Presence and Thought: Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa
By: Balthasar, Hans Urs Von
Publication Date: 1995/04
Publisher:  Ignatius Press
Format: Trade Paper, 194pg.
ISBN: 0898705215
Our Price $17.95

Related Books: Christianity and Hesychasm, Prophets, Saints, Sages and Teachers

Vincent Rossi

The outstanding quality of Hans Urs von Balthasar's thought stems, I believe, from his early, pioneering work in Patristics. He wrote three seminal studies of three of the greatest and most influential of the patristic writers, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor, and he drew the core principles of his own systematic thinking from the writing of these giants of Christian metaphysics and spirituality. This book is the second of these studies, and it simply is one of the best and most perceptive analyses of St. Gregory in print. Everything Balthasar says about beauty as a key to theology and spirituality, for example, can be found in the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the patristic apostle of beauty as a Divine attribute and gift. This book is a must for both those interested in St. Gregory and for those looking for an insight into von Balthasar.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9
Introduction 15
Pt. 1 The Philosophy of Becoming and Desire
1 The Concept of Spacing 27
2 Becoming and the Immanent Infinite 37
3 Spirit and Matter 47
4 Real Becoming 57
5 Ideal Becoming 65
6 The Solution to the Anthropological Problem 71
7 Desire and Knowledge 89
8 The Twofold Mystical Paradox 97
Pt. 2 The Philosophy of Image
1 The Definition of Nature 111
2 Monad, Mirror, and Window 121
Pt. 3 The Philosophy of Love
1 Human Nature and Incarnation 133
2 Transposition of Becoming 153
3 Transposition of the Image 163
Conclusion 171
Final Note 181
Bibliography 183
Bibliographical Note 189

 

 

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