T&T Clark Fully Alive: The Glory of God and the Human Creature in Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Theological Exegesis of Scripture

Numerous contemporary theologians depict divine glory as overwhelming to or competitive with human agency. In effect, this makes humanity a threat to Gods glory, and causes Gods glory to remain opaque to human enquiry and foreign to human life. Review "There is extraordinary intensity in this engagement with God's glory. Fout is profoundly perceptive in his appreciative and critical account of two of the greatest theologians of the past century, Barth and Von Balthasar. Yet he is also a considerable thinker in his own right, and his lively, attractive account of the glory of God culminates in a gripping final chapter that draws readers into the depths of the Book of Exodus, Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians and the Gospel of John, making clear what they mean for us now" --David F. Ford, University of Cambridge, UK"God's glory is God's perfection, surely expressed in God's creation. Yet much theology highlights the glory of God at the expense of human freedom-the ability to act freely in response to God. In Fully Alive, Jason Fout respectfully addresses such tendencies in Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Through careful theological reading of key Scriptural passages on divine glory, Fout shows that God's glory overflows in ways that free persons for their full responsibility as human persons and societies, and this freedom gives full glory to God. Well researched and carefully written, Fout's book charts a way through the perennial question of the relation of divine and human freedom" --Ellen Wondra, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, USA"In this rich work of fundamental theology, Jason Fout beautifully describes the way that God's glory not only invites, engages, and transforms us but also generates and enriches human relationships. Through patient encounters with those with whom he disagrees, Fout also models something of the dignifying exchanges that he argues accompany God's glory. A deeply convincing and important work." --Craig Hovey, Ashland University, USA "In Fully Alive, Fout considers how the fullness of divine glory might empower a corresponding fullness of human agency. Contesting the terms of "heteronomous" theologies of glory that tend to narrow or bracket human agency, Fout advances a vision of divine glory as a relational overflow, which exercises our creaturely capacities--and specifically, our capacities for interpretation ... Fully Alive is well worth the read--not only for its scholarly contributions to a number of fields (including Barth scholarship), but for the suggestive power of Fout's proposal that the glory of God might somehow inhere even in our lingering interpretive questions; glory gives rise to thought, and then gives time, and makes room." - Center for Barth Studies About the Author Jason A. Fout is a priest of the Episcopal Church (USA) and earned his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he worked with Prof. Daniel W. Hardy and Prof. David F. Ford. He teaches theology and ethics in the Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation.