The Great Encyclicals: Volume Two—The Spiritual Letters

The reign of Pope Leo XIII is the fourth-longest of any papacy in the two-thousand-year history of the Catholic Church. Over the course of a full quarter-century, Leo XIII courageously engaged with the modern world, asserting the Church’s authority and wisdom in the face of unprecedented challenges and confusion. He was also a prolific author, issuing a total of eighty-six encyclical letters on matters both spiritual and social. Compiled and engagingly introduced by Leo L. Clarke, The Great Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII comprises—across two volumes—thirty-one of those letters, to present the vibrant and courageous insights of this great shepherd to an age with a pronounced need of hearing and heeding his message.

Volume Two: The Spiritual Letters contains seventeen of Leo XIII’s encyclicals dedicated to strengthening the Church in faith and in practice, including the outstanding Aeterni patris (on the restoration of Christian philosophy), Arcanum divinae (on Christian marriage), and Providentissimus Deus (on the study of Holy Scripture), and crowned with select letters on the Holy Rosary.