Customer Reviews

Love Alone Is Credible

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This small book, first published in 1963, can serve as an entry point to von Balthasar's vast and sometimes intimidating oeuvre.

Its first two chapters critique the cosmological and anthropological arguments for God's existence. Because the author presumes a more than passing familiarity with European philosophy, this section may be tough sledding for some. But keep reading. The bulk of the book is an accessible exploration of the primacy of love in Christian faith and life.

Essentially, Von Balthasar seeks to remind modern Christians that God's absolute love in Jesus Christ is the source, center, means, and goal of the Christian faith. In light of this love, the dogmas of Christian orthodoxy are seen not as distant and restrictive abstractions but as liberating preconditions for human fulfillment.

There is inspiration as well as intellectual challenge here. Love Alone is Credible asks its readers to contemplate anew the heart of the Christian faith, and to venture forth transformed.

It is difficult to know where to begin in von Balthasar. Until recently, I had usually recommended Mysterium Paschale, because the topic (Holy Saturday) is seldom written about in depth, and because the book is simply beautiful.

But now this is the volume I will recommend. It is a brief introduction to von Balthasar's overall project, especially his magnum opus, the multi-volume The Glory of the Lord. It is an unusual kind of apologetic work, yet it is compelling.

It may be especially helpful because it charts a course between the Scylla and Charybdis of the "credible" options- the Roman Catholic tradition or Protestant sola scriptura, and posits a third way, the love itself, Trinitarian and therefore encompassing of us as well.

Von Balthasar's writings are like good wine. They require time. Don't try and plow through this little book trying to extract the key points. Rather, soak in it. Read and reread and reread the passages.

Almost like a liturgy, the rythmn of his thought gradually begins to weave around into the rythmn of your own thoughts. The goal of the book is simple and in the title: love alone is credible. Not thought, not subjective experience, not service, not great theology, but love fully expressed in the absolute kenosis (self-emptying/self-giving) love of the Son.

I hate to write too much about the content except to say that it is worthy for reading multiple times. As I was reading this book, I realized in a deeper sense why that it is better to read a few book over and over instead of reading many books on a superficial/intellectual level.

Love Alone is Credible is a good start to understanding the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. It stands as a summary of his intriguing and important theory of the conjunction between beauty and love. Love Alone is Credible is a short, yet dense, introduction to his von Balthasar's larger corpus of work.

I was entranced during the entire reading of Balthasar's book. I never was able to break free from the amazing awe I had both at the amazing learning that Balthasar demonstrated in his writing, but, more importantly, I could sense his unrelenting passion to see the world transformed through the redeeming power of God's absolute love made concrete in the God-Man Jesus Christ. His drive to escape both the 'cosmological' and 'anthropological' reductionistic strategies that have plagued Western reflection for the past few thousand years is quite inspiring. The thing, beyond all of these points above that really made me fall in love with this book can be summed up in this quote,

"But it is equally impossible to expect something like a new cosmic harmony from New Testament love. The principle, as we have repeatedly shown, cannot be reduced to man as a governing center. God remains the center, and man is drawn beyond himself toward the absolute as it manifests itself. He "possesses" love only insofar as love possesses him, which means that he never possesses love in such a way that he could describe it as one of his powers, which lies at his own disposal. To be sure, this does not mean that love remains external to him , but if it does not, it is only because love itself takes possession of him in his innermost heart... Love "organizes" him, not the other way around; it makes man, who puts up constant resistance, into its own instrument. If he ever becomes acquainted with love, he will be careful not to say that he has it. He will at most dare to repeat John's word, as the Church as Bride herself does: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14).

To say the least, I can not recommend this book strongly enough. I will be forever changed by its unwavering commitment to divine love and our need for it.

Review originally posted at:[...]

This was recommended to me by a seminarian friend of mine. I had never heard of the author before but he certainly is a good modern theologian. Here is an excellent treatise on the primacy of Primal Love over subjective human experience, acknowledge, or any sort of external action. He attacks the concept of a general elevation of societies towards God, and knowledge being adequate to understand God. He maintains love encapsulates all of these, and the rest are proven to be insufficient in dealing with The Other by themselves.

This was a hard read, though a short one. It was a little to do with some of the difficult language used but also because of the format of the work. There is severe overkill of parenthesis where there should have been footnotes, and kills the flow of reading. Also, the typeset is much too large, and the book should only be about fifty of so pages. Really, it would have been better as part of a collection of theological essays than as a book in and of itself.

Extraordinary. In "Love Alone is Credible" von Balthasar answers the biases of our modern philosophical mindset (such as rationalism: the solitary pre-eminence of human reason, intellectualism: the reduction of thought to a play of words without necessarily proceeding fruitful action, historicism: the reduction of truth to the movement of history, immanentism: the reduction of truth to MY experience, materialism: the reduction of truth to material things and conditions.... man's obsession with himself and his own power), point by point, from every possible angle. He shows that love alone is credible. Only love can be believed. And insodoing gives a wide sketch of catholic-christian doctrine.

Such a broad and persuasive view; the book is awesome. But, it is exceptionally difficult. I read every paragraph twice in order to understand.

If you are a follower of modern philosophy, who loves Jesus, this is the book for you!