The Way That Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life

by Gilbert C. Meilaender

Saint Augustine formulated the classic Christian understanding of desire, that "our hearts are restless until they rest in God." Gilbert Meilaender maintains that this frustrated desire lies at the heart of our existence. In The Way That Leads There he takes Augustine as a "conversation partner" for exploring subjects that human beings have wrestled with for centuries -- desire, duty, politics, sex, and grief. Meilaender's carefully reasoned, insightful work rescues Augustine from many of our misperceptions and interacts meaningfully with both C. S. Lewis and Catholic moral theology, generating insights on difficult topics. The picture of life that emerges in these pages is one of incompleteness, of our inability to perfect and unify our moral lives. Yet this inability is not a cause for despair; it is rather a call to look, with Augustine, to God as the source and object of our greatest desire.

Genres: Theology

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2006

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this fresh reading of Augustine in its decidedly intentional attempt to "think along side him" (as opposed to historically examine him). Augustine's timeless thoughts are indeed applicable to a modern audience, and this reading made it all the more obvious. Thought-provoking, insightful, and ultimately meditative. Challenging, and yet worshipful.