The introduction to the second part of the trilogy which is von Balthasar's major work. All von Balthasar's theological reflection converges here, and here as nowhere else one can find the systematic elaboration of his Christology, Mariology, Ecclesiology, Anthropology and Trinitarian doctrine. Here we find his soteriology, where time, freedom, history, power, sin, conflict are seen in the light of the Cross, the culmination of the action and passion of God and man. It manifests itself only through the personal involvement whereby God himself comes forth to do battle and is both victor and vanquished. If this glory is to come within our range at all, an analogous initiative is called for on our part.
Revelation is a battlefield.
This series is the second part of Balthasar's trilogy on the good, the beautiful and the true which is his major work. 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.