 Consider now an episode of joy that is attributed to a Christian in the New Testament, but which may be more mundane, or even “secular.” King Herod is persecuting the church and has the apostle Peter thrown in prison and kept under heavy guard. But, the night before Herod is planning to bring Peter out of prison and encourage something bad to happen to him, Peter escapes miraculously and goes to a house where members of the church are meeting and fervently praying for Peter. “When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that (apo tēs charas), instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate” (Acts 12:13–14). How theology-laden is Rhoda’s joy? I think that will depend on the depth of Rhoda’s catechesis. In any case, it is probably shallower than Paul’s. It is possible that Rhoda is simply caught up in the church’s enthusiasm to get Peter back and is a beneficiary of emotional contagion. It is also possible that, given that she has just stepped out of a meeting heavy into prayer for Peter’s rescue, Rhoda is at the moment theologically primed to construe the situation in Christian terms. And it is also possible that Rhoda’s joy arises from a deep piety — a thorough-going personal integration of the Christian vision of God’s purposes — that she rejoices spontaneously out of these character-resources, and that her joy is specifically gratitude to God.