The Fellowship of the Beatific Vision

"The Canterbury Tales do much more than narrate disparate and conflicting stories of a traveling band of pilgrims. Norm Klassen opens up the premodern horizons of the tales by explaining that Chaucer's 'oblique apologetic' intends to draw us into the sacramental ontology that animates the narrative. Klassen's exposition opens our eyes to the myriad ways in which the beatific vision is adumbrated in the midst of clashing voices and this-worldly realities that we inhabit."

--Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of Theology, Regent College; author of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (2011)



"Chaucerian Norm Klassen notes that 'Chaucer's poetry is nothing if not hopeful [and that] he invites his audience and readers to share in the mirth of belief.' And this is also what Klassen does in this richly textured theological reading of the master pilgrim who leads us into strange lands, full of mystery, grace, and possibility. Theology and art conjoin in a luminous way through Klassen's imagination and the reader participates vicariously in a peregrination wondrous and surprising."

--Michael W. Higgins, biographer; Thomas Merton scholar; author of Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart