Dear Professor Ligo,

Thank you for your letter. When I was growing up in Charlotte, N. C., Davidson College was the crown jewel of nearby educational opportunities. I always admired its commitment to academic excellence. What was then a very small town had a mayor named Tom Griffith, who was a dairy farmer and who was, in fact, my mother's brother and thus my uncle. Your letter brought back many memories to me.

Thank you also for your condolences on the death of one of my three major mentors in life, Michael Goulder. I hope you saw the column I wrote as my tribute to him. It came out earlier this year and can be accessed by subscribers to this column as can all of the previous columns published at this site. Michael's books are indeed hard to find. I hired a rare books firm in the UK to locate them for me. It was a fairly expensive way to build a library, but I treasure them. I suggest that you look at a major theological library to find them. I would bet that they are in the library of the divinity school of Wake Forest University.

My speaking schedule is available on my column's website at all times, giving information on events three months out. I was recently in North Carolina at the First Congregational Church-UCC in Hendersonville in late May and early June. I will be in North Carolina next, lecturing on the Monday and Tuesday nights of the first three weeks of August in Highlands, sponsored by the Highlands Institute of Theology and Religion. I realize that Highlands is about a three hour drive from Davidson, but it is a beautiful drive and I would love to see you.