Sounds great! But my point is that he didn't need 4,500 pages 2,500 would have easily done the trick. With Glory, von Balthasar's basic instinct was correct he's right that the average theological work is superficial and has to leave too much out, so indeed, why not just include everything, and write a complete 7-volume theological aesthetics without any concessions to length. the final 300 pages of Concluding Unscientific Postscript are such a mess that it's hard to believe Kierkegaard let it go into the world in that state. It's actually similar to Kierkegaard, who was independently wealthy and self-published all of his work, and who also really, truly, seriously needed an editor. The typical reader of von Balthasar may not be aware that these books were originally self-published and hence not edited (Johannes Verlag is basically a vanity press, though obviously von Balthasar could be published anywhere). But after reading about half of the Trilogy so far (all of Theo-Logic, about half of Theo-Drama, and two volumes of Glory), I have to say. So obviously von Balthasar is a genius, Herrlichkeit is, taken as a whole, probably the most impressive theological work since WW2, etc.
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