A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Matt Pitts
The beatific vision is not often talked about in Protestant circles, but this book aims to change that.
Parkison begins by arguing that the beatific vision is a small “c” catholic doctrine widely accepted in all three major branches of the church (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant) that only fell out of favor among Protestants in the last two centuries as a casualty of the Enlightenment. The first chapter is a phenomenal, soul-stirring introduction to this recently neglected doctrine. Parkison’s prose sings. He is clearly not writing out of mere duty but out of love—love for God, love for truth, and love for all the saints with whom he longs to share this rich vision of God. For example, he says:
In that blessed vision, our comprehension and vision and delight, which are all finite, will be perpetually maximized. As our capacity for comprehension and vision expands, so will our delight. . . . This upward spiral into deeper beatific communion with the Trinity will never be exhausted—because we are finite, and the object of our delight is infinite, our blessedness will increase forever. (20, emphasis in original)
Though Protestants may not be familiar with this doctrine, Parkison shows that Reformed Evangelicals in particular have been primed to receive it through the influence of C. S. Lewis, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, and Augustine. (I found the connection he makes here quite compelling and anticipate that others will as well). Though this may be less familiar ground, Parkison makes use of divine simplicity and the doctrine of participation as explanatory categories for understanding God’s own beatitude and the believer’s experience of the beatific vision. He embraces the metaphysical perspective he calls “classical realism” that is often referred to as “Christian Platonism” or “sacramental ontology” (12).
The biblical foundations for this doctrine are deep and wide, so Parkison spends a lengthy second chapter expounding some of the key texts. He focuses on classic passages like 1 John 3:2, 1 Corinthians 13:12, and the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration, but also on some less familiar like Exodus 24 and Isaiah 24–27. One thing this chapter demonstrates is that this theologian knows his way around the biblical text and is eager to ground all our theological thinking in scripture itself.
The meaty middle of the book consists of three chapters—two of historical theology and one of theological retrieval—aimed at tracing the major contributions and significant contours of this doctrine’s development in order to aid in defining and articulating a robust doctrine of the beatific vision today. These chapters build on Boersma’s seminal work, Seeing God, while simultaneously simplifying, shortening, and extending the fruit of that study. While Boersma’s work remains the standard for Protestant historical-theological scholarship on the subject, Parkison’s overview is now the best place to start for anyone interested in a shorter treatment. While it may be more succinct, it also incorporates and chronicles the conversation that developed around and outside of Boersma’s book in journal articles and books (such as whether Aquinas’s articulation of the beatific vision is Christological enough) and thus makes its own contribution as well.
Perhaps the most significant contribution of Parkison’s book, though, comes in the second half of chapter five, where he argues for a distinctly Protestant perspective on the beatific vision as it relates to soteriology and the Christian life. Though Parkison is eager to retrieve insights and categories from Anselm, Aquinas, Palamas, Owen, and many others, he is not shy of building on their work. Aquinas, for example, may have gotten much right about the vision of God that Protestants would do well to retrieve, but his soteriology is problematic at key points for Protestants. Parkison aims to show that the beatific vision actually fits better with Protestant soteriology (especially justification by faith and the distinction between justification and sanctification) than with what is offered by Aquinas.
In this second half of chapter five the waters get quite deep as Parkison argues for a trinitarian articulation of the beatific vision using the doctrine of inseparable operations, seeks to explain the relationship between the beatific vision and deification, the nature of the beatific vision (“ocular or intellectual?” (164)), and more. But for those who make it through the deep waters to the other side, there is a worthy reward. Parkison closes the chapter with a robust definition and articulation of the beatific vision, nearly two full pages in length. Here is just a sample:
The beatific vision is the telos of humanity: the vision of God the saints will enjoy in the eschaton. The beatific vision is a vision of love, a participatory vision of God’s essence, in resurrected bodies, wherewith we will see this vision immediately and everywhere, particularly in the person of Christ, on account of our union with him. . . . The beatific vision is a spiritual vision of divine love—where the believer is brought by the Spirit into the Trinity’s own beatitude, further up and further in, forever. (176-77)
There’s more. Each line, each claim, has been hard-earned over the course of the book, so these two pages sum up a wealth of biblical and theological insight.
Finally, Parkison shows that what some may see as a merely intellectual doctrine is in truth the lifeblood of the Christian life. Prayer, suffering, worship, and missions are all deepened and enriched when connected to this hallowed hope of seeing God face to face. Like Parkison, I am eager to see the beatific vision restored to a position of prominence in Protestant theology and worship. I left this book with my mind full, my soul stirred, and my heart enlarged. I’m praying it receives a wide hearing and bears much fruit.
Matt Pitts