Our Restless Heart

The figure of Augustine of Hippo looms large over the history of Western Christianity: theologian, mystic, monk, philosopher, artists, bishop, ascetic, convert, polemicist, seeker. Augustine's distinctive spiritual vision has played and continues to play a profoundly formative role in both imagining and living the Christian life. For some his presence is celebrated, for others it is lamented--for few can it be a matter of indifference. This survey of such a vast, complicated and controversial terrain begins with Augustine and his own restless heart and then traces the legacy of this spiritual…