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Epilogue
The great trilogy of theology by Hans Urs von Balthasar includes The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic . His Epilogue , a single volume, is the closing of his masterwork, giving final details and overview to the prior volumes in the trilogy.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Hans Urs von Balthasar
456 books312 followersHans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is considered one of the most important theologians of the 20th century.
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland on 12 August 1905, he attended Stella Matutina (Jesuit school) in Feldkirch, Austria. He studied in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, gaining a doctorate in German literature. He joined the Jesuits in 1929, and was ordained in 1936. He worked in Basel as a student chaplain. In 1950 he left the Jesuit order, feeling that God had called him to found a Secular Institute, a lay form of consecrated life that sought to work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. He joined the diocese of Chur. From the low point of being banned from teaching, his reputation eventually rose to the extent that John Paul II asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on 26 June 1988, two days before the ceremony. Balthasar was interred in the Hofkirche cemetery in Lucern.
Along with Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, Balthasar sought to offer an intellectual, faithful response to Western modernism. While Rahner offered a progressive, accommodating position on modernity and Lonergan worked out a philosophy of history that sought to critically appropriate modernity, Balthasar resisted the reductionism and human focus of modernity, wanting Christianity to challenge modern sensibilities.
Balthasar is very eclectic in his approach, sources, and interests and remains difficult to categorize. An example of his eclecticism was his long study and conversation with the influential Reformed Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, of whose work he wrote the first Catholic analysis and response. Although Balthasar's major points of analysis on Karl Barth's work have been disputed, his The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation (1951) remains a classic work for its sensitivity and insight; Karl Barth himself agreed with its analysis of his own theological enterprise, calling it the best book on his own theology.
Balthasar's Theological Dramatic Theory has influenced the work of Raymund Schwager.
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland on 12 August 1905, he attended Stella Matutina (Jesuit school) in Feldkirch, Austria. He studied in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, gaining a doctorate in German literature. He joined the Jesuits in 1929, and was ordained in 1936. He worked in Basel as a student chaplain. In 1950 he left the Jesuit order, feeling that God had called him to found a Secular Institute, a lay form of consecrated life that sought to work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. He joined the diocese of Chur. From the low point of being banned from teaching, his reputation eventually rose to the extent that John Paul II asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on 26 June 1988, two days before the ceremony. Balthasar was interred in the Hofkirche cemetery in Lucern.
Along with Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, Balthasar sought to offer an intellectual, faithful response to Western modernism. While Rahner offered a progressive, accommodating position on modernity and Lonergan worked out a philosophy of history that sought to critically appropriate modernity, Balthasar resisted the reductionism and human focus of modernity, wanting Christianity to challenge modern sensibilities.
Balthasar is very eclectic in his approach, sources, and interests and remains difficult to categorize. An example of his eclecticism was his long study and conversation with the influential Reformed Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, of whose work he wrote the first Catholic analysis and response. Although Balthasar's major points of analysis on Karl Barth's work have been disputed, his The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation (1951) remains a classic work for its sensitivity and insight; Karl Barth himself agreed with its analysis of his own theological enterprise, calling it the best book on his own theology.
Balthasar's Theological Dramatic Theory has influenced the work of Raymund Schwager.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 5, 2017
Reading this little hundred page book was my first dip into HUvB. It's searching, difficult, and profound stuff. It was recommended as a possible starting point to me by Balthasar scholar Anne M. Carpenter. It's a very ontological work, which made for welcome overlaps with other works of ontology I'm studying, mainly the object-oriented ontology (OOO) of Graham Harman and Ian Bogost. It will take a second read (and probably more) to really process it, but I already found many passages I'll be able to reference for my doctoral thesis. What mainly leapt out in regard to my ecocritical studies were his chapters entitled Self-Showing, Self-Giving, and Self-Saying (his terms for the 'transcendentals' Beauty, Goodness, and Truth respectively). His explication of these will make for an interesting conversation partner with OOO, especially as he portrays objects as having both hidden, inaccessible depths *and* as having unfolding, relational, outward trajectories of being. OOO emphasises the former and in some ways seems to have trouble with the latter. Balthasar's ontology also seems to chime well with R. A. Lafferty's fiction, so it will be a good source for interpreting him as well.
The three major sections of the work are titled FORECOURT, THRESHOLD, and CATHEDRAL. This schema demonstrates Balthasar's penchant for magisterial, architectonic structures of thought (also seen in the schema and titles of his epic multi-volume systematic theology, to which this book is a comparatively tiny coda). Yet within those ornate contours there is almost a riot of thought, which he tries to corral by use of the simple markers of a. and b. and c. and so on in each chapter. I don't know how others react to his style, but I found this mixture of regal yet rhizoming thought quite amenable to the way my own mind works.
From a theological and devotional point of view, the final section, CATHEDRAL, becomes profound as you wrestle through its conceptually rich argument on the nature of Christ and the Church, especially as these are analysed as being *for* the world. The emphasis in the final pages on the believer's *obligation* to hope for the salvation of the entire world and every person therein were profound and poignant and challenging.
I by no means understood everything in this book, even in a provisional way. There were many passages I couldn't cipher on this first read. But it definitely whetted my appetite for more HUvB. I'm probably not ready, but I'm definitely keen to try take some serious bites out of his larger theological corpus.
The three major sections of the work are titled FORECOURT, THRESHOLD, and CATHEDRAL. This schema demonstrates Balthasar's penchant for magisterial, architectonic structures of thought (also seen in the schema and titles of his epic multi-volume systematic theology, to which this book is a comparatively tiny coda). Yet within those ornate contours there is almost a riot of thought, which he tries to corral by use of the simple markers of a. and b. and c. and so on in each chapter. I don't know how others react to his style, but I found this mixture of regal yet rhizoming thought quite amenable to the way my own mind works.
From a theological and devotional point of view, the final section, CATHEDRAL, becomes profound as you wrestle through its conceptually rich argument on the nature of Christ and the Church, especially as these are analysed as being *for* the world. The emphasis in the final pages on the believer's *obligation* to hope for the salvation of the entire world and every person therein were profound and poignant and challenging.
I by no means understood everything in this book, even in a provisional way. There were many passages I couldn't cipher on this first read. But it definitely whetted my appetite for more HUvB. I'm probably not ready, but I'm definitely keen to try take some serious bites out of his larger theological corpus.
July 7, 2019
"Epilogue" closes the great trilogy ("The Glory of the Lord" in 7 volumes; "Theo-Drama", in 5; "Theo-Logic", in 3). It explains why the author approached theology through the transcendentals (beauty, goodness, and truth); the transcendentals being associated with Greek philosophy more than Christian theology.
In the first part of this volume, von Balthasar compares Christianity to other world views: materialism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism.
In the second part he defines the transcendentals. Beauty is self-showing; all beings have beauty in that they are beheld by a conscious viewer (ultimately by the Spirit of God). Goodness is self-giving: all beings have goodness in that they share themselves with other beings, in the most literal way (all living beings become food for other living beings). Truth is self-saying: the being's witness to itself. Then he shows how Christ can say "I am the truth": Christ perfectly shows forth the Father's glory (beauty); He gives himself definitively on the Cross (goodness); and He speaks all that He hears from the Father (truth).
In the third part he shows how Christ bears fruit through the ages. He considers the ongoing scandal of Christ's bodiliness, and the constant efforts to spritualize His flesh, bones, and blood. He shows how the events of His own life on earth were the seeds of the seven Catholic sacraments.
Finally he recapitulates how the Lord's offer of salvation becomes real to every person, and how everyone must accept or reject this offer. "How can the fact that a man who was born and lived in a backwater corner of the Roman Empire and was crucified two thousand years ago (with countless thousands of others, by the way), and this out of love for me, motivate me to change my life?"
The answer comes in 4 steps. First, Christ changed human nature by becoming man; our alienation from God is thus ended by virtue of the fact we all now share the same human nature assumed by God. Second, this change applies to human nature itself, but not yet to every specific person, all of whom remain free to reject God. Third, the Holy Spirit presents the offer of grace to every soul. And finally, the Yes or No to of each person to the solicitation of the Spirit.
In the first part of this volume, von Balthasar compares Christianity to other world views: materialism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism.
In the second part he defines the transcendentals. Beauty is self-showing; all beings have beauty in that they are beheld by a conscious viewer (ultimately by the Spirit of God). Goodness is self-giving: all beings have goodness in that they share themselves with other beings, in the most literal way (all living beings become food for other living beings). Truth is self-saying: the being's witness to itself. Then he shows how Christ can say "I am the truth": Christ perfectly shows forth the Father's glory (beauty); He gives himself definitively on the Cross (goodness); and He speaks all that He hears from the Father (truth).
In the third part he shows how Christ bears fruit through the ages. He considers the ongoing scandal of Christ's bodiliness, and the constant efforts to spritualize His flesh, bones, and blood. He shows how the events of His own life on earth were the seeds of the seven Catholic sacraments.
Finally he recapitulates how the Lord's offer of salvation becomes real to every person, and how everyone must accept or reject this offer. "How can the fact that a man who was born and lived in a backwater corner of the Roman Empire and was crucified two thousand years ago (with countless thousands of others, by the way), and this out of love for me, motivate me to change my life?"
The answer comes in 4 steps. First, Christ changed human nature by becoming man; our alienation from God is thus ended by virtue of the fact we all now share the same human nature assumed by God. Second, this change applies to human nature itself, but not yet to every specific person, all of whom remain free to reject God. Third, the Holy Spirit presents the offer of grace to every soul. And finally, the Yes or No to of each person to the solicitation of the Spirit.
May 29, 2023
The Epilogue to von Bathhasar 15 volume magnum opus is neither a summary of the work nor a guide to its implications. It begins with a pluralistic apologetic and moves on to theoretical ontology.
The single most frequent word, both capitalized and lowercase, is being. That gives you some idea of its trajectory. It also includes more Latin quotes and far more of the original German vocabulary in brackets that the other volumes. The translators felt that you will not follow his logic without knowing the particular German word he used. That gives you some indication of the abstractness of the argument. It is more a work of theological prolegomena than epilogue.
There may be some nuggets in there for the professional theological ontologist, but for the rest of us, not recommended.
The single most frequent word, both capitalized and lowercase, is being. That gives you some idea of its trajectory. It also includes more Latin quotes and far more of the original German vocabulary in brackets that the other volumes. The translators felt that you will not follow his logic without knowing the particular German word he used. That gives you some indication of the abstractness of the argument. It is more a work of theological prolegomena than epilogue.
There may be some nuggets in there for the professional theological ontologist, but for the rest of us, not recommended.
February 16, 2022
For graduate metaphysics. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. This short text is packed with depth. The three parts really set the stage for a final synthesis to philosophy and metaphysics which can bring one to the threshold of God, but it takes theology in order to cross into the cathedral of the Divine. I will undoubtedly return to this text down the road.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews