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Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter
This is an account, at once rigorously theological and warmly devotional, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and their significance for the Christian life. Von Balthasar offers sharp insights into some current controversies -- for example, the 'bodiliness' of the Resurrection -- and spiritual inspiration for the year round. This scholarly reflection of the climax of the Christian year is an established classic of contemporary Catholic theology.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
About the author
Hans Urs von Balthasar
389 books263 followersHans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is considered one of the most important theologians of the 20th century.
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland on 12 August 1905, he attended Stella Matutina (Jesuit school) in Feldkirch, Austria. He studied in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, gaining a doctorate in German literature. He joined the Jesuits in 1929, and was ordained in 1936. He worked in Basel as a student chaplain. In 1950 he left the Jesuit order, feeling that God had called him to found a Secular Institute, a lay form of consecrated life that sought to work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. He joined the diocese of Chur. From the low point of being banned from teaching, his reputation eventually rose to the extent that John Paul II asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on 26 June 1988, two days before the ceremony. Balthasar was interred in the Hofkirche cemetery in Lucern.
Along with Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, Balthasar sought to offer an intellectual, faithful response to Western modernism. While Rahner offered a progressive, accommodating position on modernity and Lonergan worked out a philosophy of history that sought to critically appropriate modernity, Balthasar resisted the reductionism and human focus of modernity, wanting Christianity to challenge modern sensibilities.
Balthasar is very eclectic in his approach, sources, and interests and remains difficult to categorize. An example of his eclecticism was his long study and conversation with the influential Reformed Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, of whose work he wrote the first Catholic analysis and response. Although Balthasar's major points of analysis on Karl Barth's work have been disputed, his The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation (1951) remains a classic work for its sensitivity and insight; Karl Barth himself agreed with its analysis of his own theological enterprise, calling it the best book on his own theology.
Balthasar's Theological Dramatic Theory has influenced the work of Raymund Schwager.
Born in Lucerne, Switzerland on 12 August 1905, he attended Stella Matutina (Jesuit school) in Feldkirch, Austria. He studied in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, gaining a doctorate in German literature. He joined the Jesuits in 1929, and was ordained in 1936. He worked in Basel as a student chaplain. In 1950 he left the Jesuit order, feeling that God had called him to found a Secular Institute, a lay form of consecrated life that sought to work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. He joined the diocese of Chur. From the low point of being banned from teaching, his reputation eventually rose to the extent that John Paul II asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on 26 June 1988, two days before the ceremony. Balthasar was interred in the Hofkirche cemetery in Lucern.
Along with Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, Balthasar sought to offer an intellectual, faithful response to Western modernism. While Rahner offered a progressive, accommodating position on modernity and Lonergan worked out a philosophy of history that sought to critically appropriate modernity, Balthasar resisted the reductionism and human focus of modernity, wanting Christianity to challenge modern sensibilities.
Balthasar is very eclectic in his approach, sources, and interests and remains difficult to categorize. An example of his eclecticism was his long study and conversation with the influential Reformed Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, of whose work he wrote the first Catholic analysis and response. Although Balthasar's major points of analysis on Karl Barth's work have been disputed, his The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation (1951) remains a classic work for its sensitivity and insight; Karl Barth himself agreed with its analysis of his own theological enterprise, calling it the best book on his own theology.
Balthasar's Theological Dramatic Theory has influenced the work of Raymund Schwager.
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December 6, 2021"In other words, the renunciation of the 'form of God' and the taking on of the 'form of a slave' with all their consequences do not entail any alienation within the Trinitarian life of God. God is so divine that by way of the Incarnation, death and Resurrection, he can truly and not just in seeming become that which as God he already and always is." (208)
A theology of the cross in Trinitarian perspective, with all the erudition you might expect from Balthasar as he draws from scripture, Church Fathers, and contemporary theologians/exegetes. Barth's influence is felt throughout and Balthasar cites him frequently. The chapter on "Going to the Dead: Holy Saturday" is intriguing, challenging, and creative (too creative? I'm not sure), as is the emphasis on locating kenosis as fundamental to the relations of the immanent Trinity. Would have liked Balthasar to develop in greater detail the implications of his view for his understanding of divine impassibility - we get a hint of it in the preface, and it's entirely possible that within the logic of the book he feels like he deals with the issue, but some more explicit discussion would have clarified things - for me at least.
