Contemplation and Classical Christianity

Augustine's Confessions contains some of the most powerful accounts of contemplation in ancient Christian literature. Those narratives, describing the unmediated presence of God to the soul, were highly influential in Western Christian thought and practice. They emerged from a decade-long struggle during which Augustine sought to clarify his understanding of divine transcendence and the soul's access to it. This study explores Augustine's developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. The arc of Augustine's thought through these years of transition leads into the Confessions, giving a vantage point to survey its classical Christian theology of contemplation.