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About the Author
David Augustine
David Augustine (PhD, Catholic University of America) is associate editor of Word on Fire Academic and managing editor of The New Ressourcement. He is the author of numerous articles, the editor of a volume on the early Church Fathers, and the translator of Erich Przywara’s Kant Today: A Survey.
What People Are Saying
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“David Augustine presents the renowned nineteenth-century dogmatic theologian Matthias Joseph Scheeben, as a modern Cyril of Alexandria, contending with the various Christological issues of our own times, including the resurgent Nestorian disposition. With a high level of theological dexterity he unpacks Scheeben’s account of deification as ‘kindling a fire from God in our hearts so that, our lives reformed, we can rise above our nature to God and cling to him through deifying union in love.’ This work is a treasure for those interested in scriptural typology, theological anthropology, Eucharistic and liturgical theology, and the ressourcement movement in Germany.”
Tracey Rowland
University of Notre Dame Australia
“One of the most promising developments in modern Catholic theology has been the resurgence of interest in the work of the great German Catholic theologian Matthias Scheeben. Among the worthy first-fruits of this resurgence now comes David Augustine’s luminously insightful book on what is surely an architectonic theme in Scheeben’s theological edifice, the deifying sacrifice of Christ. The urgent current need to retrieve a theology of sacrifice, combined with the many benefits to be gained from renewed attention to the work of Scheeben, make this book a timely and most welcome intervention in the contemporary forum of Catholic theology.”
Khaled Anatolios
University of Notre Dame
“Especially in America, Catholics have lately rediscovered the great nineteenth-century German theologian Matthias Scheeben. In him they find a biblically resonant and speculatively rigorous engagement with the truths of Christianity unequaled in the theology of our own time. Scheeben’s bold use of the Old Testament altar fire to unfold some of the deepest Christian mysteries takes center stage in David Augustine’s fine book, which makes an important addition to the now-growing literature on Scheeben in English. It is especially welcome for its focus on Scheeben’s theology of sacrifice—Christ’s on Calvary and ours in the Eucharist—which provides a needed antidote to the disregard and outright neglect from which this central Catholic teaching has suffered for too long.”
Bruce D. Marshall
Southern Methodist University
“A major work of Christology which centers on the nature of atonement, reconciliation, and sacrifice, this book is also one of the most profound and compelling studies of the theology of Matthias Scheeben written to date. Marked by erudition and clarity, this work introduces the reader into a wealth of significant theological topics and controversies in regard to nature and grace, the anthropology of sacrifice, and the mystery of the Incarnation. It functions in its own right as a work of fundamental orientation in Christology. A superb work of speculative theology.”
John R. Betz
University of Notre Dame
“David Augustine’s retrieval of Matthias Scheeben’s soteriology restores Scheeben’s voice in Catholic dogmatics and at the same time explores how it speaks to—and corrects—contemporary biblical and systematic studies. More importantly, we learn how the fire of the sacrificial transformation of creation in its return to God in the rites of the Old Testament passes into the fire of the charity of Christ in the New, which gathers up the Church into his priestly return to the Father. David Augustine’s patient and detailed presentation of this reality as beheld by Matthias Scheeben will fascinate his readers as well and enrapture them with the charity of God acting in the charity of Christ, consummated at Calvary and manifest at Easter.”
Guy Mansini, O.S.B.
Ave Maria University
“David Augustine presents the renowned nineteenth-century dogmatic theologian Matthias Joseph Scheeben, as a modern Cyril of Alexandria, contending with the various Christological issues of our own times, including the resurgent Nestorian disposition. With a high level of theological dexterity he unpacks Scheeben’s account of deification as ‘kindling a fire from God in our hearts so that, our lives reformed, we can rise above our nature to God and cling to him through deifying union in love.’ This work is a treasure for those interested in scriptural typology, theological anthropology, Eucharistic and liturgical theology, and the ressourcement movement in Germany.”
Tracey Rowland
University of Notre Dame Australia
“One of the most promising developments in modern Catholic theology has been the resurgence of interest in the work of the great German Catholic theologian Matthias Scheeben. Among the worthy first-fruits of this resurgence now comes David Augustine’s luminously insightful book on what is surely an architectonic theme in Scheeben’s theological edifice, the deifying sacrifice of Christ. The urgent current need to retrieve a theology of sacrifice, combined with the many benefits to be gained from renewed attention to the work of Scheeben, make this book a timely and most welcome intervention in the contemporary forum of Catholic theology.”
Khaled Anatolios
University of Notre Dame
“Especially in America, Catholics have lately rediscovered the great nineteenth-century German theologian Matthias Scheeben. In him they find a biblically resonant and speculatively rigorous engagement with the truths of Christianity unequaled in the theology of our own time. Scheeben’s bold use of the Old Testament altar fire to unfold some of the deepest Christian mysteries takes center stage in David Augustine’s fine book, which makes an important addition to the now-growing literature on Scheeben in English. It is especially welcome for its focus on Scheeben’s theology of sacrifice—Christ’s on Calvary and ours in the Eucharist—which provides a needed antidote to the disregard and outright neglect from which this central Catholic teaching has suffered for too long.”
Bruce D. Marshall
Southern Methodist University
“A major work of Christology which centers on the nature of atonement, reconciliation, and sacrifice, this book is also one of the most profound and compelling studies of the theology of Matthias Scheeben written to date. Marked by erudition and clarity, this work introduces the reader into a wealth of significant theological topics and controversies in regard to nature and grace, the anthropology of sacrifice, and the mystery of the Incarnation. It functions in its own right as a work of fundamental orientation in Christology. A superb work of speculative theology.”
John R. Betz
University of Notre Dame
“David Augustine’s retrieval of Matthias Scheeben’s soteriology restores Scheeben’s voice in Catholic dogmatics and at the same time explores how it speaks to—and corrects—contemporary biblical and systematic studies. More importantly, we learn how the fire of the sacrificial transformation of creation in its return to God in the rites of the Old Testament passes into the fire of the charity of Christ in the New, which gathers up the Church into his priestly return to the Father. David Augustine’s patient and detailed presentation of this reality as beheld by Matthias Scheeben will fascinate his readers as well and enrapture them with the charity of God acting in the charity of Christ, consummated at Calvary and manifest at Easter.”
Guy Mansini, O.S.B.
Ave Maria University
“David Augustine presents the renowned nineteenth-century dogmatic theologian Matthias Joseph Scheeben, as a modern Cyril of Alexandria, contending with the various Christological issues of our own times, including the resurgent Nestorian disposition. With a high level of theological dexterity he unpacks Scheeben’s account of deification as ‘kindling a fire from God in our hearts so that, our lives reformed, we can rise above our nature to God and cling to him through deifying union in love.’ This work is a treasure for those interested in scriptural typology, theological anthropology, Eucharistic and liturgical theology, and the ressourcement movement in Germany.”
Tracey Rowland
University of Notre Dame Australia
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