Sadness

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

  Benedict had no presentiment of the vast historical importance, which this rule, originally designed simply for the cloister of Monte Cassino, was destined to attain. He probably never aspired beyond the regeneration and salvation of his own soul and that of his brother monks, and all the talk of later Catholic historians about his far-reaching plans of a political and social regeneration of Europe, and the preservation and promotion of literature and art, find no support whatever in his life or in his rule. But he humbly planted a seed, which Providence blessed a hundredfold. By his rule he became, without his own will or knowledge, the founder of an order, which, until in the thirteenth century the Dominicans and Franciscans pressed it partially into the background, spread with great rapidity over the whole of Europe, maintained a clear supremacy, formed the model for all other monastic orders, and gave to the Catholic church an imposing array of missionaries, authors, artists, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes, as Gregory the Great and Gregory VII. In less than a century after the death of Benedict, the conquests of the barbarians in Italy, Gaul, Spain were reconquered for civilization, and the vast territories of Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia incorporated into Christendom, or opened to missionary labor; and in this progress of history the monastic institution, regulated and organized by Benedict’s rule, bears an honorable share. Benedict himself established a second cloister in the vicinity of Terracina, and two of his favorite disciples, Placidus and St. Maurus,387 introduced the "holy rule," the one into Sicily, the other into France. Pope Gregory the Great, himself at one time a Benedictine monk, enhanced its prestige, and converted the Anglo-Saxons to the Roman Christian faith, by Benedictine monks. Gradually the rule found so general acceptance both in old and in new institutions, that in the time of Charlemagne it became a question, whether there were any monks at all, who were not Benedictines. The order, it is true, has degenerated from time to time, through the increase of its wealth and the decay of its discipline, but its fostering care of religion, of humane studies, and of the general civilization of Europe, from the tilling of the soil to the noblest learning, has given it an honorable place in history and won immortal praise. He who is familiar with the imposing and venerable tomes of the Benedictine editions of the Fathers, their thoroughly learned prefaces, biographies, antiquarian dissertations, and indexes, can never think of the order of the Benedictines without sincere regard and gratitude.

• From The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography (2008)

  Not having a real sexual partner is another situation that can stimulate interest in and heavy involvement with porn. Len is a typical example. He clearly sees porn as a substitute for a real relationship. He said, “I live alone. I don’t have a girlfriend. Porn provides me with sexual excitement and release. I use it as a sexual outlet, pretty much on a daily basis. I expect I’ll continue along about the same unless I should enter a relationship.” When porn is used as a way to cope with relationship, sexual, and other life stresses, other coping techniques that would be healthier and less likely to result in serious problems don’t have a chance to be fully explored and developed. Porn use seems like an easy fix to our problems because it can work quickly and well in the moment. But just like with mood-altering drugs, porn can eventually lead us to dependence and addiction. And if we learn to depend on porn instead of using our own coping skills, we end up falling deeper and deeper into a relationship with it. 4. Difficulty with Intimacy Another factor that accelerates porn use is having difficulty with intimate relationships. Many of the people we counsel and talk with who have developed serious problems with porn will say things like, “Intimate relationships are too much work,” “I’m not comfortable sharing how I feel,” “Sex is about having a good time, not about love,” and “There is no way I could be fully truthful in an intimate relationship.” Porn can be an attractive sexual outlet for anyone who dislikes or is uncomfortable opening up to another human being, being vulnerable with others, or caring for someone else’s needs and desires. Real relationships are work. Porn comes easy, so to speak. As Pastor Jim Thomas shared, “In porn, the sexual response occurs outside the context of a relationship. This feels preferable to some boys and men who don’t know how or are afraid to get close to a female. Sexually, males are hardwired to be able to go right from their eyes to their reproductive organs. With porn, they get the message that it’s okay to react like that on their own. Porn use becomes a way they can experience sex without the complexities of a relationship.” A primary reason Jackson, a twenty-six-year-old law clerk, increased his involvement with porn was because it shielded him from possible criticism and rejection. He said, “When I’m doing porn I don’t have to perform sexually or worry about pleasing my partner. My celluloid girlfriends and the women on the other end of the telephone in phone sex feel safe. The stakes are lower. And, I don’t have to worry about being a failure if I climax quickly or before they do. In real life relationships I don’t have this sense of absolute freedom to focus on me.”

• From Opening Up by Writing It Down (2016)