A theology of the cross in Trinitarian perspective, with all the erudition you might expect from Balthasar as he draws from scripture, Church Fathers, and contemporary theologians/exegetes. Barth's influence is felt throughout and Balthasar cites him frequently. The chapter on "Going to the Dead: Holy Saturday" is intriguing, challenging, and creative (too creative? I'm not sure), as is the emphasis on locating kenosis as fundamental to the relations of the immanent Trinity. Would have liked Balthasar to develop in greater detail the implications of his view for his understanding of divine impassibility - we get a hint of it in the preface, and it's entirely possible that within the logic of the book he feels like he deals with the issue, but some more explicit discussion would have clarified things - for me at least.
May 25, 2020
I am going to compare Balthasar's book on "The Mystery of Easter" with "The Crucifixion" by Fleming Rutledge. Both cover very similar territory.
Fleming Rutledge's tome "The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ" was read first followed by "Mysterium Paschale (The Mystery of Easter)" of author Hans Urs von Balthasar. I want to compare and contrast these two books at least superficially. Rutledge's book is a current success praised by contemporary theologians. Balthasar's book has become a classic. Both dive into the history of Christian thought on the meaning of the Crucifixion and the Death of the Son of God.
-----------------------------
I would classify "The Crucifixion" as an excellent text for Protestant pastors. They need to become educated in the deep insights from the Early Church Fathers to the 20th century theologians on the various meanings employed by Christianity on the Crucifixion of Messiah Jesus. Rutledge admits that she has written the book to address the trend in English Anglican and American Episcopal churches in which teaching minimizes the importance of the Crucifixion. Instead the modern liberal trend is to emphasize God's Love and leave behind all the messiness of Sin, Crucifixion, Sacrifice, Ransom, Attonement, and Hell. It feels so ugly and old. Rutledge wants to re-educate high-church Christians, who lean towards the liberal Christianity of Schleiermacher. So she dives into the theological discourses of the Apostle Paul to remedy the high-church neglect of the letters of Paul.
I am a member of a low-church evangelical congregation. Oh ... so low. They love Paul and all that ugliness about Sin and Hell. I often feel that evangelical pastors love Paul but have no clue as the person of Jesus and the four Gospels of the New Testament. They are more Paulists and less Christ-ians. Love, compassion, and the life of Jesus is left unexplored in low-church sermons.
All in all, I suspect that the liberal-conservative divide of Christianity has left only 1/2 of the Good News in each wing of Christianity. So Rutledge preaches to the high-church liberal pastors. Her book is an excellent and comprehensive teaching tool for understanding the various traditional insights into the Crucifixion. The book will also be good for the low-church Protestant pastors because it dives back into the early church fathers (of whom evangelical pastors generally know nothing). However, it does feel like a text book. The novice layman should probably read other books on the history of Christian thought before reading "The Crucifixion".
------------------------
Now for "Mysterium Paschale". Balthasar is a speculative theologian in the Roman Catholic tradition. He understands the Protestant tradition and presents a few insights from Calvin, Luther, Barth, and Bultmann in the text. He also quotes the Latin Fathers in Latin, so be prepared to use Google translation for long Latin quotes. He is a Roman Catholic through and through.
Hans Urs von Balthasar covers much of the same territory as Fleming Rutledge, but with more concise writing and a more penetrating presentation. Both reject the modernistic trends to de-mythologize the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus, but Balthasar seems to dive more passionately into the passion itself. He explores 'the death of God' on the day between the Friday of the crucifixion and the Sunday of the resurrection. The death of God, was God incarnate (Jesus) identifying fully with the completeness of human experience into the very depths of the abyss (descending into Hades). The Triune God experiences fully the suffering of humanity. There are sections in "The Mystery of Easter" that are more quotable and pithy than Rutledge's tome. However, many Protestants would not find Balthasar's Latin emphasis as friendly as Rutledge's straight forward Protestant pedagogy ... but they would find him Christian.
------------------------
In the end, both have incredible depth of coverage on the issues of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus. They plumb Church history from Saint Paul to John Paul II. I prefer Balthasar, but I am glad I read Rutledge.
----
Last comments about Balthasar's book. In the section on "Trial and Condemnation" he shows no influence by the 20th century scholarship on the diversity of 1st Century Hebrew culture. He instead treated the New Testatment term 'Jews' as a monolithic term. The use of 'Jews' in John's Gospel for example should not really be 'Jews' as it brings an incorrect mental image to the modern mind. Instead, it should be 'the Judian Hebrews from and around Jerusalem'. Balthasar's writing was not insensitive to Jesus being a Hebrew, but there has been a plethora of scholarship in the last 80-ish years on the nuances and diversity of 1st century Judaism. Balthasar died too soon (1988) to become familiar with this enriching trend.
His insensitivity towards modern Jews also shows up in his quoting of Lutheran theologian Paul Althaus. The references and quotes of Paul Althaus demonstrate that Althaus was a traditional conservative Lutheran, but I would have avoided Althaus completely due to his sympathy and support of Hitler's confiscation of German Christianity for political purposes. No where do you get the sense that Baltazar supports Paul's sins, but I have no stomach for referencing "Hitler's Theologians" in any positive manner (Gerhard Kittle/Paul Althaus/Emaneuel Hirsch).
Balthazar's book is too good to remove from my shelf, but his faux pas towards the acceptance of Paul Althaus as a quotable scholar is a large black spot of insensitivity towards our Jewish elder brothers under the One Creator God.
Fleming's book shows much greater understanding of the most recent scholarship on the Jewishness of Jesus and Paul.
Fleming Rutledge's tome "The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ" was read first followed by "Mysterium Paschale (The Mystery of Easter)" of author Hans Urs von Balthasar. I want to compare and contrast these two books at least superficially. Rutledge's book is a current success praised by contemporary theologians. Balthasar's book has become a classic. Both dive into the history of Christian thought on the meaning of the Crucifixion and the Death of the Son of God.
-----------------------------
I would classify "The Crucifixion" as an excellent text for Protestant pastors. They need to become educated in the deep insights from the Early Church Fathers to the 20th century theologians on the various meanings employed by Christianity on the Crucifixion of Messiah Jesus. Rutledge admits that she has written the book to address the trend in English Anglican and American Episcopal churches in which teaching minimizes the importance of the Crucifixion. Instead the modern liberal trend is to emphasize God's Love and leave behind all the messiness of Sin, Crucifixion, Sacrifice, Ransom, Attonement, and Hell. It feels so ugly and old. Rutledge wants to re-educate high-church Christians, who lean towards the liberal Christianity of Schleiermacher. So she dives into the theological discourses of the Apostle Paul to remedy the high-church neglect of the letters of Paul.
I am a member of a low-church evangelical congregation. Oh ... so low. They love Paul and all that ugliness about Sin and Hell. I often feel that evangelical pastors love Paul but have no clue as the person of Jesus and the four Gospels of the New Testament. They are more Paulists and less Christ-ians. Love, compassion, and the life of Jesus is left unexplored in low-church sermons.
All in all, I suspect that the liberal-conservative divide of Christianity has left only 1/2 of the Good News in each wing of Christianity. So Rutledge preaches to the high-church liberal pastors. Her book is an excellent and comprehensive teaching tool for understanding the various traditional insights into the Crucifixion. The book will also be good for the low-church Protestant pastors because it dives back into the early church fathers (of whom evangelical pastors generally know nothing). However, it does feel like a text book. The novice layman should probably read other books on the history of Christian thought before reading "The Crucifixion".
------------------------
Now for "Mysterium Paschale". Balthasar is a speculative theologian in the Roman Catholic tradition. He understands the Protestant tradition and presents a few insights from Calvin, Luther, Barth, and Bultmann in the text. He also quotes the Latin Fathers in Latin, so be prepared to use Google translation for long Latin quotes. He is a Roman Catholic through and through.
Hans Urs von Balthasar covers much of the same territory as Fleming Rutledge, but with more concise writing and a more penetrating presentation. Both reject the modernistic trends to de-mythologize the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus, but Balthasar seems to dive more passionately into the passion itself. He explores 'the death of God' on the day between the Friday of the crucifixion and the Sunday of the resurrection. The death of God, was God incarnate (Jesus) identifying fully with the completeness of human experience into the very depths of the abyss (descending into Hades). The Triune God experiences fully the suffering of humanity. There are sections in "The Mystery of Easter" that are more quotable and pithy than Rutledge's tome. However, many Protestants would not find Balthasar's Latin emphasis as friendly as Rutledge's straight forward Protestant pedagogy ... but they would find him Christian.
------------------------
In the end, both have incredible depth of coverage on the issues of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus. They plumb Church history from Saint Paul to John Paul II. I prefer Balthasar, but I am glad I read Rutledge.
----
Last comments about Balthasar's book. In the section on "Trial and Condemnation" he shows no influence by the 20th century scholarship on the diversity of 1st Century Hebrew culture. He instead treated the New Testatment term 'Jews' as a monolithic term. The use of 'Jews' in John's Gospel for example should not really be 'Jews' as it brings an incorrect mental image to the modern mind. Instead, it should be 'the Judian Hebrews from and around Jerusalem'. Balthasar's writing was not insensitive to Jesus being a Hebrew, but there has been a plethora of scholarship in the last 80-ish years on the nuances and diversity of 1st century Judaism. Balthasar died too soon (1988) to become familiar with this enriching trend.
His insensitivity towards modern Jews also shows up in his quoting of Lutheran theologian Paul Althaus. The references and quotes of Paul Althaus demonstrate that Althaus was a traditional conservative Lutheran, but I would have avoided Althaus completely due to his sympathy and support of Hitler's confiscation of German Christianity for political purposes. No where do you get the sense that Baltazar supports Paul's sins, but I have no stomach for referencing "Hitler's Theologians" in any positive manner (Gerhard Kittle/Paul Althaus/Emaneuel Hirsch).
Balthazar's book is too good to remove from my shelf, but his faux pas towards the acceptance of Paul Althaus as a quotable scholar is a large black spot of insensitivity towards our Jewish elder brothers under the One Creator God.
Fleming's book shows much greater understanding of the most recent scholarship on the Jewishness of Jesus and Paul.
March 15, 2019
For Lent I am reading a couple of books that cover theological issues surrounding Holy Week and the Passion of Christ. I started with Balthasar's Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, since I have previously read and enjoyed Balthasar's Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?. Simply put, Mysterium Paschale was a real treat, especially for this time of year.
There is a lot to explore and think about in this book, but where Balthasar shines the most is in his treatment of Holy Saturday and Easter. Rejecting the view that Jesus entered into Hades/Sheol as an active victor (as in the Eastern Orthodox tradition), Balthasar asserts that Jesus entered Hades/Sheol as a truly dead man, in full solidarity with every human who has ever died. There is no question of Jesus performing any sort of action during Holy Saturday, because He was simply and passively dead, and in a sense His very humanity was destroyed for a time (as is the humanity of any person separated from their body). It is in going to the dead in this way that Jesus meets and liberates the dead, opening the way for the decision that must always come when encountering Jesus: to choose Him as He has chosen you, or not to. Thus Jesus' death populates not only Heaven but also (potentially) Hell. This is a brilliant theological move and plays nicely with dialectical theology (e.g., that of Karl Barth). Along the way, Balthasar also illuminates the Trinitarian dynamics of the Passion: Christ submits Himself to the Father, who unilaterally hands Christ over to death (thus separating Father and Son), and then (through the Spirit who alone connects the two) the Father raises Him again; the key insight is that, since Jesus was truly dead, and truly separated from the Father, neither He nor the Father could have been the agent of His resurrection, and this is precisely where the Holy Spirit enters into the picture.
As for his treatment of Easter, Balthasar deals candidly with the fact that the resurrection accounts in the Gospels are very difficult (if not impossible) to reconcile with one another; despite many similarities, each account also paints a different, seemingly incompatible picture. He compares this to a bright white light entering a prism and being refracted into many different, even opposite, colors; the resurrection stands outside of the old reality but enters into and imprints upon that reality, leaving us to try to explain it with inadequate categories and contradictory stories. Balthasar constructs his theology of Easter in a way that makes room for this; he is unconcerned with harmonizing the Gospels, and instead seeks to draw out the theological message of each account. In doing so, he sheds much light on an otherwise perplexing set of texts. His treatment of the Johannine resurrection account is especially insightful; he suggests that Peter represents the Church of office, while John represents the Church of love, and that their interplay (how they each run to the tomb, how they each interact with Jesus, etc.) is indicative of the interplay between the Church's hierarchical structure and its more spontaneous relationship with its Lord.
All in all, this is some good theology to chew on!
