Our Restless Heart

the long version

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 vision as it is taken up by other restless seekers through the centuries.