  Many, perhaps most, of the issues that will be brought up will be those that are not yet fully resolved or understood. Finally, the dreams that you have tonight will probably reflect certain unresolved fears, urges, or thoughts that you are currently living with. Major tasks or goals in our lives are difficult to resolve or complete. Consider what researchers find to be some of the more common life tasks that we set for ourselves: to love and to be loved; to make the world a better place; to raise healthy and happy children; to succeed professionally and financially; to be honest with ourselves and others. As if these tasks weren’t difficult enough to accomplish, imagine the problems we face when confronted with an overwhelming trauma. Divorce, death of a loved one, financial ruin, public humiliation, or some other upheaval can disrupt an entire series of life tasks. If our marriage is falling apart, for example, we have to deal with our life goals of being permanently married, being loved, raising happy children, succeeding financially, and so forth. Traumas, according to this approach, represent interruptions of life tasks. If people naturally seek completion of disrupted tasks, the changes that occur following an unexpected trauma become far more understandable. Among people in the midst of a divorce, it makes good sense that they would ruminate, talk, and dream about the many aspects of their lives touched by the breakup of their relationship. Thoughts and dreams have long been considered symbolic ways of completing unresolved life tasks. One function of dreams, Freud claimed, was wish fulfillment. More recent thinkers have suggested that dreams can help us work through uncompleted life tasks. But thoughts and dreams do more than attain completion of a disrupted task. If our closest friend is killed by a drunk driver, we also have to accept that the event happened and that our lives will inexorably be different than we had planned. Our thoughts wander from “if only I had done this or if my friend had done that” to asking why this happened. In other words, we seek to understand why the event occurred. More broadly, we try to find meaning to the event and, perhaps, life itself. A motivation closely akin to the need for completion is the basic need to understand the world around us. This need for understanding and meaning is probably central to most vertebrates.

• From The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography (2008)

  It’s not uncommon for the porn relationship to deepen when porn is used as a way to treat unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, sadness, anger, and resentment. Porn became a steady companion for Kevin when he and his ex-wife were having serious marital problems. “As my relationship with my wife worsened, I started going to an adult bookstore,” he shared. “Using pornography helped numb the pain of my struggling marriage.” People suffering from certain psychological conditions, such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and addictive personality are especially vulnerable to developing serious problems with pornography. Todd, for example, told us, “I struggle with attention deficit problems and depression. Pornography is a constant emergency escape. Any time the pressure gets very high at all, boom, porn is there and I don’t have to deal with the real issues going on in my life.” Sexual dissatisfaction with a partner can also trigger a new or deeper relationship with porn. Rather than address sexual concerns directly with a partner, a person turns to porn. This was true for Corey, who entered into a four-year engagement that was not only sexless, but kiss-less as well. Remember how he attributed his sexual frustration with his getting deeper into porn? Some people who are sexually active in a relationship like to keep porn on the back burner, as “plan B” for those times when their partner is absent or otherwise unavailable. A twenty-three-year-old man summed it up well: “Pornography supplements my sexuality. I use it as a reserve backup plan.” And unlike a real-life partner, porn can become the alternative that never says “No” or gets upset about particular sexual needs and interests. Jim, a forty-year-old electrician, found that his porn use increased when he and his wife were undergoing treatment for infertility. At the time he felt pressured to be “sexual on demand.” Jim said, “My wife and I had marked days on the calendar for sex, several days in a row, to be performed at particular times. It created a lot of tension for me. I had to have sex whether I felt like it or not, or the doctor and my wife would be disappointed. I got into porn then because it gave me a feeling of open-ended sexual freedom where I could choose by myself whether to have an orgasm or not.” Sexual difficulties are some of the most common stressors the people we talked with said increased their involvement with porn. Porn can seem like a solution for people suffering from problems such as low sex desire, erectile and orgasmic dysfunction, and reproductive difficulty. Reflecting back on his porn use, Carson, a fifty-five-year-old former professional athlete, told us, “I think I got into porn heavily a few years ago because I didn’t like feeling a lack of sexual drive. I wanted to feel the same genital excitement and urgency I felt when I was young. Having a lack of sex drive made me feel old, weak, and inadequate.”

• From The New Testament (Great Courses) (1997)

  At the same time, it is a little difficult to believe that the author of 1 Peter actually thought that resident aliens were the only people who were Christians in the churches that he addressed (were there no citizens?) or that social outcasts would be the only Christians who would be interested in reading his letter. It is probably best, then, not to press the literal meaning of these designations too far. Many of his addressees may have been resident aliens, but surely not all of them were. One thing that we can say with relative certain- ty about the addressees is that, whether or not they were foreigners, they were Christian believers undergoing suffering, and this author is trying to tell them how to deal with it. The word for "suffering" occurs more often in this short letter than in any other book of the New Testament, even more than in the much longer works of Luke and Acts com- bined. Even where the author is not talking direct- ly about how to handle suffering, he appears to be speaking about it indirectly. Throughout the letter, for example, he urges his readers to live moral lives so that those on the outside can see that they are doing nothing wrong and causing nobody any harm. They are to be obedient slaves, submissive wives, and tender husbands, and they are to obey all governing authority and to be devoted subjects of the emperor. These are not simply pieces of moral advice; they are also guidelines for avoiding perse- cution from suspicious authorities and for putting to shame those who wrongfully cause abuse. The Context of Persecution Those recipients who were literally resident aliens would no doubt have been accustomed to feeling ostracized by society at large. These feelings would have been assuaged to some extent once they joined the Christian community. Here they would have found a home for themselves in the "house- hold of God" (4:17). Joining this new family also would have had a downside, however, in the pub- lic opposition that the group evoked. We have seen that the persecution of Christians in Bithynia-Pontus during the governorship of Pliny erupted at the grassroots level. Corres- pondingly, 1 Peter indicates that Christians are principally opposed by their former colleagues and friends who "are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation" (4:4). That is to say, the Christian converts have caused a good deal of consternation for those with whom they used to spend their time.

