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Engagement with God
Foreward by Dr. Margaret Turek The brilliant theologian and philosopher Hans Urs von Balthasar writes about God's involvement with man and man's involvement with God in the Old and the New Testaments. He shows how that interaction of the divine with the human reveals the meaning of true freedom that man is always hungering for but often strives after in wrong and dangerous ways. He shows that God's free revelation of himself in Christ is an invitation to enter into the realm of absolute and divine freedom, in which alone human freedom can be fully realized. From the true Christian there radiates the kind of freedom that is constantly being sought after by the non-Christian. In modern times, the freedom of man is a theme that preoccupies everyone. Atheistic philosophies are wholly taken up with this preoccupation. The Enlightenment was concerned with the freeing of reason from the "fetters of faith". Marx wrote about freeing man economically, and Freud wrote of freeing man from the bondage of a past as yet unmastered. As opposed to those whose search for freedom urges them onward into a barren void, the Christian stands as the messenger of freedom accomplished and a freedom attainable by all. A true freedom of the sons and daughters of God. "Just as Love Alone Is Credible captures the essence of the seven-volume The Glory of the Lord , so does Engagement with God explain his five-volume Theo-Drama . But here he does more: by setting his account of the drama of Christian discipleship against the anti-Christian ideologies of the 1960s he brings his theology to bear on the highest cost of discipleship--martyrdom--by seeing the martyr as the mirror of God's own involvement in the human race through his own martyred Son. One can hardly read a more sober, and yet exhilarating, account of what it means to live committed to God's own commitment to the world." --Edward T. Oakes, S. J.
Author, Pattern of Redemption: The Theology of Hans Urs Von Balthasar
Author, Pattern of Redemption: The Theology of Hans Urs Von Balthasar
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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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 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 14, 2019
Short and powerful, just like most classics of Christian spirituality should be. Von Balthasar is not an easy read—and I confess I don’t get 100% of what he says all the time—, but it’s worth the effort.
In this work, the author makes an overview of the way God engages with the world in both Old and New Testaments through chosen individuals and people (both are constantly interwoven) primarily based on his grace and love. The objective in God’s calling and ordinances is, at the end, not slavery, but the freedom of humanity.
The consequence, and Von Balthasar’s main objective is to argue this, is that when the Christian church abides in its source—the Living Triune God, who works to restore the world, and the narrative of self-giving love through death and resurrection of the Son—it learns how to engage properly with the world, for the sake of resorting it. Thus, the pattern is in the parable of the leaven, which is absorbed and disappears for the sake of bringing air and usefulness to the dough.
Different from other atheistic alternatives (Von Balthasar considers Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, for instance), the Christian hope that they will be resurrected in accordance with the Christ-narrative, brings the freedom to act in the world, even in those places where it doesn’t seem worth the battle.
In this work, the author makes an overview of the way God engages with the world in both Old and New Testaments through chosen individuals and people (both are constantly interwoven) primarily based on his grace and love. The objective in God’s calling and ordinances is, at the end, not slavery, but the freedom of humanity.
The consequence, and Von Balthasar’s main objective is to argue this, is that when the Christian church abides in its source—the Living Triune God, who works to restore the world, and the narrative of self-giving love through death and resurrection of the Son—it learns how to engage properly with the world, for the sake of resorting it. Thus, the pattern is in the parable of the leaven, which is absorbed and disappears for the sake of bringing air and usefulness to the dough.
Different from other atheistic alternatives (Von Balthasar considers Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, for instance), the Christian hope that they will be resurrected in accordance with the Christ-narrative, brings the freedom to act in the world, even in those places where it doesn’t seem worth the battle.
January 23, 2021
Described by Fr. Edward Oakes as capturing the essence of Balthasar's Theo-Drama, this book is the best that I have read of Balthasar's. In lucid, beautiful language he talks about God's encounter with us and the response that encounter should generate in the Christian in the world. The book is very powerful in describing the engagement the Christian is to have in and with the world. Balthasar slices through categories to propose something altogether different from the conventional approaches to Christianity we see. He beautifully describes the hierarchy as being like the bones that keep the structure of the body, but that the true place of contact between Christ and the world is the flesh on those bones. There are also striking parallels here between what Ratzinger/Benedict has said about creative, dynamic, but small Christian communities and what Balthasar envisions as the Christian leaven of the future.
November 5, 2017
What a gift this book was. I really appreciate the way Von Balthasar thinks and writes.
