Acknowledgements

Thanks go to my friends Bill Cole Cliett and Peter Dunbaugh Smith, who read and commented on an early draft of this novel.

Many thanks go to sharp-eyed editors Harrison Demchick and Katharine Mead-Brewer.

I am also grateful to Marty Perlmutter whose philosophy of religion class at the College of Charleston still inspires me thirty-five years later.

While my formal training is in philosophy, and I do not consider myself a scholar of religion, I have spent years studying and being deeply affected by the work of some great scholars, most notably John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Elaine Pagels, Bart Erhman, and Marvin Meier. I apologize to them for anything they may find embarrassing in this novel.

Finally, I thank Fred Chappell, who listened to me describe this novel before it was written and gave me kind words of encouragement.