• From White Oleander (1999)

  Marvel Turlock led us through her living room dominated by a television set the size of Arizona, where a talk show hostess admonished a huge bearded man with a tattoo, and down a long hall to my new room, a made-over laundry porch with navy-and-green-striped curtains and a ripcord spread on the narrow roll-away bed. I was glad I was high on Percodan, or I might have cried. The little boy tugged at her oversized shirt and whined, like music played on a saw. Back in the TV room, the caseworker spread her papers on the coffee table, ready to bare the details of my life to this hard-faced woman, who told me to take Justin out to play in the backyard in a voice that was used to telling girls what to do.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  without change or end? Thus eschatology has all along been influenced by social causes, while keeping on its own conservative path of tradition. The Jewish people under social and political oppression, and the primitive Church under persecution wept and prayed our eschatology into existence. Our Apocalypse is wet with human tears and must be read that way. Ever since, some sections of eschatology have been vivified, others modified, and some consigned to oblivion through the pressure of social causes. Has not the social consciousness of our age, speaking through the social gospel, also a right to be heard in the shaping of eschatology? Any reformatory force taking hold of eschatology can not expect a fresh start, but must reckon with its traditional contents and its biblical and theological sources. It may clear our path to lay down several propositions about this material coming from the past. 1. In everything contributed by the Old Testament we should seek to distinguish what is due to the divine inspiration of the prophets. We are under no obligation to accept the mythical ideas and cosmic speculations of the Hebrew people, their limited geography, their primitive astronomy, the historical outlook of the book of Daniel, or the Babylonian and Persian ideas which flowed into their religious thought. What has authority for us is the ethical and religious light of men who had an immediate consciousness of the living God, and saw him now and hereafter acting for righteousness, for the vindication of the oppressed classes, and for the purging of the social life of the nation. These elements of the Old Testament carry authority because they are in spiritual consensus with the revelation of God in Christ. 2. We should learn to distinguish clearly between prophecy and apocalypticism. There is as much difference between them as between Paul and Pope Gregory I. From apocalypticism we get the little diagrams which map out the history of the human race on deterministic methods, as if God consulted the clock. From the same source the active belief in demonology, the reliance on miraculous catastrophes, and the blue light of unreality have always come into eschatology. Those who fill their minds with it, thereby tie themselves to all backward things. Apocalyptic believers necessarily insist on the verbal inerrancy of Scripture and oppose historical methods, for their work consists in piecing mosaics of texts. Historically we can appreciate the religious value of apocalypticism in later Judaism, just as we can appreciate the religious value of the belief in transubstantiation or of scholastic theology. But as a present-day influence in religion it is dangerous. It has probably done more to discredit eschatology than any other single influence.

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

  He often preached five days in succession, sometimes twice a day, and set it as the object of his preaching, that all might live with him, and he with all, in Christ. Wherever he went in Africa, he was begged to preach the word of salvation.2153 He faithfully administered the external affairs connected with his office, though he found his chief delight in contemplation. He was specially devoted to the poor, and, like Ambrose, upon exigency, caused the church vessels to be melted down to redeem prisoners. But he refused legacies by which injustice was done to natural heirs, and commended the bishop Aurelius of Carthage for giving back unasked some property which a man had bequeathed to the church, when his wife unexpectedly bore him children. Augustine’s labors extended far beyond his little diocese. He was the intellectual head of the North African and the entire Western church of his time. He took active interest in all theological and ecclesiastical questions. He was the champion of the orthodox doctrine against Manichaean, Donatist, and Pelagian. In him was concentrated the whole polemic power of the catholicism of the time against heresy and schism; and in him it won the victory over them. In his last years he took a critical review of his literary productions, and gave them a thorough sifting in his Retractations. His latest controversial works against the Semi-Pelagians, written in a gentle spirit, date from the same period. He bore the duties of his office alone till his seventy-second year, when his people unanimously elected his friend Heraclius to be his assistant and successor. The evening of his life was troubled by increasing infirmities of body and by the unspeakable wretchedness which the barbarian Vandals spread over his country in their victorious invasion, destroying cities, villages, and churches, without mercy, and even besieging the fortified city of Hippo.2154 Yet he faithfully persevered in his work. The last ten days of his life he spent in close retirement, in prayers and tears and repeated reading of the penitential Psalms, which he had caused to be written on the wall over his bed, that he might have them always before his eyes. Thus with an act of penance he closed his life. In the midst of the terrors of the siege and the despair of his people he could not suspect what abundant seed he had sown for the future.

• From Sense and Sensibility (1811)

