Sweet and Blessed Country: The Christian Hope for Heaven - Hardcover

Saward, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199280096 ISBN 13: 9780199280094

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2005

Synopsis

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 hope for Heaven. The altarpiece, Enguerrand Quarton's Coronation of the Virgin, was painted for a Carthusian monastery, and so it is monastic theologians, and principally Denys the Carthusian, who guide Saward in his exploration of that 'sweet and blessed country' in which the angels and saints contemplate the face of God. John Saward's book breaks new ground not only in content but also in style and method. He discusses a subject, eschatology (the doctrine of the last things), which is generally neglected today, and, though he observes the disciplines of scholarship, he also reaches out to a readership beyond the academy. This theology of Heaven, faithfully rooted in the Catholic tradition, offers enlightenment to every Christian who seeks understanding of his hope, and encouragement to every human being who yearns for ultimate fulfilment.

About this title

Review:

...this is a book of many theological riches... (Michele O'Kelly Milltown Studies)

'Strong stuff, and food for much reflection... a serious and full treatment of a sometimes neglected area, and a healthy reminder that medieval religious art was not for entertainment, but for instruction. Maybe we need books like this now and again, to save us from bogus aestheticism that can all too often hide intellectual laziness.' (Revd Peter McGeary, The Church Times)

'Saward presents his case with a characteristic papalist machismo, reflecting the maturation of his subject matter.' (Robin Ward, New Directions)

About the Author:

John Saward is a Fellow of Greyfriars Hall, Oxford, and member of the Theology Faculty, University of Oxford.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0199280096
• ISBN 13: 9780199280094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208