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ix Acknowledgments KL A work of this scale could not have come together without the participation and contribution of others. This study is the third of four volumes to be published from a research project directed by the Centre for Catholic Social Thought based at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The centre’s work on social ethics in late antiquity spanned the period 2005 to 2009, and was funded by the Fund for Scientific Research of Flanders. I am grateful for their generous support of my research during this period. That I was able to work on this project in the first place, and to do so in the beautiful environs of Leuven, is due to the generosity and encouragement of the project’s two promoters, Johan Verstraeten and Johan Leemans (or, as I affectionately would note in my agenda when scheduling our quarterly meetings, “the Johans”). I suspect that it was during the time Johan Leemans began work on Gregory of Nyssa’s social ideas several years ago that the project to explore the social ideas in the Greek Fathers first was conceived. Then, in conversations with Johan Verstraeten, an expert in Catholic social thought, who also has an interest in its historical roots, the two brought this research project to life. For my part, it remains clear that I have yet to plumb the depths of their combined expertise and wisdom in these fields of study. If the project has suffered from some oversight or a lapse of judgment, no doubt that comes from the limitations of this researcher. Nonetheless, it is hoped that together we have shed enough light on both the need for and the difficulties inherent in constructing a dialogue between patristic and modern ...

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