Table Of ContentTHE BEAUTY
OF CHRIST
A Introduction to the Theology of
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Edited by Bede McGregor, a.p.
and Thomas Norris
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CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword by Cardinal Cahal Daly xi
Introduction
1. Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Cultural and 10
Theological Education
Henrid, S.].
P~ttr
2. Theological Aesthetics 23
Brtanddn L~ahy
3. The Biblical Basis of Glory 56
John Rich"
4. The Fathers: The Church's Intimate, Youthful Diary 73
D~jrdr~ Carabjn~
5. Theological Dramatics 92
Gtrard 0 'Hanlon, S.].
6. Marian Light on Our Human Mystery 112
Johann Roten, S.M.
7. Youthful UntO Death: The Spirit of Childhood 140
John Saward
8. The Logic of Divine Glory 161
John 0 'Donn~//, S.].
v
vi THE BEAUlY OF CHRIST
9. Banh and Balthasar: An Ecumenical Dialogue 171
John Thompson
10. The Wider Ecumenism: Christian Prayer and 193
Other Rdigions
Btdt MrGrtgor. O.P.
II. The Symphonic Unity of His Theology: An Overview 213
Thomas Norris
12. Appendix 253
Do We Get Beyond Plato?
A Critical Appreciation of the Theological Aesthetics
Notl Dtrmot OVonoghut. O.D.C.
A Balthasar Reading List 267
Name Index 270
Subject Index 275
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Deirdre Carabine:
was formerly Newman Scholar at University College, Dub
lin and is now Professor ofP hilosophy at the Uganda Martyrs
University in Kampala.
Peter Henrici, 5.]:
was formerly ProfessorofModern Philosophy at the Gregorian
University, Rome, and Dean of the Faculty ofP hilosophy in
the same University, and is now auxiliary Bishop of Chur,
Switzerland.
Breandan Leahy:
is Lecrurer in Systematic Theology at Clonlifl'e College and
Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin.
Bede McGregor, O.P:
is Professor ofMissiology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.
Thomas Norris:
is Lecrurer in Dogmatic Theology at St Patrick's College,
Maynooth.
Gerard O'Hanlon, 5.]:
is Professor ofS ystematic Theology at the Milltown Institute
of Philosophy and Theology, Dublin.
John O'Donnell,S.]:
is Professor ofD ogmatic Theology at the Ponrifical Gregorian
University, Rome.
Noel Dermot O'Donoghue, O.D.C:
was formerly Professor of Philosophy at St Patrick's College,
Maynooth and subsequently Lecturer in Syslemalic Theol
ogy at New College, Edinburgh.
vii
viii THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST
John Riches:
is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Johann Roten. S.M:
is director of the International Marian Research Institute at
the University of Dayton. Ohio. U.S.A.
John Saward:
was formerly Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Ushaw
College. Durham and is now Professor ofS ystematic Theol
ogy at St Charles Borromeo Seminaty. Philadelphia. U.S.A.
John Thompson:
was formerly Moderator of the Pr.sbyt. .i an Church in
Ireland and is Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Union
Theological College. Belfast.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped to make this work possible. Our sincere thanks
go first to the contributors who came from fur and ncar; to his
Eminence Cardinal Cahal B. Daly for writing the Foreword; to
Monsignor Mice:il Ledwith, President of Maynooth college and
friend of Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar who encouraged and gave
substantial support for the conference on which the book is based;
to the Bishops and kind friends without whose sponsorship it would
not have taken place; to the colleagues who advised and collaborated
with us, especially Fr Tom O'Houghlin; to a dedicated group of
seminarians from St Patrick's College, one ofw hom, the Reverend
Ciar:!n Woods, died tragically only rwo months before ordination
- sofas na gIDirt ara anum dhllis {this is Gaelic for 'May the light of
glory be on his noble soul'}; to Hanspeter Heinz, Professor of
Pastoral Theology at the University of Augsburg; to Mr Stratford
Caldecort for his practical and patient counseL To these and the
many other friends, (00 numerous to mention, we express our
heartfelt thanks.
Bede McGregor O.P.
and Thomas Norr;'
St Patrick i Co/kgt
Maynooth
FOREWORD
Thtlmitation ofChmt is notoriously scornful about the university
theologians and theology, the philosophers and philosophy of the
authot's time, the late founeenth and early fifteenth centuty.
a
Thomas Kempis impatiently says of what he calls the teaching of
'the schools':
What does it profit you to dispute deeply about the Trinity,
if you be wanting in humility, and so be displeasing to the
Trinity? In ttuth, sublime words make not a saint and a just
man; but it is a vinuous life that makes one dear to God. I
would rather feel compunction, than know how to define ir.
If you should know the whole Bible ourwardly, and the
sayings of all the philosophers, what would it all ptofit you
without charity and the grace of God ... (Book I. Chapttr I).
Truly, a humble rustic that serves God is better than a proud
philosopher who ponders the courses oft he stars and neglects
himself ... Cease ftom overweening desire of knowledge;
because many distractions are found there, and much delu
sion. Learned men are vety willing to seem wise, and to be
called so. Many are the things which it is oflittle or no profit
to the soul to know.
The more you know, and the better, so much the heavier
will your judgment therefore be, unless your life also be more
holy. Be not lifted up by any skill or learning you have; but
rather fear for the knowledge that is given you (Book I.
Chap,., II).
What signifies making a great dispute about hidden and
obscure things which we shall not be reproved in the judg
ment for having been ignorant of? And what matter is it to us
of gtntra and Iptdd He to whom the Eternal Word speaks
is delivered from a multitude of opinions ... I am often times
wearied with the many things I read and hear; in You alone,
my God, is all I wish or long for. Let all teachers hold their
xi
xii THE BEAlJIY OF CHRIST
peace. and all created things keep silence in your presence; do
You alone speak to me.
The humble knowledge of oneself is a surer way to God
than he who researches after science ...
Because many take more pains to be learned than to
lead good lives. therefore th<y often go astray and bear no
fruit at all. or but little. Oh. if people would be as diligent
in the rooting out of vices and the grafting in of virtues as
they arc in mooting questions. there would not be so many
evils and scandals among the people. nor such laxity in
monasteries! Truly. when the day of judgment comes. it
will not be asked of us. what we have read. but what we
have done; not what fine discourses we have made. but
how like religious we have lived. Tell me where now arc all
those doctors and masters with whom you were well
acquainted while they were yet alive. and in the gloty of
their learning? Others now hold their preferments and I
do not know whether they ever think of them ... Oh. how
quickly the gloty of the world passes away! Oh. that their
life had been in keeping with their learning! Then would
they have studied and lectured to good purpose ... He is
truly most learned who does the will of God and forsakes
his own will (Book I. Chapur Ill).
The author's apparent dismissal of theology has been called anti
intellectualism. This. together with his expressions ofc ontempt for
the world and disparagement of the self. have lead to a virtual
banishment. if not banning. of the Imitation of Christ. once pre
scribed and standard spiritual reading. from the libraries ofs eminar
ians. a"d ofp ersons in religious formation and students of theology.
In the post-Council period. this book has been held to be one of the
most characteristic expressions of all that the Second Vatican
Council reacted against: the flight from the world. the disparage
ment of the intellect. the belittling of nature. the demeaning of the
human. the refusal of dialogue with the world.
I think that the Imitation has been dismissed toO facilely and that
it is due for a re-evaluation. The scholastic theology against which
the Imitation was reacting had indeed become barren and arid. a
substitution for the living Word of God. rather than an exploration
of it. Thomas it Kempis is dismissing. not theology but a debased
FOREWORD xiii
way of th<ologising. He could be seen as pleading for a different way of
doing th<ology, where th<ology becomes attentive listening to the
Word ofG od, rather than an inteUecruaI construction, modelled on the
philosophical speculation current in the culture of the time. He was in
fact calling, not fora rejection of th<ology, but for what we might more
righdy describe as 're-sourcing' of th<ology in Scripture and the early
Fathers. His reaction to the academic th<ology of the schools, was, 1
suggest, not entirely different hom the renewal which prepared the
Second Vatican Council and which pervades ilS documents.
The Imitation is a passionate repetition, over and over again, of
Augustine's words, in reference to the Bible, Tollt Itgt (Take up
a
and read). Towards the end of his life, Thomas Kempis re
marked: 'I have sought for rest everywhere but 1 have found it
nowhere except in a little corner with a little book.' The author
loves and lauds the holy Fathers for their turning of theology from
words into daily living. His whole attitude is succinctly expressed
in the sentence:
'God wills us to become perfecdy subject to himself and by
the love that burns in us to transcehd all reason.'
(Book 1. ChapuT XlV)
This long excursus on the Imitation has, 1b elieve, relevance to the
theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Th<ology in every age, and in
our own time no less than in the fifteenth century, can become
accommodated too completely to the surrounding intellectual
culture. Fr Michael Paul Gallagher remarked somewhere that
religion can easily become acculturated 'within the superficial
hotizons of the dominant culture, as if kidnapped by merely liberal
assumptions'. Prophetic voices are needed to call theology back to
the 'experience of the Holy', 'the encounter with the Living God',
from which all theology must flow and to which it must return, if
a
it is to be worthy of its name as discourse about God. Thomas
Kempis was such a prophetic voice in his time. Hans Urs von
Balthasar's was such a voice in our time, as is the voice of his admirer
and friend, Pope John Paul II.
THEOLOGY AND PRAYER
Th<ology is both relativised by prayer and perfected by prayer. A
