Theo Drama The Last Act

This is the final volume of this series on "theological dramatic theory" by the great 20th century theologian Balthasar. This series is the second part of Balthasar's trilogy on the good, the beautiful and the true which is his major work. The first series in the trilogy is The Glory of the Lord, and following this Theo-Drama series will be Theo-Logic. In this series "the good" has been the focus. Balthasar maintains that it is in the theater that man attempts a kind of transcendence to observe and to judge his own truth about himself. He sees the phenomenon of theater as a source of fruitfulness for theological reflection on the cosmic drama that involves earth and heaven. This fifth volume is trinitarian, focusing on the mystery of God. He draws heavily on Scripture and many passages from the works of the mystic Adrienne von Spyer. Some of the topics covered include "A Christian Eschotology," "The World is from the Trinity," "Earth moves Heavenward," "The Final Act: A Trinitarian Drama."

This is the final volume of this series on "theological dramatic theory" by the 20th century theologian Balthasar. This series is the second part of Balthasar's trilogy on the good, the beautiful and the true which is his major work. The first series in the trilogy is The Glory of the Lord, and following this Theo-Drama series will be Theo-Logic. This fifth volume is trinitarian, focusing on the mystery of God. He draws heavily on Scripture and many passages from the works of the mystic Adrienne von Speyr. Some of the topics covered include "A Christian Eschotology", "The World is from the Trinity", "Earth moves Heavenward", "The Final Act: A Trinitarian Drama.

This is the final volume of this series on "theological dramatic theory" by the great 20th century theologian Balthasar. This series is the second part of Balthasar's trilogy on the good, the beautiful and the true which is his major work. The first series in the trilogy is The Glory of the Lord, and following this Theo-Drama series will be Theo-Logic. In this series "the good" has been the focus. Balthasar maintains that it is in the theater that man attempts a kind of transcendence to observe and to judge his own truth about himself. He sees the phenomenon of theater as a source of fruitfulness for theological reflection on the cosmic drama that involves earth and heaven. This fifth volume is trinitarian, focusing on the mystery of God. He draws heavily on Scripture and many passages from the works of the mystic Adrienne von Spyer. Some of the topics covered include "A Christian Eschotology", "The World is from the Trinity", "Earth moves Heavenward", "The Final Act: A Trinitarian Drama."

This book is an undergraduate introduction to one of the most important works of 20th-century Catholic theology.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the preeminent theologians of Roman Catholic theology in the modern era, constructed a theological world suffused by the literary, a vision carried across over 16 volumes of his magnum opus. A Generous Symphony offers a balanced appraisal of Balthasar’s literary achievement and explicates Balthasar’s literary criticism as a distinctive theology of revelation, which offers possibilities for understanding how divine presence may be manifested outside the canonical boundaries of Christian tradition. The structure of A Generous Symphony is a chronological presentation of the Balthasarian canon of imaginative literature, which allows readers to see how social and historical interests guide Balthasar’s readings in the pre-Christian, medieval, and modern eras. While other books have examined the systematic theology of Balthasar, this book will examine the important question of how students of literature, like Balthasar, can be transformed into theologians by attending to the implicit presence of Christ in what Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “As kingfishers catch fire . . .” called “the ten thousand places.” Balthasar’s deep investment in the uniqueness of Christian revelation is underlined, while, at the same time, his aesthetic sympathies cause him to invest literature with ‘quasi-sacramental’ status.

Following his acclaimed Guide Through Balthasar's Aesthetics, Aidan Nichols summarizes and illuminates the five volume series Theo-Drama, which develops the heart of Balthasar's theological theory - his exploration of the Good and of the dramatic interplay of finite and infinite freedom. Theo-Drama builds upon the earlier achievement of The Glory of the Lord and transcends it, opening up new horizons for theological and cultural reflection in the twenty-first century. Aidan Nichols' succinct commentary enables the reader to grasp the main themes of one of the most important theological works in several generations. Introduction>

There is currently no shared language of vocation among Catholics in the developed, post-modern world of Europe and North America. The decline in practice of the faith and a weakened understanding of Church teaching has led to reduced numbers of people entering into marriage, religious life and priesthood. Uniquely, this book traces the development of vocation from scriptural, patristic roots through Thomism and the Reformation to engage with the modern vocational crisis. How are these two approaches compatible? The universal call to holiness is expressed in Lumen Gentium has been read by some as meaning that any vocational choice has the same value as any other such choice; is some sense of a higher calling part of the Catholic theology of vocation or not? Some claim that the single life is a vocation on a par with marriage and religious life; what kind of a theology of vocation leads to that conclusion? And is the secular use of the word 'vocation' to describe certain profession helpful or misleading in the context of Catholic theology?