The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology

This book is an examination of historical Christian teaching relating to the perfection of the soul. It begins with the New Testament, and with the recorded teaching of Christ, which contemplated for his disciples a life lived on the level of miracle. The rest of the book is concerned to trace the history of this idea of perfection in the history of the historic church, first in the writings of St. Paul and St. John, then in the Fathers, in the ideal of Monastic life, through Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to the Reformation, to St. Francis de Sales, Fenelon, Law, the Quakers and the Methodists, and on to the present day.