Beauty and Biblical Interpretation: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Response to Modern Biblical Studies

Key to Balthasar’s response to modern biblical studies is his concept of beauty ... Balthasar links beauty to human perception, and the way human beings gain knowledge. Over the past 100 years—amidst the confusion and darkness sur … [Read more...]

Looking Back at “Humani Generis”

The 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, “Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine,” should be understood in the context of the pontifical effort to reform Catholic intellectual life. Pope Pi … [Read more...]

Vocation for the Wives of Ordained Permanent Deacons

Women who pray for the Church, and who are spouses of permanent deacons (or those in formation), are undoubtedly responding to a unique grace of personal mission that comes to them as a result of their baptism.   I was at a retreat in … [Read more...]

Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury

Just when I am about to succumb to the sadness and living death of nihilism, some piercing ray of beauty breaks open my heart, and the breath of possibility returns. I recently visited the Botanical Garden in St Louis.  Amid the sights … [Read more...]

Obstacles to Reading Scripture in Modernity: Von Balthasar’s Response

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics {are} a remedy for the breakdown in modern biblical exegesis and the groundwork of an approach to revelation that allows the glory of God to show forth in all of its splendor. In the first b … [Read more...]

Credible Communion: The Witness of Apostolic Religious Life

When the Church has been humiliated and vilified by public scandal ... I suggest we need to shift our focus to Christ.   Introduction “How can you write anything credible about the witness of religious life today?” I was asked by a disil … [Read more...]

The Role of Faith in Culture

TRAGEDY UNDER GRACE: REINHOLD SCHNEIDER ON THE EXPERIENCE OF THE WEST. By Hans Urs von Balthasar (A Communio Book; Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522,1997) 295 pp. PB $11.95.

What should a person of deep culture but no faith do when realization of the West’s spiritual collapse suddenly dawns in his mind and becomes an unshakable conviction? Should he retreat to the protected groves of academe and protest against … [Read more...]