The Spiritual Life - Adolphe Tanquerey

Originally a seminary textbook, The Spiritual Life has proven indispensable as a complete companion to the spiritual life for Catholics since 1930.

The most famous work of the learned and devout Sulpician priest-theologian Adolphe Tanquerey (1854–1932), this book offers a systematic exploration of every aspect of Catholic spirituality, addressing timeless spiritual questions. Methodically covering the three ways of the spiritual life (Purgative, Illuminative, Unitive) and grounded in Sacred Scripture, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and the Doctors of the Church, it covers topics such as Prayer for Beginners, the Fall and its Consequences, Interior and Exterior Means of Perfection, Mortification, Controversial Questions, and Extraordinary Mystical Phenomena.

Far from being a dry academic text, The Spiritual Life is an accessible read, serving as an invaluable personal guide, a source of meditative reading, and a teaching manual on Catholic doctrine and spirituality. Its enduring popularity—remaining in print for nearly a century—attests to its effectiveness as a sure guide for Christians of all backgrounds, guiding them from the foundational aspects of the spiritual life to the heights of mystical union with God.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adolphe Tanquerey was born in Blainville, France, in 1854 and began his studies at the college of Saint-Lô and then, from 1873, at the Major Seminary of Coutances, until 1875, when he entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. After two years of study in Rome, he obtained his doctorate in theology in 1878 at the Collegium Divi Thomae (Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum). Having become a priest in the same year, he became a member of the Community of Saint Sulpice. He then became a professor of dogmatic theology and held various positions, such as that of superior of the seminary of Saint Sulpice. During this time he wrote his two major works: the Synopsis theologiae dogmaticae and Synopsis theologiae moralis et pastoralis. Because of France's anti-clerical policy, he retired to the Saint-Sulpice seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux, where he wrote his most famous work, the Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique (the Spiritual Life), first published in 1924 and republished several times. Translated into several languages, this collection of ascetical and mystical theology has been widely distributed. In 1926 he retired to Aix-en-Provence, where he resumed his priestly duties until his death, devoting himself constantly to the revision of new textbooks and the writing of smaller publications on spiritual subjects.