Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition

Last year I read Fr. Jordan Aumann’s theology which I absolutely loved.  I recently finished another book he wrote Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition which is sort of a companion book to Spiritual Theology.  While Spiritual Theology provided an excellent guide to the Church’s ascetical and mystical teaching on prayer this book looks at the history of Christian spirituality from the start of the Church to more modern times.

A quite fascinating and detailed book as it looks at the various movements of Catholic spirituality and how they developed and led to other movements.  I was aware of bits and pieces and various sections of this spiritual history, but Fr. Aumann really puts them all in contexts and pins down the developments.  The book also introduced me to many saints and others I was hardly aware of.  It is also quite interesting in how this history of spirituality shows that the more things change that they remain the same.  This history shows all the ebb and flow of Christianity and how each age much repent and reform.  While they have and will continue to be movements of reform, there are also many false starts and dead ends into false spiritualities.  Fr Aumann as a theologian and capable historian of the spiritual life puts it all together into a book well worth reading.

This book is available online at DomCentral.org or retailers such as Amazon.