This brief but multifaceted study looks to the sources of the Christian spiritual tradition in order to establish a firm ground for a vital contemporary spirituality. Quoting the great Jesuit scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin, “Everything is the sum of the past; nothing is comprehensible except through its history,” George Lane examines the masters of Christian spirituality in their historical context. He shows why the hermits of the East, the monks of the West, Basil, Athanasius, Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius Loyola, Teilhard, and others were so influential in their time and why they have much to teach us today.