ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors consider how they might approach some issues in the philosophy of religion by beginning with the spiritual life. They then seek to understand certain recurrent features of the spiritual life: for instance, the fact that spiritual understanding and practice typically seem to have a traditioned character. At the core of any Christian understanding of the nature of the good or worthwhile human life will stand a conception of neighbour love, and so a consideration of Aquinas's views on the nature of spiritual goods might very naturally start here, with his account of neighbour love. The case that concerns Aquinas is not quite so straightforward as that of harm, but it is not too difficult to think of parallels between the example that he gives and morally significant truths concerning the past.
