The Beatific Vision: Contemplating Christ as the Future Present
In Embracing Contemplation: Reclaiming a Christian Spiritual Practice. Ed. John H. Coe and Kyle C. Strobel, 182–200. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019.
Abstract
Contemplation of God is centered on the incarnate Christ. It is by seeing Christ in the flesh and by recognizing in him, through eyes of faith, the eternal I Am that we gain life (or happiness, beatitude). The future beatific vision is, therefore, not a stage beyond the vision of Christ. Rather we see God himself when we indwell the incarnate tablernacle of God through union and communion with Jesus. The reason is simply that Christ makes the future present.
