Gift and the Unity of Being

A treatise, combining classical theology and postmodern existentialist thought, on the gift of existence as the heart of the relation between God and creation. Starting from both our originary experience of being given to ourselves and Jesus Christ's archetypal self-donation, 'Gift and the Unity of Being' elucidates the sense in which gift is the form of being's unity, while unity itself constitutes the permanence of the gift of being. In dialogue with ancient and modern philosophers and theologians, López offers a synthetic, rather than systematic, account of the unity proper to being, the human person, God, and the relations among them. The book shows how contemplation of the triune God of love through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit allows us to discover the eternal communion that being is and to which finite being is called. It also illustrates the sense in which God's gratuitousness unexpectedly offers the human person the possibility to recognize and embrace his origin and destiny, and thus he is given to see and taste in God's light the ever-fruitful, dramatic, and mysterious positivity of being.