PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

xii                                             THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY

Others were also of aid and comfort in their own special way: Dr. Charles Stephenson, Dale and Lorraine Fleming, the late Bea Shemeley, John and Au- drey Van Dyk, Gil Hunter, Arnold Olt, and the late Peter Steen.

I also wish to express my thanks to several institutions for their support at various stages of the research and writing: to the University of Pennsylvania for a Harrison Fellowship, to the Free University of Amsterdam for two travel grants, and to the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies and the Andreas Foundation for writing grants.

But above all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the two people whose help was of the greatest significance to this work. The first is the late Herman Dooyeweerd, who endured lengthy conferences with me at his home, two to three times a week, for a total of four months; the second is my dear wife, Anita, whose editing of the entire manuscript was invaluable. It is to them that this work is affectionately dedicated.

Back in the early 1960s someone whose name I can’t recall wrote a review of Dooyeweerd’s four-volume magnum opus, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought. The reviewer acknowledged the vast scope, enormous erudition, and striking originality of that work, but nevertheless closed with a wry observation. He commented that discovering Dooyeweerd’s work in the present philosophical climate was analogous to finding a huge oak tree in the middle of a desert. Although he couldn’t help being impressed by the oak, he said, he was left with the even stronger feeling of puzzlement as to what on earth it was doing there.

In this book I try to plant an oasis around the oak so as to diminish the wonder that it’s there, and thus allow the reader’s attention to be focused where it belongs: on the most original philosophical theory since Kant.

This second edition has allowed me to clarify points that were misunder- stood, reply to objections, and offer more detailed arguments for the book’s main claims. The largest changes are to be found in chapters 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, and 13, although there are numerous smaller ones throughout the book. The notes are more complete, as is the index.

I want to thank a number of people who aided these improvements. Dirk Stafleu and Gerald Barnes read and commented on the entire ms., while Walter Hartt, Bruce Wearne, and Martin Rice made valuable suggestions about a number of issues. I wish also to thank Luz María García de la Sienra for her excellent work in organizing and typesetting the text.

The first edition of this work was dedicated to Professor Dooyeweerd, who endured many interviews with me at his home for four months, and to my wife, Anita, who edited it. I now wish to rededicate this revised edition not only to them, but also to my mentors over many years: