Mark Johnson McInroy [Ph.D. 2009]: Perceiving Splendor: The "Doctrine of the Spiritual Senses" in Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics.(Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations)(Author abstract)(Critical essay)

Mark Johnson McInroy [Ph.D. 2009]: Perceiving Splendor: The "Doctrine of the Spiritual Senses" in Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics

This study argues that the so-called "doctrine of the spiritual senses" should be recognized as a vital component of the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988). The doctrine of the spiritual senses has been interpreted in the Christian tradition in a variety of ways. In its epistemological sense, it generally claims that human beings can be made capable by grace of perceiving "spiritual" realities. After a lengthy period of disuse within systematic theology, Balthasar recovers the doctrine in the mid-twentieth …