title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Eight years later, Bruce has become a recluse, still mourning Rachel's death and rarely leaving Wayne Manor. In addition, Wayne Enterprises is losing money after Bruce discontinued a fusion reactor project when he learned that it could be weaponized. His efforts to rid Gotham of crime have been successful, however; using Dent's image as a martyred hero, Gordon and Gotham's politicians have eradicated organized crime in the city with the Dent Act, a bill giving police increased authority. Bruce hosts "Harvey Dent Day" at Wayne Manor, but does not join the festivities. Cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) steals a pearl necklace belonging to Bruce's late mother, and overpowers him when he tries to stop her. Bruce discovers that the real target was his fingerprints and not the necklace. Bruce tracks Selina to a gala and takes back the pearls, but Selina escapes again.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Shortly afterward, Wayne is visited by police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt), who tells him about an attack on Gordon by Bane (Tom Hardy), an excommunicated member of the League of Shadows. Blake also tells Bruce that he has deduced his secret identity as Batman and can relate to him; Blake is also an orphan and has learned to hide his anger. He asks Bruce to return as Batman.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Against Alfred's advice, Bruce resurfaces as Batman to pursue Bane, but the police opt to chase "him" instead. When Bruce returns home, he gets into an argument with Alfred, who fears that Bruce will get himself killed; Alfred reveals that Rachel chose Dent over him, and resigns his service.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman saves Selina from Bane and his men, escaping in the Bat, a giant aerial craft made by Fox. Surprised that Batman is the "powerful friend" Bruce told her of, Selina informs him that she sold Bruce's fingerprints to John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn), Bruce's corrupt business rival. Bane uses Bruce's stolen fingerprints to make a series of transactions that leaves Bruce bankrupt. Bruce is fired from Wayne Enterprises' Board of Trustees, but persuades CEO Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) to prevent Daggett from taking over the company. Bane then kills Daggett, who had secretly been working with him. Bruce and Miranda spend the night together, before Selina takes him to see Bane in his hideout. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham. Batman fights Bane, but Bane breaks his back and takes him to an underground prison in the middle of a Middle Eastern desert. The inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before escaping – the only prisoner to have done so. Bruce helplessly watches news coverage of Bane turning Gotham into a – freeing its criminals, imprisoning police, and revealing the truth about Harvey Dent's crimes.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Months later, a recovered Bruce escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham after Bane has taken over the city, planning to destroy it with the fusion reactor. Batman frees the police and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Miranda intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself as Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter, and pledging to complete her father's work and avenge his death. She activates the bomb's detonator, but Gordon blocks the signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Selina arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Selina pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes. Before takeoff, Batman kisses Selina, and subtly reveals his identity to Gordon.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: In the aftermath, Batman and Bruce are both presumed dead, with the former honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat Signal repaired, while Fox discovers that Bruce fixed the malfunctioning auto-pilot on the Bat. While vacationing in Florence, Italy, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina. Blake resigns from the GCPD and receives a parcel from Bruce leading to the Batcave.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce Wayne/Batman is the subject of "", an animated anthology film that takes place in the universe of "The Dark Knight" trilogy and contains six stories, animated by different anime studios. The film is set between the events of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", though the producers have acknowledged that the plot of the anthology isn't necessarily integral to the main story told within the films. Batman is portrayed fighting against the mobs of Gotham City in addition to other villains such as Deadshot, Scarecrow, and Killer Croc. Batman is voiced by Kevin Conroy, who also voiced the character in ""/DC Animated Universe as a whole, the "" video game series, and a multitude of other projects.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bale's version of Batman was adapted into the video game "Batman Begins". The suit from Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" film was added as an alternate skin to "" during a free update in December 2015.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Christian Bale's portrayal of Batman has received widespread critical acclaim, even though Bale himself has said he could have given a better performance. Before the premiere of "" (which saw Ben Affleck take on the role), "The Guardian" surveyed the previous Batman actors, including Bale, and judged him to be the best Batman due to his balanced and realistic portrayal of the character, especially in "Batman Begins", stating that "Bale gave us a Batman we could believe in, in more ways than one."


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: To date, "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises" are Bale's most financially successful films, and all three films in the Dark Knight Trilogy are often regarded as some of the greatest superhero films of all time. While he was an established actor prior to his casting, Bale gained more international exposure due to his role as Batman. He received numerous award nominations for the role spanning across the three films, including winning Best Actor at the Empire Awards.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: The plot description and characterization were adapted from Bruce Wayne at the Dark Knight trilogy Wiki and Batman (Christian Bale) at Batman Wiki, which are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham from 2003 to 2010. He then became research professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary's College in the University of St Andrews in Scotland until 2019, when he became a senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright writes about theology and Christian life and the relationship between them. He advocates a biblical re-evaluation of theological matters such as justification, women's ordination, and popular Christian views about life after death. He has also criticised the idea of a literal Rapture. The author of over seventy books, Wright is highly regarded in academic and theological circles for his "Christian Origins and the Question of God" series. The third volume, "The Resurrection of the Son of God", is considered by many clergy and theologians to be a seminal Christian work on the resurrection of Jesus, while the most recently released fourth volume, "Paul and the Faithfulness of God", is hailed as Wright's "magnum opus".


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland. In a 2003 interview, he said that he could never remember a time when he was not aware of the presence and love of God and recalled an occasion when he was four or five when "sitting by myself at Morpeth and being completely overcome, coming to tears, by the fact that God loved me so much he died for me. Everything that has happened to me since has produced wave upon wave of the same."


title: N. T. Wright

text: He was educated at Sedbergh School in the Yorkshire Dales, and in the late 1960s Wright sang and played guitar in a folk club on the west side of Vancouver. In 1971, Wright received his BA in literae humaniores, with first class honours, from Exeter College, Oxford. During that time he was president of the undergraduate Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union.


title: N. T. Wright

text: From 1971 to 1975, he studied for the Anglican ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, receiving his (Oxford) MA at the end of this period. He was later awarded a Doctor of Divinity (DD) degree by the University of Oxford.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In 1975 he became a junior research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, and later also junior chaplain. From 1978 to 1981 he was a fellow and chaplain at Downing College, Cambridge. In 1981 he received his DPhil from Merton College, his thesis topic being "The Messiah and the People of God: A Study in Pauline Theology with Particular Reference to the Argument of the Epistle to the Romans". After this, he served as assistant professor of New Testament studies at McGill University, Montreal (1981 to 1986), then as chaplain, fellow and tutor at Worcester College and lecturer in New Testament in the University of Oxford (1986 to 1993).


title: N. T. Wright

text: He moved from Oxford to become dean of Lichfield Cathedral (1994 to 1999) and then returned briefly to Oxford as a visiting fellow at Merton College, before taking up his appointment as canon theologian at Westminster Abbey in 2000.


title: N. T. Wright

text: From 1995 to 2000, Wright wrote the weekly Sunday's "Readings" column for the "Church Times". He has said that writing the column gave him the "courage" to embark upon his popular "... for Everyone" (SPCK) series of commentaries on New Testament books.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In 2003, Wright became the Bishop of Durham; he was consecrated a bishop on 3 July 2003 at York Minster by David Hope, Archbishop of York. On 4 August 2006 he was appointed to the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved for a period of five years.


title: N. T. Wright

text: He resigned from the see of Durham on 31 August 2010 and took appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary's College, St Andrews, in Scotland, which enabled him to concentrate on his academic and broadcasting work.


title: N. T. Wright

text: As of 1 October 2019, Wright was appointed a senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he had originally studied for the Anglican ministry in 1971 through 1973.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In his popular book "Surprised by Hope", Wright outlines the scriptural emphasis on resurrection as the proper hope of all Christians. Wright is critical of the North American church's overemphasis on "going to heaven when you die" and the underemphasis on the resurrection from the dead, though he does not deny the teaching that a person's soul lives on after death. He advocates a reunion of soteriology and ecclesiology, commenting that such a connection is often neglected in Protestantism. In addition, he is critical of various popular theological ideas, such as the dispensationalist doctrine of the rapture.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright is one of the leading figures in the New Perspective on Paul interpretation, or rather group of interpretations, of the Pauline letters. Wright contends that Paul cannot be ignored by any serious Christian and that, through his central place within the New Testament canon, Paul has come to be abused, misunderstood, imposed upon, and approached with incorrect or inappropriate questions about the Christian faith. According to Wright, "Paul in the twentieth century, then, has been used and abused much as in the first. Can we, as the century draws towards its close, listen a bit more closely to him? Can we somehow repent of the ways we have mishandled him and respect his own way of doing things a bit more?"


title: N. T. Wright

text: This question reflects the key consideration for the New Perspective on Paul and a fundamental aim of Wright's scholarship: to allow the apostle Paul to speak for himself without imposing modern considerations and questions upon him and in so doing, seeking to ascertain what St. Paul was really trying to say to the people he was writing to. From this, Wright contends that by examining the Pauline corpus through this unique perspective, difficult passages within the text become illuminated in new ways, his letters gain coherence both in their particularities as well as with one another, and it provides an overall picture of what Paul was about, without doing violence to the little details within the letters.


title: N. T. Wright

text: The beginning of the "new perspective" is the work of E. P. Sanders and his book "Paul and Palestinian Judaism". In this 1977 work, Sanders argued that the prevailing view of first-century Judaism in the New Testament was inaccurate. He described it instead as "covenantal nomism", which emphasised God's election of a people and adherence to the Torah as a way of "staying in" the religion (rather than a way of "getting in").


