The Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar

La Salle University ^ | Joel Garver

[sitetest]

Dear JMJ333,

I always wanted to read about this fellow.

sitetest

[JMJ333]

I was getting ready to ping you, but was trying to find a picture of this wonderful servent of God. I hope you enjoy it. --michelle

[JMJ333]

Hans Urs von Balthasar, 1905-1988

[JMJ333]

Le ping! Hope the baby is doing well!

[grumpster-dumpster]

Thanks for posting this.
I estimate I read about 80% ...I understood about 10%! LOL!

Anywho, let me try to boil it down a little:
The Holy Trinity equals truth... All other explanations about aren't worth the paper they're written on.
Is that essentially correct? (And why do "scholars" think the more they write...the better the quality?) :o)

[JMJ333]

He is deep. hehehe

I posted this because of the ongoing denial of the Triune God on this forum, by the LDS church, but also because it underlies the truth about life and where it came from, negating the atheists--whether Buddhist, hegelian or whatever--in their subjegating the beauty of existance itself.

I have one other I want to share that you'll enjoy much more on John of the Cross. I'll ping you too it. It has some stunning graphics.

[JMJ333]

This is a courtasy bump for you, since I mentioned your church in my last post. Regards.

[grumpster-dumpster]

He is deep.

I'll say! I knew I was in trouble when I realized I couldn't even pronounce "Hans Urs von Balthasar!" :o)

[sitetest]

Dear JMJ333,

"By his prayer and his suffering the Son brings his disciples—and through them, all mankind—into the interior space of the Trinity."

Cool.

sitetest

[sitetest]

Dear JMJ333,

"But for John, the cross and the glorification of Christ are inseparable realities..."

This is why the Mass is celebrated.

sitetest

[JMJ333]

Agreed. One cannot completely unite oneself to the glory of Christ except through suffering, which is defined in the Eucharist. But also, suffering brings a closeness to Christ, and we follow his example in the Passion and Crucifixtion in order to completely surrender to his will.

[JMJ333]

I'll say! I knew I was in trouble when I realized I couldn't even pronounce "Hans Urs von Balthasar!" :o)

LOL

[JMJ333]

Courtesy LDS ping

[livius]

Von Baltasar is wonderful. I've never understood how people can think he is anything less than orthodox (unless, perhaps, they don't understand what he's written).

He wrote a number of very accessible books, and then, of course, his "great works," which I admit I have not yet read. That is, I'm still SLOWLY working my way through "The Glory of the Lord," with its 7 very large volumes.

Regarding his "theological aesthetics," here's a great quote that might explain why modern church architecture is so ugly. Referring to the True, the Beautiful and the Good (Platonic concepts), he says:

"Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance."

In other words, the utilitarian rejection of beauty in churches has also had the effect of hiding truth and devaluing goodness. At the same time, the rejection of truth and the devaluation of goodness have made it impossible to project an image of the beautiful.

Von Baltasar saw how the whole world as entirely dependent upon the truth of God in Christ.

[JMJ333]

Thanks for your contribution. I admit I can only attend Mass where the architecture is beautiful and they still have shrines. Our church has a shrine of all saints and everyone is always lighting candles. It's beautiful.

I think its silly to accuse Catholics of idolotry because of the artwork and craftsmaship we used to put into our Churchs. God gave artists their talent and they are just repaying him by glorifying His image and adorning His house. To think that we worship the art borders on the ludicrous.

[Romulus]

What a great post.

The very object of faith itself—Jesus Christ—draws the beholder providing its own interior light.

Ego eimi fos kosmou

To repeat in English that Christ is the "light of the World" is inadequate; the Greek says "light of the Cosmos", and "cosmos" implies not only the created world, but that which is ordered and rational -- and therefore beautiful. All this is implied in the Greek, which Dosteovsky understood when he affirmed that the world would be saved through beauty.

To perceive life and the world aesthetically is not a damp and dreamy excursion into myth-making; it is the faith-filled affirmation that God calls man to know him through his creation.

[JMJ333]

Thanks, and nice to see you. You always make excelent contributions. Thanks for posting. =)

[JMJ333]

oops..excellent!

[Romulus]

Balthasar uses marital imagery, proposing that reason—womb-like—gives itself to faith to be made fruitful, not arguing itself into faith but allowing faith to come to fulfillment within it.

... in Christ it is possible to begin to restore the materiality of God’s presence. This is seen foremost in the actions of the sacraments by which Christ makes Himself present, in a sexuality that is transformed from egoistic self-gratification into self-offering love,... and in the self-sacrificial love for the neighbor in deeds of service.

Of course, the Good Samaritan parable (in which one is to love one's neighbor as oneself) finds its plainest expression and apotheosis (quite literally) in Andrei Rublev's Holy Trinity -- in which one's neighbor is oneself.

Once again we see how marital imagery is central to the understanding of man's relationship, through the Church, with God. Once again we see that the inadmissibility of homosexuality, contraception, fornication, and a female priesthood are not at all arbitrary or mutable, but essential to what it means to be human. Once again we see -- aesthetically, if you like -- that the sterile arguments to the contrary serve only a sterile ethic.