boomers and all who have followed, parenthood throws a wrench into our liberated, self-gratifying lifestyle. The “baby clash” is all the more galling because we have something to compare it with. “You used to love sex,” “We used to make love for hours,” and “I used to know how to turn you on,” are laments I frequently hear. We’re as flabbergasted as we are resentful when parenthood brings our fun to a screeching halt.

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

  “serve to lay the foundations of the heaven and to strengthen the earth and to renew all the luminaries which are in the firmament;” 21 and the third is “when God’s sanctuary and the Messianic Kingdom are established amongst men.” 22 The final renewal will set in, “when the heavens and the earth shall be renewed” and “all the luminaries shall be renewed.” 23 According to the author of Jubilees there are special locations of God’s dwelling in the new creation: “For the Lord has four places on the earth, the Garden of Eden, and the Mount of the East, and this mountain on which thou art this day, Mount Sinai, and Mount Zion (which) will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth; through it the earth will be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its uncleanness throughout the generations of the world” (4:26). The blessedness 17 OTP 2, trans. Wintermute, 54–5. 18 R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees or The Little Genesis (Jerusalem: Makor, 1972; orig. pub.: London: Black, 1902), 9. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid., 10. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 65 New Creation Motif 65 of the new creation will be accompanied by a renewed study of the law. We read in 23:26, “And in those days the children will begin to study the laws, and to seek the commandments, and to return to the paths of righteousness.” In the new creation human beings will be able to attain the number of years original y designed for them. Jubilees 23:27–29 states: And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst those children of men, till their days draw nigh to one thousand years, and to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days. 28. And there will be no old man, nor one who is not satisfied with his days, for all will be as children and youths. 29. And all their days they will complete and live in peace and in joy, and there will be no Satan nor any evil destroyer; for all their days will be days of blessing and healing. At times we have the impression that in this new creation there is hope not only for Israel but also for the whole world. We recall that in Jub. 19:25 the seed of Abraham and Jacob will be blessed so that “they will serve to establish heaven and to strengthen the earth and to renew all of the lights which are above the firmament.” In 22:13 Abraham prays that his seed would have the same new creation blessings “with which he [God] blessed Noah and Adam,” so that they might be a blessing in and for all the earth. In this sense, there is a multiple blessing by God focused on Israel “in the earth” and “for the earth” in the eschatological age. Summary

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  path of least resistance. It induces us to adopt what other people are thinking, losing ourselves in the group. We feel the impulses of the higher self when we are drawn out of ourselves, wanting to connect more deeply with others, to absorb our minds in our work, to think instead of react, to follow our own path in life, and to discover what makes us unique. The lower is the more animal and reactive side of our nature, and one that we easily slip into. The higher is the more truly human side of our nature, the side that makes us thoughtful and self-aware. Because the higher impulse is weaker, connecting to it requires effort and insight. Bringing out this ideal self within us is what we all really want, because it is only in developing this side of ourselves that we humans feel truly fulfilled. The book will help you accomplish this by making you aware of the potentially positive and active elements contained within each law. Knowing our propensity for irrationality, you will learn to become aware of how your emotions color your thinking (chapter 1), giving you the ability to subtract them and become truly rational. Knowing how our attitude in life effects what happens to us, and how naturally our minds tend to close up out of fear (chapter 8), you will learn how to forge an attitude that is expansive and fearless. Knowing you have the propensity to compare yourself with others (chapter 10), you will use this as a spur to excel in society through your superior work, to admire those who achieve great things, and to be inspired by their example to emulate them. You will work this magic on each of the primal qualities, using your expanded knowledge of human nature to resist the strong downward pull of your lower nature. Think of the book in the following way: you are about to become an apprentice in human nature. You will be developing some skills— how to observe and measure the character of your fellow humans and see into your own depths. You will work on bringing out your higher self. And through practice you will emerge a master of the art, able to thwart the worst that other people can throw at you and to mold yourself into a more rational, self-aware, and productive individual. Man wil only become better when you make him see what he is like. —Anton Chekhov 1 Master Your Emotional Self The Law of Irrationality You like to imagine yourself in control of your fate, consciously planning the course of your life as best you can. But you are largely unaware of how deeply your emotions dominate you. They make you veer toward ideas that soothe your ego. They make you look for evidence that confirms what you already want to believe. They make you see what you want to see, depending on your mood,

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

  This passage is a giant leap forward. Not the final leap, obviously, and we still have a long way to go, but in that day, at that time, it was much-needed progress. The Bible doesn’t stop here. By the New Testament, things have progressed so far that men are being commanded to lay down their lives for women. God meets people where they are and invites them to the next stage of enlightenment. And then, when they’ve reached that stage, God invites them to the next stage after that.15 The point of the Deuteronomy and Exodus passages? Sex, in the ancient world, was marriage. If you had sex, you were married. All that needed to be worked out was the legal and financial consequences of what this man and this woman had just done. The physical union was what, in the eyes of society, made them man and wife. At the wedding, then, the party didn’t start until they had sex. Which is a bit different than in our culture. Sometimes when a couple is living together, one of their friends tells them they should make things right in God’s eyes by making their relationship a legal marriage. But maybe it’s already a marriage in God’s eyes, and maybe their having sex has already joined them as man and wife from God’s perspective. This isn’t a low view of sex, it’s a higher view of sex. It’s a higher view of marriage. It’s people living in the reality of the decisions they’ve already made. Back to the wedding. What exactly is it that goes on under the chuppah? Whatever it is, it’s a powerful, sacred, holy thing. It has to be respected at all costs. Often people are unaware of just how serious this bond is, and it suffers—they suffer. Theirs Alone Perhaps the kind-of-famous singer couple who became famous for being married never considered just what they were doing with those cameras. It probably sounded like an interesting idea that would make them lots of money. But many people ended up under the chuppah with them, and they paid for it.16 Because when you give something away, you no longer have it. When a couple shares with others what belongs to the two of them, they pay a price. The power and the mystery and, therefore, the strength of the bond come from the exclusivity. When a couple lets people too far in, when we have experienced what is theirs in some mystical way, they don’t have it anymore. They gave it away. If you do this enough times over a long enough period of time, you’ll end up with nothing that’s yours and yours alone. When a couple first gets married, there are a thousand little adjustments they’re constantly making, a thousand discussions about the details of life, a thousand conversations about trivial things that are actually significant. On their own, these conversations and interactions don’t mean much, but added together, they’re how two become one.

• From Momma and the Meaning of Life (1999)

  Once again Irene nodded to let me know that I had made a reasonably intelligent response. Later in the session, just before we ended, Irene apologized for her remark. The following week she told me of describing the incident to a friend who was aghast at her cruelty toward me, and apologized once again. “No apology was needed,” I reassured her, and I meant it, really meant it. In fact, in a curious way I had welcomed her telling me I sure as hell could see her: it was enlivening; it was real; it brought me closer to her. It was the truth about how she felt toward me. Or part of the truth—and I hoped the time would come when I would hear the rest of it. Irene’s rage, which I first encountered in our second month of therapy, was deep and pervasive. Though it flared only occasionally into the open, it always rumbled just below the surface. At first I wasn’t much concerned about it. My research had reassured me that such anger was no more worrisome than persistent guilt or regret or denial and would soon dissipate. But in this instance, as often in my work with Irene, the research was misleading. Again and again I have found that “statistically significant” truth (often with the exceptions—the “outliers”—excluded from the calculation for statistical reasons) had little relevance to the truth of my unique encounter with the person of flesh and blood before me. In a session during our third year, I asked, “What feelings did you take home from our last session? Any thoughts about me during the week?” I pose this type of question often as part of my campaign to focus therapeutic attention on the here-and-now—on the encounter between me and the patient. She sat in silence for a while, then asked, “Do you think about me between sessions?” Although this question from a patient, which most therapists dread, is not uncommon, I somehow hadn’t expected it from Irene. Perhaps I hadn’t expected her to care, or at least to acknowledge she cared. “I—I—I often think about your situation,” I stuttered. Wrong answer! She sat for a moment, then stood. “I’m leaving,” she said and stomped out, not failing to slam the door behind her. I saw her through the window, pacing in the garden and smoking a cigarette. I sat and waited. How easy it is for noninteractive therapists, I thought, to deflect that question of hers by such ploys as: “Why do you ask?” or “Why now?” or “What are your fantasies or your wishes about that?” For therapists who are, like me, committed to a more egalitarian, mutually transparent relationship, it’s not so easy. Perhaps because the question reveals the limits of therapeutic authenticity: no matter how genuine therapists try to be, how intimate, how honest, there remains an unbridgeable gap, a fundamental inequality between therapist and patient.