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright found that Sanders supported the picture he himself had been forming, but nevertheless for the next decade much of what Wright wrote was in disagreement with Sanders on various points. Wright agrees with other "new perspective" scholars that the assumption that the Jews were guilty of a kind of "works-righteousness" is untrue, and that the story of God and the covenant people Israel comes to a climax with Jesus.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In speaking on justification, Wright contends, “the discussions of justification in much of the history of the church, certainly since Augustine, got off on the wrong foot – at least in terms of understanding Paul – and they have stayed there ever since.” In this way, the Church, according to Wright, has subsumed discussions surrounding the reconciliation of man to God under the label of justification, which has subsequently given the concept an emphasis quite absent from what he believes is found within the New Testament. This leads Wright to argue that this incorrect perception of justification has done violence to the text for hundreds of years and that the text itself should be the starting point in determining what Paul seeks to say about justification.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Through his attempt of returning to the text to allow Paul to speak for himself as he suggests, Wright offers a definition of what he believes the apostle means by ‘justification,’ which is contrary to popular belief. In crafting said definition, the interpreter identifies three pieces, which he believes to be vital to this consideration: that justification is dependent upon covenant language, that it utilises law-court language, functioning within the covenantal setting as a strong explanatory metaphor of justification, and that it cannot be understood within a Pauline context as separate from eschatology. Through the inclusion of covenant language, justification alludes to the presence of sin and wickedness in the world and the way in which the covenant was instituted to bring about salvation. Within this context, the law-court metaphorical language acknowledges God's role as judge who is to put the world to rights, to deal with evil and to restore justice and order to the cosmos. Finally, Wright's definition of ‘justification’ within Paul's letters acknowledges that the term is not associated, as has commonly been perceived, with one's personal needs necessary to attain salvation, but instead with what marked someone as a member of God's people.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In 2008, Wright criticised "secular utopianism", accusing it of advocating "the right to kill unborn children and surplus old people". "The Times" columnist David Aaronovitch challenged Wright specifically to substantiate his claim that any secular group does indeed advocate the killing of elderly people, leading to an exchange in which Wright held to his main point.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Regarding the historical Jesus, Wright follows the "thoroughgoing eschatology" tradition of Albert Schweitzer against the "thoroughgoing scepticism" of William Wrede and the Jesus Seminar, whom he regards as Wrede's modern-day counterparts. Wright also argues for a 'very Jewish' Jesus who was nonetheless opposed to some high-profile aspects of first-century Judaism. Similarly, Wright speaks of Jesus as 'doubly', 'multiply', 'thoroughly', and 'deeply' subversive, while at the same time distancing Jesus from other known seditious and revolutionary movements within first-century Palestine. In some ways his views are similar to those of such scholars as E. P. Sanders and the lesser-known Ben F. Meyer (whom Wright calls "the unsung hero" of New Testament studies). However he disagrees with the view of Sanders that the Pharisees would not have exhibited the violent opposition to Jesus depicted in the Gospels. He has also defended a literal belief in the Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead as central to Christianity.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright is critical of more liberal theological circles. The Jesus Seminar's Marcus Borg, with whom Wright shared mutual admiration and respect, co-authored with Wright "The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions" to elaborate their contrasting opinions. In 2005, at the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum, Wright discussed the historicity of Jesus' resurrection with Jesus Seminar co-founder John Dominic Crossan. Wright and Crossan, who also have mutual admiration, hold very different opinions on this foundational Christian doctrine. For Crossan, the resurrection of Jesus is a theological interpretation of events by the writers of the New Testament. For Wright, however, the resurrection is a historical event—coherent with the worldview of Second Temple Judaism—fundamental to the New Testament.


title: N. T. Wright

text: With the publication of Wright's 2012 book, "How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels", Wright has been critical of some ideas concerning the historical Jesus in both US evangelical preaching and the work of C. S. Lewis, who Wright admits was a major influence in his own life. In an interview, Wright summarises this critique: "One of the targets of this book is Christians who say: Yes, the Bible is true. It's inerrant and so on. But, then, they pay no attention to what the Bible actually says. For too many Christians it seems sufficient to say Christ was born of a Virgin, died on a cross and was resurrected—but never did anything else in between. I'm saying: That’s not the way to understand the Gospels."


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright was the senior member from the Church of England of the Lambeth Commission set up to deal with controversies following the ordination of Gene Robinson as a bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. In 2009, the Episcopal Church authorised the clergy to celebrate commitment liturgies for people in same-sex relationships. Writing on "The Times", Wright described the action as a "clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion".


title: N. T. Wright

text: In December 2005 he announced to the press, on the day that the first civil partnership ceremonies took place in England, that he would be likely to take disciplinary action against any clergy registering as civil partners or any clergy blessing such partnerships.


title: N. T. Wright

text: He has argued that "Justice never means 'treating everybody the same way', but 'treating people appropriately'". In August 2009, he issued a statement saying:


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright's work has been praised by many scholars of varying views, including James Dunn, Gordon Fee, Richard B. Hays and Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright has received praise from Catholics, such as bishop Robert Barron, who has cited Wright's historical scholarship on multiple occasions.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Critics of his work are also found across the broad range of theological camps. Some Reformed theologians such as John Piper have questioned Wright's theology, particularly over whether or not he denies the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. Although Piper considers Wright's presentation confusing, he does not dismiss Wright's view as false. In response, Wright has stated he wishes Piper would "exegete Paul differently" and that his book "isn’t always a critique of what I’m actually saying." Wright also expressed how he has warmed to Piper and considers him a "good, beloved brother in Christ, doing a good job, building people up in the faith, teaching them how to live." In 2009, Wright has since addressed the issue in his book "Justification: God’s Plan and Paul's Vision". He has sought to clarify his position further in an interview with InterVarsity Press.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Many conservative evangelicals have also questioned whether Wright denies penal substitution, but Wright has stated that he denies only its caricature but affirms this doctrine, especially within the overall framework of the" Christus Victor" model of atonement.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Despite criticism of some of his work by Reformed theologians, other Reformed leaders have embraced his contribution in other areas, such as Tim Keller who praised Wright's work on the resurrection.


title: N. T. Wright

text: Writing an extensive review of "The Resurrection of the Son of God" on "The Heythrop Journal", Catholic theologian Joseph J. Smith has criticised Wright's views about the resurrection of Jesus, stating that neither the Gospel narratives of the Resurrection appearances nor Pauline texts cited by Wright support his view that the resurrected body was "robustly physical".


title: N. T. Wright

text: Wright has been awarded several honorary doctoral degrees, including from Durham University in July 2007, the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in April 2008, the University of St Andrews in 2009, Heythrop College (University of London) in 2010 and the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary's Seminary & University in May 2012.


title: N. T. Wright

text: In 2014, he was awarded the Burkitt Medal by the British Academy "in recognition of special service to Biblical Studies". It was announced in March 2015 that he was to be made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).


title: Jimmy White

text: James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 Six-red World champion, 3 time World Seniors Champion (2010, 2019, 2020), 2019 Seniors 6-Red World Champion and 1984 World Doubles champion with Alex Higgins.


title: Jimmy White

text: White has won two of snooker's three majors: the UK Championship (in 1992) and the Masters (in 1984) and a total of ten ranking events. He is currently tenth on the all-time list of ranking event winners. He reached six World Championship finals but never won the event; the closest he came was in 1994 when he lost in a final frame decider against Stephen Hendry. He spent 21 seasons ranked in snooker's elite top 16. In team events, he won the Nations Cup and the World Cup with England. He is one of a select number of players to have made over 300 century breaks in professional competition. White was also the first left-handed player, and the second player overall, to record a maximum break at the World Championship.


title: Jimmy White

text: White was born in Streathbourne Road, Tooting, London, England, and studied at Ernest Bevin School. He never achieved academic success, as he was often truant from school from the age of eight or nine, spending more and more time at Ted Zanoncelli's snooker hall. It was around this time that White met Tony Meo with whom he would compete in money matches in many venues. His natural aptitude for snooker led to a successful amateur career. After winning the English Amateur Championship in 1979, a year later he became the youngest ever winner of the World Amateur Snooker Championship, aged 18, a record since surpassed by Ian Preece and Hossein Vafaei.


title: Jimmy White

text: With a host of major titles and achievements, including ten ranking tournaments, White's overall record ranks him well up the list of snooker's most successful players. The BBC describes him as a "legend". A left-hander, he reached the World Professional Championship Final on six occasions (1984, 1990–1994) but failed to win the sport's most prestigious title since his first attempt in 1981. Nonetheless, his consistency waned in the 2000s and a first-round defeat in the 2006 World Championship saw White drop out of the world's top 32 player rankings. White's continued slide down the rankings saw him drop to 65th but he recovered slightly to move up to no. 56 for the 2009–10 season. White is one of only seven players to have completed a maximum break at the Crucible Theatre, doing so in the 1992 World Snooker Championship. He has compiled more than 300-century breaks during his career.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's greatest achievement of his young career was in winning the English Amateur Championships. In the London Section, he beat M Goodchild 4–0, D Asbury 4–3, R Birt 4–0, Tony Meo 4–2 in the semi-finals and Danny Adds 4–1 in the final. This took him to the Southern Area proper where he beat Mark Wildman 4–3, Meirion Williams 4–3, George Eaton 5–3 and Cliff Wilson 8–5 in the final. Dave Martin, who won the Northern Section, was beaten 13–10 in the final itself. He suffered a couple of unexpected losses after this – to Walt Ley in the Westward Ho! Open semi-final, 2–3 and to Dave Gilbert, 2–3, in the London Final of the British Junior (U-19) Championships 1–3 (White made a break of 105 in an earlier round). He came back, however, by retaining the Wandsworth Classic beating Tony O'Beirne, Wally West and Dave Gilbert in the last three rounds and also reaching the final of the Pontins Spring Open (out of 1034 entries), beating Doug Mountjoy 4–1, Neville Suthers 4–1, John Howell 4–0 and Paul Medati 4–1 before losing 3–7 to Steve Davis, despite Davis giving White thirty points start per frame. He was knocked out of the 1st round of the Pontins junior competition by John Carney. In the Lucania Junior Masters, he was beaten on frame countback but showed his class to reach the final of the Warners Open, losing to Tony Meo 2–5, having beaten John Law, John Virgo and Nick Fairall. Steve Davis beat him again, this time 4–0 in the North Ormesby Invitation (after having beaten Willie Thorne 4–0 in the quarter-final) and then lost in the next three tournaments to Dennis Hughes 1–5 (Demmy Manchester Classic), B Jones (Pontins Autumn Open) and Roy Connor. In the Canadian Open, he defeated Tony Knowles 9–5 but lost 3–9 to Steve Davis in the last 16.


