Front matter
The Scandal of the Incarnation
The Scandal of the Incarnation:
Irenaeus Against the Heresies
Selected and with an introduction by
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Translated by John Saward
IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
Title of the German original
Irenäus: Gott im Fleisch und Blut
Ausgewähit und Ubertragen von Hans Urs von Balthasar
© 1981, Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln
Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
Cover art: Christ Mocked by Soldiers
Georges Roualt (1932)
Oil on canvas, 367 1/4 X 287 1/2 (92.1 X 72.4 cm.)
Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
(Given anonymously)
Photograph © 1990 The Museum of Modem Art, New York
CONTENTS
The True God and the False God
The God of revelation
The world is not the work of intermediaries
The creation is not a ‘fall’ into the void
Intermediaries are an insult to God
Only the one true God can be creator of the world
The world is in God
The knowledge of God as faith in God
The arrogance of Gnosticism
The collapse of Gnosticism
Humility and the knowledge of God
God’s incomprehensible grandeur known because of His love
Ultimately, God can be known only through God
Trinitarian revelation
Nature, prophecy, incarnation
The exchange between God and man
Creation in Christ
The mystery of the Virgin
The recapitulation of suffering
The meaning of history
The meaning of creatureliness
The meaning of sin
Patient maturing
Continuity and discontinuity in salvation history
The Church
The world at the service of believers
The Eucharist
Soul between body and spirit
The Gnostic doctrine of fulfilment
The possibility of resurrection
Eternal life is a grace
Freedom as grace
The eternal movement towards God