Download or read book The Poem as Sacrament written by Philip Ballinger and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. This book was released on 2000-05-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a study of the writings and intellectual development of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dr. Philip Ballinger demonstrates why poetry is, as Hans Urs von Balthasar stated, the absolutely appropriate theological language. While circling Hopkins' visions of the nature of sensual experience, intuitive cognition, and the function of language, Ballinger focuses upon the sacramental intention of the Victorian Jesuit's poetry. Underlying Hopkins' poetry is a vision of reality as divinely revelatory or 'self-expressive'. For Hopkins, this revelatory character of creation is determined by the incarnation, and beauty, in fact, is a word for 'Christic self-expressiveness'.