Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Lengthy Introduction for the Perplexed

Hans Urs von Balthasar, despite the fact he didn’t want to label himself as a theologian, is one of the most important theologians of the 20^th century. There are, of course, a considerable number of people who can, and should be, given this label, but when one considers the number of people who have engaged theology in the 20^th century, it is still a rather exclusive list.[1]Von Balthasar is one of the most difficult theologians to engage, in part because of how prolific a writer he was (one can get a 200 page bibliography listing all of his works), but also because he wrote in a style which often confuses many a reader as to what point he is trying to make. The more one reads his writings, the more one can understand these points, but it takes awhile before one becomes acquainted with his style enough to pick them up. In a way, one can say there is often a scholastic-like methodology laying behind his most comprehensive writings (he is often examining and looking at other positions, sometimes for hundreds of pages, before he puts down his own answer to a given problem, and it ends up being influenced by what others said, even though he does come to his own original conclusion).But, when one is trying to enter some of his most important texts, the reader is often left clueless as to what is going on, and end up putting his works down and not returning to them. This is rather unfortunate, but understandable. Von Balthasar really does expect much out of his readers, and few really have as wide a grasp of theology and the literary arts as he does. Sadly, this is needed to appreciate some of his points, but thankfully, this is not the case for all of them. Because of how prolific von Balthasar was, and because he did understand not everyone would have the time and patience to read his more complex works, one can find texts which are much more easily grasped by the average reader than his lengthier studies.

To help those who might be interested in his works, but do not know where to start, I have decided to offer this guide as a way to help them choose which they might want to read, and to know which works might be best for one to choose if one wanted to understand the general theological positions von Balthasar takes. As a start, I would suggest three works of his to read as a way to introduce his theological ideas. Two of the three will be easily accessible, while the third would be more difficult and yet, I believe, comprehensible. They are: Love Alone is Credible, Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved”?, and Mysterium Paschale. I put them in the order in which I think the average person should read them, because Love Alone is basic and foundational, it will help set the stage for von Balthasar’s”controversial” hope that all humanity might end up saved, and then one will end with the most difficult of the three texts (it’s highly speculative and exegetical), but it is a necessary one because it highlights an important side of von Balthasar’s theology, the theology of Holy Saturday. Mysterium Paschale was written fast and under a deadline, making it an incomplete and imperfect text; von Balthasar modifies, in later writings, elements of what he said in it, intensifying aspects which he thought he needed to be dealt with better. But that does not harm the importance of the text; it continues to serve as a good outline of his theology of Holy Saturday and with it, the Christological and Trinitarian theology that develops out of it.

Once one moves beyond these three texts, one might want to look at various themes in von Balthasar’s writings and read works according to such themes. It is what I want to address from here on out. However, this is itself a difficult thing to do. He has several important themes throughout his writings, and they connect, one with another. The only way to appreciate all the links is to see the general form of his theological ideas, which will require one reading many of his books. So to break them apart, as I will have to do, is artificial in itself. However, to counter this, I will try to discuss his themes in ways which suggest how von Balthasar himself connects them, letting one lead to another, until I get through his major concerns. By breaking them down this way, I think it will help one inexperienced in theology to understand what it is he is saying, even if, as a guide, what I will say is far less than the points von Balthasar himself actually made. Even then, for the sake of space, there will be much which is lacking in this presentation, and several important elements of von Balthasar’s thought cannot be presented.

The themes:

