ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

 

 

 

Producing this book on a tight schedule demanded a team effort. We are therefore grateful for the kindness and generosity of many people who assisted us with this project. We owe our largest debt to several dozen Amish people who generously shared their time to talk about Amish forgiveness. They patiently answered many questions, some of them painful, all of them probing. This book would have been impossible without their insights.

Many other persons assisted us as well. We especially thank David Rempel Smucker for his historical research and translation of German documents; Florence Horning for her translation of Pennsylvania German and her clerical support; Cynthia Nolt, whose superb copy-editing skills improved our text; Valerie Weaver-Zercher, whose editorial eyes enhanced our prose and the flow of the narrative; and four student assistants—Courtney Fellows, Benjamin Lamb, Megan Memoli, and Kami Tyler—who provided a variety of research and support services.

As always, we benefited from the support of our colleagues at Elizabethtown College, Goshen College, and Messiah College. Some colleagues responded to chapters; others responded to ideas. Charles Seitz at Messiah College and Joe Liechty at Goshen College helped us think through issues related to forgiveness and reconciliation, and the librarians at all three institutions gave generously of their time and energy.

Three nationally recognized scholars of forgiveness—Robert Enright, Fred Luskin, and Everett Worthington Jr.—shared their time and ideas to help us better understand the issues surrounding forgiveness. In addition, their books and articles opened up for us the growing body of scholarship on the topic.

We owe a special debt to the Fetzer Institute for its financial support of our research. We enjoyed the enthusiastic support of Shirley Showalter, Fetzer’s vice president for programs, as well as Wayne Ramsey, who kindly spoke with us for hours about forgiveness research.

The text of Amish Grace is more accurate because a number of people were willing to read and critique early drafts of the manuscript. In addition to six Amish readers, we appreciate the thoughtful responses and critiques we received from Kimberly Adams, Nancy Adams, Herman Bontrager, Helen Burns, Julie Heisey, Jake Jacobsen, Joe Liechty, Fred Luskin, Wayne Ramsey, Stephen Scott, Richard Stevick, and Everett Worthington. Many of them raised good questions about the nature of forgiveness and Amish life, and though we could not address all their questions, our text is stronger because of their insights.

With warm enthusiasm, Sheryl Fullerton, executive editor at Jossey-Bass, and her team of colleagues turned our manuscript into a polished book. We deeply appreciated their professional expertise throughout the publication process. Our agent, Giles Anderson, guided us through the rapids of the publishing world with uncommon wisdom and insight.

Finally, our hearts are filled with gratitude for our spouses and families. They provided unwavering support to us during the hectic months of our research and writing. They surely learned a lot about forgiveness in the process, sometimes in theory and sometimes through extending it to us. We are blessed to have such gracious people in our lives.