Theological Origins of Modernity

preface xiii
helped me to sharpen my argument. I would like to thank them all for
their inspiration, encouragement, and criticism at various points in the
unfolding of this project. Special thanks are due to Douglas Casson, Jean
Elshtain, Peter Euben, David Fink, Timothy Fuller, Ruth Grant, Geoff rey
Harpham, Stanley Hauerwas, Th omas Heilke, Reinhard Huetter, Alasdair
MacIntyre, Nelson Minnich, Joshua Mitchell, Ebrahim Moosa, Seymour
Mauskopf, Luc Perkins, Robert Pippin, Noel Reynolds, David Rice, Arlene
Saxonhouse, Th omas Spragens, Tracy Strong, Richard Watson, Ronald
Witt, and Michael and Catherine Zuckert. I would also like to thank Richard
Allen, who edited the text for the University of Chicago Press. His care
with details and his many substantive suggestions were invaluable. I would
especially like to acknowledge my debt to the teachers who fi rst inspired
my interest in the questions I address here including James Friday, Samuel
Beer, Patrick Riley, Judith Shklar, and Joseph Cropsey. Finally, I would be
remiss if I did not thank the two people who have had to put up with me
over the many years that brought this project to fruition, my wife Nancy
Henley and my son Tom. Tom in particular has literally grown up with
this book and is entangled in it in ways that are not always visible. In many
respects his energy, stubbornness, and enthusiasm have provoked and sustained
me as I followed the odd paths and forgotten byways that led to its
conclusion. Like this book he too has recently left my care to fi nd his own
way in the world, and I want to dedicate this book to him in the hope that
both of my “children” will prove stronger than their father.