Analogia Entis: St Thomas Aquinas famously made the point that God’s being (esse) is one with his essence (essentia), making his being necessary. This is quite unlike the rest of creation, because creation only exists in a contingent form. Nonetheless, there is a kind of analogy between God and humanity because we are made in the image and likeness of God. This analogy is quite important, because it tells us that there is something about us which is similar to, but ultimately unlike, God. Modern philosophy has not understood the analogy of being, and has gone over into one of two directions: either trying to find a way to make the subject as one with being, making one equal to God (a Promethean tendency), or, in rejecting God, it has rejected metaphysics, and has become nihilistic and self-destructive (a Dionysian tendency).[2]Both errors have drastic consequences for how we live in the world, but, as a whole, modern humanity has tended to deify the individual subject, resulting in one Promethean fall after another. We must have a sound understanding our relationship with God; we must possess a positive understanding of humanity (we are indeed made in the image and likeness of God, and that is indeed a glorious thing; this will prevent any nihilistic response to creation). Nonetheless, we must also understand the unbridgeable dissimilarity between God and humanity (God is infinite, we are finite). And so we find that there is indeed an analogy between God’s being and our being, but, because it is an analogy, it points out the difference between the two and must remind us that this difference is as great as the difference between the infinite with the finite. One of von Balthasar’s most important discussions on the analogia entis is in The Theology of Karl Barth, a text which is moderate in difficulty, but represents one of the best systematic writings of von Balthasar. The first half of the text is his presentation of the form of Karl Barth’s theology, with the second half a presentation of a Catholic response to Barth. The work provides a significant insight to von Balthasar’s theological program. Moreover, it demonstrates von Balthasar’s desire to understand what others have to say for themselves without any polemics being used while listening to them, allowing him to learn and even be positively influenced by them, albeit with a critical reception (he doesn’t want any syncrenism or false ecumenism here). The first half of the text might be challenging to the non-specialist, but the work should be accessible, if one is willing to take the time to wrestle with it, especially at as one goes through his discussion of Barth’s theology. What is said in it continues to inform the rest of von Balthasar’s theology, and is perhaps one of the best single texts to read of von Balthasar if one wants a glance at his ideas “as a whole.”[3]  

Freedom: Another important theological concern of von Balthasar is freedom, both in its  divine and human manifestations. Throughout the centuries the two have often been seen as being in conflict with one another. Philosophically, many think God’s freedom must be limited to make for human freedom, or human freedom must be limited to make for God’s freedom. While there are elements of truth in these perspectives, von Balthasar really thinks that this dichotomy is off. God’s infinite freedom opens up the way by which humanity, in its limited existence, can experience freedom. God’s absolute freedom is the foundation for human freedom. They are not in opposition to one another, rather, human freedom will find its root in God’s providence: it will constantly make newer and newer options open for us throughout our lives, without swallowing up the human person in the sea of God’s infinity. Von Balthasar’s love for drama and its implications opens up for him a new way for us to consider human freedom. The playwright might indeed create the space by which action takes place in a play, but the actors who are given parts in the play have personal freedom in how they act out the part given to them. Two different actors who play the same part will make it their own, and create different approaches to the same role. They are free to do so, indeed, they are expected to do so. And it is in that way we can see the relationship between God’s providence and freedom, for God is the playwright, but we can be seen as the actors in the divine play — history, and we are free to develop as we see fit what God has opened up for us  (but until we accept the mission God has for us, we will only be sidelined in the divine drama). To truly become who we are meant to be, we will accept God’s goal for our life, but God, being God, and the one who allows us to be free, wants us to take on that mission creatively, freely, and it is how we enact it that our freedom really found and cherished. Rejecting God, and God’s direction (the Holy Spirit, the director of the play) might seem like freedom, but will in the end, result in our own unfreedom, since there will be nothing left for us to do, nothing left for us to make for ourselves. While not engaging his dramatic theory, The Christian State of Life is an important and highly accessible work on vocation and mission, based upon his understanding of St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. Even if one can question some of von Balthasar’s assertions in it (will God really give up on us so easily as von Balthasar suggests if we don’t immediately assent to God’s sometimes vague mission for us in our lives?), it remains a phenomenal work, and even establishes a rather important explanation for the sacramental nature of Christian marriage. 

