Matthias Joseph Scheeben (Meckenheim, Rhine Province, 1 March 1835 – Cologne, 21 July 1888) was a German Catholic priest and theologian.

"[1] Scheeben studied at the Gregorian University at Rome under Carlo Passaglia, Luigi Taparelli and Giovanni Perrone from 1852 to 1859 and lived in Collegium Germanicum.

Because the beauty and eminence of our faith consist in this: that through the mysteries of grace it raises our nature to an immeasurably high plane and presents to us an inexpressibly intimate union with God.

His pupils were allegedly overawed by the steady flow of his long abstruse sentences which brought scanty light to their intellects; his colleagues and his friends but rarely disturbed the peace of the workroom where his spirit brooded over a chaos of literary matters.

The publisher hopes to continue this monumental task in service of making this classic of Scheeben available, unabridged, to English readers.