By John Saward

In Sweet and Blessed Country John Saward takes an altarpiece from fifteenth-century Provence as his starting-point for a theological exposition of the Christian desire for Heaven. The altarpiece, Enguerrand Quarton's Coronation of the Virgin, used to be painted for a Carthusian monastery, and so it truly is monastic theologians, and mostly Denys the Carthusian, who advisor Saward in his exploration of that 'sweet and blessed nation' within which the angels and saints ponder the face of God. John Saward's publication breaks new floor not just in content material but additionally popular and technique. He discusses a subject matter, eschatology (the doctrine of the final things), that is normally missed this day, and, even though he observes the disciplines of scholarship, he additionally reaches out to a readership past the academy. This theology of Heaven, faithfully rooted within the Catholic culture, bargains enlightenment to each Christian who seeks knowing of his desire, and encouragement to each man or woman who yearns for final achievement.

Show description

Read or Download Sweet and Blessed Country: The Christian Hope for Heaven PDF

Best theology books

Some Later Medieval Theories of the Eucharist: Thomas Aquinas, Gilles of Rome, Duns Scotus and William Ockham

How can the physique and Blood of Christ, with no ever leaving heaven, emerge as fairly current on eucharistic altars the place the bread and wine nonetheless appear to be? 13th and fourteenth century Christian Aristotelians suggestion the reply needed to be "transubstantiation. "
Acclaimed thinker, Marilyn McCord Adams, investigates those later medieval theories of the Eucharist, focusing on the writings of Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome, Duns Scotus, and William Ockham, with a few connection with Peter Lombard, Hugh of St. Victor, and Bonaventure. She examines how their efforts to formulate and combine this theological datum provoked them to make major revisions in Aristotelian philosophical theories concerning the metaphysical constitution and placement of our bodies, variations among substance and injuries, causality and causal powers, and primary varieties of swap. surroundings those advancements within the theological context that gave upward thrust to the query attracts recognition to their understandings of the sacraments and their goal, in addition to to their understandings of the character and future of human beings.
Adams concludes that their philosophical adjustments have been typically now not advert hoc, yet systematic revisions that made room for transubstantiation whereas permitting Aristotle nonetheless to explain what as a rule and of course occurs.

Hugh of Saint Victor

Born in Saxony in 1096, Hugh grew to become an Augustinian monk and in 1115 moved to the monastery of Saint Victor, Paris, the place he spent the rest of his existence, ultimately changing into the top of the varsity there. His writings conceal the entire diversity of arts and sacred technology taught in his day. Paul Rorem deals a simple creation to Hugh's theology, via a entire survey of his works.

The Turnings of Darkness and Light: Essays in Philosophical and Systematic Theology

This choice of essays, written among 1975 and 1987, covers themes together with the doctrine of analogy, the Trinity, theological realism, the problims of evil and soreness, ecclesiology, and the so-called theistic proofs. the sooner writings relect the author's education as a thinker within the Anglo-Aamerican analytic culture.

Extra resources for Sweet and Blessed Country: The Christian Hope for Heaven

Example text

This is our end: reaching the kingdom of which the salvation and the glory have no end. Hence St Gregory [the Great] rightly says: ‘If we consider what and how great are the things promised us in Heaven, everything possessed on earth becomes worthless in our minds. For earthly substance compared with eternal felicity is a weight, not an aid (subsidium); temporal life compared with eternal life is called death rather than life. 14 Although it is a place, the Empyrean Heaven is not some place a terrestrial observer could find by using a rocket or a telescope.

28 As our painting shows, the centre of the Empyrean is God, the Blessed Trinity. Heaven is a God-centred place or state. ’29 The happiness for which we long is to be found by resting deep within the Trinitarian Godhead. Now this Godcentred definition of Heaven is also Christ-centred, for our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son, is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and no one can go to the Father or reach the Father’s house except through Him—His precious blood, saving merits, and sanctifying grace (cf.

Therefore, the Empyrean Heaven is the highest in site, the largest in quantity, the purest in nature, the fullest in light, the most spacious in capacity. Of which Tobias says: ‘Happy shall I be if there shall remain of my seed to see the glory of Jerusalem’ (Tob. : ). This heaven is the palace of the Most High King, in which the Incomprehensible God Himself manifests Himself most clearly, and in which He operates in a surpassing way. Therefore, He is said to dwell in it in a special way. This heaven is the most beautiful covering of the whole world.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.02 of 5 – based on 5 votes