How does the ordered living of human life relate to the natural order of the cosmos? What is the place of humanity in creation? For Maximus, the contemplation of nature is the middle stage in a tripartite division of spiritual development as derived from the philosophical life, beginning with praxis and ethics, and culminating in wisdom and union. Contemplation of the natural world leads inescapably to contemplation of the Creator, and hence is not only theological but necessarily Christological: Christ is ‘the measure of all things’ and the clearest expression of the appearance of God, and in him, creator and creation are united. The contemplation of reality, of ‘what is’, leads to the contemplation of what cannot be perceived with the physical senses but adduced by the intellect. Contemplation of the natural world is the only way that we have of getting close to the mind of the One who made it; we cannot see God, but we can comprehend something of his essence through looking at the way in which creation is arranged. The relationship between the logoi, or rational principles, and the incarnate Logos is of key importance. The first section of this book is devoted to the exploration of the ‘deep structures’ of Hellenistic thought on the contemplation of nature discernible in Maximus’ philosophical predecessors – Parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato (especially the Timaeus), Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics and Plotinus – and how these structures underpin a later understanding of nature and of the world in patristic theology as represented by Clement, Origen and the Cappadocians, culminating in a closer analysis of Maximus’ relationship to Evagrius and Dionysius the Areopagite. The second half of the book comprises a systematic examination of the way in which Maximus’ ideas on the contemplation of nature, as derived from these two sets of influences, are developed in his Ambigua to John, itself a commentary on Gregory of Nazianzus. The way in which the first half of the book is structured is not altogether helpful in establishing the relationship between Maximus’ thought and the work of the philosophers and theologians who preceded him; a more synthetic treatment, making it clearer in what way Maximus agreed with or diverged from each, would have been valuable preparation for the more detailed analysis in part ii. An appendix gives a list of the references to Gregory's works treated in the Ambigua, plus a detailed breakdown of the Ambigua's structure; this could usefully have been placed earlier and integrated into the main text to chart the intended progress. However, this is a minor point. The first chapter, on the key developments in philosophical thought on the contemplation of nature, occasionally betrays its origins as a PhD dissertation through a certain stiffness of style. Maximus’ patristic predecessors are handled with considerably more confidence. The sections on Evagrius and Dionysius, in particular, are well argued and engaging. The final chapters on the Ambigua reveal wide reading and an awareness of nuanced translation. The whole throws useful light on a complex area of philosophical theology.