The history of the ICL traces a particularly American religious and academic trajectory.  In December, 2005 Candler School of Theology at Emory University invited Valantasis to join their faculty as Professor of Ascetical Theology and Christian Practice and as the Director of the Anglican Studies Program.  Bleyle and Valantasis had been working for over a year at Iliff School of Theology in Denver on extending ascetical, spiritual formation into ritual forms appropriate for Christian congregations, and the move to Candler opened the possibility of working through Candler's large Lilly grant to produce a new generation of practical theologians to continue their work on ascetical formation.  Almost immediately upon arriving at Candler in July, 2006, Valantasis connected with the contemplative studies faculty, realizing that the goal of ascetical formation as Bleyle and Valantasis understood it was to contemplate, to experience union with the divine. 

            In the Fall of 2006 Bleyle and Valantasis invited Howard Bad Hand, a Lakota singer and spiritual guide, to consult with the contemplative studies faculty on the content and direction of contemplative studies at Emory.  Bad Hand came to Emory in February, 2007.  Bad Hand's visit inaugurated a period of discernment and study for Valantasis and Bleyle about the need for contemplative practice among Christians and about the limited resources available for Christians today, despite the relatively unknown rich tradition of Eastern Christian contemplation.  Bad Hand guided Valantasis toward connecting with the deep roots of contemplation in Eastern Christianity, and he guided Bleyle toward integrating ancient Christian practice into contemporary spiritual formation.  That consultation with Bad Hand birthed the ICL.

            It became evident to both Bleyle and Valantasis that the academic study of contemplative practice presented a limited arena for exploration, especially given the need for contemplation to be located in people's real lives.  They realized that the necessity of simultaneous study and application of contemplative practices for the common good.  This could not take place in academic institutions whose primary role revolved about research and teaching and whose teaching agenda could not promulgate contemplative practices.  Another venue was necessary in which both research and application could occur, mutually inform each other, and guide both mind and body in contemplative practices for the common good.  The mission of the ICL began to take shape.

            This direction toward study and application was confirmed by participation in Emory's Contemplative Practices Initiative of the university's strategic plan.  The initiative brought together a number of scholars from around the university: medical researchers exploring the medical and psychological benefits of contemplative practice; sociologists studying the psychological and social means to define mental health not as the absence of mental disease, but as a capacity to flourish; public health scholars investigating the effectiveness of contemplative practices to create healthy environments for positive psychology and health; and religious studies professors who studied contemplative practice in Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity.  Most of the medical research employed Buddhist meditative practices as the basis for experimentation and study.  No Christian meditative or contemplative practices were employed, and it became clear that these researchers knew only a small portion of popular Western, Christian contemplative practice.  Bleyle and Valantasis began with them to make the wider Christian tradition, particularly the Eastern Orthodox, known to these medical researchers.  Bleyle and Valantasis realized that they needed to develop a catalogue of Western contemplative practice to expand the horizon of medical research and to make the riches of the Western tradition known to a wider audience.  The research mission of the ICL became clear at the same time: the utility of contemplative practices for promoting psychological and social well-being and health emerged as an important component of the ICL's mission.

            Fall, 2007 was a time of crystallizing of the vision of the ICL, as its direction became clearer.  Valantasis asked and received a year's sabbatical and a year's leave of absence to pursue the development of the ICL, and Bleyle and Valantasis formulated its vision, purpose, and mission.  Because of the important role Bad Hand played in helping birth the vision of the ICL, in October, 2007 Valantasis and Bleyle approached the High Star Sun Eagle International Foundation for Peace asking to become a program unit of their organization.  High Star Sun Eagle, founded by Howard Bad Hand (Lakota), Ervin Keeswood (Diné), and John Pruit (Anglo), is dedicated to promulgating peace through Native American religious practices.  Realizing the potential held by tactical contemplative practices to create peace and harmony among people, especially Christians, the Foundation incorporated the Institute for Contemplative Living as a program unit of their foundation.

            In the Spring semester, 2008, Valantasis and Bleyle led a doctoral seminar for Emory's Graduate Division of Religion on contemplative practices. The seminar explored Western contemplation in Roman philosophers (Musonius Rufus and Epictetus), Roman religious movements (Hermetism and theurgy), critical theory (Foucault and de Certeau), and in Eastern Christian monastic writings (The Philokalia).  Reading Epictetus, the second-century Roman Stoic philosopher, Bleyle developed the concept of tactical contemplation, a system of contemplation that resonates with the entire Western Christian tradition geared toward the social, spiritual, and physical transformation of people active and engaged in day-to-day living.  Tactical contemplation further solidified the mission of the ICL and gave it concrete direction: the ICL would research and teach contemplative practices that did not require withdrawal, but that would take place in active living.