For the Western Church, salvation culminates in the Beatific Vision. For the East, salvation culminates in the transformation of the self into the Beauty of God. Due to sin, the image of God in humanity has been disfigured and deformed. In Christ and through the Spirit, God is transforming us into beautiful icons that reflect God's glory in the image of Christ. One line in Orthodox liturgy declares: "He has restored the sullied image to its ancient glory, filling it with the divine beauty." God, the Supreme Artist is beautifying us, for true beauty reveals divine glory. We sing with Albert Osborn: "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All His wonderful passion and purity; Oh, Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." Ultimately, we must purify our eyes to see spiritual beauty, for only the pure in heart see God. The beauty of God is most clearly seen in acts of love. Augustine wrote, "Inasmuch as love grows in you, so in you beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." In this book, Coniaris does an outstanding job of introducing and developing the theme of divine beauty and its centrality to the Christian faith.
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