Horizontes abiertos

In this book, Professor Alois M. Haas opens horizons for the understanding of this triad formed by God, angels and man. In an extremely synthetic and essential way, Haas covers Western culture from the first centuries of Christianity to the present with the intention of reviewing the validity of the idea of God and angels, as well as the place it has occupied, and occupies, man in creation A central issue begins the discourse: the dangerous proximity of mysticism and atheism, both afflicted by negativity. With brilliant clarity he distinguishes and differentiates mystical nihilism from atheism, despite the warnings of twentieth-century theologians such as Karl Barth, who went so far as to affirm that "mysticism is esoteric atheism." In the exegesis of passages from Pseudo Dionysus, Juan Escoto Erigena, the teacher Eckhart or Angelus Silesius, Haas discovers the denials that simply hide the supraessentiality of God. In a second part dedicated to angels, Étienne Souriau or the poetry of Wallace Stevens are recovered to confirm an extraordinary angelic tradition "which we cannot and must not renounce." The book concludes with a careful review of this central position in the universe of man -that "defective being" in the words of Arnold Gehlen- granted by traditional thought and that in our days has been transformed into the problematic relationships of man with animals and the machines. The discussion naturally remains open, although this book places them in their rightful place.