Theo-Drama: Connected with the infinite freedom of God and human limited (but real) freedom, is Von Balthasar’s understanding of the “drama” behind creation. The world is a stage, created by the self-sacrificial love of the Trinity.  The persons of the Trinity share creation with one another as a special, unique gift to be embraced. Since God is love, each person of the Trinity is also love, and self-sacrificial, giving all that they are to one another. In the giving of the full self of the Father to the Son, and of the Son back to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, the Trinity creates the space in which creation can and does exist. Created beings are established so that they can share in the joy and love of the Trinity to the glory of God. The world, thus created as a gift, is also the place where the Trinity acts and interacts. The Son, as the Word of the Father, is to be found at the heart of the world (Heart of the World). The Spirit, as the comforter and spirit of truth, serves as a guide, especially to those who have united themselves to the Son. Together, the Son with the Spirit, they lead us  to and show us the Father. The world is given its contingent freedom by God, and history exists, like a drama, with the Son as its lead actor and hero, but, because it is a drama, what happens in the drama of world history is unpredictable until it happens. Once an event happens, the steps leading up to it are comprehensible from hindsight. Henri de Lubac’s understanding of the relationship between nature and grace, with God’s unexpected action upon nature, is played out in the drama of world history. Humanity can hope for God’s grace but can make no demands for it. Thus, we can and should hope for the salvation of all, and see that it is possible because God, in his greater freedom, can find a way to make even those who turn their backs on him around without contradicting their own freedom (Dare We Hope). We cannot guarantee this will be the case, nor explain, beforehand, how it will happen if it is to happen (although, we have hints of the eschatological end through revelation, hints which sometimes seem paradoxically contradictory with one another, although, when reflecting upon that hope, we can only discuss what we know, which is the cross).  Thus, the central drama of world history is the revelation of the Trinity through the incarnation of the Son. More importantly, it is found at Christ’s death on the cross,  his descent into hell, and his resurrection from the dead. This event, while focused in Christ because he is the Word of God and therefore the revelation of God, is Trinitarian, and all three persons of the Trinity participate in it and are revealed by it (Mysterium Paschale; A Theology of History; Theo-Drama IV). In this revelation we are shown the great glory of God, and come to see God as love. We find out about true love and its self-sacrificial nature: one who loves will give all that they are, will even die to the self, for the beloved, only to get themselves back through the beloved, formed, not by the self, but by the other (thus, the end is not nihilism but resurrection). 

Theological Aesthetics: Modern philosophy has cut apart the three transcendentals: the beautiful, the good and the truth, from being. At best, being is equated with truth, but, without its association with the beautiful and the good, it is an unattractive cold, heartless, unbending truth. Von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics and dramatics re-establish the unity of the transcendental qualities of being, and point out that as God is beautiful and attractive, we become fascinated to God (Glory of the Lord).[4] Our experience of God will cause us to respond to him according to our experience (Theo-Drama)[5] Fundamental to von Balthasar’s theology of form is that the exterior form will in-form us, that it will makes its mark upon us; we can only know the form based upon what it reveals of itself. And the higher the form is on the chain of being, the more it can reveal but also the more it can and does keep hidden about itself from outsiders. Once we reach the level of free persons, the manner of this revelation and mystery comes from the free creativity of the person who is doing the revelation. In this way, one cannot require God to reveal himself to us, but once God has revealed something to us, we do know something about God, even if beyond it are mysteries which we will never comprehend (Theo-Logic I: Truth of the World). Thus, von Balthasar, with his fascination with the form and its ability to in-form us instead of the other way around, moves beyond the subjective idealism of the Kantian tradition and into the objective realism of a Goethe, without denying a level of subjective interpretation and response to revelation. The experience of God, which is the experience of God’s glory in the cross, requires a response: von Balthasar denies any form of quietest mysticism. Moreover, the cross, as the glory of God, reveals the Trinity, because the economic action as seen on the cross, the Father sending the Son, the Son’s humble, loving obedience to the Father to the point of death, represents the real, self-giving love of the Father and the Son in the immanent Trinity: the Father in eternity gives all he is to the Son, and the Son, in humble love gives all that he is back to the Father, with the Spirit acting in the immanent Trinity as he is in the economic Trinity, as the gift and affirmation of that love, one to another. (Love Alone is Credible). 

Yes/No Response to God and World History: The cross isthe eschatological event. Human history can and must only be understood by it. Events either prefigure and point to it, or are playing out its consequences, imitating what happened at it, until the end of time. And the cross brings us to a time of choice. We will either say yes to God, and in doing so humble ourselves in love to him, or say no to God, and respond in hate. We do this at our own encounter with Christ. Before Christ’s descent into hell, the dead did not have that encounter, so they could have have made any eternal decision for or against Christ; it is only after his eschatological descent, therefore, that eternal perdition is possible (for we will be judged, and those of us who reject grace will only have God’s judgment of sin left as their experience of God). In world history, the Christ event, on the one hand, brings grace to the world, and those who respond to Jesus with their yes will unite themselves with Jesus to do the will of Jesus in the world, to continue Jesus’ mission, to help transfigure the world for the glory of God. They will be the Body of Christ in the world. But like Jesus, they will experience hate and wrath from those who reject God, and world history will continue with the ever-increase of God’s grace in the world and the dramatic, and ever more chaotic and violent no in response. At the end is the showdown between hate and love, although already, at the cross, that event has been played out and we have been shown that love is stronger (Theo-Drama IV and V). Because of the revelation of the cross has now taken place in history, the bitter, chaotic powers of evil have been revealed and are intensified, and will continue to intensify in their hate until the end of time when they will reach their ultimate peak. While this might, at first, appear striking – should not the grace of God fix this? – von Balthasar points out it is only because of the revelation of grace and God’s increased activity upon the world that the powers of darkness are revealed and move.  As the light of the world, Christ reveals what was once hidden: the demonic, dark powers of chaos which threaten the world. This is why such powers, not always known by the Jews, were manifested and understood immediately before the time of Christ, and revealed themselves in their full fury around Christ himself. And so the light of Christ, in revealing the inner nature of the world, has also revealed these forces which threaten the world: they no longer are hidden to those who view the world through Christ. 

