Questing for Understanding: Persons, Places, Passions

Trying to articulate the ways in which one's life meshes with one's own time can be perilous, yet friends have encouraged me to do just that. Nevertheless, for one oriented to serving others as teacher and mentor in a context of faith, writing about oneself seems unnatural. Yet the "self" we have been given to share embodies many others as well. So many of the encounters narrated here will open into friendships. Moreover, what spices those encounters are the places and passions they embody, so the story that emerges is hardly my own. Different places often unveiled different faith communities, each of which has altered, if not transformed, the "self" narrated here. In that respect, and in many others, my story is not mine but that of the times our generation has inhabited. Finally, it has been my religious community of Holy Cross that made these multiple transformations possible, so it is only fitting to dedicate the work to that community and the rich exchanges it continues to effect among women and men.

David B. Burrell, CSC, Hesburgh Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, has served as Professor of Comparative Theology at Tangaza College, Nairobi. His most recent work is Towards a Jewish-Christian-Muslim Theology (2011).