  “No—to Combe Magna. I have business there; from thence to town in a day or two. Good bye.” He held out his hand. She could not refuse to give him hers;—he pressed it with affection. “And you do think something better of me than you did?” said he, letting it fall, and leaning against the mantel-piece as if forgetting he was to go. Elinor assured him that she did;—that she forgave, pitied, wished him well—was even interested in his happiness—and added some gentle counsel as to the behaviour most likely to promote it. His answer was not very encouraging. “As to that,” said he, “I must rub through the world as well as I can. Domestic happiness is out of the question. If, however, I am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions, it may be the means—it may put me on my guard—at least, it may be something to live for. Marianne to be sure is lost to me for ever. Were I even by any blessed chance at liberty again—” Elinor stopped him with a reproof. “Well,”—he replied—“once more good bye. I shall now go away and live in dread of one event.” “What do you mean?” “Your sister’s marriage.” “You are very wrong. She can never be more lost to you than she is now.” “But she will be gained by some one else. And if that some one should be the very he whom, of all others, I could least bear—but I will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate goodwill, by showing that where I have most injured I can least forgive. Good bye,—God bless you!” And with these words, he almost ran out of the room. CHAPTER XLV. Elinor, for some time after he left her, for some time even after the sound of his carriage had died away, remained too much oppressed by a crowd of ideas, widely differing in themselves, but of which sadness was the general result, to think even of her sister. Willoughby, he, whom only half an hour ago she had abhorred as the most worthless of men, Willoughby, in spite of all his faults, excited a degree of commiseration for the sufferings produced by them, which made her think of him as now separated for ever from her family, with a tenderness, a regret, rather in proportion, as she soon acknowledged within herself—to his wishes than to his merits. She felt that his influence over her mind was heightened by circumstances which ought not in reason to have weight; by that person of uncommon attraction, that open, affectionate, and lively manner which it was no merit to possess; and by that still ardent love for Marianne, which it was not even innocent to indulge. But she felt that it was so, long, long before she could feel his influence less.

• From While You Were Out (2023)

  With no mother around to fetch us, Mary Kay, Nancy, Jake, and I walked the ten blocks home. The midafternoon temperature was in the sixties, unusually warm for a late November day in Chicago, and storm clouds were gathering in the southwest. I darted from one tree to the next, trying my best not to pee in my pants. They think the Russians did it, Nancy said. She looked around, like they might be hiding behind the next tree and she was letting us in on a top-secret intelligence briefing. Even at ten years old, Nancy was something of a conspiracy theorist. When we arrived at the back door, Grandma was parked at the breakfast room table, per usual, listening to the radio and scanning the afternoon newspaper with her magnifying glass in one hand and shiny brown rosary beads in the other. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the old woman cried out as we paraded into the house. She took off her cat-eye glasses and buried her head in her hands, sobbing, Irish! Catholic! As far as Grandma was concerned, the only thing better than being a Catholic was being an Irish Catholic, and, to her great pride, President Kennedy was both. Are ya Irish? she’d ask any friend who walked through our back door, in her ersatz brogue. Luckily for us, the answer was almost always yes. Our parish directory read like the manifest on the ship that Grandma’s father took from Cork to Ellis Island. We had two families of Sullivans, three of Kellys, Callaghans, O’Connors, O’Connells, O’Hallorans, McHughs, McDonnells, Sheehans, Pritchard, Carews, Burn, Burns, and three families of Byrnes. Classes were canceled every March 17, so we could all celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in sacred style. While my parents guzzled screwdrivers and Bloody Marys at our uncle Joe’s annual bash, we’d ride our bikes past the public school shouting, “SCHOOL SUCKERS!!!” Oh, indeed you kids are lucky to be Irish, Grandma told us, giving no heed to our German last name or that of our mother. We Irish have our faith, Grandma said, and when you have that, you have all you’ll ever need. She mesmerized us with tales of Irish martyrs who’d sooner be burned at the stake than renounce their devotion to Christ. I beamed with pride hearing about my fearless forebears who were willing to have their fingernails ripped off, be split in two by horses, or made to poke out their own eyeballs before they’d turn their backs on the Lord Jesus or his holy church. I hoped someday I’d get my turn to be put to the test like that. Surely, this new dead president was now a martyr, too. I could start praying to him for strength while my mother was gone. We squeezed together on the living room couch in front of the TV a few days later to watch the president’s funeral.

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

  After the conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens, the cultivation and exportation of Egyptian papyrus ceased, and parchment or vellum, which took its place, was so expensive that complete copies of the Bible cost as much as a palace or a farm. King Alfred paid eight acres of land for one volume of a cosmography. Hence the custom of chaining valuable books, which continued even to the sixteenth century. Hence also the custom of erasing the original text of manuscripts of classical works, to give place to worthless monkish legends and ascetic homilies. Even the Bible was sometimes submitted to this process, and thus "the word of God was made void by the traditions of men."800 The libraries of conventual and cathedral schools were often limited to half a dozen or a dozen volumes, such as a Latin Bible or portions of it, the liturgical books, some works of St. Augustin and St. Gregory, Cassiodorus and Boëthius, the grammars of Donatus and Priscianus, the poems of Virgil and Horace. Most of the books had to be imported from Italy, especially from Rome. The introduction of cotton paper in the tenth or eleventh century, and of linen paper in the twelfth, facilitated the multiplication of books.801 § 139. Educational Efforts of the Church. The mediaeval church is often unjustly charged with hostility to secular learning. Pope Gregory I. is made responsible for the destruction of the Bibliotheca Palatina and the classical statues in Rome. But this rests on an unreliable tradition of very late date.802 Gregory was himself, next to Isidore of Seville (on whom he conferred the pall, in 599), the best scholar and most popular writer of his age, and is lauded by his biographers and Gregory of Tours as a patron of learning. If he made some disparaging remarks about Latin grammar and syntax, in two letters addressed to bishops, they must be understood as a protest against an overestimate of these lower studies and of heathen writers, as compared with higher episcopal duties, and with that allegorical interpretation of the Bible which he carried to arbitrary excess in his own exposition of Job.803 In the Commentary on Kings ascribed to him, he commends the study of the liberal arts as a useful and necessary means for the proper understanding of the Scriptures, and refers in support to the examples of Moses, Isaiah, and St. Paul.804 We may say then that he was an advocate of learning and art, but in subordination and subserviency to the interests of the Catholic church. This has been the attitude of the papal chair ever since.805 The preservation and study of ancient literature during the entire mediaeval period are due chiefly to the clergy and monks, and a few secular rulers. The convents were the nurseries of manuscripts. The connection with classical antiquity was never entirely broken. Boëthius (beheaded at Pavia, c.

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

  The Breviary also relates that Dionysius was sent by Pope Clement of Rome to Gaul with Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon; that he was tortured with fire upon a grating, and beheaded with an axe on the 9th day of October in Domitian’s reign, being over a hundred years old, but that "after his head was cut off, he took it in his hands and walked two hundred paces, carrying it all the while!"795 § 138. Prevailing Ignorance in the Western Church. The ancient Roman civilization began to decline soon after the reign of the Antonines, and was overthrown at last by the Northern barbarians. The treasures of literature and art were buried, and a dark night settled over Europe. The few scholars felt isolated and sad. Gregory, of Tours (540–594) complains, in the Preface to his Church History of the Franks, that the study of letters had nearly perished from Gaul, and that no man could be found who was able to commit to writing the events of the times.796 "Middle Ages" and "Dark Ages" have become synonymous terms. The tenth century is emphatically called the iron age, or the saeculum obscurum.797 The seventh and eighth were no better.798 Corruption of morals went hand in hand with ignorance. It is re-ported that when the papacy had sunk to the lowest depth of degradation, there was scarcely a person in Rome who knew the first elements of letters. We hear complaints of priests who did not know even the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. If we judge by the number of works, the seventh, eighth and tenth centuries were the least productive; the ninth was the most productive; there was a slight increase of productiveness in the eleventh over the tenth, a much greater one in the twelfth, but again a decline in the thirteenth century.799 But we must not be misled by isolated facts into sweeping generalities. For England and Germany the tenth century was in advance of the ninth. In France the eighth and ninth centuries produced the seeds of a new culture which were indeed covered by winter frosts, but not destroyed, and which bore abundant fruit in the eleventh and twelfth. Secular and sacred learning was confined to the clergy and the monks. The great mass of the laity, including the nobility, could neither read nor write, and most contracts were signed with the mark of the cross. Even the Emperor Charlemagne wrote only with difficulty. The people depended for their limited knowledge on the teaching of a poorly educated priesthood. But several emperors and kings, especially Charlemagne and Alfred, were liberal patrons of learning and even contributors to literature. Scarcity of Libraries. One of the chief causes of the prevailing ignorance was the scarcity of books. The old libraries were destroyed by ruthless barbarians and the ravages of war.

