Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:10:01.680Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

B

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Ian A. McFarland ,
David A. S. Fergusson ,
Karen Kilby  and
Iain R. Torrance
Edited by
Ian A. McFarland ,
David A. S. Fergusson ,
Karen Kilby  and
Iain R. Torrance
Ian A. McFarland
Affiliation:
Emory University's Candler School of Theology
David A. S. Fergusson
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Karen Kilby
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Iain R. Torrance
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Ian A. McFarland
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
David A. S. Fergusson
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Karen Kilby
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Iain R. Torrance
Affiliation:
Princeton Theological Seminary
Get access

Summary

Balthasar, Hans Urs von Among the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–88) gave himself to the work of spiritual direction, translation, and publishing, founding and leading a religious community, and he produced a massive theological literature that, in many ways, is only explicable as the fruit of his spiritual life. His writings range from important studies of Origen, Gregory of Nyssa (see Cappadocian Fathers), and Maximus the Confessor, to analyses of the spiritual life as it unfolds in many different contexts (especially as it is revealed in the lives of the saints and mystical writers), to his great fifteen-volume trilogy in which theology unfolds according to three transcendentals of the beautiful (The Glory of the Lord), the good (Theo-Drama), and the true (Theo-Logic).

In each of these categories (in which he consciously inverts the order of Kant's critiques), Balthasar shows how the patterns of worldly being might become translucent to the consummate truth of their existence. A literary scholar by training, Balthasar often employed genealogies of cultural structures in order to portray their evolution and their transformation within the Gospel. Thus a central motif of his theology is the impression that the divine makes within the world, calling forth from the creatures a variety of finite expressions and echoes in which they are most themselves when they are also epiphanic of divine glory.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology , pp. 51 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

McIntosh, M. A., Christology from Within: Spirituality and the Incarnation in Hans Urs von Balthasar (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Mongrain, K., The Systematic Thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar: An Irenaean Retrieval (Crossroad, 2002).Google Scholar
Oakes, E. T., , S. J., and Moss, D., eds., The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar (Cambridge University Press, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scola, A., Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Theological Style (T&T Clark, 1991).Google Scholar
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (World Council of Churches, 1982).
Calvin, J., Institutes of the Christian Religion (Westminster Press, 1960), 4.15–16.Google Scholar
Calvin, J.‘The Didache’ in Early Christian Fathers (Westminster Press, 1953), 171–79.Google Scholar
Jungmann, J. A., The Early Liturgy (University of Notre Dame Press, 1959).Google Scholar
Wright, D., Infant Baptism in Historical Perspective (Paternoster Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Beasley-Murray, G. R., Baptism in the New Testament (Macmillan, 1963).Google Scholar
Fiddes, P. S., Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology (Paternoster Press, 2003).Google Scholar
Leonard, B., Baptist Ways: A History (Judson, 2003).Google Scholar
Lumpkin, W., Baptist Confessions of Faith (Judson, 1959).Google Scholar
Wright, N., Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision (Paternoster Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Ernst-Habib, M., ‘A Conversation with Twentieth-Century Confessions’ in Conversations with the Confessions: Dialogue in the Reformed Tradition, ed. Small, J. D. (Geneva Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Jüngel, E., Christ, Justice and Peace: Toward a Theology of the State in Dialogue with the Barmen Declaration (T&T Clark, 1992).Google Scholar
Busch, E., The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth's Theology (Eerdmans, 2004).Google Scholar
Hunsinger, G., How to Read Karl Barth: The Shape of His Theology (Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar
McCormack, B., Karl Barth's Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909–1936 (Oxford University Press, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torrance, T. F., Karl Barth: Biblical and Evangelical Theologian (T&T Clark, 1990).Google Scholar
Gorringe, T., Karl Barth: Against Hegemony (Oxford University Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Til, C., Christianity and Barthianism (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1962).Google Scholar
Dawson, A., ‘The Origins and Character of the Base Ecclesial Community: A Brazilian Perspective’ in The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology, ed. Rowland, C., 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 139–58.Google Scholar
Hebblethwaite, M., Basic is Beautiful: Basic Ecclesial Communities from Third World to First World (HarperCollins, 1993).Google Scholar
Lubac, H., The Mystery of the Supernatural (Herder and Herder, 1998 [1965]).Google Scholar
Barton, J., The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrman, B. D., Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperCollins, 2005); UK edn: Whose Word Is It? The Story Behind Who Changed the New Testament and Why (Continuum, 2008).Google Scholar
Parker, D. C., The Living Text of the Gospels (Cambridge, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelikan, J., Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages (Penguin, 2005).Google Scholar
Barr, J., The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspective (Fortress, 1999).Google Scholar
Childs, B. S., Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Fortress, 1993).Google Scholar
Hafemann, S. J., ed., Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect (Apollos, 2002).Google Scholar
Rendtorff, R., The Canonical Hebrew Bible: A Theology of the Old Testament (Deo, 2005).Google Scholar
Stuhlmacher, P., Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 3 vols. (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992–2005).Google Scholar
Watson, F., Text and Truth: Redefining Biblical Theology (T&T Clark, 1997).Google Scholar
Engelhardt, Jr H. T., The Foundations of Bioethics (Oxford University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Meilaender, G., Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (Eerdmans, 1996).Google Scholar
Cone, J. H., A Black Theology of Liberation (Orbis, 1990 [1970]).Google Scholar
Cone, J. H. and Wilmore, G., eds., Black Theology: A Documentary History, 2 vols. (Orbis, 1993).Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. N., Shoes That Fit Our Feet: Sources for a Constructive Black Theology (Orbis, 1993).Google Scholar
Williams, D. S., Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God Talk (Orbis, 1995).Google Scholar
Jagessar, M. N. and Reddie, A. G., eds., Black Theology in Britain: A Reader (Equinox, 2007).Google Scholar
Mosala, I. J. and Tlhagale, B., eds., The Unquestionable Right to be Free: Essays in Black Theology (Skotaville Pubishers, 1986).Google Scholar
Levy, L., Blasphemy: Verbal Offense against the Sacred from Moses to Salman Rushdie (Knopf, 1993).Google Scholar
Nash, D., Blasphemy in the Christian World (Oxford University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Bradshaw, P., The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, 2002).Google Scholar
Coakley, S., ed., Religion and the Body (Cambridge University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Nelson, J. B., Body Theology (John Knox Press, 1992).Google Scholar
Gruchy, J. W., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Cambridge University Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, S. R., The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon: Portraits of a Protestant Saint (SCM, 2004).Google Scholar
Greschat, M., Martin Bucer: A Reformer and His Times (John Knox Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Krieger, C. and Lienhard, M., eds., Martin Bucer and Sixteenth Century Europe: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg (28–31 août 1991), 2 vols. (Brill, 1993).Google Scholar
Kasimow, H., Keenan, J. P., and Keenan, L. K., Beside Still Waters: Jews, Christians, and the Way of the Buddha (Wisdom, 2003).Google Scholar
Keenan, J. P., The Meaning of Christ: A Mahāyāna Theology (Orbis, 1989).Google Scholar
King, S. and Ingram, P., eds., The Sound of Liberating Truth: Buddhist–Christian Dialogues in Honor of Frederick J. Streng (Curzon, 1999).Google Scholar
Lai, W. and Brueck, M., Christianity and Buddhism: A Multicultural History of their Dialogue (Orbis, 2005).Google Scholar
O'Leary, J. S., Religious Pluralism and Christian Truth (Edinburgh, 1996).Google Scholar
Schmidt-Leukel, P., ed., Buddhism, Christianity, and the Question of Creation (Ashgate, 2006).Google Scholar
Newman, B., ‘Sergius Bulgakov and the Theology of Divine Wisdom’, St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 22:1 (1978), 39–73.Google Scholar
Williams, R., Sergii Bulgakov: Toward a Russian Political Theology (T&T Clark, 2001).Google Scholar
Bultmann, R., ‘Autobiographical Reflections of Rudolf Bultmann’ in The Theology of Rudolf Bultmann, ed. Kegley, C. (Harper & Row, 1966), xix–xxv.Google Scholar
Fergusson, D., Bultmann (Liturgical, 1992).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×