Christian Solar Symbolism and Jesus the Sun of Justice - by Kevin Duffy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This pioneering study of Christian sun symbolism describes how biblical light motifs were taken up with energy in the early Church. Kevin Duffy argues that, living in a world of 24/7 illumination, we need to reconnect with the sun and its light to appreciate the meaning of light in the Bible and Christian tradition. With such a retrieval we can appreciate Pope Francis's insistence that, like the moon, the Church does not shine with its own light, and assess the claim that the Eucharist is to be celebrated 'Ad Orientem', that is towards the rising sun in the East. Liturgy, architecture, poetry and the writings of saints and theologians such as Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, and Thomas Traherne offer abundant resources for a much needed ressourcement.

While Christ was preached as the True Sun among sun-worshipping Aztecs, and the consecrated host was placed in a solar monstrance on Baroque altars, in the modern era solar themes have been neglected. In this accessible work, the author suggests that we rebalance a spiritual symbolism that has over-emphasised darkness and cloud at the expense of light and sun. He proposes a creative retrieval of the traditional title of Christ as the Sun of Justice. This title blends the personal, the social and the cosmic/ecological, and speaks powerfully to a secularising era that contemporaries Friedrich Nietzsche and Thérèse of Lisieux both described as one where the sun does not shine.

Review Quotes

A timely and pioneering study retrieving the symbols of light and sun to counterbalance a tradition often preoccupied by darkness and cloud and tracing their implications for Christology, spirituality, and liturgy.


The joy of sunrise, the melancholy of sunset, the Sun which gives us light, and warmth, and life. We rarely do anything without some reference to it - our local star. Yet for much of Christian history our references in a religious context have been complex: Jesus is the Sun of Justice who visits us like the rising Sun, and we have a solar liturgical year, but we are dismissive of 'solar cults' and 'Sun worship' - yet it is by the visible that we speak of the invisible. At last, we now have a book that addresses the whole topic and does so thoroughly.


The volume is a pleasing book product, stimulating, easy to consult and the sort of book that might be retained as a personal possession and re-read from time to time. It contains well-honed thoughts that may grow on a reader in different moments of life's seasons.
Ephemerides Liturgicae

About the Author

Kevin Duffy is a Marist Father on the staff of the Church of Notre Dame de France in London, UK. He has taught theology and spirituality in various countries including Ireland, Cameroon and New Zealand.