Today, the doctrine of the beatific vision has been woefully forgotten within the church and its theology. Yet, throughout history Christians have always held that the blessed hope of heaven lies in seeing and being in the presence of God, of beholding the beatific vision. With lucidity and breadth, Parkison reintroduces the beatific vision and affirms its centrality for the life of the church today. Parkison argues for the beatific vision's biblical foundations and reminds us-through close readings of theologians such as Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Gregory Palamas, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards-of the doctrine's historical and contemporary significance. The beatific vision is about seeing God, and as Christians have acknowledged across the tradition, seeing God is our ultimate end.
"This is a book written from the heart, and it demonstrates a fruitful reception of the Christian theological tradition on eternal life. Samuel Parkison has put his finger on a doctrine that should animate the entirety of Christian life. He shows beautifully why and how this is so. Guided by the scriptural and theological testimonies he adduces, let us strive to attain the beatific vision, by God's grace and through the saving cross of Christ."
Matthew Levering, James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary
"This overview of the history of Christian reflection on the beatific vision is an extremely important study, for it rightly reveals the central place that the hunger to gaze upon God has had in Christian tradition. But this is a hunger that far too many Western evangelicals in this 'Secular Age,' as Charles Taylor has termed it, seem to have lost and even rejected as pie-in-the-sky pietism. May this study be used by God to reawaken this hunger and so empower our witness to the ever-present God in this day!"
Michael Haykin, professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
