Hans Urs von Balthasar was, along with Karl Rahner and the late Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), one of the most influential Roman Catholic Theologians of the twentieth century. His work has also experienced an interesting revival in the English-speaking world this century. He was of the Ressourcement school of Catholic thought, aiming to return to the original sources of the Scriptures and the early Church to inform his theology, rather than just reading them all indirectly through a Thomistic or Neo-Scholastic, Mediaeval filter.
While it is undoubtedly true that Balthasar seldom had the gift of brevity in his written works and that his Trilogy desperately needed an editor, better structuring, and a more coherent flow, there are some truly extraordinary and unique gems in his work if we will only persevere and looks to good reader guides and accessible Balthasarian scholars in parallel. It is also very refreshing to read his much more easily accessible and concise works outside of his Trilogy, of which there are many.
Von Balthasar’s distinctive post-critical theological hermeneutic of Scripture is perhaps the most underrated aspect of his thought and vast corpus. He retrieves the very best of the devotion and spiritual exegesis of the early Church, while simultaneously factoring in the Enlightenment’s impact on Biblical Hermeneutics and the rise of the historical-critical method, and the quest for the historical Jesus.
He manages to uniquely incorporate historical criticism and its insights into his methodology, without privileging it or using it in isolation. He rightly emphasises the communal and traditional role of the Church in interpreting Scripture and recognises that the beauty of Scripture can only truly be seen when we step back, as if from a mosaic, and see the whole of its beautiful parts simultaneously in the bigger picture.
Please find below a list of the fifteen resources I personally have found most helpful in coming to know and understand von Balthasar’s unique method and the treasures it can uncover. The resources are listed methodically with the most accessible and directly relevant and insightful ones cited earliest in the list.
(1)
Murray, Luke, ‘Beauty and Biblical Interpretation: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Response to
Modern Biblical Studies’, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, 2014
<https://www.hprweb.com/2014/05/beauty-and-biblical-interpretation-hans-urs-von-balthasars-response-to-modern-biblical-studies/> [accessed 5 February 2023]
(2)
Howsare, Rodney A., ‘Jesus Christ and the Meaning of Scripture’, in Balthasar: A Guide for
the Perplexed (London: T&T Clark, 2009), pp. 74–95
(3)
Dickens, W. T., ‘Balthasar’s Biblical Hermeneutics’, in The Cambridge Companion to Hans
Urs von Balthasar, ed. by Edward T. Oakes and David Moss (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009), pp. 175–86
(4)
Nielson, Cynthia, ‘“Balthasar’s Biblical Hermeneutics” (Plenary #2)’, The Fire and the Rose,
2008
<https://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2008/03/plenary-2-balthasars-biblical.html> [accessed 4 February 2023]
(5)
King, Jonathan, ‘Response to “Balthasar’s Biblical Hermeneutics” (Response #2)’, The Fire
and the Rose, 2008
<https://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2008/03/response-2-jonathan-king.html> [accessed 4 February 2023]
(6)
Dickens, W. T., Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theological Aesthetics: A Model for Post-Critical
Biblical Interpretation (Notre Dame, In: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003)
(7)
Reichgott, Heather W., ‘“Balthasar and ‘Contradictory’ Material in the Gospels” (Plenary
#4)’, The Fire and the Rose, 2008
<https://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2008/03/plenary-4-balthasar-and-contradictory.html> [accessed 5 February 2023]
(8)
Shoeman, Meg, ‘Response to “Balthasar and ‘Contradictory’ Material in the Gospels”’, The
Fire and the Rose, 2008
<https://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2008/03/response-4-meg-shoeman.html> [accessed 5 February 2023]
(9)
Bourgeois, Jason Paul, The Aesthetic Hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Hans Urs
von Balthasar (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007)
(10)
Balthasar, Hans Urs von, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, Volume 1: Seeing
The Form, ed. by John Kenneth Riches and Joseph Fessio, trans. by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
(T&T Clark, 2012)
(11)
Wigley, Stephen D., ‘Seeing the Form’, in Balthasar’s Trilogy: A Reader’s Guide (London:
Continuum, 2010), pp. 26–45
(12)
Nichols, Aidan, ‘The Trilogy: Theological Aesthetics’, in Balthasar for Thomists (San
Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2020), pp. 37–60
(13)
Levering, Matthew, ‘Theological Aesthetics: A Kantian Critique of Kant’, in The
Achievement of Hans Urs von Balthasar: An Introduction to His Trilogy (Washington, D.C.:
Catholic University of America Press, 2019), pp. 26–82
(14)
Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Love Alone Is Credible, trans. by D. C. Schindler (San Francisco,
CA: Ignatius Press, 2004)
(15)
Howsare, Rodney A., Hans Urs von Balthasar and Protestantism: The Ecumenical
Implications of His Theological Style (London: T&T Clark, 2005)
By Ben Somervell
Theology Seeking Faith in Durham 