Originally published: New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1978.

Reveals the neglected mode of knowing and learning, from Socrates to the middle ages and beyond, that relies more on the integrated powers of sensory experience and intuition, rather than on modern narrow scientific models of education.

The first part of Prof Jordan Aumann's magisterialSpiritual Theology is concerned with the theological principles of Christian holiness, while the second and major part derives from those principles' practical directives for the individual Christian's 'growth in holiness'. Based firmly on the work of three classical masters - St Thomas Aquinas, St John of the Cross, and St Teresa of Avila - this text has already proved of great benefit to contemporary students and general readers seeking to inform and develop their own spiritual lives.

The author, a modern Catholic writer-philosopher, sets forth his views on Christian education.

The Light of Christ provides an accessible presentation of Catholicism that is grounded in traditional theology, but engaged with a host of contemporary questions or objections. Inspired by the theologies of Iranaeus, Thomas Aquinas and John Henry Newman, and rooted in a post-Vatican II context, Fr. Thomas Joseph White presents major doctrines of the Christian religion in a way that is comprehensible for non-specialists: knowledge of God, the mystery of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the atonement, the sacraments and the moral life, eschatology and prayer. At the same time, The Light of Christ also addresses topics such as evolution, the modern historical study of Jesus and the Bible, and objections to Catholic moral teaching. Touching on the concerns of contemporary readers, Fr. White examines questions such as whether Christianity is compatible with the findings of the modern sciences, do historical Jesus studies disrupt or confirm the teaching of the faith, and does history confirm the antiquity of Catholic claims. This book serves as an excellent introduction for young professionals with no specialized background in theology who are interested in learning more about Catholicism, or as an introduction to Catholic theology. It will also serve as a helpful text for theology courses in a university context. As Fr. White states in the book’s introduction: “This is a book that offers itself as a companion. I do not presume to argue the reader into the truths of the Catholic faith, though I will make arguments. My goal is to make explicit in a few broad strokes the shape of Catholicism. I hope to outline its inherent intelligibility or form as a mystery that is at once visible and invisible, ancient and contemporary, mystical and reasonable.”

The study of the nature of moral choices has been with us as far back as our historical memory and religious traditions can reach. We have inherited the foundations of that study from such great philosophers and pillars of Western culture as Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. This work draws on this rich tradition and provides a new and profound look at those aspects of human moral conduct which are both obvious and true.