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

  A few weeks afterwards he died, after reciting several Psalms (51, 16, and 42), the Lord’s Prayer, and other prayers, peacefully, in the presence of his family, Sept. 17, 1575. He was buried in the Great Minster, at the side of his beloved wife and his dear friend, Peter Martyr. According to his wish, Rudolph Gwalter, Zwingli’s son-in-law and his adopted son, was unanimously elected his successor. Four of his successors were trained under his care and labored in his spirit. The writings of Bullinger are very numerous, mostly doctrinal and practical, adapted to the times, but of little permanent value. Scheuchzer numbers one hundred and fifty printed books of his. The Zürich City Library contains about one hundred, exclusive of translations and new editions. Many are extant only in manuscript. He wrote Latin commentaries on the New Testament (except the Apocalypse), numerous sermons on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the Apocalypse. His Decades (five series of ten sermons each on the Decalogue, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Sacraments) were much esteemed and used in Holland and England. His work on the justifying grace of God was highly prized by Melanchthon. His History of the Swiss Reformation, written by his own hand, in two folio volumes, has been published in 1838–’40, in three volumes. His most important doctrinal work is the Second Helvetic Confession, which acquired symbolical authority.319 § 55. Antistes Breitinger (1575–1645). In the same year in which Bullinger died (1575), Johann Jakob Breitinger was born, who became his worthy successor as Antistes of Zürich (1613–1645).320 He called him a saint, and followed his example. He was one of the most eminent Reformed divines of his age. Thoroughly trained in the universities of Herborn, Marburg, Franeker, Heidelberg, and Basel, he gained the esteem and affection of his fellow-citizens as teacher, preacher, and devoted pastor. During the fearful pestilence of 1611 he visited the sick from morning till night at the risk of his life. He attended as one of the Swiss delegates the Synod of Dort (1618 and 1619). He was deeply impressed with the learning, wisdom, and piety of that body, and fully agreed with its unjust and intolerant treatment of the Arminians.321 On his return (May 21, 1619) he was welcomed by sixty-four Zürichers, who rode to the borders of the Rhine to meet him. Yet, with all his firmness of conviction, he was opposed to confessional polemics in an intensely polemic age, and admired the good traits in other churches and sects, even the Jesuits. He combined with strict orthodoxy a cheerful temper, a generous heart, and active piety. He had an open ear for appeals from the poor and the numerous sufferers in the murder of the Valtellina (1620) and during the Thirty Years’ War. At his request, hospitals and orphan houses were founded and collections raised, which in the Minster alone, during eight years (1618–1628), exceeded fifty thousand pounds. He was in every way a model pastor, model churchman, and model statesman.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  In the first generation, and perhaps later, the Lord’s Supper still had an outlook toward the coming of the Lord. We find this still in a significant phrase in Paul, who otherwise emphasized other lines of thought: “For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.” Now, to the larger part of the primitive Church the coming of the Lord signified the coming of the millennial reign of peace and righteousness on earth. The Lord’s Supper was, therefore, connected with the realization of the social ideals and hopes of the Church. The prevalence of prophecy in the charismatic life of primitive Christianity points in the same direction. It acted as an interpretation of the Lord’s Supper. The outlook toward the coming of the Lord became dim as time went on. The eucharistic act was cut loose from the fraternal meal, and that was a great lessening of its social value. The meal was still held occasionally in the evening, but turned into a charitable performance where the rich fed the poor, and it finally ceased. The eucharistic act was connected with the church worship on Sunday morning. It developed sacramental qualities in two directions; it was mystic food, in which the Lord was present and through which his grace and power and immortal life nourished the soul; and it was a sacrifice offered to God. The fact that it was the central mystery of the esoteric ritual of the church made it very important as a bond of unity, but the fraternal feeling of the early days was lessened. It intensified the consciousness of God rather than the consciousness of man. The fraternal meal of Jesus became a chief means of creating the priesthood of the Catholic Church, and the main door through which superstitious beliefs came in. In time it became the mass, in which the priest partook of the bread and wine while the people watched him doing it. He might even go through the whole performance alone, for the benefit of a deceased person, according to the terms of an endowment. Thus the Lord’s Supper lost its meaning because it was in the hands of a body which had neither social outlook nor democratic emotions. The Protestant Reformation concentrated on the reform of the Lord’s Supper. The laity shared more fully in it. The private mass was abolished. Some of the social feeling was restored. But not the social outlook. The act turned backward and not forward. It is an act of remembrance; in it we appropriate the atoning death of our Saviour. Where it is experienced most deeply, it is a mystic act of fellowship between the unseen Lord and the silent soul of the worshipper. For a time the great act of fraternal love became the object of bitter controversial feelings between Catholic and Protestant, and between Lutheran and Calvinist, and exercised a very unsocial and divisive influence.

• From The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (2007)

  Most Jews do have a general familiarity with the stories of Jesus’s birth and death: from postage stamps to mall decorations to the annual fight somewhere in the country about displaying a crèche or a cross on public property. Knowledge of Christian teaching comes from the occasional pronouncement of someone claiming to be, and recognized by the media as, a spokesperson for the church writ large. Such speakers range from the pope to Billy Graham to Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell. Jews who attended U.S. public schools before 1962 may well have recited the Lord’s Prayer (also referred to as the Our Father) every day before or after saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Jews have exclaimed, and in some parts of the country are still expected to exclaim, in song every December, “Born is the king of Is-ra-el”; we continue to get the message that the “faithful, joyful, and triumphant” are those who worship “Christ the Lord.” When the topic turns to postbiblical Christian history, most Jews know the great figures and events of Christianity, although the knowledge is selective. The familiar figures include the Spanish Inquisition’s Torquemada and the Protestant Reformation’s Martin Luther. The former convinced Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand, to expel all Jews (and Muslims) from Spain; Columbus was not the only one who sailed in 1492. The latter is remembered for his 1543 treatise “The Jews and Their Lies,” which begins by citing Gospel texts: He [Jesus] did not call them Abraham’s children, but a “brood of vipers” [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared, “He has a demon” [Matt. 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a “brood of vipers”; furthermore in John 8 he states: “If you were Abraham’s children ye would do what Abraham did. . . . You are of your father the devil” [vv. 39, 44]. It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham’s but the devil’s children, nor can they bear to hear this today. He then advises that these “truly stupid fools” who “lie and blaspheme so monstrously” should have their synagogues burned to the ground, their houses razed, their prayer books and Talmuds taken from them, their rabbis forbidden to teach, and a host of other concerns that cannot help but remind one of Nazi laws. The Vatican has renounced Torquemada’s intolerance; the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and a number of other Lutheran groups have denounced Luther’s anti-Jewish invectives. But the memory remains. Many Jews will recall the erstwhile president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Reverend Bailey Smith, who announced at a 1980 Religious Roundtable national affairs briefing in Dallas, “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.” He also noted that he is “pro-Jew” because “they are God’s special people, but without Jesus Christ, they are lost.” Jews were not much comforted by this notice.

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

  6) Pray for the fatherland, for your dear parents, benefactors, friends, and all men, for the spread of the Word of God; conclude always with the Lord’s Prayer, and use also the beautiful hymn, Te Deum laudamus [which he ascribes to Ambrose and Augustin]. 7) Be reticent, be always more willing to hear than to speak, and do not meddle with things which you do not understand. 8) Study diligently Hebrew and Greek as well as Latin, history, philosophy, and the sciences, but especially the New Testament, and read daily three chapters in the Bible, beginning with Genesis. 9) Keep your body clean and unspotted, be neat in your dress, and avoid above all things intemperance in eating and drinking. 10) Let your conversation be decent, cheerful, moderate, and free from all uncharitableness.317 He recommended him to Melanchthon, and followed his studies with letters full of fatherly care and affection.318 He kept his parents with him till their death, the widow of Zwingli (d. 1538), and two of her children, whom he educated with his own. Notwithstanding his scanty income, he declined all presents, or sent them to the hospitals. The whole people revered the venerable minister of noble features and white patriarchal beard. His last days were clouded, like those of many faithful servants of God. The excess of work and care undermined his health. In 1562 he wrote to Fabricius at Coire: "I almost sink under the load of business and care, and feel so tired that I would ask the Lord to give me rest if it were not against his will." The pestilence of 1564 and 1565 brought him to the brink of the grave, and deprived him of his wife, three daughters, and his brother-in- law. He bore these heavy strokes with Christian resignation. In the same two fatal years he lost his dearest friends, Calvin, Blaurer, Gessner, Froschauer, Bibliander, Fabricius, Farel. He recovered, and was allowed to spend several more years in the service of Christ. His youngest daughter, Dorothea, took faithful and tender care of his health. He felt lonely and homesick, but continued to preach and to write with the aid of pastor Lavater, his colleague and son-in-law. He preached his last sermon on Pentecost, 1575. He assembled, Aug. 26, all the pastors of the city and professors of theology around his sick-bed, assured them of his perseverance in the true apostolic and orthodox doctrine, recited the Apostles’ Creed, and exhorted them to purity of life, harmony among themselves, and obedience to the magistrates. He warned them against intemperance, envy, and hatred, thanked them for their kindness, assured them of his love, and closed with a prayer of thanksgiving and some verses of the hymns of Prudentius. Then he took each by the hand and took leave of them with tears, as Paul did from the elders at Ephesus.

• From A Theology for the Social Gospel (1918)

  life of the Christian group. Baptism was profoundly affected by the great change which came over Christianity when it left its Jewish environment and was assimilated by Greek religious and social life. It was gradually filled with new meanings. It was an act cancelling the guilt of all past sins; an act of regeneration; an act of exorcization, cleansing from the defilement of pagan worship and life. But it was less and less a dedication to the coming Kingdom of God. It still had a great social significance, for it was the act by which the individual stepped out of pagan society and into the fellowship of the Christian group, with its love, its dangers, and its limitations. This change in the meaning and content of baptism was confirmed by the spread of infant baptism since the middle of the second century. The immediate cause for the baptism of young children was the belief that baptism is necessary for salvation, combined with the ever urgent facts of infant mortality. Origen, and still more Augustine, tied up the church practice with the doctrine of original sin. Baptism had been the symbol of a revolutionary hope, an ethical act which determined the will and life of the person receiving it. It was now a ceremony performed on a babe to save it from the guilt and power of original sin and to assure its salvation in heaven in case of its death. Here again new social elements sprang up. The practical necessities of the case created a social backing for the young candidate. Since his own responses were still inarticulate, grown-up sponsors recited the creed and other formulas for him, and this service established a social relationship which often lasted for life. Since the faith of the child was still undeveloped, theology taught that the sponsors and the Church were to supply it. In modern time much finer ideas have been attached to infant baptism. The act is based on the organic unity of the family; the parents thereby dedicate the child to God and pledge themselves to give it Christian nurture; the child is by baptism incorporated into the organism of the Church and made to share in its saving power; the act expresses the consciousness of the Church that the child is a child of God and has a right to claim the divine paternity. These are much more Christian ideas than those which first called infant baptism into existence. Scarcely any Christian institution has experienced such changes and deteriorations as baptism, but of them all the loss of outlook toward the Kingdom of God was one of the most regrettable. Could the social gospel—at least in some instances—fill baptism with its original meaning? We could imagine a minister and a group of candidates who unite in feeling the evil of the present world-order and the promise and claims of the impending Christian

• From What My Bones Know (2022)

  After she left, my father spent a lot of time lying on the floor. I tended to him, coaxing him into bed, yelling at him to wake up. He moved sluggishly and defeatedly, his shoulders slumped as I checked my watch and told him I’d be late for school if he didn’t move faster. I tried to distract him from his pain with movies or shopping or nerding out over Lord of the Rings. But he often turned to me and said with teary eyes, “I wasted my life.” “No, you didn’t,” I said, holding his hand. “Look, you came from nothing! You came to America! You became successful! You have me, right?” “But I never should have married her. What was I thinking? Why? Why? And now maybe she’s a lesbian,” he speculated. “She was probably cheating on me the whole time.” “You didn’t even like her very much. You were always threatening to leave her anyway.” “But I never would have. Because we’re Chinese. Nobody gets divorced in this family. Too much shame. I’m the only one.” “Well, look. You still have lots of life left. You’re really smart and funny. And you were withering away in that marriage anyway. She was so boring! Now, we’re gonna make you cool. Let’s go shopping!” I said, hopping around eagerly, yanking on his hand. I made him drive us to the mall, where I forced him to try on a rack of Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirts. He twirled around in a colorful array of parrots and palm fronds, and I clapped. “Look how young you look! This is more like it!” He giggled and pulled out his credit card. In this way we survived the next two years together. We had to sell the house and move into a much smaller apartment, so we threw away everything that reminded us of my mother—which turned out to be almost everything we owned. All of her ceramic figurines, all the family albums, the piano, the rattan furniture, the batik prints, the teak chests and the linens inside of them, the Magic School Bus books. I picked out a leather couch, chrome light fixtures, and tiki mugs for our new apartment. The result looked like a fourteen-year-old’s bachelor pad—which, in essence, it was. I made him a new, absurdist email address that he accepted without question. I talked him through conflicts with his friends and family, advised him through decisions in his job. I even showed up to bar nights with his pals, and they used me as a parlor trick: How many shots could my fifteen-year-old body take without appearing drunk? Before the divorce, my father used to call me a pet name, Noi Noi. It’s a sweet diminutive for girl. He never called me that after the divorce. I was not a girl. I was his caretaker.

