may be useful to be clear about certain possible lines of criticism which will not be pursued here. There is, first of all, the question of the relationship of Balthasar’s work to the thought and experiences of Adrienne von Speyr. As we shall see in a little more detail in the next chapter, Balthasar worked in close association with von Speyr, took her mystical experiences very seriously, and described their work as two halves of a single whole. How much did she in fact influence him, and if, as