title: Jimmy White

text: 1980 opened with him winning the Demmy Pro-Am, defeating Tony Knowles 5–1, Willie Thorne 5–1, Dave Martin 5–1, Alex Higgins 5–3 and Steve Davis in the final 5–2. Davis beat White in the semi-finals of the Invitation tournament at Louth Town & Country Club. Having beaten Thorne, again, 5–3, David pipped White 6–5. White made an unsuccessful defence of his English Amateur title when he lost to Mike Darrington in the semi-finals of the Southern Area, 5–8, having beaten Dave Gilbert 8–5 and Geoff Foulds 8–2. Tony Knowles beat him in an early round of the Pegasus Snooker Club Pro-Am 3–1 and he had to scratch for being late in the London & South Area of the British Junior Championships having earlier beaten Neal Foulds 3–1. Charlie Gay knocked him out of the Westward Ho! tournament 2–0 and in a qualifying round of the Pontins Spring Open, he lost to Maurice Suckling. Defeats to Greg Baxter, in an early round of the Heineken Lager Open and to Joe Johnson in the North Ormesby Invitation preceded a trip to the Canadian Open where he beat Vic Harris 9–8 before losing to Alex Higgins 7–9. He was also beaten by Dave Gilbert, 0–3, in the Lucania Masters.


title: Jimmy White

text: White established himself as a top professional in 1981. After losing 8–10 to eventual champion Steve Davis in the first round of World Championship, White went on to win his first professional title, the Scottish Masters, beating Cliff Thorburn 9–4 in the final. Thorburn led 3–0 and 4–1 but then White won eight frames in succession to win the title and the £8,000 first prize. Later in the year he also won the Northern Ireland Classic (defeating Davis).


title: Jimmy White

text: The World Championship has provided the theatre for White's greatest disappointments. In 1982, he led Alex Higgins 15–14 in their semi-final, was up 59–0 in the penultimate and was a and away from the final. After missing a red with the rest, however, he could only watch as Higgins compiled a frame-winning 69 break. Higgins won the deciding frame that followed to reach the final.


title: Jimmy White

text: In 1984 White won the Masters, beating Terry Griffiths 9–5 in the final. He followed this success by reaching his first World Championship final. Trailing Steve Davis 4–12 after the first two sessions, White responded by reducing the deficit to 15–16. He then made an aggressive clearance of 65 to take the score to 16–17, but was unable to build upon a 40-point lead in the following frame, and lost 16–18. White did, however, become a World Doubles Champion later that year when he and Alex Higgins defeated Willie Thorne and Cliff Thorburn 10–2 in the final of the World Doubles Championship.


title: Jimmy White

text: In 1986 White reached his second Masters final, but was defeated by Cliff Thorburn. However, he won the Classic and also retained the Irish Masters title he won in 1985. White won the Classic when he beat Thorburn in the final frame after needing a snooker. Later in the year, he overcame veteran Rex Williams 10–6 to win his first Grand Prix title.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's third-ranking win – the 1987 British Open – helped him to end the 1986–87 season as World number 2, behind Steve Davis who defeated him 16–11 in the semi-finals of the 1987 World Championship. Later that year White and Davis contested a memorable 1987 UK Championship final which Davis won 16–14.


title: Jimmy White

text: In 1988 he defeated John Campbell, Stephen Hendry and Tony Knowles to reach his fourth World Championship semi-final. He played Terry Griffiths and, trailing 11–13, lost a tied frame on a respotted black. Griffiths went on to reach the final courtesy of a 16–11 win. White did at least manage to consolidate his number-2 world ranking. However the 1988–89 season was less successful, and White's ranking slipped. He trailed John Virgo 11–12 in the second round of the 1989 World Championship and looked beaten when his opponent was on a break of 26 in the following frame. Virgo, however, called a foul on himself and White was able to win 13–12. The reprieve was short-lived as White was soundly beaten 7–13 by eventual finalist John Parrott in the quarter-finals. White avenged this defeat later in the year by beating Parrott 18–9 in the final of the invitational World Matchplay.


title: Jimmy White

text: In 1990, White recorded a 16–14 victory over Steve Davis in the semi-finals of the World Championship. It was Davis's first defeat in the event in four years. White subsequently lost his second World Championship final 12–18 to Stephen Hendry. However, White beat Hendry 18–9 to retain his World Matchplay title later in the year and that win was followed by a 10–4 victory over Hendry (after leading 9–0) in the final of the 1991 Classic. White continued his run of success with victory in the short-lived World Masters, beating Tony Drago 10–6 in the final.


title: Jimmy White

text: Steve James ended Hendry's reign as World Champion in the 1991 World Championship and White, in turn, defeated James to reach the final. He played John Parrott and was whitewashed in the first session 0–7. Although White managed to close the gap to 7–11, Parrott was able to seal an 18–11 victory. Parrott then overcame White 16–13 to win the 1991 UK Championship later in 1991.


title: Jimmy White

text: White started 1992 positively and picked up his second British Open title, beating Steve Davis in the semi-finals and James Wattana in the final. He won another ranking title, the European Open, shortly after.


title: Jimmy White

text: White was drawn against Tony Drago in the first round of the 1992 World Championship. After opening up an 8–4 lead, White made history in the 13th frame by becoming only the second player to make a maximum break in the World Championship. He won £100,000 in prize money for this achievement. Close wins over Alain Robidoux and Jim Wych followed before White met Alan McManus in the semi-finals, where he pulled away from 4–4 to win 16–7. He played Stephen Hendry in the final and won each of the first two sessions to open up a 10–6 lead, which he extended to 12–6 and 14–8. From 14–9, White lost three successive frames from commanding positions. At 14–12, White went when compiling a potentially frame-winning break. Hendry drew level at 14–14 without conceding a further and won the closely contested 29th and 30th frames to lead 16–14. Two completed Hendry's ten-frame winning streak and a remarkable 18–14 victory.


title: Jimmy White

text: White responded well from this significant setback in the early part of the 1992–93 season. He defeated Ken Doherty 10–9 to claim his second 1992 Grand Prix title and followed this with an impressive victory in the 1992 UK Championship. After defeating Alan McManus 9–7 in the semi-finals, White opened up a commanding 6–1 lead in the first session of the final against John Parrott, from where he secured a 16–9 win. White has stated that this was among the best matches he has ever played.


title: Jimmy White

text: However White toiled for the remainder of the season, and his struggles continued at the 1993 World Championship. He did, however, manage to overcome Joe Swail, Doug Mountjoy and Dennis Taylor to reach the semi-finals. White lost the first five frames of his semi-final with James Wattana but, from 2–6, he won 12 successive frames en route to a 16–9 victory. However he proved no match for Stephen Hendry in the final, and Hendry's century break in his first visit to the table proved portentous, as White was beaten 18–5 with a session to spare. Only John Parrott (in 1989) has suffered a heavier defeat in a World Championship final. White did, however, manage to end the season on a high note when he beat Alan McManus to win the Matchroom League.


title: Jimmy White

text: During a 1993 match against Ronnie O’Sullivan, White escaped a snooker by precisely backspinning the cue ball around the blue ball to safely hit the brown. This shot has often been described as “Shot Of The Century”.


title: Jimmy White

text: White endured a lacklustre campaign in the 1993–94 season, but reached the 1994 World Championship final for a fifth successive year, becoming only the second player after Steve Davis (1983–89) to achieve this. For the fourth time in five years, White's opponent in the final was Stephen Hendry and the defending champion opened up a 5–1 lead. White recovered well to lead 13–12 and made a break of 75 to take the match into a deciding frame. In the final frame, White was on a break of 29 and leading the frame by 37 points to 24 when he missed a straightforward black off its spot. Hendry cleared with a technically straightforward break of 58 to win the title.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's form continued to decline the following season and he failed to reach a ranking final. However, his results on the table were greatly overshadowed, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer during the season. He recovered after having his left testicle removed.


title: Jimmy White

text: At the 1995 World Championship, White was involved in a controversial first-round match against South African Peter Francisco. From 2–2 White was able to pull away and win convincingly by 10 frames to 2. Shortly after it emerged that large sums of money had been placed on White to win the match by the eventual scoreline. The ensuing investigation found Francisco guilty of misconduct and banned him for five years. However no evidence was found against White, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing.


title: Jimmy White

text: White put this controversy behind him and overcame David Roe and John Parrott to reach his tenth World Championship semi-final. In his match with Stephen Hendry, White could only watch as the defending champion made a 147 break to go 8–4 in front. White recovered well to 7–8 and won three successive frames to reduce his arrears from 9–14 to 12–14. However, Hendry proved too strong and ran out a 16–12 win.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's ranking slipped from 7th to 13th at the end of the 1995–96 season and he was beaten 13–12 in a second-round encounter with Peter Ebdon in the 1996 World Championship. White endured further personal problems later in 1996 with the deaths of his brother Martin and mother Lil. His mother's death caused him to pull out of the 1996 Mosconi Cup pool competition.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the 1996–97 season White failed to win a professional match until February and a first-round defeat at the 1997 World Championship against Anthony Hamilton (9–10, after leading 8–4) saw him drop out of the top-16 in the world rankings.