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

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

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  God Is Victorious The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has taught us that God is foremost a liberator, not just from the narrow constraints of “personal sins” but also from the sins of the whole community that wreak havoc on the lives of those who reside on the margins of society. The resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion guarantees victory over the forces of darkness that are bent on imposing structures designed to benefit those with power at the expense of those without. The resurrection insures that while these structures that impose death and misery may appear to triumph in this world, in the end they will crumble. Second, the resurrection also guarantees that Christ is alive, present in this time and space, among the same people with whom he communed during his earthly ministry, “the least of my people.” Thus, from the underside of history, where multitudes are forced to suffer under the yoke of domination, the quest to understand Christ becomes a quest for liberation, liberation from racism, classism, and sexism. Because the experiences of those relegated to the margins of society closely resemble the lot of God's crucified people, their struggle for life and dignity becomes central in interpreting the Christ of the Gospels. To look at a Latino/a Christ, an Amerindian Christ, an Asian Christ, a black Christ, a female Christ, or even a gay Christ subverts the normative white Christ of power and privilege. Just as whites worship a Christ in their own image, it becomes significant to see the divine in the color of those who are oppressed. The white Christ of history has been the Christ who justified the historical reality of conquest, slavery, racism, numerous massacres, imperialism, and colonialism. It was in the name of the white Christ, the Christ who symbolized the protection of white Christian civilization, that atrocities against people on the margins were committed throughout history. For the dominant culture to see and know Jesus, it must search for him among God's crucified people, those most oppressed by structural racism, sexism, and classism. Only then can those with power and privilege find their salvation. CHAPTER 6Jesus SavesEvery semester, without fail, one of my students asks the litmus-test question by which most in my class assess my spirituality and my commitment to the Christian faith. The question simply is, “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” I habitually answer, “No, I have a public relationship with Jesus Christ.” This response usually raises eyebrows as my students attempt to figure out what I mean. I hope that my insistence on stressing a “public relationship” instead of a “personal relationship” helps students realize how their question is a product of their generally Euroamerican culture, which shapes their theological understanding of the biblical text. I attempt to elucidate my comment by telling them about a recent trip I took to Las Vegas.

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

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

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

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

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

  66The History of Christianity II õIn Bamberg, for example, the bishop’s legal advisor was obsessed with witches, particularly stories of their black Sabbath meetings. He mobilized a staff of witch-finding committees and was quite liberal in using torture to get his victims to confess. THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA õA major French victory over the Spanish in 1643 pushed the combatants of the Thirty Years’ War to negotiate. Protestant and Catholic diplomats met separately in two neighboring German cities: the Protestants met in the Protestant city of Osnabrück and Catholics in the Catholic city of Münster. They sent their representatives back and forth. õSince both Osnabrück and Münster are in the region of Westphalia, historians call these parallel negotiations the Congress of Westphalia. The agreements hammered out at Westphalia marked not only the end of the Thirty Years’ War, but a key turning point in the relationship between religion and politics in Europe. õThe pope at the time, Urban VIII, convened the Congress of Westphalia. Urban had two main goals. First, he wanted to stop the killing of Christians, and second, he wanted Europeans to quit fighting so that they could present a united defense against the Ottoman Turks, who were making trouble in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. But the pope refused to deal with Protestants, so he didn’t make a very good mediator. õIn practice, the French diplomats were key to making these negotiations work because of Richelieu’s decision during the war to make alliances with Protestants. Richelieu envisioned a conference that would involve all interested parties, and would divide up the balance of power in the interest of stability rather than trying to crown one single winner. For France and Sweden, the main goal was to weaken the power of the Habsburgs so they couldn’t launch another big war. 67Lecture 7—War and Witchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire õIn the Peace of Westphalia, which delegates finally settled in late 1648, a lot of territory changed hands. France and Sweden meddled in the Holy Roman Empire’s constitution to strengthen the hand of all those hundreds of princes against the emperor. For example, they insisted that the legislature, not the emperor, should have the right to declare war. Individual princes also got the right to make their own alliances with foreign powers. õThe agreement set up a new framework for the peaceful—or at least less violent—coexistence of Protestants and Catholics in the empire. It recognized the rights of reformed Protestants, like the freedom to practice their religion.