• From Deceptions and Myths of the Bible (1975)

  The only authority for the Bible is the creative process, and now the first element completes its part of it. 19. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba (Chap. 22). Abraham himself is now down where he sent Hagar. “How the mighty have fallen”; we could even say the Almighty. 2. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her (Chap. 23). You may have noticed that there is no account of Eve’s death in the Bible. Then why should Sarah die? Because Sarah and Eve are not identical. Eve is the eternal Earth Mother, still existing, while Sarah is only first-plane substance. Yet, in spite of monotheism, she gives way to the next, which is Rebekah, Isaac’s wife. But she too must go “the way of all” spirit, giving place to Rachel. Such is the process. Here in Canaan, earth, Abraham virtuously bargains for a burial place. In spite of a free gift of land, he insists on paying for it—honest Abraham! In chapter 14 he will not take a thread, not even a shoe latchet that is not his—and thus did these ancient freebooters establish for themselves an honorable beginning. IsaacIn due time Isaac grows to manhood, and his father is greatly worried about a wife for him; no other will do save one of his own people. And so this father of clannishness sends a servant back to their kinsmen for a spouse, namely, Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel, again of “the house of God.” Isaac must not go back himself. Here we have again that fear lest the Creative Principle return and live forever as spirit. And the servant found Rebekah at a well and brought her to Isaac. But Rebekah, like Sarai, was barren, and so Isaac, like Abram, had to beg the Lord for offspring. Curious is it not, that in those days of prolific progeny all these scriptural women were barren? Not when you understand them; they are planetary women, primordial substance, not yet endowed with genetic ideation. Time alone brings this about and by a very natural process. This would not do for a religion and so religion’s God made Rebekah fruitful. 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb (Chap. 25). The Hebrew Gemini. One is stronger than the other, and the weak must serve the strong, as did Eve and Abel.2 The two are consciousness and energy, and one shall dominate the other. Now we may assume that the original consciousness in the “womb” of space is older than the planetary energy, hence Esau, the older, should be consciousness, and Jacob, energy but wherever two males are employed there is confusion, and we suspect duplication also.

• From The Sex-Starved Marriage: Boosting Your Marriage Libido: A Couple's Guide (2003)

  For several years, Andrea had had no sexual appetite whatsoever. She recalled times in their marriage when she desired Rich, but those days were long gone. There were some obvious red flags: a hysterectomy, menopause, and medication for her underfunctioning thyroid, all warranting further investigation. Above and beyond the biological factors was a personal issue that, when it came to lovemaking, stopped Andrea dead in her tracks: her feelings about her body. In the last few years, Andrea, like many other women her age, had put on some weight. One could see the pain on Andrea’s face when she told me that she didn’t think she was attractive anymore. She assumed her husband felt the same way. Although Rich denied feeling less attracted to Andrea because of her weight gain, she thought he was being dishonest, and nothing he said to the contrary reassured her. Although initially, I tried to help Rich explain that he was still completely attracted to Andrea, it wasn’t working at all. The problem was that Andrea had stopped feeling attracted to Andrea. Rather than debate with Andrea about her self-image, I said, “Okay, fine. So what are you going to do to feel better about yourself?” and she said, “I’m going to start working out at the gym three or four times a week.” I responded, “That sounds great. When do you start?” She said, “I always tell myself that I’m going to go back to the gym, but I never do.” I thanked her for her honesty and suggested she come up with a completely different, perhaps less ambitious, starting place. After some thought, she said, “I’d really like it if Rich would agree to walk with me every evening. That would be a good start.” Rich, wanting to get back into an exercise program himself, was happy to oblige. When they returned three weeks later, I discovered that the walking had paid off. It’s not that Andrea lost so much weight or that she had firmed up her body, but the fact that she had done what she had set out to do vastly improved her outlook, plus Andrea and Rich found that their evening walks invited more intimate conversation. Andrea’s increased optimism and sense of closeness to Rich boosted her desire to be with him sexually. Their holding hands throughout the session was a dead giveaway. If you’re miserable about your body, figure out what’s changeable and what isn’t. Set new getting-in-shape goals based on the goal-setting section in this chapter. Then start to work in earnest on the parts of your body that are modifiable. After that, memorize and live by the popular serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.