title: Jimmy White

text: A run to the semi-finals of the 1997 Grand Prix helped to remedy this and White then enjoyed a great form at the 1998 World Championship. After qualifying to play Stephen Hendry in the first round, White opened with a century break and uncharacteristically shrewd matchplay enabled him to open up a 7–0 lead with only one further break over 50. Despite losing the next three frames from winning positions, White was able to seal a memorable 10–4 success and became the first player to beat Hendry twice at the World Championship. White followed this with a 13–3 win over Darren Morgan which included a break of 144. In his quarter-final against Ronnie O'Sullivan, however, White reverted to his more familiar all-out attacking style and lost the first session 1–7. Although he fought back to 6–9, White succumbed to 7–13.


title: Jimmy White

text: After regaining his top-16 ranking in the 1999–2000 season White started 2000 by reaching the semi-finals of the Welsh Open, where he lost 5–6 to Stephen Lee, despite leading 4–1 at one point of the match. He then defeated Marco Fu and John Higgins to reach the quarter-finals of the Masters, and he followed this up with a run to the quarter-finals of the World Championship. On both occasions, however, he was beaten by Matthew Stevens. Largely due to his poor form in the 1998–99 season, White also lost his top-16 place. He fought back the following season, reaching the final of the 2000 British Open (losing 6–9 to Peter Ebdon) and the semi-finals of the 2000 Grand Prix in the early part of the campaign. His only other victory of note, however, was a 6–2 defeat of Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2001 Masters and White subsequently failed to qualify for the 2001 World Championship.


title: Jimmy White

text: Ranked 11 at the start of the 2001–02 season, White performed steadily in the ranking events without reaching a semi-final. In the invitational 2002 Masters he beat Matthew Stevens 6–1 and came back from 2–5 behind to defeat O'Sullivan 6–5 in the quarter-finals. He similarly recovered from 2–5 down in his semi-final with Mark Williams but lost 5–6. He lost 3–13 in his second-round match with Matthew Stevens at the 2002 World Championship and issued an immediate apology after hitting the cue ball off the table in frustration when trailing 2–5.


title: Jimmy White

text: White won only two ranking event matches in the 2002–03 season but was able to maintain his top-16 ranking. He came back from 1–5 down to defeat World Champion Peter Ebdon 6–5 in their first-round at the 2003 Masters.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the 2003–04 season White produced his most consistent season in over a decade. After reaching the semi-finals of the 2003 UK Championship in November 2003, White defeated Neil Robertson, Stephen Hendry and Peter Ebdon to reach the semi-finals of the 2004 Masters – where he lost a tight match against Ronnie O'Sullivan. White followed this up with further victories over Hendry and Robertson en route to the final of the European Open in Malta, but was beaten 3–9 by world number 48 Stephen Maguire. His last ranking victory to date came in April 2004, when White defeated Shaun Murphy, John Parrott, Ian McCulloch, Peter Ebdon and Paul Hunter to win the Players Championship in Glasgow – his first ranking title in over 11 years. Victory in the 2004 World Championship could have given White the number-one ranking, but he was beaten 10–8 by qualifier Barry Pinches after leading 4–2.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's consistency diminished in the 2004–05 season. Although his ranking rose to number 8 he was unable to reach the quarter-finals of any ranking event. However, he made two more memorable comebacks in the 2005 Masters. White trailed Matthew Stevens 2–5 in the first round and pulled back to 4–5 after needing two snookers in the ninth frame. White went on to win 6–5 and beat Stevens's compatriot Mark Williams by the same score in the quarter-finals after trailing 4–5. But White was beaten 6–1 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-finals.


title: Jimmy White

text: White fell out of the top-32 at the end of the 2005–06 season and has not regained this status to date. He lost in the first round of the 2006 World Championship, although he did beat Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui and World Champion Graeme Dott to reach the final of the 2006 Premier League.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the 2006–07 season he qualified for only one ranking event, the 2007 China Open. He had a walkover of Stephen Lee before he lost 1–5 against John Higgins. After the season, he fell out of the top-48.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the 2007–08 season he won 7 of his 16 qualifying matches. He won 4 straight matches at the 2007 Grand Prix and finished in the third place of his group, thus not qualifying for the main draw. He won one match at the 2008 Welsh Open and two matches at the 2008 World Championship. After the season, he fell out of the top-64 and remained on the tour only via the one year list.


title: Jimmy White

text: He began the 2008–09 season by qualifying for the main draw of the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy and the 2008 Shanghai Masters, but lost in the first round against Barry Hawkins 3–5 and Mark King 4–5 respectively. He won 4 of his next 7 qualifying matches (2 at the 2008 Grand Prix and at the 2008 UK Championship. After this he qualified for the main stage of the 2009 Welsh Open, but lost in the first round 1–5 against Ali Carter. He won his next qualifying match at the 2009 World Championship. In the second qualifying round he defeated Vincent Muldoon 10–8, but lost his next match 8–10 against Andy Hicks. At the end of the season he has the provisional ranking of No. 56.


title: Jimmy White

text: Provisionally ranked number 47 for the 2009–10 season, White showed a surprising return to form at the start of the season when he reached the final of the Champion of Champions Challenge in Killarney, eventually losing 1–5 to Shaun Murphy. His second tournament of the season was the Sangsom 6-red World Grand Prix in Bangkok, Thailand. He won the tournament, putting an end to his drought of titles by claiming his first since 2004. On his way to the final he defeated Shaun Murphy, defending champion Ricky Walden, Mark King, and Mark Williams, eventually beating Barry Hawkins in the final 8–6. One month later, in the Paul Hunter Classic, White again reached the final but this time he lost to Shaun Murphy 0–4. Two months later, on 18 October, he reached the final of the World Series of Snooker in Prague, his fourth final of the season. This time he was victorious, claiming his second title of the season by defeating Graeme Dott 5–3.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the Wembley Masters, White played Mark King in the wild card round, but lost the match 2–6. Prior to the World Championship, he won only two of his six qualifying matches: he defeated Bjorn Haneveer 5–0 at the Shanghai Masters and Jordan Brown 5–1 at the Welsh Open. Due to this disappointment, and skipping the 2009 UK Championship for "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me out of Here!", he was at risk of losing his Main Tour spot for the following season. However, he secured his place on the Main Tour for another season with a 10–8 victory over Mark Boyle at the World Championship Qualifiers. He then lost 3–10 against Ken Doherty in the next round.


title: Jimmy White

text: White started the 2010–11 season by entering the Players Tour Championship, his best performance coming in the first European event and at the sixth event in Sheffield, where he reached the quarter-finals each time. After 12 out of 12 events White was ranked 34th in the Order of Merit.


title: Jimmy White

text: White also reached the quarter-finals of the Six-red World Championship, topping his qualifying group along the way. He failed to qualify for the Shanghai Masters, losing his first qualifying match 3–5 against Liam Highfield. He won his two qualification matches for the World Open; but lost 1–3 against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 32.


title: Jimmy White

text: At the 2010 UK Championship in December, White lost 8–9 to Stephen Hendry in the first-round, after he had come through three qualifying rounds to get to Telford. It was only the fifth time in 24 years that White and Hendry had taken each other to the final frame and 16 years since Hendry's 18–17 win over White in the 1994 World Championship final. He participated at qualifying stages of the German Masters, but lost in the second round 1–5 against Jimmy Robertson. White reached the last qualifying round of the Welsh Open, but was whitewashed by Ryan Day, and also qualified for the final stages of the China Open, by defeating Liu Chuang, Peter Lines and Dominic Dale, but had to withdraw from the tournament due to visa problems. White lost his first qualifying match for the World Championship 9–10 against Jimmy Robertson.


title: Jimmy White

text: White began the 2011–12 season ranked number 55. At a Legends Tour event in June 2011, White compiled a maximum break, unusual for the fact that he potted the first ball off the , meaning his opponent never played a shot in the frame. White failed to qualify for the first two ranking events of the season, as he lost 3–5 against Rory McLeod at the Australian Goldfields Open and 0–5 against Nigel Bond at the Shanghai Masters White failed to defend his World Seniors Championship title, as he lost in the semi-finals 0–2 against eventual champion Darren Morgan. White failed to qualify for the next two ranking events, as he lost 5–6 against Jamie Jones at the 2011 UK Championship, and 4–5 against Peter Ebdon at the German Masters. After the FFB Snooker Open White was ranked number 47.


title: Jimmy White

text: He finished the 2013–14 season ranked world number 64, almost losing his place on the professional World Snooker circuit. While White remained on the tour, however, fellow veteran Steve Davis lost his place, landing outside the top 64.


title: Jimmy White

text: White started the season with a 2–5 loss to Fraser Patrick in the qualifying round of the Wuxi Classic, and a 4–5 second-round loss to Scott Donaldson in the Australian Goldfields Open. He then reached the last 64 of the next two European Tour Events, losing to Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire respectively.


title: Jimmy White

text: He had a better result in the EPTC Event 3 where he progressed to the last 16 before losing 0–4 to Shaun Murphy, and in the APTC Event 2 where he made it to another last 16 before once again losing 0–4 to Matthew Selt. He also qualified for the International Championship where he lost 4–6 to Barry Hawkins.


title: Jimmy White

text: White's season ended after an 8–10 defeat to Selt in the second round of qualifying for the 2014 World Championship.


title: Jimmy White

text: The 2015/16 season ended in disappointment when White lost the deciding frame of his first-round World Championship Qualifier against Gerard Greene.


