hans urs von balthasar the glory of the lord

He explores the characters and actions that make up this grand cosmic drama, maintaining that it is in the theater that man attempts a kind of transcendence to observe and to judge his own truth about himself.

Von Balthasar is concerned with the dramatic character of existence as a whole, approaching the topic through a consideration of the various conditions and situations of mankind as a drama that involves both the Creator and his creatures. “event”, “history”, “orthopraxy”, “dialogue”, “political theology”) point to an understanding of human and cosmic reality as a divine drama. In this second part of his great theological trilogy, Hans Urs von Balthasar shows how many of the trends of modern theology (e.g. “The translation and publication of The Glory of the Lord in English is a major event in the theological world of our time… This is the kind of work which renews one’s whole understanding of what the theological enterprise is.” “An attentive reading of this magisterial effort provides an immense wealth of rewards it displays throughout a breadth of vision and a serenity of perspective that only rarely finds a parallel in our century.”

Armed with a remarkable knowledge of the theological and metaphysical traditions as well as of Western letters, von Balthasar shows how the Biblical vision of the divine glory, revealed in the crucified and risen Christ and reflected in the great theologies of the Christian tradition, fulfills and transcends the perception of Being in Western metaphysics. Probably the most important sustained piece of theological writing to appear since Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, von Balthasar’s work restores aesthetics and contemplation to their rightful place in Christian theology.

Hans urs von balthasar the glory of the lord