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Acknowledgments
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xi !CKNOWLEDGMENTS Regarding such matters as philosophy, theology, poetry, and art, the literary critic George Steiner once wrote: “I am convinced that one is infinitely privileged to be even a secondary attendant, commentator, instructor, or custodian in some reach of these high places.” This is also my view, and if I might lay claim to such a privilege, it is due to the assistance and generosity of many friends and colleagues without whose encouragement, dialogue, teaching, patience, and love nothing of this book would exist. I am above all grateful to those with whom I have discussed its ideas most frequently. Tom McPartland has been an irreplaceable philosophical guide, not least with respect to understanding details in the writings of Lonergan and Voegelin; Pat Brown and Paul Caringella have been indefatigable partners in dialogue, scholars who enlighten me while forgiving me my blunders; and discussions and visits with Mary Pope Osborne have been an invaluable inspiration. It has been a joy as well as an education to think and talk about art with certain friends who have, in their different ways, contributed to this book’s reflections on art and poetry. They include my principal tutor in the pictorial , sculptoral, and architectural arts, Bill Gray; my longtime friend and brilliant philosopher of art, Paul Kidder; my scholar-friends David Walsh and Jim Marsh; and my university colleague the painter Brian St. John. I have also xii Acknowledgments enjoyed rich discussions about the arts with Gene and Marilyn Webb, the former of whom has also been an important guide in my philosophical and theological explorations. I am deeply grateful to Faith Smith for our many conversations over the years, and for her interest in this book in particular. Discussions with Charlie Embry and Polly Detels about matters both philosophical and literary have been a regular source of pleasure and enlightenment . I am especially grateful to Charlie for inviting me to write on Emily Dickinson for a conference panel on “Voegelin and Literature” and then to expand that work into an essay-length study, the basis of chapter 4. Most of the writings here originated as invited papers for conference presentations . I owe a special debt of thanks to Fred Lawrence, director of the Boston College Lonergan Workshop and organizer of the 2004 Second International Lonergan Conference in Toronto, whose invitations led to the writing of the major part of three of these chapters. I have also benefited greatly from annual opportunities to engage the work of Voegelin provided by Ellis Sandoz, director of the Eric Voegelin Society at Louisiana State University. And finally, Mark Morelli of Loyola Marymount University, in his capacity as director of the Fallon Lonergan Symposium sponsored by the West Coast Methods Institute, has consistently provided me with a forum for exploring the thought of Lonergan. This book also reflects the insights and encouragement of certain companions in spirit and thought who, in ways direct and indirect, have contributed to its improvement and completion. They include Julian Bull, spiritual companion in inquiry and celebration; Henrik Syse, most gracious of men, who facilitated my enjoying a semester of uninterrupted writing in 2008 as a Fulbright Research Scholar in Norway; Rodney Kilcup, who for decades has offered incisive responses to my work while asking the most challenging questions ; my brother-for-life, David Schuldberg, whose gifts are unending; and Paulette Kidder, from whom I receive wisdom and love in equal measure. I am especially grateful for enthusiastic responses to ideas in these chapters by Ken Melchin, Brendan Purcell, Bill Petropulos, Gene Solis, Phil McShane, the late Joe Flanagan, Pat Byrne, and Bill Richardson. The essay that became chapter 4 was written under the protective hospitality of Terri Boggess and John Moder. And certain close friends, through their love and esteem, gave me courage to persevere—in particular, Jenny Laird and Randy Courts, Craig Hanks and Inma de Melo-Martin, and Carl Adler and Trish Johnson. My lifelong engagement with poetry has been guided and encouraged by two people above all: my mother, Cleta Hughes; and my friend, mentor, and “the unofficial Poet Laureate of the Pacific Northwest,” the late Robert Sund. In recent years I have also had the benefit of illuminating discussions about Acknowledgments xiii poetry with, among others, Tim McNulty, Bob McMahon, Jim Magill, and Mark Hart, to all of whom I am indebted. My thanks go to Tom D’Evelyn, of Single Island Press, who brought me to Portsmouth, New Hamphshire, to give an evening presentation on...