The Glory of the Lord, vol. VI: Theology: The Old Covenant
Overview
This volume initiates von Balthasar’s study of the biblical vision and understanding of God’s glory. Starting with the theophanies of the Patriarchal period, it shows how such glory is most fully expressed in the graciousness of the Covenant relationship between God and Israel. But the breaking of that relationship by Israel means that in the later books of the Old Testament, the divine glory is seen in God’s willingness to bear with his people in the dark side of their history. There is no final version of God’s glory in the Old Testament. In the 500 years before Christ, the Covenant relation is more of an idea than reality. The vision of the transcendent glory of God which is developed in the later writings is only fragmentary. It will find its strange and unexpected fulfillment in the new Covenant.
With the Logos edition the reader has an abundance of resources that offer applicable and insightful material for their study. You can easily search the subject of theological aesthetics to access an assortment of useful resources and perspectives from a variety of pastors and theologians.
- Examines the theology of the glory of the living God
- Sheds light on the essence of the old covenant from the viewpoint of ‘glory’
- Explores the themes of biblical aesthetics
Top Highlights
“To have an inkling of the divine, to adore it from afar, to learn to be silent before it and to allow it to hold sway” (Page 31)
“this freedom of appearance is an essential element of the beautiful.6” (Page 36)
“This is therefore the encounter of the divine agape with the praying eros of the one who seeks wisdom—a thought that is in accordance both with the piety of the Psalms and with Platonist philosophy.” (Page 359)
“that which brings fulfilment can be understood only together with what it fulfils.” (Page 403)
“It is not possible to enjoy a reposeful aesthetic contemplation of the divine glory, a contemplation that would consider God ‘in himself’ and thus could dispense with the opposition between God’s holiness and the unholiness of the world, of which the contemplator is the mathematical exponent, as it were. Glory is the intruding lordliness of him who comes to confront the world, both judging it and gracing it. It is this that distinguishes the biblical reality from the epiphanies of gods outside the Bible.” (Page 14)
Balthasar’s most important works, at least in his own eyes, are not his writings but his foundations.
—Peter Henrici
. . . meeting Balthasar was for me the beginning of a lifelong friendship I can only be thankful for. Never again have I found anyone with such a comprehensive theological and humanistic education as Balthasar . . . and I cannot even begin to say how much I owe to my encounter with him.
—Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
- Title: The Glory of the Lord, vol. VI: Theology: The Old Covenant
- Author: Hans Urs von Balthasar
- Publisher: Ignatius
- Publication Date: 1991
- Pages: 468