I cannot remember a time when I was not interested in religion. More than anything else, growing up in a Polish-American home pushed me toward an intellectual life in religious studies. Largely at the behest of my mother, I was raised an enthusiastic Roman Catholic. Although I grew up on my physician father's dairy farm outside Philadelphia in Moorestown, New Jersey, my world was large and cosmopolitan, filled with books, music, records and art. It was also John XXIII's time to shine forth with brimming optimism and spiritual daring. I followed.