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christian-spirituality-mysticismfeatured in 20 works

Contemplation

Past words, past thoughts — the soul simply gazing in love upon God

Contemplation is the loving, wordless gaze of the soul upon God, reaching beyond reasoning and discursive thought. Writers such as Evagrius and Gregory the Great shaped this contemplative tradition, which understands the highest prayer not as activity of the mind but as a quiet resting in God's presence. It represents a summit of the spiritual life, where the soul seeks union with God in stillness and love.

How it traveled

  1. The Letters
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  2. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
    explains
  3. Expositions on the Book of Psalms
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  4. On the Holy Trinity
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  5. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  6. Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  7. Two Books of Soliloquies
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  8. Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  9. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  10. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  11. The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  12. The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV
    Marseille · 435
    explains
  13. The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great
    Rome · 604
    explains
  14. Proslogium
    Canterbury · 1109
    explains
  15. Internal Consolation
    Zwolle · 1471
    explains
  16. Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul
    Zwolle · 1471
    explains
  17. An Invitation to Holy Communion
    Zwolle · 1471
    applies
  18. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in Three Parts
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  19. Seventeen Occasional Sermons
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    explains
  20. Narrative of Surprising Conversions
    Northampton, Massachusetts · 1758
    applies

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Modern teachers who discuss this idea

Modern and living teachers whose books take up Contemplation. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.