World Affirming Theme

For those wearied and disheartened by the corruption and dissipation of the culture formed by the biblical tradition, Balthasar calls the attention that “courageous, world-affirming theme, which does not mourn the passing of physical beauty in a melancholy vein but dares to see it as the reflection and sensuous image of a deeper, indestructible glory.” For what is melancholy if not the presence of an absence, the absence of a presence?