A Key to Balthasar: Hans Urs von Balthasar on Beauty, Goodness, and Truth
Hans Urs von Balthasar is widely recognized as perhaps the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. No writer has better revealed the spiritual greatness of the revelation to which the art of the church and the historic liturgies bear witness. Yet students and nonspecialist readers often find Balthasar daunting and difficult. This volume is the ideal introduction to his work. It unlocks the treasure of his theology by focusing on the beautiful, the good, and the true. These are the three qualities of being around which his great trilogy--The Glory of the Lord,Theo-Drama, andTheo-Logic--revolves. Though brief, the book captures the essence of what Balthasar wished to say."Combining profundity of thought with lucidity of expression, Aidan Nichols offers a penetrating discussion of Balthasar's participation metaphysic. The fruit of decades of reading the German theologian, this little gem captures the unity of his massive trilogy on beauty, goodness, and truth by way of devotional exposition, thereby reminding us of theology's basis in prayer and purpose of holiness. Few theological books are as pertinent, both culturally and doxologically, as this exercise in epistemological optimism!"--Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of Theology, Regent College