The Names of Christ is a masterpiece of the Golden Age of Spain. Written in the style of a pastoral novel, the work is a meditation on the philosophical and theological significance of the names of Christ. Based on a careful examination of ten names given Christ in the Scriptures, the book reflects elements of Augustinian, Jewish, and Islamic spirituality that were part of sixteenth-century Spain.
Luis de León was born in 1527 in Belmonte, a small village in the Castile region of Spain. An Augustinian friar, a brilliant professor, an artful poet, he was a true Renaissance man whose vision of the fullness of Christ sustained him in the face of persecution at the hands of the Inquisition and infused his writing with a sensitivity that has made The Names of Christ a treasure of Spanish literature and a classic of Catholic mysticism.
Manuel Duran is professor of Spanish literature (emeritus), Yale University. Fay R. Rogg is chairman and professor of Spanish, Modern Languages Department, Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City University of New York.