I dedicate this book to my colleagues at Lipscomb University, a delightful community, which has given me the privilege to teach and play and work and lecture and write and produce, and also to argue and laugh and complain and care about things that matter, and also to know the beauty of old and long friendships. I never anticipated how much joy and adventure an academic community might afford, and I shall always be grateful. Of course I do not presuppose that all my colleagues will agree with the arguments herein. This fact but reminds me again that we are a community that knows how to have worthwhile and good arguments, all while sharing a common love and vocation and tender-kindness one for the other.
For helpful feedback on this project, I would especially like to thank the MDiv Cohort of Hazelip School of Theology (class of 2019), my MDiv Christian Ethics course (fall 2019), and two different Sunday school classes at Otter Creek church. All of these groups honored me by allowing me to work through versions of this material, and they provided immensely helpful feedback. A colloquy of my faculty colleagues also read a version of the manuscript and similarly provided generous feedback. I especially thank Josh Strahan, Lauren White, Phillip Camp, Earl Lavender, Frank Guertin, Terry Briley, Mark Black, Richard Hughes, Walter Surdacki, Jim Arnett, Robert Chandler, Steve Sabin, Adam Boggess, and Stan Wilson. I am grateful for both the leave time and the support generously granted by Provost Craig Bledsoe and Dean Leonard Allen to work on this project. I especially thank Trevor Thompson in his vision to bring this work to press, along with the staff at Eerdmans for making the publication possible.
Finally, I give thanks for my lovely wife Laura, who has continued to live and labor and laugh and love alongside me all these many years now, and my dear sons Chandler, David, and Ben.