I owe many thanks to family, friends, and colleagues that words do not have the force to convey. My editors, Brannon Ellis and Andy LePeau, have been tremendously helpful in shepherding me through the process of producing this book. Phillip L. Sinitiere, Bruce L. Etter, Edward J. Blum, Heath Carter and Arthur Remillard each pored over every word of the manuscript. Phil and I spent many hours discussing the flow of the book, and I have lost track of the number of valuable insights and contributions he offered. Bruce and I also spent many hours together discussing the prose, and his expertise in helping me frame my ideas more clearly was invaluable. I so appreciate Ed’s wisdom, creativity and enormous base of knowledge. Heath’s critiques challenged me toward precision and to avoid blind spots. And as an expert on civil religion, Art provided many helpful suggestions.
My friend and colleague Stephen O. Presley at Southwestern Seminary walked with me through the entire writing process. I remember the day I went into his office and asked him to look over the first draft of my book proposal before I gave it to Brannon Ellis. His encouragement and enthusiastic support have meant the world to me. All my friends and colleagues at the Houston campus of Southwestern Seminary provided me with rich conversations about exceptionalism and helped me to sharpen my thinking, particularly Benjamin Phillips, Miles Mullin and my dean, J. Denny Autrey.
John Fea has been truly an inspiration to me. He is learned, gracious and patient. I am honored to call him a friend and mentor. We were having breakfast one morning at the 2012 Conference on Faith and History meeting at Gordon College, and he specifically encouraged me to write this book. John is a great teacher and scholar, and he is also one of the classiest people I know. Many thanks also to James W. Ceaser and Raymond Haberski Jr. Both of them provided me with insights and encouragement at critical times during the project, and I truly cannot thank them enough.
My students at Southwestern have consistently helped me shape my thinking, particularly those at Southwestern’s Darrington extension campus. The Darrington Unit is a maximum security prison, and the students enrolled there are studying in a fully accredited bachelor of science degree program in biblical studies. The Darrington students, as well as my traditional students at the Houston campus, always challenge my thinking. Discussing ideas with them remains a source of great pleasure and profit. I owe a special word of thanks to Darrington students Jake Strickland, Jason Karch and Jason Gibson. They tirelessly combed the manuscript to help me produce the subject and author indexes. Their contributions were invaluable.
Most importantly, my dear wife, Mandy, has been the greatest encourager imaginable. She read every word of every draft of the manuscript, and gave me insights and wisdom that no one else could. She has been my most engaged interlocutor and most stalwart friend. And my little children, Caroline and Sally, continually checked in to see how I was progressing. “Daddy, how is your book coming?” was a question I was greeted with from sweet and pure voices almost every day for the past two years.
With such indispensable and wise family and friends, it goes without saying that all errors contained herein are my own.