This book has been gestating for a long time, and I have incurred many debts.
I thank colleagues and friends at Indiana University, and remain delighted
to be a part of that intellectual community, especially our vibrant and collegial Department of Religious Studies. I have learned much from participants
in the EPP colloquium, the Chinese reading group, and the Global and
Comparative Approaches to Religion, Ethics, and Political Theory seminar,
among other groups. A number of people have read large parts of the manuscript, and it was significantly improved by their suggestions and questions—
notably by Michael Ing and P. J. Ivanhoe, who both gave me extensive and
helpful comments, as well as Ryan Collins, Aurelian Craiutu, Oliver Eberl,
Constance Furey, Bojue Hou, Naiyi Hsu, Hui Jiang, Mihee Kim-Kort, Simon
Luo, Aolan Mi, Patrick Michelson, Rick Nance, Gheorghe Pacurar, Meng
Zhang, and Kuangyu Zhao. I also very much appreciate the comments and
suggestions from two anonymous reviewers for Oxford University Press, as
well as the brisk professionalism of my editor, Peter Ohlin. Gretchen Knapp’s
editorial help has been invaluable. I am particularly grateful to my friend
and colleague Michael Ing, who has cheerfully endured almost infinite discussion of points large and small related to the ideas here, supported me
throughout, and taught me much. And I am thankful for many delightful
and stimulating talks with Rich Miller about ideas that eventually found their
way into thisstudy