"One thing about him, when he was there, he was all there."

I was listening to Dr. Gibson Winter, then Professor for Christianity and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Winter had this wonderful way of sharing an aside--an "oh by the way" story--which would invariably have a meaning all to itself, staying in my mind long after the words of the lecture had been snuffed out by the stuffy air of Stuart Hall.

On this particular occasion, he was describing a colleague, whose name Ive forgotten. The man, the subject of Dr. Winters anecdote, was notorious for getting so immersed in...