March 15, 2020
von Balthasar discusses the back and forth between God and humans... God being not an impersonal force that set the world in motion and then stepped back to watch this work; He is no stand-offish judge. He is intimately, even desperately concerned with everything about us, in a very personal way for each of us. Among my hardest lessons as a Christian is that God is not The Force, some impersonal force field that affects us and does our bidding; He is like a friend, a spouse, a mother or father or son or daughter, only much more so.
With his usual insight and verbal fireworks, von Balthasar - in this book written in 1971 - comes to much the same conclusions as Robert Cardinal Sarah, in The Day is Now Far Spent, written in 2019. The continuity of Catholic doctrine (across centuries and millenia, much less decades) is among the marks of its truth. Anyway, von Balthasar and Sarah both conclude that the Church draws life from her saints, and from her monasteries: small groups of people who dedicate their life to the Faith.
With his usual insight and verbal fireworks, von Balthasar - in this book written in 1971 - comes to much the same conclusions as Robert Cardinal Sarah, in The Day is Now Far Spent, written in 2019. The continuity of Catholic doctrine (across centuries and millenia, much less decades) is among the marks of its truth. Anyway, von Balthasar and Sarah both conclude that the Church draws life from her saints, and from her monasteries: small groups of people who dedicate their life to the Faith.
August 29, 2025
Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Engagement with God is a brief but profound entry point into his vast theological vision. In these pages, he argues that faith cannot be reduced to an abstract idea or a moral system but a living dialogue, one that involves risk and transformation.
Balthasar presents the human person as a participant in a drama where God takes the first initiative. This engagement requires a response, a willingness to be addressed and reshaped. Christian faith is about surrendering to God’s freedom, letting one’s life become available to divine love. In this sense, it is less a manual of doctrine than a summons to trust and attentiveness.
Balthasar presents the human person as a participant in a drama where God takes the first initiative. This engagement requires a response, a willingness to be addressed and reshaped. Christian faith is about surrendering to God’s freedom, letting one’s life become available to divine love. In this sense, it is less a manual of doctrine than a summons to trust and attentiveness.
June 7, 2018
I really enjoyed this little book from Balthasar. It reads like a sophisticated Christian living book, honestly. I mean that in the best way possible. He explains how God’s engagement with the world in Christ at the cross is the source and model of our engagement with him and with the world. There are some very quotable sections, especially in part 2.
June 21, 2018
This is a slow read for me. Such a tiny book... and so much depth! The challenge of the believer is to live in this chaotic world with grace and power. He makes the case for 5e power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer as the Spirit will teach us about the activity of God in this world and then direct each of us in how to join in that activity.
March 26, 2018
An incredible little book and a real insight into the thinking and theology of Von Balthasar. You might need some theological knowledge to really understand the second half but don’t let this put you off.
December 14, 2025
This served as an excellent entry point into the thought of Balthasar, particularly his ecclesiology. The Church acts as the leaven in the dough of the world, transfiguring it from within.
July 29, 2014
Good overall thought by Hans, there were parts that I necessarily didn't agree. Yet, Hans does a great job of making the Christian understand and provoke a better knowledge of the Sovereignty of God and Man's Response. The idea of freedom is central to the world today, everyone wants to possess freedom, but few people understand that true freedom is found within God. Hans' thoughts, motifs, and questions provide a great balance of theological analysis, as well as practical application of living the Christian life.
September 27, 2016
The main thesis seems to be that: Freedom can only be found in God. The language of Election bestows the kind of uniqueness that the world can only dream of. Balthasar traces this as a theme in the O.T as relating to Israel and in the new with Christ and his church. The second half of the book traces out the implications of these ideas.
Balthasar writes well about his subject and apart from the expected Mariology that can be easily overlooked, this text is highly commendable.
Balthasar writes well about his subject and apart from the expected Mariology that can be easily overlooked, this text is highly commendable.
January 1, 2014
Magnificent take on Scripture and Christian life in the first half. Moments of brilliance in the second half, but a somewhat unsatisfactory take on Christian political involvement. That aspect of the book poses good questions but hasn't aged well. The rest is wonderful.
June 15, 2015
Wow. really well done discussion of the Church and the Christian's role in the world.
January 20, 2015
This is a beautiful book that reflects on God's encounter with humanity. Then from this reality Von Balthazar reflects on our response- how to live as a Christian in our world.
September 22, 2015
Liberation and the living language.
December 27, 2015
Over my head.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews