3 Review(s)

In Sweet and Blessed Country John Saward takes an altarpiece from fifteenth-century Provence as his starting-point for a theological exposition of the Christian hope for Heaven. The altarpiece, Enguerrand Quarton's Coronation of the Virgin, was painted for a Carthusian monastery, and so it is monastic theologians, and principally Denys the Carthusian, who guide Saward in his exploration of that 'sweet and blessed country' in which the angels and saints contemplate the face of God. John Saward's book breaks new ground not only in content but also in style and method. He discusses a subject, eschatology (the doctrine of the last things), which is generally neglected today, and, though he observes the disciplines of scholarship, he also reaches out to a readership beyond the academy. This theology of Heaven, faithfully rooted in the Catholic tradition, offers enlightenment to every Christian who seeks understanding of his hope, and encouragement to every human being who yearns for ultimate fulfilment.