title: Jimmy White

text: White made it to the quarter-final of a ranking event at the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany, his first for over ten years. Despite several good performances, he finished outside the top 64 and lost his tour card after 37 years as a professional. World Snooker, however, chose to give White and Ken Doherty a further two-year invitational tour card.


title: Jimmy White

text: In White's first ranking event of the season, he made it to the last 16 having only made three breaks over 50. He subsequently lost 1–4 to Anthony McGill and then lost 0–5 to Ryan Day in the round of 128 in the China Championship.


title: Jimmy White

text: White won his first professional title in seven years after winning the UK Seniors Championship as part of the World Seniors Tour. In the quarter-finals, he defeated amateur Les Dodd 3–1 and another amateur Jonathan Bagley by the same scoreline in the semi-finals. He met Ken Doherty in the final and won the match 4–2, thereby winning the first edition of the event. White later played in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Snooker Championship, losing his second-round match to Joe Perry.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the first Qualifying Round of the 2019 World Snooker Championship, White drew Ross Bulman, an unranked player who had achieved enough success to be selected by the WPBSA for a place in qualifying. White took a 6–3 lead at the end of the first session and won the opening frame of the second session to lead 7–3. Bulman took the following two frames to narrow the gap to 7–5. White won the following three frames in succession to come through the tie a comfortable 10–5 winner to set up a second-round match against Ali Carter. The opening session of White's second qualifying round match with Carter finished 5–4. White was unable to win another frame however in the second session and lost the match 4–10.


title: Jimmy White

text: Winning the World Seniors Championship in August 2019, White qualified for the 2019 Champion of Champions tournament where he narrowly lost 3–4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round. White recorded no wins in ranking events until the first round of qualifying for the 2020 European Masters, in which he beat Hammad Miah 5–4 after trailing 3–1 and being 4–3 up. White was beaten in Round Two by Mark Selby. In the 2020 World Seniors Championship, Jimmy White came back to beat Ken Doherty 5–4, after trailing 4–0, to retain his title.


title: Jimmy White

text: In March 2021, White reached the fourth round of the Gibraltar Open, after defeating 2015 world champion, Stuart Bingham.


title: Jimmy White

text: In May, at the World Seniors Championship, he reached the final, but failed to defend his title as he lost to David Lilley.


title: Jimmy White

text: White lost in the semifinals of the 2022 UK Seniors Championship to eventual runner up and reigning seniors champion David Lilley, 4-2.


title: Jimmy White

text: In May 2022, once again at the World Seniors Championship, White beat Wael Talaat and Rory McLeod, to advance to the semifinals for the fourth year in a row.


title: Jimmy White

text: White has five children. In 2005, as part of a sponsorship deal with HP Sauce, he changed his name by deed poll to "James Brown" for the Masters. In his autobiography, released in November 2014, White revealed that he was addicted to crack cocaine during a three-month spell of his career. He said that he went from taking cocaine to crack following his defeat by Steve Davis in the 1984 World Championship final. White lives in Epsom, Surrey.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the late 1990s, White's Bull Terrier, Splinter, was dognapped and held for ransom. Splinter became the first dog to have a colour poster on the front page of "The Times". White paid the ransom, and Splinter was returned to him. Splinter went on to live for another three years.


title: Jimmy White

text: White is also a pool and poker player. Along with Steve Davis and Alex Higgins, White was a member of Europe's victorious Mosconi Cup pool team of 1995, and won the deciding match against Lou Butera. He won the second Poker Million tournament, held in 2003, which also had Steve Davis at the final table. He was also good friends with professional poker player, Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott.


title: Jimmy White

text: In April 2015, he appeared as a guest at a campaign event when his friend Kim Rose was standing as the UK Independence Party candidate to be MP for Southampton Itchen.


title: Jimmy White

text: White had a cameo role as himself (as the World Billiards Champion) in Stephen Chow's 1990 kung fu and billiards comedy film, "Legend of the Dragon".


title: Jimmy White

text: On the BBC game show "Big Break", White was the first player to clear the table with 3 reds remaining in the final part of the challenge (thus winning the top prize for the contestant he was playing for). He was introduced to the studio audience on each appearance with the song "Jimmy Jimmy" by the Undertones. White was also the first (and only) winner of the ITV show "Tenball", featuring a mix between pool and snooker.


title: Jimmy White

text: In the film "Jack Said" (a prequel to "Jack Says") White played the part of Vic Lee, a dodgy snooker club owner, in his first major film role for British cinema.


title: Jimmy White

text: White appeared in the 9th series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" He finished in third place on 4 December 2009, with Gino D'Acampo the eventual winner.


title: Jimmy White

text: On September 23, 2019, Jimmy White published an apology to Kirk Stevens on White's official Facebook page stating that in his autobiography "Second Wind" he misremembered a few stories as occurring with Kirk Stevens that in fact did not. These events were widely broadcast in the media and White wanted to make the apology public to prevent them from being repeated. White further stated that he did not intend his words to be interpreted as meaning that Kirk Stevens introduced him to crack cocaine or that Kirk Stevens ever played WPBSA snooker under the influence of drugs.


title: Jimmy White

text: White has endorsed four computer games: "Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker", "", "Jimmy White's Cueball World" and "Pool Paradise". These games have been released for numerous machines, from 8 bits up to second-generation consoles and mobile phones. In June 2007, he was contracted to the online billiard website Play89.


title: Jimmy White

text: White was portrayed by James Bailey in the BBC film "The Rack Pack", which focused on the rivalry between Alex Higgins and Steve Davis in the 1980s


title: Anna Massey

text: Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac", a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, has said "could have been written for her". Massey is best known for her role as Babs Milligan in Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film, "Frenzy".


title: Anna Massey

text: Massey was born in Thakeham, Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her brother Daniel Massey was also an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada, and her godfather was film director John Ford.


title: Anna Massey

text: Although she had no formal training at either drama school or in repertory, Anna Massey made her first appearance on stage in May 1955 at the age of 17, at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, as Jane in "The Reluctant Debutante", subsequently making her first London appearance in the same play at the Cambridge Theatre in May 1955 "and was suddenly famous". She then left the cast in London to repeat her performance in New York in October 1956. In the 1990s she appeared with Alan Bennett in a dramatised reading of T.S. Eliot's and Virginia Woolf's letters, in a production at the Charleston Festival devised by Patrick Garland.


title: Anna Massey

text: Several of her early film roles were in mystery thrillers. She made her cinema debut in the Scotland Yard film "Gideon's Day" (1958) as Sally, daughter of Jack Hawkins's Detective Inspector. The director was her godfather John Ford. She played a potential murder victim in Michael Powell's cult thriller "Peeping Tom" (1960) and appeared in Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965). In 1972 she played the role of the barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film "Frenzy". In the documentary on the film's DVD release, Massey mentioned that she originally auditioned for the much smaller role of the secretary Monica, a part for which Jean Marsh was cast. She also noted that her character's nude scenes in "Frenzy" were performed by body doubles. She appeared alongside her brother Daniel—they played siblings—in the horror film "The Vault of Horror" (1973).


title: Anna Massey

text: Massey continued to make occasional film and stage appearances, but worked more frequently in television. She made her first small-screen appearance as Jacqueline in "Green of the Year" in October 1955, and thereafter featured in dramas such as "The Pallisers" (1974), "The Mayor of Casterbridge" (1978), the 1979 adaptation of "Rebecca" (in which she starred with her ex-husband Jeremy Brett), "The Cherry Orchard" (1980), and "Anna Karenina" (1985). She had roles in the British comedy series "The Darling Buds of May" (1991) and "The Robinsons" (2005). She also appeared in a number of mysteries and thrillers on television, including episodes of "Inspector Morse", "The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries", "Midsomer Murders", "Strange", "Lewis", and "Agatha Christie's Poirot".


title: Anna Massey

text: With Imelda Staunton, she co-devised and starred as Josephine Daunt in "Daunt and Dervish" on BBC radio. She was the narrator of "This Sceptred Isle" on BBC Radio 4, a history of Britain from Roman times which ran for more than 300 fifteen-minute episodes. In 2009, she also appeared in a new radio version of "The Killing of Sister George".


title: Anna Massey

text: In 1987, Massey was awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her role in "Hotel du Lac" after acquiring the TV rights two years earlier, only a few weeks before the novel won the Booker Prize. She also appeared as Mrs D'Urberville in the 2008 BBC adaptation of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles".


title: Anna Massey

text: One of Massey's assets as an actress was her "extraordinary voice... it was so listenable". Although Massey's parts were varied, her "cut-glass English accent conveyed a cold and repressed character on screen". Michael Billington of "The Guardian" characterised her work as being informed by "stillness", such as in the National Theatre's production of Harold Pinter's "A Kind of Alaska".


title: Anna Massey

text: She was known for a high level of preparation and effort, with one producer saying that she had a practice of using five different coloured pens on scripts to mark out "breaths and pauses" and the development of a scene; for example, "if a phrase early in a paragraph was going to be picked up again later, she would highlight those two bits in the same colour, so that it would remind her that that first phrase was referring to something later".


title: Anna Massey

text: In the New Year's Honours List published on 31 December 2004, she was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.


title: Anna Massey

text: Massey published an autobiography in 2006, "Telling Some Tales", in which she revealed a difficult early life and discussed her failed marriage (1958–1962) to actor Jeremy Brett, discussing his struggle with bipolar disorder. Brett and Massey divorced on 22 November 1962 after she claimed he left her for a man. The couple had one son, writer and illustrator David Huggins (b. 1959). At an August 1988 dinner party held at the home of their mutual friend, Joy Whitby, she met Russian-born metallurgist Uri Andres, who had been based at Imperial College, London since 1975. The couple were married from November 1988 until her death in 2011.


title: Anna Massey

text: Massey was quoted as saying, "Theatre eats up too much of your family life. I have a grandson and a husband and I'd rather I was able to be a granny and a wife".


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Jesus Prayer, also known as The Prayer, is a short formulaic prayer, esteemed and advocated especially in Eastern Christianity: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The prayer has been widely taught and discussed throughout the history of the Orthodox Church. The ancient and original form did not include the words "a sinner", which were added later. It is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice, its use being an integral part of the eremitic tradition of prayer known as hesychasm. The prayer is particularly esteemed by the spiritual fathers of this tradition (see "Philokalia") as a method of cleaning and opening up the mind and after this the heart (), brought about first by the Prayer of the Mind, or more precisely the Noetic Prayer (), and after this the Prayer of the Heart (). The "Prayer of the Heart" is considered to be the "Unceasing Prayer" that the Apostle Paul advocates in the New Testament. Theophan the Recluse regarded the "Jesus Prayer" stronger than all other prayers by virtue of the power of the Holy Name of Jesus.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Though identified more closely with Eastern Christianity, the prayer is found in Western Christianity in the "Catechism of the Catholic Church". It also is used in conjunction with the recent innovation of Anglican prayer beads.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Eastern Orthodox theology of the Jesus Prayer as enunciated in the 14th century by Gregory Palamas was generally rejected by Latin Church theologians until the 20th century. Pope John Paul II called Gregory Palamas a saint, a great writer, and an authority on theology. He also spoke with appreciation of hesychasm as "that deep union of grace which Eastern theology likes to describe with the particularly powerful term ""theosis"", 'divinization, and likened the meditative quality of the Jesus Prayer to that of the Catholic Rosary.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The prayer's origin is the Egyptian desert, which was settled by the monastic Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers in the 5th century. It was found inscribed in the ruins of a cell from that period in the Egyptian desert.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: A formula similar to the standard form of the Jesus Prayer is found in a letter attributed to John Chrysostom, who died in AD 407. This "Letter to an Abbot" speaks of "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy" and "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us" being used as ceaseless prayer. However, some consider this letter dubious or spurious and attribute it to an unknown writer of unknown date.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: What may be the earliest explicit reference to the Jesus Prayer in a form that is similar to that used today is in "Discourse on Abba Philimon" from the "Philokalia". Philimon lived around AD 600. The version cited by Philimon is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me," which is apparently the earliest source to cite this standard version. While the prayer itself was in use by that time, John S. Romanides writes that "We are still searching the Fathers for the term 'Jesus prayer'."


title: Jesus Prayer

text: A similar idea is recommended in the "Ladder of Divine Ascent" of John Climacus (circa 523–606), who recommends the regular practice of a "monologistos", or one-worded "Jesus Prayer". The use of the Jesus Prayer according to the tradition of the "Philokalia" is the subject of the 19th century anonymous Russian spiritual classic "The Way of a Pilgrim", also in the original form, without the addition of the words "a sinner".


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Though the Jesus Prayer has been practiced through the centuries as part of the Eastern tradition, in the 20th century, it also began to be used in some Western churches, including some Latin Catholic and Anglican churches.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The hesychastic practice of the Jesus Prayer is founded on the biblical view by which God's name is conceived as the place of his presence. Orthodox mysticism has no images or representations. The mystical practice (the prayer and the meditation) doesn't lead to perceiving representations of God (see below Palamism). Thus, the most important means of a life consecrated to praying is the invoked "name of God", as it is emphasized since the 5th century by the Thebaid anchorites, or by the later Athonite hesychasts. For the Orthodox the power of the Jesus Prayer comes not only from its content, but from the very invocation of Jesus' name.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Jesus Prayer combines three Bible verses: the Christological hymn of the Pauline epistle Philippians (verse 11: "Jesus Christ is Lord"), the Annunciation of Luke (verse 35: "Son of God"), and the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican of Luke , in which the Pharisee demonstrates the improper way to pray (verse 11: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican"), whereas the Publican prays correctly in humility (verse 13: "God be merciful to me a sinner").


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The essence–energies distinction, a central principle in Orthodox theology, was first formulated by Gregory of Nyssa and developed by Gregory Palamas in the 14th century in support of the mystical practices of Hesychasm and against Barlaam of Seminara. It stands that God's "essence" (, "ousia") is distinct from God's "energies", his manifestations in the world, by which men can experience the Divine. The energies are "unbegotten" or "uncreated". They were revealed in various episodes of the Bible: the burning bush seen by Moses, the Light on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration. "Palamas […] taught that the ascetic endeavor of fasting and prayer, particularly the practice of the Jesus Prayer according to the teachings of the hesychastic Fathers, prepares one to receive the grace-filled light of the Lord, which is like that which shone on Mt. Tabor at the Lord's Transfiguration. In other words, if God wills, according to one's striving, one can partake of divine blessedness while still on this sinful earth."


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Apophatism (negative theology) is the main characteristic of the Eastern theological tradition. Incognoscibility is not conceived as agnosticism or refusal to know God, because the Eastern theology is not concerned with abstract concepts; it is contemplative, with a discourse on things above rational understanding. Therefore, dogmas are often expressed antinomically. This form of contemplation is experience of God, illumination, called the vision of God or, in Greek, theoria.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Eastern Orthodox Church holds a non-juridical view of sin, by contrast to the satisfaction view of atonement for sin as articulated in the West, firstly by Anselm of Canterbury (as debt of honor)) and Thomas Aquinas (as a moral debt). The terms used in the East are less legalistic ("grace", "punishment"), and more medical ("sickness", "healing") with less exacting precision. Sin, therefore, does not carry with it the guilt for breaking a rule, but rather the impetus to become something more than what men usually are. One repents not because one is or isn't virtuous, but because human nature can change. Repentance (, "metanoia", "changing one's mind") isn't remorse, justification, or punishment, but a continual enactment of one's freedom, deriving from renewed choice and leading to restoration (the return to man's original state). This is reflected in the Mystery of Confession for which, not being limited to a mere confession of sins and presupposing recommendations or penalties, it is primarily that the priest acts in his capacity of spiritual father. The Mystery of Confession is linked to the spiritual development of the individual, and relates to the practice of choosing an elder to trust as his or her spiritual guide, turning to him for advice on the personal spiritual development, confessing sins, and asking advice.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: As stated at the local Council of Constantinople in 1157, Christ brought his redemptive sacrifice not to the Father alone, but to the Trinity as a whole. In the Eastern Orthodox theology redemption isn't seen as "ransom". It is the "reconciliation" of God with man, the manifestation of God's love for humanity. Thus, it is not the anger of God the Father but His love that lies behind the sacrificial death of his son on the cross.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The redemption of man is not considered to have taken place only in the past, but continues to this day through theosis. The initiative belongs to God, but presupposes man's active acceptance (not an action only, but an attitude), which is a way of perpetually receiving God.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The practice of contemplative or meditative chanting is known in several religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam (e.g. japa, zikr). The form of internal contemplation involving profound inner transformations affecting all the levels of the self is common to the traditions that posit the ontological value of personhood. The history of these practices, including their possible spread from one religion to another, is not well understood. Such parallels (like between unusual psycho-spiritual experiences, breathing practices, postures, spiritual guidances of elders, peril warnings) might easily have arisen independently of one another, and in any case must be considered within their particular religious frameworks.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Although some aspects of the Jesus Prayer may resemble some aspects of other traditions, its Christian character is central rather than mere "local color". The aim of the Christian practicing it is not limited to attaining humility, love, or purification of sinful thoughts, but rather it is becoming holy and seeking union with God ("theosis"), which subsumes all the aforementioned virtues. Thus, for the Eastern Orthodox:


title: Jesus Prayer

text: A magistral way of meeting God for the Orthodox, the Jesus Prayer does not harbor any secrets in itself, nor does its practice reveal any esoteric truths. Instead, as a hesychastic practice, it demands setting the mind apart from rational activities and ignoring the physical senses for the experiential knowledge of God. It stands along with the regular expected actions of the believer (prayer, almsgiving, repentance, fasting etc.) as the response of the Orthodox Tradition to Paul the Apostle's challenge to "pray without ceasing" (). It is also linked to the Song of Solomon's passage from the Old Testament: "I sleep, but my heart is awake" (Song of Solomon 5:2). The analogy being that as a lover is always conscious to his or her beloved, people can also achieve a state of "constant prayer" where they are always conscious of God's presence in their lives.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The practice of the Jesus Prayer is integrated into the mental, physical and spiritual ascesis undertaken by the Orthodox monastic in the practice of hesychasm. Yet the Jesus Prayer is not limited only to monastic life or to clergy. Anyone may practice this prayer, laypeople and clergy, men, women and children.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In the Eastern tradition the prayer is said or prayed repeatedly, often with the aid of a prayer rope (; ), which is a cord, usually from wool or silk, tied with many knots. The prayer ropes usually have 33, 50, 100 or 300 knots – or, more generally, an easily divisible number. The person saying the prayer says one repetition for each knot. It may be accompanied by prostrations and the sign of the cross, signaled by beads strung along the prayer rope at intervals.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The prayer rope is "a tool of prayer" and an aid to beginners or those who face difficulties practicing the Prayer. However even the most advanced practitioners still use prayer ropes.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Jesus Prayer may be practiced under the guidance and supervision of a spiritual guide (pneumatikos, ), and or Starets, especially when psychosomatic techniques (like rhythmical breath) are incorporated. A person that acts as a spiritual "father" and advisor may be an official certified by the Church Confessor (Pneumatikos Exolmologitis) or sometimes a spiritually experienced monk (called in Greek Gerontas (Elder) or in Russian Starets). It is possible for that person to be a layperson, usually a "practical theologician" (i.e. a person well versed in Orthodox theology but without official credentials, certificates, diplomas etc.).


title: Jesus Prayer

text: There are no fixed rules for those who pray, "the way there is no mechanical, physical or mental technique which can force God to show his presence" (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware).


