Meditations on Christian Dogma

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. In these meditations an attempt is made to present, in a form adapted to the present day, a popular and devotional summary of the immense treasures contained in Catholic Theology. Professed Theologians have almost universally addressed themselves to the leisured and learned, and treated their subject in a strictly scientific manner. Dogmatic Theology has therefore come to be spoken of as an arid technical science, and one that is more likely to extinguish than to nurture spirituality. One of the first who undertook to develop side by side the intellectual and devotional aspects of Christian Dogma was the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure. The same idea inspired Vincent Contenson of the Order of Preachers, in his Theologia Mentis et Cordis. In two important works which still enjoy the widest repute, the Elevations on the Mysteries, and the Meditations on the Gospels, Bossuet set forth briefly a popular exposition of the principal mysteries of religion. Pere d'Argentan, a Capuchin, is the author of three standard works on the Grandeurs of God, of Jesus Christ, and of the Blessed Virgin. In later times various writers have published abridgments of theology, and of St. Thomas' Summa in particular.