former student and continuing friend, agreed to attempt a revision, not without
some initial hesitation.

I would like to acknowledge the following people and institutions for their
part in the production of this edition. Bill McLane of Harcourt Brace Jovano-
vich launched the project and encouraged me to undertake it. Comments were
solicited from a number of teachers and scholars, and extremely helpful sug-
gestions were offered by the general editor, Professor Robert Ferm of Middle-
bury College, who read the manuscript. The difficult task of editing an
extensively rewritten manuscript fell to John Holland and Tina Barland, who
also made a number of suggestions. Robert Winsor created the design for this
second edition, Yvonne Gerin applied her educated taste to the artwork, and
Marlene Fein developed the maps and charts. I am deeply grateful to Canisius
College for providing a fellowship that allowed me time for writing in the
summer of 1981, and for hours of labor from our departmental secretary, Mrs.
Lynne Glair, whose efficiency in typing the revised portions and collating them
with the first edition was an indispensable ingredient in our progress. To the
staffs of the Canisius College library and Christ the King Seminary goes a
special word of thanks, and to Father Bonaventure Hayes, librarian at the
Seminary, I owe a small debt for help on the Bibliography for Research Papers.
Eric B. Dewling prepared the index. I thank my wife, Gretchen, and our chil-
dren for their reluctant willingness to allow me to sit buried in articles and
books. As already noted, I owe much to the National Endowment for the
Humanities for a summer at Yale University ( 1979), where Professor Wayne
Meeks taught us about the social world of early Christianity. Finally, I recall,
vividly and with fondness, the author of the first edition of this book, and I
hope the second edition will continue to be of as much service to students as
the first has been.

Dennis C. Duling

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