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ix Acknowledgments This book focuses on the sins against charity, but it arose from the generosity and kindness of many wonderful friends. Michael Root, whom I have been privileged to call my friend since we enjoyed a good Italian dinner together in Naples (Florida) some years ago, and Jim Buckley, a friend from the Evangelicals and Catholics Together group in New York, invited me to speak at the June 2009 conference of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. That presentation developed into chapter 5. Greg Reichberg invited me to co-organize a conference on the Catholic theology of just war. This conference took place in July 2009 and was lots of fun, largely because of Greg’s organizational skill. Working with him was a real delight; may God make it possible again soon. My participation in that conference resulted in the essay that forms chapter 7. As I was preparing these two essays, it became clear to me that an exciting research project on the sins against charity might be possible. Following the path charted by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae , I began to write other chapters with this goal in mind. Kevin Thornton, who shepherded my Christ and the Catholic Priesthood: Ecclesial Hierarchy and the Pattern of the Trinity through Hillenbrand Books, invited me to deliver a lecture to the Liturgical x — Acknowledgments Institute at Mundelein Seminary in April 2009. At the instigation of David Fagerberg, part of this lecture was published as “Liturgical Mediation: Help or Hindrance to the Unity of the People of God?” (Assembly: A Journal of Liturgical Theology 35 [2009]: 50–54). The full, revised version became chapter 6.Through the kind auspices of Scott Hahn, I published “Charity and Empire: Is Trinitarian Monotheism Violent?” (Letter & Spirit 5 [2009]: 155–71). Chapter 1 is a revised version of this article.Many thanks to Kevin,David,and Scott for their ongoing friendship. Other chapters benefited from insights of the students who took my spring 2009 course on charity, including John Froula, Jared Kuebler, Chad Raith, and David Tamisea. I wish also to thank Romanus Cessario, O.P., under whom I studied the theological virtues as a graduate student in the late 1990s. Carey Newman of Baylor University Press took this manuscript in hand in a simply extraordinary manner. For his encouragement, and for that of the two anonymous readers, I am deeply grateful. Alan Mostrom, a gifted doctoral student in theology at the University of Dayton, compiled the bibliography. I have too many other debts to mention here, but let me particularly thank Reinhard Hütter, Jared Staudt, and Tim Gray for their friendship in editing Nova et Vetera; Thomas Joseph White, Andrew Hofer, Bernhard Blankenhorn, and Richard Schenk for their Dominican encouragement; Hans Boersma and David Novak for the privilege of working together on ecumenical and Jewish-Christian dialogue, respectively; and all who have phoned and visited my family and me during our adjustment to Dayton. My gratitude for such friends and benefactors is all the deeper given that the experience of abandonment is all too common in this world. To know the sins against charity requires knowing charity. Thus the charity of my parents, brother, and in-laws continues to inspire me. I owe special thanks to my mother for reading and discussing portions of this book in relationship to her own work. I dedicate this book to my beloved Joy Levering. Beloved wife, dear companion in good times and bad, faithful and wise friend, treasured mother of our children,“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm” (Song 8:6). May God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be praised now and forever. ...

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