Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

book one The Last Word.

1. Something Serious.

2. Flare-Up.

3. Poet in a Trench Coat.

4. Party in the Living Room, Torture in the Basement.

5. Playing Hardball.

6. I Don’t Know.

7. The Architecture of the Bible.

8. The First Two Threads.

9. The Third and Fourth Threads.

10. The Scapegoat Factor.

11. Better Than We Realized.

12. Something like a Straight Answer.

13. End in Embrace?

14. Piano Lessons and Lumpy Hands.

15. You Have a Tough Job.

16. All over the Map.

17. Deconstructing Hell.

18. Proposal, Plan, Implementation.

19. Homework Assignment.

book two The Word After That.

20. How Can I Hurt Him?

21. Nice Walleye Fishing Charters.

22. Wolves in Lawyers’ Tuxedos.

23. Up Toward the Stars.

24. A Colorful Breakfast.

25. A New Kind of Christianity.

26. Second Thoughts.

27. To God, All Are Alive.

28. A Part of Me at the Core of My Mind.

29. The Last, Best Word.

Commentary.

The Author.