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In "The Way of a Pilgrim", the pilgrim advises, "as you draw your breath in, say, or imagine yourself saying, 'Lord Jesus Christ,' and as you breathe again, 'have mercy on me.'" Another option is to say (orally or mentally) the whole prayer while breathing in and again the whole prayer while breathing out and yet another, to breathe in recite the whole prayer, breathe out while reciting the whole prayer again. One can also hold the breath for a few seconds between breathing in and out.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Monks may pray this prayer many hundreds of times each night as part of their private cell vigil ("cell rule"). Under the guidance of an Elder (Russian "Starets"; Greek "Gerondas"), the monk aims to internalize the prayer, so that he is praying unceasingly. Diadochos of Photiki refers in "On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination" to the automatic repetition of the Jesus Prayer, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, even in sleep. This state is regarded as the accomplishment of Paul the Apostle's exhortation to the Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing" ().


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Jesus Prayer can be used for a kind of "psychological" self-analysis. According to the "Way of the Pilgrim" account and Mount Athos practitioners of the Jesus Prayer, "one can have some insight on his or her current psychological situation by observing the intonation of the words of the prayer, as they are recited. Which word is stressed most. This self-analysis could reveal to the praying person things about their inner state and feelings, maybe not yet realised, of their unconsciousness."


title: Jesus Prayer

text: "While praying the Jesus Prayer, one might notice that sometimes the word 'Lord' is pronounced louder, more stressed, than the others, like: "Lord" Jesus Christ, (Son of God), have mercy on me, (a/the sinner). In this case, they say, it means that our inner self is currently more aware of the fact that Jesus is the Lord, maybe because we need reassurance that he is in control of everything (and our lives too). Other times, the stressed word is 'Jesus': Lord "Jesus" Christ, (Son of God), have mercy on me, (a/the sinner). In that case, they say, we feel the need to personally appeal more to his human nature, the one that is more likely to understand our human problems and shortcomings, maybe because we are going through tough personal situations. Likewise if the word 'Christ' is stressed it could be that we need to appeal to Jesus as Messiah and Mediator, between humans and God the Father, and so on. When the word 'Son' is stressed maybe we recognise more Jesus' relationship with the Father. If 'of God' is stressed then we could realise more Jesus' unity with the Father. A stressed 'have mercy on me' shows a specific, or urgent, need for mercy. A stressed 'a sinner' (or 'the sinner') could mean that there is a particular current realisation of the sinful human nature or a particular need for forgiveness.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: "In order to do this kind of self-analysis one should better start reciting the prayer relaxed and naturally for a few minutes so the observation won't be consciously 'forced', and then to start paying attention to the intonation as described above.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Also, a person might want to consciously stress one of the words of the prayer in particular when one wants to express a conscious feeling of situation. So in times of need stressing the 'have mercy' part can be more comforting or more appropriate. In times of failures, the 'a sinner' part, etc...)."


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Paul Evdokimov, a 20th-century Russian philosopher and theologian, writes about beginner's way of praying: initially, the prayer is excited because the man is emotive and a flow of psychic contents is expressed. In his view this condition comes, for the modern men, from the separation of the mind from the heart: "The prattle spreads the soul, while the silence is drawing it together." Old fathers condemned elaborate phraseologies, for one word was enough for the publican, and one word saved the thief on the cross. They only uttered Jesus' name by which they were contemplating God. For Evdokimov the acting faith denies any formalism which quickly installs in the external prayer or in the life duties; he quotes Seraphim of Sarov: "The prayer is not thorough if the man is self-conscious and he is aware he's praying."


title: Jesus Prayer

text: "Because the prayer is a living reality, a deeply personal encounter with the living God, it is not to be confined to any given classification or rigid analysis" an on-line catechism reads. As general guidelines for the practitioner, different number of levels (3, 7 or 9) in the practice of the prayer are distinguished by Orthodox fathers. They are to be seen as being purely informative, because the practice of the Prayer of the Heart is learned under personal spiritual guidance in Eastern Orthodoxy which emphasizes the perils of temptations when it's done by one's own. Thus, Theophan the Recluse, a 19th-century Russian spiritual writer, talks about three stages:


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Once this is achieved the Jesus Prayer is said to become "self-active" (). It is repeated automatically and unconsciously by the mind, becoming an internal habit like a (beneficial) earworm. Body, through the uttering of the prayer, mind, through the mental repetition of the prayer, are thus unified with "the heart" (spirit) and the prayer becomes constant, ceaselessly "playing" in the background of the mind, like a background music, without hindering the normal everyday activities of the person.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: More exactly, according with the experience of the ones which had reached at the level of unceasing prayer - for example the monks from Mount Athos but not only, this can be further divided in the Prayer of the Mind - level at which the prayer is said unceasingly in the rational parts (intellect - also called mind - and logic) of the soul and, if the practitioner advances further, then the grace will unite the rational parts with the irrational parts of the soul (inflammatory part and appetitive part) and then the prayer is called The Prayer of the Heart.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Others, like Father Archimandrite Ilie Cleopa, one of the most representative spiritual fathers of contemporary Romanian Orthodox monastic spirituality, talk about nine levels (see External links). They are the same path to theosis, more slenderly differentiated:


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In its more advanced use, the monk aims to attain to a sober practice of the Jesus Prayer in the heart free of images. It is from this condition, called by John Climacus and Hesychios the "guard of the mind", that the monk is raised by the divine grace to contemplation.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: A number of different repetitive prayer formulas have been attested in the history of Eastern Orthodox monasticism: the Prayer of St. Ioannikios the Great (754–846): "My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my shelter is the Holy Ghost, O Holy Trinity, Glory unto You," the repetitive use of which is described in his "Life"; or the more recent practice of Nikolaj Velimirović.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Similarly to the flexibility of the practice of the Jesus Prayer, there is no imposed standardization of its form. The prayer can be from as short as "Lord, have mercy" (Kyrie eleison), "Have mercy on me" ("Have mercy upon us"), or even "Jesus", to its longer most common form. It can also contain a call to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), or to the saints. The single essential and invariable element is Jesus' name.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: The Jesus Prayer is a core part of the plot in J. D. Salinger's pair of stories "Franny and Zooey". Its use in that book is itself referenced in Jeffrey Eugenides's novel, The Marriage Plot.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In 1999, Sir John Tavener wrote this haunting and somewhat discordant setting of ‘The Jesus Prayer’ for the popular Icelandic singer Björk. His song is titled ‘Prayer of the Heart’ which is an alternate name for ‘The Jesus Prayer.’ The music is played by the Brodsky Quartet. The Jesus Prayer repeats in Greek, in Coptic (the language of the desert fathers and mothers), and in English.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Part four of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church", which is dedicated to Christian prayer, devotes paragraphs 2665 to 2669 to prayer to Jesus.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In his poem "The Book of the Twelve Béguines", John of Ruysbroeck, a 14th-century Flemish mystic beatified by Pope Pius X in 1908, wrote of "the uncreated Light, which is not God, but is the intermediary between Him and the 'seeing thought'" as illuminating the contemplative not in the highest mode of contemplation, but in the second of the four ascending modes.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: Similar methods of prayer in use in the Catholic Church are recitation, as recommended by John Cassian, of "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" or other verses of Scripture; repetition of a single monosyllabic word, as suggested by the Cloud of Unknowing; the method used in Centering Prayer; the method used by The World Community for Christian Meditation, based on the Aramaic invocation "Maranatha"; the use of Lectio Divina; etc.


title: Jesus Prayer

text: In addition to Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, many Christians of other traditions also use the Jesus Prayer, primarily as a centering prayer or for contemplative prayer. The prayer is sometimes used with the Anglican rosary. The structure and content of the Jesus Prayer also bears a resemblance to the "Sinner's Prayer" used by many evangelical Protestants.


title: Pleasure

text: Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals find pleasure enjoyable, positive or worthy of seeking. A great variety of activities may be experienced as pleasurable, like eating, having sex, listening to music or playing games. Pleasure is part of various other mental states such as ecstasy, euphoria and flow. Happiness and well-being are closely related to pleasure but not identical with it. There is no general agreement as to whether pleasure should be understood as a sensation, a quality of experiences, an attitude to experiences or otherwise. Pleasure plays a central role in the family of philosophical theories known as hedonism.


title: Pleasure

text: "Pleasure" refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. The term is primarily used in association with "sensory pleasures" like the enjoyment of food or sex. But in its most general sense, it includes all types of positive or pleasant experiences including the enjoyment of sports, seeing a beautiful sunset or engaging in an intellectually satisfying activity. Pleasure contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. Both pleasure and pain come in degrees and have been thought of as a dimension going from positive degrees through a neutral point to negative degrees. This assumption is important for the possibility of comparing and aggregating the degrees of pleasure of different experiences, for example, in order to perform the Utilitarian calculus.


title: Pleasure

text: The concept of pleasure is similar but not identical to the concepts of well-being and of happiness. These terms are used in overlapping ways, but their meanings tend to come apart in technical contexts like philosophy or psychology. "Pleasure" refers to a certain type of experience while "well-being" is about what is good for a person. Many philosophers agree that "pleasure" is good for a person and therefore is a form of "well-being". But there may be other things besides or instead of pleasure that constitute "well-being", like health, virtue, knowledge or the fulfillment of desires. On some conceptions, "happiness" is identified with "the individual’s balance of pleasant over unpleasant experience". "Life satisfaction theories", on the other hand, hold that "happiness" involves having the "right attitude towards one's life as a whole". "Pleasure" may have a role to play in this attitude, but it is not identical to "happiness".


title: Pleasure

text: Pleasure is closely related to value, desire, motivation and right action. There is broad agreement that pleasure is valuable in some sense. Axiological hedonists hold that pleasure is the only thing that has intrinsic value. Many desires are concerned with pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the thesis that all our actions aim at increasing pleasure and avoiding pain. Freud's pleasure principle ties pleasure to motivation and action by holding that there is a strong psychological tendency to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. Classical utilitarianism connects pleasure to ethics in stating that whether an action is right depends on the pleasure it produces: it should maximize the sum-total of pleasure.


title: Pleasure

text: Many pleasurable experiences are associated with satisfying basic biological drives, such as eating, exercise, hygiene, sleep, and sex. The appreciation of cultural artifacts and activities such as art, music, dancing, and literature is often pleasurable. Pleasure is sometimes subdivided into fundamental pleasures that are closely related to survival (food, sex, and social belonging) and higher-order pleasures (e.g., viewing art and altruism). Bentham listed 14 kinds of pleasure; sense, wealth, skill, amity, a good name, power, piety, benevolence, malevolence, memory, imagination, expectation, pleasures dependent on association, and the pleasures of relief. Some commentators see 'complex pleasures' including wit and sudden realisation, and some see a wide range of pleasurable feelings.


title: Pleasure

text: Pleasure comes in various forms, for example, in the enjoyment of food, sex, sports, seeing a beautiful sunset or engaging in an intellectually satisfying activity. "Theories of pleasure" try to determine what all these pleasurable experiences have in common, what is essential to them. They are traditionally divided into quality theories and attitude theories. An alternative terminology refers to these theories as "phenomenalism" and "intentionalism". Quality theories hold that pleasure is a quality of pleasurable experiences themselves while attitude theories state that pleasure is in some sense external to the experience since it depends on the subject's attitude to the experience. More recently, dispositional theories have been proposed that incorporate elements of both traditional approaches.


title: Pleasure

text: In everyday language, the term "pleasure" is primarily associated with sensory pleasures like the enjoyment of food or sex. One traditionally important "quality-theory" closely follows this association by holding that pleasure is a sensation. On the simplest version of the sensation theory, whenever we experience pleasure there is a distinctive pleasure-sensation present. So a pleasurable experience of eating chocolate involves a sensation of the taste of chocolate together with a pleasure-sensation. An obvious shortcoming of this theory is that many impressions may be present at the same time. For example, there may be an itching sensation as well while eating the chocolate. But this account cannot explain why the enjoyment is linked to the taste of the chocolate and not to the itch. Another problem is due to the fact that sensations are usually thought of as localized somewhere in the body. But considering the pleasure of seeing a beautiful sunset, there seems to be no specific region in the body at which we experience this pleasure.


title: Pleasure

text: These problems can be avoided by felt-quality-theories, which see pleasure not as a sensation but as an aspect qualifying sensations or other mental phenomena. As an aspect, pleasure is dependent on the mental phenomenon it qualifies, it cannot be present on its own. Since the link to the enjoyed phenomenon is already built into the pleasure, it solves the problem faced by sensation theories to explain how this link comes about. It also captures the intuition that pleasure is usually pleasure "of" something: enjoyment "of" drinking a milkshake or "of" playing chess but not just pure or object-less enjoyment. According to this approach, pleasurable experiences differ in content (drinking a milkshake, playing chess) but agree in feeling or hedonic tone. Pleasure can be localized, but only to the extent that the impression it qualifies is localized.


title: Pleasure

text: One objection to both the sensation theory and the felt-quality theory is that there is no one quality shared by all pleasure-experiences. The force of this objection comes from the intuition that the variety of pleasure-experiences is just too wide to point out one quality shared by all, for example, the quality shared by "enjoying a milkshake" and "enjoying a chess game". One way for quality theorists to respond to this objection is by pointing out that the hedonic tone of pleasure-experiences is not a regular quality but a higher-order quality. As an analogy, a vividly green thing and a vividly red thing do not share a regular color property but they share "vividness" as a higher-order property.


title: Pleasure

text: "Attitude theories" propose to analyze pleasure in terms of attitudes to experiences. So to enjoy the taste of chocolate it is not sufficient to have the corresponding experience of the taste. Instead, the subject has to have the right attitude to this taste for pleasure to arise. This approach captures the intuition that a second person may have exactly the same taste-experience but not enjoy it since the relevant attitude is lacking. Various attitudes have been proposed for the type of attitude responsible for pleasure, but historically the most influential version assigns this role to desires. On this account, pleasure is linked to experiences that fulfill a desire had by the experiencer. So the difference between the first and the second person in the example above is that only the first person has a corresponding desire directed at the taste of chocolate.


title: Pleasure

text: One important argument against this version is that while it is often the case that we desire something first and then enjoy it, this cannot always be the case. In fact, often the opposite seems to be true: we have to learn first that something is enjoyable before we start to desire it. This objection can be partially avoided by holding that it does not matter whether the desire was there before the experience but that it only matters what we desire while the experience is happening. This variant, originally held by Henry Sidgwick, has recently been defended by Chris Heathwood, who holds that an experience is pleasurable if the subject of the experience wants the experience to occur for its own sake while it is occurring. But this version faces a related problem akin to the Euthyphro dilemma: it seems that we usually desire things because they are enjoyable, not the other way round. So desire theories would be mistaken about the direction of explanation. Another argument against desire theories is that desire and pleasure can come apart: we can have a desire for things that are not enjoyable and we can enjoy things without desiring to do so.


title: Pleasure

text: "Dispositional theories" try to account for pleasure in terms of dispositions, often by including insights from both the quality theories and the attitude theories. One way to combine these elements is to hold that pleasure consists in being disposed to desire an experience in virtue of the qualities of this experience. Some of the problems of the regular desire theory can be avoided this way since the disposition does not need to be realized for there to be pleasure, thereby taking into account that desire and pleasure can come apart.


title: Pleasure

text: "Pleasure" plays a central role in theories from various areas of "philosophy". Such theories are usually grouped together under the label "hedonism".


title: Pleasure

text: Pleasure is related not just to how we actually act, but also to how we ought to act, which belongs to the field of "ethics". Ethical hedonism takes the strongest position on this relation in stating that considerations of increasing pleasure and decreasing pain fully determine what we should do or which action is right. "Ethical hedonist theories" can be classified in relation to whose pleasure should be increased. According to the egoist version, each agent should only aim at maximizing her own pleasure. This position is usually not held in very high esteem. Utilitarianism, on the other hand, is a family of altruist theories that are more respectable in the philosophical community. Within this family, classical utilitarianism draws the closest connection between pleasure and right action by holding that the agent should maximize the sum-total of everyone's happiness. This sum-total includes the agent's pleasure as well, but only as one factor among many.


title: Pleasure

text: Pleasure is intimately connected to "value" as something that is desirable and worth seeking. According to axiological hedonism, it is the only thing that has intrinsic value or is "good in itself". This position entails that things other than pleasure, like knowledge, virtue or money, only have "instrumental value": they are valuable because or to the extent that they produce pleasure but lack value otherwise. Within the scope of axiological hedonism, there are two competing theories about the exact relation between pleasure and value: "quantitative hedonism" and "qualitative hedonism". Quantitative hedonists, following Jeremy Bentham, hold that the specific content or quality of a pleasure-experience is not relevant to its value, which only depends on its quantitative features: intensity and duration. On this account, an experience of intense pleasure of indulging in food and sex is worth more than an experience of subtle pleasure of looking at fine art or of engaging in a stimulating intellectual conversation. Qualitative hedonists, following John Stuart Mill, object to this version on the grounds that it threatens to turn axiological hedonism into a "philosophy of swine". Instead, they argue that the quality is another factor relevant to the value of a pleasure-experience, for example, that the "lower pleasures" of the body are less valuable than the "higher pleasures" of the mind.


title: Pleasure

text: A very common element in many conceptions of beauty is its relation to pleasure. Aesthetic hedonism makes this relation part of the definition of beauty by holding that there is a necessary connection between pleasure and beauty, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for it to cause pleasure or that the experience of beauty is always accompanied by pleasure. The pleasure due to beauty does not need to be "pure", i.e. exclude all unpleasant elements. Instead, beauty can involve "mixed" pleasure, for example, in the case of a beautifully tragic story. We take pleasure from many things that are not beautiful, which is why beauty is usually defined in terms of a special type of pleasure: "aesthetic" or "disinterested" pleasure. A pleasure is disinterested if it is indifferent to the existence of the beautiful object. For example, the joy of looking at a beautiful landscape would still be valuable if it turned out that this experience was an illusion, which would not be true if this joy was due to seeing the landscape as a valuable real estate opportunity. Opponents of "aesthetic hedonism" have pointed out that despite commonly occurring together, there are cases of beauty without pleasure. For example, a cold jaded critic may still be a good judge of beauty due to her years of experience but lack the joy that initially accompanied her work. A further question for hedonists is how to explain the relation between beauty and pleasure. This problem is akin to the Euthyphro dilemma: is something beautiful because we enjoy it or do we enjoy it because it is beautiful? Identity theorists solve this problem by denying that there is a difference between beauty and pleasure: they identify beauty, or the appearance of it, with the experience of aesthetic pleasure.


title: Pleasure

text: The ancient Cyrenaics posited pleasure as the universal aim for all people. Later, Epicurus defined the highest pleasure as aponia (the absence of pain), and pleasure as "freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul". According to Cicero (or rather his character Torquatus) Epicurus also believed that pleasure was the chief good and pain the chief evil. The Pyrrhonist philosopher Aenesidemus claimed that following Pyrrhonism's prescriptions for philosophical skepticism produced pleasure.