The Glory Of The Lord Studies In Theological Style Clerical

"Volume 1 gives us a series of monographs designed to illustrate the different ways in which theologians have shaped their works. Volume 2 is a continuation of monographs in Volume 1 in which the aesthetical dimension of theology, its intrinsic beauty, is traced through some of the great Christian thinkers of modern times." -

In this volume von Balthasar turns to the works of the lay theologians, the poets and the philosopher theologians who have kept alive the Grand Tradition of Christian theology in writings formally very different from the works of the Fathers and the great Scholastics. This volume contains studies of Dante, John of the Cross, Pascal, Hamann, Soloviev, Hopkins and Peguy.

"Offers a series of earlier Christian theology when the aesthetic view was still held and appreciated. Drawing insights from some of the leading figures of the early Church such as Anselm, Augustine, Bonaventura, Denys and Irenaeus, von Balthasar presents his views with a freshness and vigour rarely excelled in contemporary theological writing about the Grand Tradition."--

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In volumes II and III von Balthasar shows the extraordinary range of his knowledge and expertise in a series of essays designed to illustrate different ways in which theologians have shared their work. What he offers is "a typology of the relationship between beauty and revelation" which shows "that there neither has been nor could be any true great and historically fruitful theology which was not expressly conceived and born under the constellation of beauty and grace." Volume II offers a series of studies of representative figures from the earlier period of Christian theology - Irenaeus, Augustine, Denys, Anselm and Bonventura.

In this fourth volume of his magnnum opus, von Balthasar considers the metaphysical tradition of the contemplation of Being. He provides major studies of Homer, the Greek Tragedians, Plato and Plotinus and the development of this tradition in the Middle Ages. He then explores the analogy between the metaphysical vision of the Being and the Christian vision of the divine glory of the Trinity.