For renowned nineteenth-century German dogmatic theologian Matthias Scheeben, the divinely instituted liturgical cult of the Old Testament is replete with soteriological import, figuratively signifying not only Christ’s saving work and the sacramental worship of the New Testament, but also the transformation and elevation of the rational creature by divine grace. Scheeben’s distinctive use of sacrificial concepts is rooted in his underlying view of sacrifice as primarily perfective—directed to the glorification of God and constituted by the conversion of the offering into a pleasing and acceptable aroma via ritual burning with God-given fire.

In Christ and the Altar Fire, David Augustine offers an in-depth study of Scheeben’s soteriology of sacrifice, providing a comprehensive analysis of his theology of sacrifice as well as a detailed examination of his sacrificial construal of Christ’s person, his saving work, and its application to others. At the heart of this account is Scheeben’s understanding of Christ’s sacrifice as encompassing his entire paschal mystery—passion, death, resurrection, and ascension—itself a passage of glorification that serves as the site and source of deifying and latreutic nuptial union. As he shows, Scheeben employs the altar fire typology to establish a unity of cross and glory that fully maintains the atoning and meritorious significance of Christ’s saving death. Displaying careful attentiveness to Scheeben’s historical context and to the contours of his substantial corpus, Augustine also brings Scheeben’s biblically inflected dogmatic theology into dialogue with contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, showcasing the enduring relevance of his thought.

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.

“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.”

Thomas Joseph White, O.P.
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Here, finally, is a work on Matthias Scheeben that is worthy of him and reflects something of his theological acumen and careful scholarship. Not only is David Augustine’s Christ and the Altar Fire a scholarly work of the highest order, it also takes us to the heart of Scheeben’s theology, leading us to a deeper understanding of Christ’s sacrifice, prefigured in the altar fire of the Old Testament, as both atoning and deifying. Augustine has done the modern Church a great service, reminding us that Christ’s sacrifice is, in post-Reformation terms, not just justifying, but sanctifying—purifying and transforming those who share in it.”

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