"Few persons in the last century reflected with such profundity or at so great a length on the vast structures of cultural and Ecclesial life as did von Balthasar."
James Matthew Wilson poses a great question at Front Page Republic: "
Sex, Eschatology, and Everyday Life," which is the source of the above quote. Here's a snippet of Wilson's main concern:
"And so, above all, von Balthasar seems to misinterpret the Church’s great concern for the support, vitality, and centrality of marriage and the family to its life and the life of civil society. He transforms a tradition, rooted in the practical questions that all human persons confront and intended to inform how society as a whole has been historically and ought to be structured, into one that appears more and more like the rarified province of speculative theology. No, not just that, but the province of a speculative theology descending exclusively from of the ether of eschatological, as opposed to all other, concerns."
I thank Professor Wilson for raising this topic, and will attempt to post some quotes here in order to draw out Balthasar's main points on the Evangelical Counsels (Matthew 19), ethics, and the laity.
6 comments:
I'm not sure if I get the criticism. Is the "speculative" (vs. practical) his heavy use of typology (Mary, John, etc.) and/or his social Trinitarianism or neither?
It seems to be focused on B's theology of the counsels and making eschatalogical demands on married folk. As with many of my own blog posts (I confess), his post meanders a bit and is like overhearing someone talking on the phone... :)
Nonetheless, the first quote I cited indicates that he is approaching a significant topic, one well worthy of consideration.
the eschatological dimension of Christian life, by the way, was Escriva's argument with B.
Ohh, gotcha. I was way off. I thought this was more in the vein of Rahnerians or even Trads criticizing von B for being too theologically speculative.
Howsare: " It is interesting to note, for instance, that Alyssa Pitstick’s book makes almost no reference to models of the Trinity except the psychological one preferred by Thomas and Augustine."
http://tandtclark.typepad.com/ttc/2009/02/balthasar-and-the-resurgence-of-traditional-catholicism.html
Interesting article. I'll have to get the book at some point. It lines up with what Francesca taught in her Contemporary Catholic Thought course.
Von B's study of Barth also demonstrates his Thomistic concerns vis-a-vis Barth's radicial sola-ism.
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