The Spiritual Life: Tanquerey's Map of the Interior Life

• THE CLASSIC TREATISE ON THE INTERIOR LIFE – Tanquerey's complete ascetical and mystical theology.
• THE THREE WAYS – Purgative, illuminative and unitive, from the first steps in prayer to mystical union.
• GROUNDED IN THE TRADITION – Built on Scripture, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church.
• FOR PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS AND LAY READERS – A seminary textbook that became a lifelong companion.
• MADE FOR READING – A single sewn hardcover volume in red cloth, with cream dust-jacket and patterned endpapers.

For most of the twentieth century, a Catholic who wanted a complete and orderly account of the interior life was handed one book. Seminarians were taught from it, novice masters relied on it, and countless lay people kept it by the bed for a few pages each night. That book was The Spiritual Life of Adolphe Tanquerey.

The author

Adolphe Tanquerey (1854–1932) was a priest of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, the congregation devoted to the formation of the clergy. He taught dogmatic and moral theology for decades, in France and in the United States, and his Latin manuals were used in seminaries across the world. His Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, the fruit of a lifetime of teaching and direction, appeared in the 1920s, and was translated into English by his fellow Sulpician Herman Branderis as The Spiritual Life in 1930.

What it covers

The book begins with first principles: what Christian perfection is, what grace does in the soul, and what means God has given us to grow in holiness — prayer, the sacraments, mortification, spiritual direction. It then follows the soul along the three classical ways. The purgative way is the way of beginners: prayer, penance, the struggle against the capital sins and temptations. The illuminative way is the way of those progressing in virtue, moral and theological. The unitive way treats the gifts of the Holy Ghost, contemplation and the extraordinary phenomena of the mystical life, with a sober eye for counterfeits.

What makes Tanquerey enduring is his combination of completeness and clarity. He draws on Scripture, the Fathers and the great spiritual writers — St Thomas, St Teresa, St John of the Cross, St Francis de Sales — and sets everything out in order, so that the reader always knows where he stands on the road and what the next step is.

Our edition

Our new edition presents the complete text in a single sewn hardcover volume, bound in red cloth with a cream dust-jacket and patterned endpapers, made to be read a few pages at a time for many years. Pre-order The Spiritual Life here, with free shipping.