Monday, January 26, 2009

What Balthasar Said about St. Paul

The Irruption of Paul of Tarsus, According to von Balthasar
Thomas Bridges at La Perruque has posted two generous helpings from The Glory of the Lord: Volume One. I confess I had these passages in my head when I wrote my previous post, not wanting to dig out the Balthasar... and yes, this passage goes right along with the theme I've been hammering away at through Dawson, Ratzinger, and Balthasar.

I cannot resist repeating one snippet: 

The Pauline tradition, on the other hand, will mean the continued fostering of Paul’s view of revelation; but, on the other hand, it will also mean the ever-new and unforeseen vertical irruption of new charisms in the history of the Church. In this (discontinuous) tradition are to be found the great charisms of mission which suddenly visit and fructify the Church, the great conversions (from Augustine to Newman), the great visions which are ‘ineffable’ in themselves (2 Cor. 12.4) and yet are poured out over the Church in words inspired by the Spirit. [Glory of the Lord 1]

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