The Traditional Virtues According to St. Thomas Aquinas: A Study for Men

To mature as a man is to grow in virtue. And yet, year after year, many of us regress in our fundamental calling for a host of reasons: poor catechesis, modernism, isolation, self-absorption, and, to sum it up, the chains of vice. But God calls us to a life of virtue—that is, a life of faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These theological and cardinal virtues, the “traditional virtues,” which this book walks through, are at the heart and soul of the spiritual life.

We often think we know what “the virtues” are, and perhaps we even dismiss them as being dry or abstract. But in The Traditional Virtues According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Jason Craig shows us how the insights and teachings of the Angelic Doctor can rescue Catholics from the common distortions of relativism, overpromising self-help programs, and impotent platitudes that reduce good living to “being nice.” This timely work is laid out as a study for fathers and leaders of men, providing a common language and understanding for not only a manly life but a happy one.

Surveying St. Thomas Aquinas’s entire treatise on the virtues, while highlighting those aspects that touch most powerfully on the life of fathers, leaders, and mentors, this book is broad yet very practical. Along with a weekly lesson derived from Aquinas, there are also short daily directions for reading through a large portion of the New Testament to help ground and highlight his insights on Scripture and stretch the lessons through the whole week. With Aquinas’s own prayers for virtue, wisdom, and purity included in this book, The Traditional Virtues According to St. Thomas Aquinas will challenge every Catholic man to reach the heights of holiness.