Irresistible Beauty: Beholding Triune Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ (Samuel G. Parkison)

Description

What hath beauty to do with systematic theology? In this new monograph, Samuel G. Parkison explores this question by examining the relationship between Christ’s divine beauty and regeneration and faith. Building on recent scholarship in (a) theological retrieval of the Christian tradition, and (b) Protestant developments in theological aesthetics, this project is concerned with soteriology’s aesthetic dimension. While many today may consider beauty a mere matter of preference, glibly assuming that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Parkison pushes fiercely in the opposite direction, dignifying beauty by recognizing its objective value—a feature of aesthetics that has fallen on hard times since the so–called Enlightenment, and the subsequent “uglification of culture” (as Sir Roger Scruton put it).

In this doxologically flavored, dogmatically charged work, Parkison pulls from a variety of disciplines to demonstrate Christ’s beauty, and the relevance of Christ’s beauty on Christian theology. Irresistible Beauty is the work of a synthetic generalist. It is not strictly a work of exegesis, though it will stand firmly on exegetical findings. It is not strictly a work of biblical theology, though it will be biblical–theological. It is not strictly a work of historical theology, though it will engage in theological retrieval of the church’s history. It is not strictly a philosophical work, though, driven by a love for wisdom, it will be irreducibly philosophical. Thus, this is a systematic–theological work in the full sense of the term—informed and shaped by these disciplines and informing and shaping the pursuit of them.

Irresistible Beauty is sure to stimulate readers who enjoy a wide range of topics: the philosophy of beauty, metaphysics, Classical Christian Theism, biblical theology, and a Protestant Reformed conception soteriology are all dealt with in this dense theological work. Parkison also converses with some of the greatest minds of Christian history (e.g., Athanasius, Hilary of Poitiers, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Turretin, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Herman Bavinck, Hans Urs von Balthasaar), making Irresistible Beauty a stimulating work for many a reader.

Endorsements

… offers a thoroughgoing dogmatic treatment  of the Protestant Reformed understanding of regeneration and faith. Doxology, not simply dogmatics, is the reader’s reward.

Jonathan King, International Pastoral Training Director, Family Discipleship Ministries

Table of Contents

Series Preface 7

Acknowledgments 9

Foreword 11

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction and Prolegomenon 13

CHAPTER TWO

The Metaphysics of Divine Beauty 49

CHAPTER THREE

Mediated Beauty 103

CHAPTER FOUR

Soteriological Foundations 125

CHAPTER FIVE

Veiled and Unveiled Beauty 161

CHAPTER SIX

From One Degree of Beauty to Another 201

Bibliography 221

Subject Index 243

Scripture Index 253

Product Details

Title: Irresistible Beauty: Beholding Triune Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ 

Author: Samuel G. Parkison

Publisher: Mentor

Pages: 264

Binding: Paperback

Size: 21.6 x 13.8 x 1.4 cm

ISBN: 9781527109148