The Theological Aesthetics of Han Urs von Balthasar

The Theological Aesthetics of Han Urs von Balthasar

Samuel S. HO

The first volume of Balthasar's The Glory of the Lord human being's encounter concerns with radiance, doxa, the initial moment that leads them to recognize the foundation of the covenant God. Balthasar's discussions circle around a central theme: the glory of God's triune love as expressed in the form of Jesus. The central point is that through Christ God addresses us with the free call of his love. We can only receive this call in gratitude, and answer it in obedience, to the glory of God. Balthasar says, “the more obediently he thinks, the more accurately will he see. (It is) because the light of faith proportions his whole being as a man (including, therefore his intellect) in such a way that it can receive the mystery." Throughout the whole book, at least in the first three-hundred pages, Balthasar elaborates this thesis by asking : How is God's love manifested to us? What is the structure and nature of our understanding of it? How can God's love be perceived in its objective glory?

In answering all these questions, Balthasar argues that God's glory is clearly manifested in his majesty through his covenant. For Balthasar, "covenant" is the key to understanding theology. What Balthasar calls "aesthetics" in his work is a purely theological enterprise, that is to receive the perception possible only in faith, of the glory of God's most free love as it reveals itself to us. Balthasar contends that revival of the aesthetic dimension in theology means a return to the existential method in theology. He points out that contemplation , seeing and inchoative visions have long been undermined by Christian theology. For Balthasar, true theology begins only at the point where “exact historical science” passes over into the science of faith proper—a “science” which presupposes the act of faith as its locus of understanding. Theology's exceptional position held by Thomas Aquinas is the science which, founded on its participation through grace, and based on the personal act of faith and the intuitive saving knowledge of God himself and of the church Triumphant, not an exact science. What Balthasar calls the “exact science” concerns the application of historico-critical analysis to Biblical texts, texts that are then analyzed as if they were any other kind of documents. He observes that since theology disconnected itself from philosophy, fundamental theology only seeks to prove the historic authenticity of God's revelation. Along this trend, other related studies were turned into scientific analysis in an ever-changing historical situation. Aesthetics finds no place in the series of changes. In this book, Balthasar proposes that philosophy should become reunited with theology.