There is a lot to explore and think about in this book, but where Balthasar shines the most is in his treatment of Holy Saturday and Easter. Rejecting the view that Jesus entered into Hades/Sheol as an active victor (as in the Eastern Orthodox tradition), Balthasar asserts that Jesus entered Hades/Sheol as a truly dead man, in full solidarity with every human who has ever died. There is no question of Jesus performing any sort of action during Holy Saturday, because He was simply and passively dead, and in a sense His very humanity was destroyed for a time (as is the humanity of any person separated from their body). It is in going to the dead in this way that Jesus meets and liberates the dead, opening the way for the decision that must always come when encountering Jesus: to choose Him as He has chosen you, or not to. Thus Jesus' death populates not only Heaven but also (potentially) Hell. This is a brilliant theological move and plays nicely with dialectical theology (e.g., that of Karl Barth). Along the way, Balthasar also illuminates the Trinitarian dynamics of the Passion: Christ submits Himself to the Father, who unilaterally hands Christ over to death (thus separating Father and Son), and then (through the Spirit who alone connects the two) the Father raises Him again; the key insight is that, since Jesus was truly dead, and truly separated from the Father, neither He nor the Father could have been the agent of His resurrection, and this is precisely where the Holy Spirit enters into the picture.
As for his treatment of Easter, Balthasar deals candidly with the fact that the resurrection accounts in the Gospels are very difficult (if not impossible) to reconcile with one another; despite many similarities, each account also paints a different, seemingly incompatible picture. He compares this to a bright white light entering a prism and being refracted into many different, even opposite, colors; the resurrection stands outside of the old reality but enters into and imprints upon that reality, leaving us to try to explain it with inadequate categories and contradictory stories. Balthasar constructs his theology of Easter in a way that makes room for this; he is unconcerned with harmonizing the Gospels, and instead seeks to draw out the theological message of each account. In doing so, he sheds much light on an otherwise perplexing set of texts. His treatment of the Johannine resurrection account is especially insightful; he suggests that Peter represents the Church of office, while John represents the Church of love, and that their interplay (how they each run to the tomb, how they each interact with Jesus, etc.) is indicative of the interplay between the Church's hierarchical structure and its more spontaneous relationship with its Lord.
All in all, this is some good theology to chew on!
May 9, 2017
Originally, I purchased this work by the noted & respected Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), out of interest for reading a theological treatment of the liturgy of the sacred Easter Triduum (Good Friday/Holy Saturday/Resurrection Sunday). It turned out to be a whole lot more than that! Here's how von Balthasar describes it in the Preface: "This book appeared for the first time as a constituent chapter of a large-scale dogmatics. Since in that context the doctrine of God as one and triune was treated elsewhere, there was no need to examine in any more fundamental way the delicate problem...of the Kenosis of the Son of God in his Incarnation and, above all, in his Passion. Here, by contrast, it seems incumbent on me to say a word -- no doubt, too condensed -- [sic!!] by way of addressing the root of this mystery..."
The author's "a word", in fact, is an over 250 page dense theological treatise, based on a passage of St. Paul's Lettter to the Philippians: Chapter 2:5-11. This is detailed & deep theology, though not entirely un-understandable. von Balthasar's explication of his theme, though slanted in some parts, is exceedingly rich & enlightening, not only regarding all the events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth leading up to & including the Resurrection, but also regarding the essence & nature of "the Church" as a theological reality. This isn't a book which can be rushed through, and undoubtedly would bear reading multiple times. It's probably the most rigorous "theological workout" I've had since seminary!
The author's "a word", in fact, is an over 250 page dense theological treatise, based on a passage of St. Paul's Lettter to the Philippians: Chapter 2:5-11. This is detailed & deep theology, though not entirely un-understandable. von Balthasar's explication of his theme, though slanted in some parts, is exceedingly rich & enlightening, not only regarding all the events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth leading up to & including the Resurrection, but also regarding the essence & nature of "the Church" as a theological reality. This isn't a book which can be rushed through, and undoubtedly would bear reading multiple times. It's probably the most rigorous "theological workout" I've had since seminary!
April 13, 2024
Didn't hate this one. Von B is just not a concise writer and he deals with some heavy theology in here. My small brain struggled to keep up with his verbose German style, but I can see where the hype is with him. Chapter 4 particularly stuck out to be as it dealt with the descent of Christ into death and had really good discussion about what it means that Christ descended into Hell. A phrase that I really haven't done extended reading on so that was good to explore. He also draws out a distinction between Hell and Hades(Sheol) and offers an explanation (rooted in church fathers) for a change between the OT and NT view of the afterlife that doesn't gloss over it like many people do, nor does it just presuppose liberal Christian scholarship of "times changed and people just changed it because?"
