Laura Cerbus offers a compelling and timely retrieval of beauty as a theological category precisely where beauty seems most dangerous: in and through the human body. Bringing Jonathan Edwards and Bonaventure into conversation, she argues that the Holy Spirit beautifies embodied creatures by conforming them to the ascended Christ. This is a thoughtful and imaginative work of theological aesthetics that extends fresh possibilities for thinking about beauty, embodiment, and sanctification well beyond the particular traditions and theologians Cerbus engages.

Natalie Carnes, Duke University

What marks Cerbus's book so unusual is the way it combines an immersion in the philosophy of beauty with a rigorous commitment to the doctrinal riches of Christian theology. The result is an original, lucid, and inspiriting vision, centred on the sanctified, “beautiful body" of Christ. This is the best book on these themes I have read for a very long time.

Jeremy Begbie, Duke University

In this remarkable book, Laura Cerbus offers a much-needed corrective to accounts of beauty that neglect the body and accounts of sanctification that neglect the aesthetic character of the Spirit's transforming work. By identifying the ascended body of Christ as the exemplar of human beauty and the Spirit as the agent of our aesthetic conformity to Christ, Cerbus brings Pneumatology, Christology, and theological aesthetics into a generative and constructive conversation. This is a book that deserves serious attention from both scholars and practitioners.

W. David O. Taylor, Fuller Theological Seminary

Laura Cerbus' elegantly-written study is important as much for the manner in which she pursues her questions as for the fascinating questions themselves. Engaging Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox sources, Cerbus transcends the predictable contours of many works in theological aesthetics, to deliver an exploration of the Spirit's role that is truly original. She does all this with great sensitivity to the human condition and to the risks and opportunities implicit in any theological pursuit of beauty. I highly recommend this book.

Rachel Davies, Australian Catholic University