What other suggestions do I have for one to read?  What has been said so far has only been an outline on many but not all of von Balthasar’stheological themes (with some themes presented more thoroughly than others). There are many other works one can get; some which will reflect these themes, some which will reflect others. For example, there is Unless You Become Like This Child, a rather short, easily read text, examining what it means to accept the kingdom of God “like a child.” Then there is Does Jesus Know Us? Do We Know Him? another short, easily read text, and could serve as another introduction to von Balthasar’s instead of Dare We Hope. His Razing the Bastions is another good work reflecting upon his desire to engage the world and to open up theological reflection to doing so, while not ignoring and rejecting the truths of revelation. His patristic studies -such as Presence and Thought (on St Gregory of Nyssa) and Cosmic Liturgy (on St Maximus) are difficult, and unless one has some familiarity with either patristics, are probably best left alone. Finally, all the volumes of his Explorations in Theology (there are five of them but only the first four have been translated into English) are recommended, and most of the essays in them could be read and understood by the average reader (although a few do get technical). Many of them highlight aspects of the themes already addressed above, although often in a concise, more systematic approach than he does elsewhere (for example, “The Descent into Hell”,” and “Eschatology in Outline” from Volume IV explore, in a direct fashion, some of von Balthasar’s eschatological teachings); others address concerns which we have not touched upon (such as “Casta Meretrix” [The Chaste Prostitute] as an image of the Church in Volume II). And finally, there is a wealth of Marian Literature throughout his writings, and possibly the best introductory text for this is his Mary for Today.  Von Balthasar makes a significant connection between his theology of humanity and our response to God with Mary, who, among other things, represents the most pure human”yes”, the answer (Antwort) to God’s Word (Wort), making her the true “handmaid of God.”  

Notes: 

[1]Among those who should be put in this list are: Karl Barth, Pope Benedict XVI, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sergius Bulgakov, Rudolf Bultmann, Yves Congar, Pavel Florensky, Georges Florovsky, Gustavo Gutierrez, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Stanley Hauerwas, Bernard Lonergan, Henri de Lubac, Alexander Men, John Meyendorff , Jürgen Moltmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Karl Rahner, Edith Stein, Paul Tillich, David Tracy.
[2] These two tendencies in modern philosophy, as exemplified by German literature, was thoroughly examined in his difficult three volume work, The Apocalypse of the German Soul.
[3]One will be introduced in it one of von Balthasar’s greatest Catholic influences, that of Erich Pryzwara, whose work on the analogy of being was central to Barth’s criticism of Catholicism and yet von Balthasar’s response to Barth. Pryzwara was himself an influential Jesuit philosopher who encouraged St Edith Stein in her secular life before her entrance into the convent.
[4] This work is a several volume series of mixed difficulty and value for the average reader. For those interested in it, I would suggest that the final two volumes, VI: Theology: The Old Covenant and VII: Theology: The New Covenant are the best texts for the average reader. The first volume, Seeing the Form, comes next, because it establishes von Balthasar’s philosophical and theological foundations, but it is a massive, and therefore, difficult tome. The rest of the the volumes of this work vary in difficult and interest; in them, von Balthasarmaps out the development of theological and philosophical aesthetics, often through specific studies which will not interest or help the non-specialist, especially when a study is on a person of whom the reader is not familiar with beforehand.
[5]Once again, this is a difficult, multi-volume work. The first volume should be avoided unless one is a specialist in drama and have already explored dramatic theory and the history of world drama. The rest of the series is, perhaps, equally difficult, one to another, but Volume IV: The Action followed by Volume V: The :Last Act are the two volumes I would recommend.