the glory of the lord hans urs von balthasar

Named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he died shortly before being formally inducted into the College of Cardinals. Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) was a Swiss theologian widely regarded as one of the greatest theologians and spiritual writers of modern times. The volume ends with the search for the Christian contribution to metaphysics. The strengths and weaknesses of these ways are relentlessly exposed. The way of self-abandonment to the divine glory is traced through figures like Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Ignatius, de Sales the attempt to relocate theology in a recovery of antiquity's sense of being and beauty through figures like Nicholas of Cusa, Holderlin, Goethe, Heidegger the metaphysics of spirit through Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Idealists.

He wrote over one hundred books, including Prayer, Heart of the World, Mary for Today, Love Alone Is Credible, Mysterium Paschale and his major multi-volume theological works: The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic.In this second volume on the metaphysical traditions of the West, von Balthasar presents a series of studies of representative mystics, theologians, philosophers and poets and explores the three main streams of metaphysics which have developed since the 'catastrophe' of Nominalism.

Volume II offers a series of studies of representative figures from the earlier period of Christian theology - Irenaeus, Augustine, Denys, Anselm and Bonventura. 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'. 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.

Henri de Lubac has described von Balthasar as 'probably the most cultured man in Europe'.

The glory of the lord hans urs von balthasar