A Key to Balthasar: Hans Urs von Balthasar on Beauty, Goodness, and Truth

by Aidan Nichols

Hans Urs von Balthasar is widely recognized as perhaps the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. No writer has better revealed the spiritual greatness of the revelation to which the art of the church and the historic liturgies bear witness. Yet students and nonspecialist readers often find Balthasar daunting and difficult. This volume is the ideal introduction to his work. It unlocks the treasure of his theology by focusing on the beautiful, the good, and the true. These are the three qualities of being around which his great trilogy--The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic--revolves. Though brief, the book captures the essence of what Balthasar wished to say.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Philosophy

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

John Christopher "Aidan" Nichols O.P., S.T.M. (born 17 September 1948) is an English academic and Catholic priest.

Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the University of Oxford for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Catholic theology at that university since the Reformation. He is a member of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and is the Prior of St Michael the Archangel in Cambridge.

Reviews

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Key to Balthasar has been on my list for a long time, and it's good to finally get to read it. Aidan Nichols crisply and comprehensibly explains the biggest ideas of one of the twentieth century's greatest Catholic theologians. Although concise and just over a hundred pages, this book is dense with content and necessarily slow going, but all the more worthwhile for that.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short summary of the work of a complex, but important theologian.

[Tom Barmaryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, Father Nichols, perhaps made an understatement when he described Von Balthasar as not only a prolific author, but a prolix one as well. To me, brilliant and profound though Von Balthasar's insights were, his philosophy and theology needed the utmost dedication of time in order to understand them clearly. Unless one possesses the gifts of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, among others, one is inclined to exercise due care in trying to decipher the works of this great philosopher. And towards this goal, Father Nichols' work is of immense help. Although it might not do justice to the arguably greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century to reduce his work to a mere 115 pages, I credit Father Nichols for doing his best to, at the very least, attempting to provide a concise but nonetheless exemplary introduction to Von Balthasar, particularly to his views on the "transcendentals" of beauty, good, truth and unity. Accordingly, I give this book five stars.

[Christopher McCaffery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nichols is remarkably clear in thought and writing, though he can give the impression of being overly artificial in his synthetic view of Balthasar. I also wish he'd given more time to criticisms such as Pitstick's as an opportunity for deeper reflections. The chapters on the aesthetics and dramatics especially are helpful guides.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather difficult read for students unfamiliar with Balthasar's work.