Lesson 5: Assignments and Readings
Reading Assignments
Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1980), Chapter 4: “The Supernatural Organism.”
Possible Writing Assignments
1. Explain the meaning of Aquinas’s assertion that grace does not destroy but perfects nature.
2. Give a brief account of faith, hope, and charity as theological virtues and as graces by which we are given to share something of the life of God.
Suggested Readings
Dante, The Divine Comedy: Paradiso, cantos 24-26 on Dante’s discussion of faith, hope, and charity with Saints Peter, James, and John.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #1812-1845 on faith, hope, and charity; and #1996-2029 on grace in general, merit, and holiness.
Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics, translated by Sr. Mary Noble (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1995). The opening portion of this book gives a very insightful account of the relation between moral theology and spiritual theology. Using St. Augustine’s treatise on the Sermon on the Mount, Pinckaers traces the links between the commandments, the beatitudes, God’s graces, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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