Will is understood as the ability of an agent to reflect on and define aims freely, and to act upon and pursue them methodically and steadfastly. For the first time this volume examines in detail the historical development of the terminology and problems within the various philosophical schools (Stoics, Neo-Platonists, Peripatetics), as well as in Christian patristics, which led to the establishment of a philosophically "adequate" definition of will in Late Antiquity.

This volume collects essays which are thematically connected through the work of Kent Emery Jr., to whom the volume is dedicated. A main focus lies on the attempts to bridge the gap between mysticism and a systematic approach to medieval philosophical thought. The essays address a wide range of topics concerning (a) the nature of the human soul (in philosophical and theological discourse); (b) medieval theories of cognition (natural and supernatural), self-knowledge and knowledge of God; (c) the human soul’s contemplation of, and union with, God; (d) the tradition of “the modes of...