The Primacy of Love

By August Adam | Introduction by Ulrich L. Lehner

The Primacy of Love, first published in English in 1957, combats errant tendencies in theology and catechesis that disparaged sexuality and diminished marriage. Building on the theology of Thomas Aquinas and anticipating the teachings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Adam writes, “Christ expressly specified love as the most important of all Christian virtues. In a classification in which love is the chief commandment, chastity loses nothing—indeed it increases in importance, while overemphasis on sex does far more to endanger sexual morality than to further it.”

With intense clarity and joyous urgency, The Primacy of Love beautifully presents the fullness of Christian teaching on the virtue of love.

“The Primacy of Love was a key reading of my youth.” – Pope Benedict XVI

August Adam (1888–1965) was a German Catholic priest and theologian. Denied a university professorship on account of his approach to moral theology and his con­demnation of Nazi ideology, he taught religion at a secondary school until his retirement. Over the course of his career, Adam wrote numerous scholarly and popular books, most of which remain untranslated from the German.

Ulrich L. Lehner is the William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. A renowned scholar, he is author and editor of more than twenty books.

Paperback: 218pp.

ISBN: 978-1950970049