Von Balthasar
advocated fresh perspectives on Christianity for the 20th century. Question: is
it possible to do theology under the burden of prevailing logo-centric and
conceptual, analytical and rational models of thought? He believed this was a
problem because it made the Church and Christian teaching irrelevant to
everyday life and Christian experience. But ultimately because it was a detriment
of the ‘mystery’ which is to know and talk about God. He therefore placed
centrally the Incarnation and the Trinity as mysteries of God uniquely revealed. With
this, he proposed that theology should be theology on its knees, that as
theologians we could only do our work ‘on bent knee’.[1]
[1] Cf. H.U. von Balthasar, ‘Theology and Holiness’ (Theologie und
Heiligkeit), an essay written in 1948, in Verbum Caro. Schriften zur Theologie
I, Einsiedeln, 1960, 195-224.
Dermot A. Power recommends: ‘For a clear
elucidation of von Balthsar’s view of the synthesis between personal and ecclesial
holiness, cf. Antonia Sicari, 'Theology & Holiness', Communio, XVI (1989),
pp. 351-365.
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