Orthodox Constructions of the West

Acknowledgments

ix The content of the present volume was introduced at a three-day conference in June 2010. That conference belongs to a triennial conference series, initiated in 2007, dedicated to a historical and theological investigation of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic schism. In 2008, Solon and Marianna Patterson of Atlanta, Georgia, provided the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University with a generous gift that established a permanent endowment for the conference series and its subsequent publications. It is their goal and ours that this series will slowly chip away at those things that academic research can demonstrate to be false barriers to Christian unity. We are profoundly moved by the Pattersons’ generosity and indebted to their guidance for the center’s endeavors. In addition to the Pattersons, the 2010 conference had several other patrons. Four founding members of the center’s advisory council—Drake Behrakis, John Grogan, Kenneth Hickman, and Gus Poulopoulos—made generous donations. Within the university, we received support from the Offices of the Dean of Faculty, the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Dean of Fordham College Rose Hill, and the Dean of Fordham College Lincoln Center. The Center for Medieval Studies, directed by Maryanne Kowaleski, offered essential clerical and staff support. And the Department of Theology served as a cosponsor. We would like to thank the many Fordham doctoral students who helped to staff the conference, including Michael Azar, Matthew Briel, Acknowledgments Jennifer Jamer, Ian Jones, Matthew Lootens, Lindsey Mercer, John Penniman , Ashley Purpura, Jon Stanfill, and Nate Wood. Lindsey Keeling offered additional service in anticipation of the conference (including the selection of the image for the book jacket). Andrew Steffan and Matthew Baker provided keen editorial assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. In some ways, the idea for this project was born during the sessions of Fordham Faculty reading group, sponsored by Mike Latham, Dean of Fordham College Rose Hill. We would like to thank Ben Dunning, Brad Hinze, Michael Lee, and Brenna Moore for their ideas and friendship. We would like to thank Peter Bouteneff, Demetrios Katos, Brad Hinze, MaryJane Rubenstein, and William Baumgarth, who served as session chairs during the conference. Finally, Fred Nachbaur and everyone at Fordham University Press are to be commended for their expeditious work on this volume and for their continued support for the Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought series, to which this volume belongs. x A C K N OW L E D G M E N TS Orthodox Constructions of the West ...