The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I want first to thank John Witte Jr. and Frank Alexander, co-founding directors of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, for inviting me to be a senior fellow of the center, and to participate in the Christian Jurisprudence II project. ἀ is book is the fruit of that participation in every sense of the word, because it could not have been realized without the thoughtful and charitable engagement among the Christian lawyers, theologians, philosophers, historians , and ethicists that took place over a five-year period. I am grateful for what I learned from these colleagues and for the bonds that were formed with them. I also thank John and Frank for including the Orthodox voice in this project. As I indicate in this book, the Orthodox voice in matters of law and politics is severely underdeveloped, and the Christian Jurisprudence II project offered the opportunity to fill this gap. I was moved by their insistent belief that the wider Christian discussion on jurisprudence itself needed the Orthodox contribution . ἀ is project was supported by a generous grant from the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Agape Foundation to the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. I wish to thank especially Ambassador Alonzo L. McDonald, Peter McDonald, and the other McDonald Agape Foundation trustees. I very much admire their support of the production of intellectual ideas whose impact is not always tangible and never immediate. ἀ e opinions in this publication are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation or the center. I am also grateful to Fordham University for a Faculty Fellowship , which enabled me to make significant progress on this project. I would also like to thank the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter ix Foundation for a grant that allowed me the opportunity to conduct the research that has shaped the chapter on the relation between truth-telling and political forgiveness. In addition to my colleagues who participated in the Christian Jurisprudence II project, I thank David Hollenbach, S.J., and Charles T. Mathewes, whose incisive insights made this a better book. ἀ ey, of course, are not to blame for whatever is lacking in these pages. I would also be remiss if I did not thank my two graduate-student assistants at Fordham, Nathaniel Wood and Matthew Baker, without whose help I would not have been able to finish the manuscript. Readers of this book should be on the lookout in the near future for Nathaniel Wood’s work on the political theologies of Russian sophiology and radical Orthodoxy, which will offer an exhaustive and rigorous Orthodox contribution to political theology. I thank my wife, Dena, for her constant support, patience, and understanding as I was writing this book, especially during its last stages. I dedicate this book to my beautiful boys, (Lord) Byron and Alexander (the Great), who are simply a daily source of joy for me. In the presence of Dena, Byron, and Alexander, I feel gifted. x Acknowledgments ...