In this eloquent introduction to early Christian thought, eminent religious historian Robert Louis Wilken examines the tradition that such figures as St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and others set in place. Wilken shows how these early thinkers constructed a new intellectual and spiritual world and can still be heard as living voices in the modern world. "Magnificently learned and deeply felt ...An attentive reader of Wilken, whether believer or nonbeliever, will be touched anew by his survey of Christian intellectual life." Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World "This is not a book written for the academy but for all readers ...Wilken provides for a new generation a sense of what is important about those astonishing teachers of the early church who instructed the ages after them." Luke Timothy Johnson, America