The attraction to Pope John Paul II was an attraction no just to the human charism and magnetism of the Pope. It was an attraction to a profoundly spiritual human being, who lives Christ, radiates Christ, and resounds Christ. All of the speeches, homilies, letters and the encyclical Jesus Christ the Redeemer of Man are a proclamation of Christ--the Way, the Truth, and the Light. The Pope is, in name and in fact, an Alter Christus--Another Christ as well as the Vicar of Christ. To help us appreciate this basic spiritual element in our Holy Father, the gifted American Dominican theologian Jordan Aumann, former Director of the Institute of Spirituality at St. Thomas Aquinas University, Rome, has translated the Holy Father's doctoral thesis on Faith According to St. John of the Cross. It is my fervent hope that the reading of this translation will help many not only to know God better, but to live His divine life--to that fullness of life promised by Christ. -- John Cardinal Krol Archbishop of Philadelphia (from the Foreword)
