and cenobitical life ; The Cappadocian fathers ; Evagrius, pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus -- Monasticism in the west. Origins of western monasticism ; John Cassian ; St. Augustine ; St. Benedict ; Irish monasticism ; St. Gregory the Great -- Benedictine spirituality. Benedict of Aniane ; Hildemar ; Cluniac reform ; John of Fecamp ; St. Peter Damian ; Camaldolese hermits ; The Carthusians ; Cictercian spirituality ; St. Bernard ; William of St. Thierry ; St. Aelred of Rievaulx ; Nuns and laybrothers -- Spirituality of the middle ages. Medieval piety ; Military orders ; St. Norbert and Premontre ; Canons of St. Victor ; Scholasticism ; St. Dominic and the friars preachers ; St. Thomas Aquinas ; St. Francis and the friars minor ; St. Bonaventure ; Multiplicaton of religious orders -- Dionysian spirituality and devotio moderna. The mystics of Helfta ; Eckhart, Tauler, Suso ; Ruysbroeck ; The English mystics ; Devotio moderna ; John Gerson ; St. Catherine of Siena ; Denis the Carthusian -- Post-tridentine spirituality. Spiritual exercises ; Christian Humanism ; St. Ignatius Loyola ; St. Teresa of Avila ; St. John of the Cross ; Spain's golden age ; Italian spirituality ; St. Francis de Sales -- Modern spirituality. Sources of French spirituality ; Jansenism ; Quietism ; Return to orthodoxy ; St. Alphonsus Liguori ; German rationalism and mysticism ; Revival in England -- The twentieth century. St. Therese of Liseux ; Elizabeth of the Trinity ; Charles de Foucauld ; Liturgical revival ; Missionary expansion and Catholic action ; Sanctity among the laity ; Systematic spiritual theology.

This history not only serves to acquaint us with the origins and development of Christian spirituality, but, equally importantly in the author's view, projects into our contemporary world the lives and teachings of men and women who have reached a high degree of sanctity through the ages. His study is Catholic in both senses of the word. He has concentrated his attention on the history of spirituality in the Roman Catholic Church; and he has taken a comprehensive view of the full range of forms of that Catholic tradition, including -- so that we can learn from the mistakes of the past -- the heterodox tendencies and movements that have arisen from time to time.