Speaking of church fathers Balthasar has an insane grasp on them and quotes from them liberally throughout the book. By the way, if you don't know Latin either skip this one or keep a translator or lexicon on hand to translate because there is a lot of untranslated Latin. The Greek is usually translated and I would hope that more modern renditions of the book would include Latin translations in the footnotes because even I was pushed to my limit with this one. (I'm not great at Latin mind you, but I know more than the average Catholic priest, not that that really means anything.)
In any case, a good exploration of the triduum and the absolute identification that God made with us through the Son during those three days.
Speaking of church fathers Balthasar has an insane grasp on them and quotes from them liberally throughout the book. By the way, if you don't know Latin either skip this one or keep a translator or lexicon on hand to translate because there is a lot of untranslated Latin. The Greek is usually translated and I would hope that more modern renditions of the book would include Latin translations in the footnotes because even I was pushed to my limit with this one. (I'm not great at Latin mind you, but I know more than the average Catholic priest, not that that really means anything.)
In any case, a good exploration of the triduum and the absolute identification that God made with us through the Son during those three days.
January 9, 2022
Not an "easy read" by any means, this book about the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection was in the end very much worth the effort, even if good chunks of it remained impenetrable to me (often for reasons of language, including untranslated Greek and Latin). The book didn't provide me with any definitive answers as such, but it did reveal to me how one of the greatest theological thinkers of our time has wrestled with some of the fundamental questions of faith that I myself have wrestled with for much of my adult life.
April 10, 2019
Will definitely have to give it another slower read- it was dense, even for me. However I don’t particularly like how he treated the descent into hell- really flattening. However I did greatly appreciate his emphasis on the Trinity and his ecclesiological interpretation of the end of the Gospel of John
April 7, 2020
Disclaimer, my rating for this book has nothing to do with the level of scholarship. Balthasar did an excellent piece of work here.The reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is because it didn't hold my attention and I only enjoyed certain parts of it. I would imagine that it is more enjoyable for people that are still actively in the biblical scholarship world.
November 2, 2017
Super hard to read
I don’t know Latin. I didn’t understand the complicated arguments. I guess this maybe more for the scholar and academic.
I don’t know Latin. I didn’t understand the complicated arguments. I guess this maybe more for the scholar and academic.
April 7, 2020
Excellent scholarship. Unfortunately, it didn't really hold my attention and I only enjoyed certain parts. Probably better suited for active biblical scholars.
November 16, 2021
Translation was awful. Very hard to both understand and enjoy.
January 2, 2022
Forgot to add this when I finished. Annoying formatting and read too quickly for class. Need to read more slowly to soak it up I think.
May 16, 2024
entendí la mitad pero la mitad que entendí me gustó 😬
May 22, 2024
I am sure I didn’t give it five stars because so much of it was beyond my own comprehension. However, what I was able to grasp made the endeavor worthwhile.
April 3, 2018
great book
June 12, 2011
This is the hardest Balthasar book I've read -- which is saying something! I didn't do myself any favors by reading this over the course of many months. Still this is the densest of Balthasar's works I've read -- I haven't dipped into his famous Trilogy yet. I found his exegetical discussion of the Resurrection to be a bit disturbing. It seemed to give too much credence to the potential of embellishments and shading by the Gospel writers. The other complaint I have about this edition is that it uses endnotes rather than footnotes. Perhaps this is because Balthasar is prodigious with his notes, but I hated having to flip to the back of the sections to read the notes and by the final part, I simply read them after I'd finished the body of the section.
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April 25, 2015Breathtaking Vision of the Life, Death and Resurrection
Von Balthasar's extensive reflections upon the cross in relation to Israel, the church, time and space and the hope of redemption will require me to return again and again to sit with these insights. At the same, they call me again and again to bow before the glory of the Lord and worship Him in His beauty.
Von Balthasar's extensive reflections upon the cross in relation to Israel, the church, time and space and the hope of redemption will require me to return again and again to sit with these insights. At the same, they call me again and again to bow before the glory of the Lord and worship Him in His beauty.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews