Acknowledgements.
I wish to acknowledge the tremendous assistance given to me in this endeavour by my elder brother, Rev Alan Stuart. His endless patience, his ability with words and grammar, his theological insights and his wise counsel have been invaluable to me. Without his help I may never have finished this undertaking. His theological insights in particular, usually very different to my own ideas and opinions, have challenged me to think again, to ask more questions and to give a comprehensive account of the faith that is in me. Our numerous emails to each other and our respective responses have caused some frustration as well as much profitable sharing. I hope I can speak for both of us. When my exercise eventually drew to a close, I think I can honestly admit that we both had had enough. Thank you Alan. I am fortunate to have you as a mentor and friend.
I also thank Rev John Smith of Melbourne, a leader in the Progressive Christian movement there, for his initial encouragement to think about doing what I have done. I thank Tom Evans, Ivan Hawke, Hilary Croger and many others who have helped in the process of editing and re-writing. Ivan has been a continual source of encouragement and challenge to me throughout the whole process as well as giving me endless help with computer stuff. I also thank the members of a group to which I belong, for going through each section, discussing it and helping me see other ways of sharing my thoughts. To Maureen and Peter Turner, Val and Graham Dunlop, Des Murphy and my wife Wendy: Thank you. I thank Ms. Di Atkinson for her permission to use her wonderful prayer of intercession, included in the appropriate chapter.
A special thanks to my wife, Wendy, for her patience and letting me spend time in this endeavour. I am thankful for her knowing smile when I said to her so often, “Well I’m nearly finished, sweetheart.” She knew full well, as I probably did too, that I was NOT nearly finished. However, her humorous “Yes” was really an encouragement for me to keep going. I love you. One other thing. She is a good speller and I’m not, so I thank her for the numerous corrections she gave me. By the way, if there are any spelling mistakes, we know who to blame. Adam all over again; “It’s not my fault.”
I have come to realise that writing a book cannot be, and never is, done in isolation. It really is a community effort. I thank all the people who have instructed me in my journey with Jesus over my 80 years. I thank especially those who have given me permission to ask questions, very serious theological questions. To the authors of books from which I have quoted and to other writers whose books I have read, thank you for your wisdom and your scholarly endeavours and insights. I must mention in particular, Gretta Vosper, Marcus Borg, Derek Flood, Robert Funk, Walter Brueggemann, John Shelby Spong, John Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, Lorraine Parkinson, Hal Taussig and Val Webb. In recent times they have greatly broadened my education and opened me up to new and challenging ways of understanding. Particularly to Val Webb, because, as well as sharing much theological wisdom, when nearing the stage of publication she gave me much needed advice about the use of italics, how to insert quotes and especially how to add footnotes, etc. Thank you.
I believe we are all united in our quest to make a deep human response to the eternal Great Mystery.