Diarmaid MacCulloch - Silence: A Christian History

I would like to thank the Trustees of the Gifford Lectures for their initial invitation to me in 2006 to give the lectures from which this book has sprung, and for their enthusiastic acceptance of my temerity in departing from their initial suggestion as to a topic for the lectures. Their hospitality in Edinburgh, one of my favourites among the worlds great cities, home to my paternal family in my youth, was much appreciated, together with the hospitality of friends who enlivened my stay during the lectures, and stimulation from the audiences who enriched the sessions with their questions and comments. I am also very grateful to the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Edinburgh for generously giving me an Honorary Fellowship and a study for the duration of my visit, and to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for affording me the chance of a further evening in which to engage with those interested in talking further.

In previous books, I have relegated dates of births and deaths of people mentioned in the text to the index. Here I have felt it necessary to include them in the main text, since very frequently my narrative jumps around history at some speed, and it may be helpful for some to have a sense of where they are being taken chronologically. Similarly, as in my History of Christianity, I give readers a short cut at many points by referring them back to the pages in the book where they may find a fuller explanation of what is under discussion. I apologize to those for whom it interferes with the flow of the text. Some readers may object to my frequent footnoting of my own work. I was determined to keep this book at a readable length, unlike some among my previous oeuvre, the better to reflect the texture of the lectures from which it has sprung. Self-reference is a way of saving the detailed recapitulation of arguments I have already made elsewhere, and, perhaps more importantly, avoiding needless repetition of source citations. All biblical quotations are taken from the Ecumenical Edition Revised Standard Version of the Bible (New York, 1973), including the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books, unless otherwise stated. I use the Hebrew and Protestant numbering of the Psalms.

As usual, in creating a book from the lectures, I have much benefited from the warm support and encouragement of my indulgent and generous publisher Stuart Proffitt and my energizing literary agent Felicity Bryan. Both Stuart and Joy de Menil, my American editor, have immeasurably improved the text by their candid scrutiny and discriminating feel for what I should have said if I had but realized it, and once more, Sam Baddeley has also brought his sure instinct for language and his sub-editing skills to the book, to excellent effect. Professor Christopher Rowland performed a great service by his reading of the resulting text and providing friendly but searching criticism. Thanks go to a mighty host for sharing their knowledge and for their generous suggestions on reading and topics on which to reflect: principal among them are Sam Baddeley, Matthew Bemand-Qureshi, Kenneth Carveley, Anna Chrysostomides, Simon Cuff, Jane Dawson, James Dunn, Mark Edwards, Philip Endean SJ, Massimo Firpo, Derek Jay, Christopher Jones, Colum Kenny, Nick King SJ, Anik Laferrire, Philip Lindholm, Jolyon Mitchell, Maggie Ross, Chris Rowland, Elizabeth Koepping, Guy Stroumsa and Ronald Trueman. Dr Hudson Davis most generously made his doctoral dissertation available to me at short notice. To those friends and colleagues I will add one now alas dead: Robert Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury. At a time when my feelings towards institutional Christianity were not very positive, he gave me an example of cheerful, practical spirituality, rueful self-knowledge and sheer joie de vivre which all leaders in the Church would do well to ponder. His friendship was one of the most important, enlightening and enjoyable that I have known.

The most important person to thank is Sameer, who had to put up with my selfish absorption in writing this book, and who provided tireless loving encouragement in my frequent moments of despair at the task.

Diarmaid MacCulloch

Octave of the Feast of Saint Enurchus,2012