Henri de Lubac has described von Balthasar as 'probably the most cultured man in Europe'. In volumes II and III von Balthasar shows the extraordinary range of his knowledge and expertise in a series of essays designed to illustrate different ways in which theologians have shared their work. What he offers is 'a typology of the relationship between beauty and revelation' which shows 'that there neither has been nor could be any true great and historically fruitful theology which was not expressly conceived and born under the constellation of beauty and grace'.

Volume II offers a series of studies of representative figures from the earlier period of Christian theology - Irenaeus, Augustine, Denys, Anselm and Bonventura.