What’s this, Halden, a “Petrine symphony” is what Balthasar’s book is all about? No, it is rather a Christological symphony, and Fred is right, it is Christ who is the conductor, not Peter. Peter is ONLY one of the several dimensions of the Church, and they are all necessary for the Church. In fact, the Petrine element is NOT even the most basic among them, it is the MARIAN dimension that is the most fundamental among these various elements. From a Catholic perspective, Balthasar’s is a corrective of every one-sided emphasis on the Petrine office among Catholics. It is ironic therefore that you should basically misrepresent his thoughts on the matter.
The comment above, from Tony, admirably formulates something which I felt but could not express well: that is, Balthasar's treatment of the Petrine, Pauline, Johanine, and Marian charisms is his version of what Avery Dulles intended for his now classic text, Models of the Church. Both are works of ecumenically aware and self-critical meditations on the form of the Church (note: that both insist on overlapping models coexisting — how Catholic!); they both also recognize the value in the Christian experience of Protestants while not shrinking from critical observations.
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