Acknowledgments and
Bibliographical Notes
The first three meditations in the second part of this book in-
corporate lectures that I delivered in the autumn of 2016 at Vir-
ginia Theological Seminary, as the inaugural contribution to a
newly established series of public addresses endowed by Ms.
Margaret H. Costan. I was honored, needless to say, to be the
first- though hardly the most distinguished- lecturer in the
series, and am still grateful for the hospitality I enjoyed from
faculty and students alike during my visit, and for the intelli-
gence and probity with which faculty, students, and visitors re-
sponded to my remarks and interrogated my arguments. I am
almost afraid to name names, as I am quite likely to be guilty
of invidiously forgetting some that I should remember. Still,
I have to express my sincerest thanks to the Dean and Presi-
dent of the seminary Ian Markham, Vice-President Melody
Knowles, the William Mead Professor in Systematic Theology
Katherine Sonderegger, and assistant professor (and Ph.D.
candidate) Hannah Mattis for their kindness and unflagging
hospitality. Toward the last of these four, I should say, I harbor
especially amiable feelings, because she has not only read my