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acknowledgments Augustine’s Manichaean Dilemma, 1: Conversion and Apostasy, 373–388 c.e. is the first in a planned trilogy examining the contact between Augustine of Hippo and the Manichaeans of North Africa, and the degree to which he was shaped as a historical individual and as a theologian by this contact. The inspiration for the project came from two meetings with Peter Brown in 1993 and 1994, when he was a guest of the Religious Studies program at Indiana University, where I was completing my Ph.D. with a dissertation on Manichaeism. He urged me to follow up this work with a reexamination of Augustine’s debt to Manichaeism, and has continued to encourage me on this path in the years since. For his support and patience, I dedicate this first volume to him. Of the many others who have offered assistance and encouragement along the way, I can only single out a few: Elizabeth Clark, J. Kevin Coyle, David Brakke, Michael Williams, and Larry Clark. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the anonymous readers of the manuscript in two distinct iterations for their many helpful suggestions, as well as to the Divinations series editorial board—Daniel Boyarin, Virginia Burrus, and Derek Krueger— for their close attention and interest in the project. I have been delighted to bring this project to the University of Pennsylvania Press, and benefit from the energetic and supportive editorial oversight of Jerry Singerman and Alison Anderson. This project was supported at a critical juncture by a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2004–2005, and before that by two Northern Arizona University Organized Research grants. Its successful completion would not have been possible without the untiring efforts of the team working in the Document Delivery Service at the Cline Library of Northern Arizona University, and the ILLiad network through which they acquired the enormous amount of material I asked of them. 402 acknowledgments Finally I wish to express my appreciation and wonder at the patience of my beloved wife, Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, who has lived with Augustine in the house far longer than even the best of guests would be welcome. For hearing out the many reformulations of my ideas, likewise, I am grateful to her. ...

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