* Roman Catholic convert (from evangelical Protestantism)
* Theological sympathies: nouvelle theologie, Eastern Orthodox/Patristic
* Theological Godfathers: Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Walter Kasper, John Zizioulas, John Milbank, Stanley Hauerwas, Avery Dulles; Aquinas, Augustine, Maximus Confessor, Pseudo-Dionysius, Irenaeus, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa
* Liturgical sympathies: St. Mary's Church in New Haven; high Novus Ordo; the Ordinary should be done (better yet chanted) in Latin; Eastern rites
* Political sympathies: Radical Orthodoxy; Catholic Worker; St. Thomas More, Abp. Oscar Romero; James Madison; Lincoln, RFK; One-China policy
* Literary Godfathers: Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, Dostoyevski, Andre Dubus, Raymond Carver; W.B. Yeats, G.M. Hopkins, Li-Young Lee, Czeslaw Milosz,
* Musical Godfathers: Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Palestrina; John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sinatra; Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison
* Visual Arts Godfathers: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Cimabue, Giotto, Chagall, Rouault, Wyeth, El Greco; Sebastiao Salgado
* Directing Godfathers: Akira Kurosawa, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Philip Kaufman
