Hans Urs von Balthasar
An Introduction to His Trilogy
MATTHEW LEVERING
Foreword by Cyril O’Regan
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 9780813231754
Foreword by Cyril O’Regan
1. Theological Aesthetics: A Kantian Critique of Kant
2. Theo-Drama: A Hegelian Critique of Hegel
3. Theo-Logic: A Nietzschean Critique of Nietzsche
FOREWORD BY CYRIL O’REGAN*
In this book, Matthew Levering has written an unusual introduction to the famous trilogy of Hans Urs von Balthasar. In terms of texts, he prioritizes the first volume of each part of the trilogy of The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic—in fact fifteen volumes in the English translation—and in terms of conversation and argument, he prioritizes von Balthasar’s discussions with Immanuel Kant, Georg W. F. Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche, respectively.
In focusing on these three conversations as opening up the introductory volumes of von Balthasar’s trilogy, Levering aims to provide a series of red threads whereby one does not get lost in the labyrinth of the seven thousand pages of von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics, theological dramatics, and theo-logic. Levering’s uplifting of the philosophical does not mean to discredit the view that other kinds of conversation occur in von Balthasar’s trilogy, but it is intended to offer the advisory that in line with Aquinas and the entire modern Catholic tradition, theology’s dialogue with philosophy holds a central position. It is not even imaginable that Levering, a committed Thomist, would be inclined to downplay in general the influence of the classical tradition of philosophy that begins in wonder and is constituted by eros. It is simply that, on the one hand, in line with Fides et Ratio, Levering recognizes that philosophy is plural (even if one can speak of Aquinas as first among equals) and, on the other, that while there is much in modern philosophy that has gone awry (with skepticism and relativism holding hands with materialism and scientism), there are forms of modern philosophy that offer Catholic philosophy and theology opportunities for thinking more deeply about the nature of thinking, its scope, its dynamic, and its ends. In his interpretation of von Balthasar, Levering is neither supporting syncretism nor enjoining a policy of unrestricted openness to modern philosophical forms of reason, not to mention instrumental or ideological forms of reason, or reason operative in the more narrow fields of inquiry of the natural and social sciences with their predilection for metrics and repeatable results. What he is discouraging is the blanket condemnation of modern forms of philosophy; what he is recommending is encounter with a select number of forms of philosophy ...
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About The Achievement of Hans Urs von Balthasar: An Introduction to His TrilogyIn The Achievement of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Matthew Levering has written a book for theologically educated readers who mistrust von Balthasar or who mistrust von Balthasar’s critics. The book shows that von Balthasar’s critics can and should benefit both from the rich and wide-ranging conversations that mark his trilogy and from the critical and constructive engagement with German philosophical modernity offered by the trilogy. In addition, Levering hopes to show that those who mistrust von Balthasar’s critics need to be more Balthasarian in their response to criticisms of the Swiss theologian. In this introductory volume, the focus is on the first volume of each part of the trilogy. This approach exhibits the main lines of von Balthasar’s trilogy in a way that allows for an introductory volume of manageable size. This approach also avoids the more controversial volumes of the trilogy. Reading von Balthasar with the goal of engaging his more controversial views is certainly justifiable, but in an introductory book, the danger is that some readers could miss the forest due to their opposition to some of the trees. The Achievement of Hans Urs von Balthasar contributes to the healing of the internecine conflicts that, since the 1930s or earlier, have pitted Ressourcement theologians and Thomistic theologians against each other with grave consequences for the health of Catholic theology. Despite sharing a strong belief in the faithful mediation of divine revelation through Scripture and the Church, many Catholic theologians today find themselves at loggerheads with each other. Easily forgotten by the Ressourcement and Thomistic combatants is their shared commitment to the theo-aesthetic beauty, theo-dramatic goodness, and theo-logical truth of Christ’s revelation of Trinitarian self-surrendering love as our source and supernatural goal, and their shared rejection of philosophical modernity’s immanentism, historicism, and power-centered voluntarism. The present book seeks to highlight these shared commitments, while leaving room for disagreement about von Balthasar’s specific positions and approaches. |
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