Saving Karl Barth: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Preoccupation

by D. Stephen Long

Challenging recent rejections of Hans Urs von Balthasar's groundbreaking study of Karl Barth's theology, Stephen Long argues that these interpreters are myopically impatient with the nuances of Balthasar's reading of Barth and fail to appreciate the longstanding theological friendship that perdured. Even more, current readings threaten to repristinate the embattled divide hallmarking Protestant-Catholic relations prior to Vatican II. Long contends against these contemporary trajectories in a substantial defense of Balthasar's theological preoccupation with Barth's thought. This book offers one of the first full contextualizations of the friendship that developed between Balthasar and Barth, which lasted from the 1930s until Balthasar's death in the 1980s. Re-evaluating Balthasar's theological work on Barth, the present volume provides a critical new reading of not only Balthasar's original volume but a wider account of the systematic engagement Balthasar carried on throughout his career. Within this, a paradigm for fruitful, generous ecumenical dialogue emerges.

Genres: Theology, History

465 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

D. Stephen Long is professor of theology and ethics at Southern Methodist University. Previously he worked at Marquette University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, St. Joseph’s University and Duke Divinity School. He received the PhD from Duke University, and is an ordained United Methodist Minister in the Indiana Conference. He has served churches in Honduras, North Carolina and Milwaukee.

He has published a number of works, including Divine Economy: Theology and the Market (2000), The Goodness of God: Theology, Church, and the Social Order (2001), John Wesley's Moral Theology: The Quest for God and Goodness (2005), and Calculated Future: Theology, Ethics, and Economics (2007).

Reviews

[Shaun Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this excellent book, Long defends Hans Urs von Balthasar's understanding of Karl Barth from critics, and also beautifully demonstrates the depth of their friendship and theological interactions--their convergences and divergences. Long shows that while a surface reading may think that the analogia entis was Barth's concern with Roman Catholocism, Balthasar successfully shows that in actuality, it was whether there was a neutral, natural realm from which God could be known and ethics discerned.

Encouraging contemporary Protestants and Catholics to not simply go over the same ground, Long says, "The question their friendship poses is how to affirm Christ as the center of our common faith and allow that center to radiate into all things, without allowing those things to somehow usurp the center. Our task is not to take up where they began but where they ended" (282).

[Adam Shields]

This was interested but I did not have a lot of background on either Barth or von Balthasar and so it was dense. It was not helped by 60 to 70 page chapters which meant that I almost never had enough time to sit down and read through a full chapter all at one.

I would like to read it again later, but I want to get a 'very short introduction to...' or something on each so I can get a better handle on them before I restart it.

I got right about half way through (which was about 60% of the main text) but I stalled and never picked it up again.

[Anastasia Tuckness]

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