Customer Reviews

The Von Balthasar Reader

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In its original German, this book filled an essential need among the reading public. Unfortunately, the English version hobbled itself with a clumsy translation, one that a general reader unfamiliar with the Tuetonic style of the translators will have trouble deciphering. Moreover, the translators also decided to drop several of the essays, under the pretext (in the 1980's!) that some of those essays would "soon" be appearing in English. But by now, that is true of almost all of the selections chosen in the Reader. And yet, the presence of essays and selections scattered all over the place is precisely the readon for a Reader in the first place! Now the publishers have brought out the book again, unchanged and still truncated and abridged. The introductory essay is worth reading, but the the reading public would be better advised to read some of Balthasar's own shorter works that summarize his thought rather than trying to make sense of this densely and woodenly translated Reader.

Yes, this anthology is garbage. The previous reviews nailed it - the translations are awful, and the selections give at best a sketchy view of the man's thought. For a good introduction, you're better off reading Fr. Oakes' Pattern of Redemption and the three volumes by Aidan Nichols (The Word Has Been Abroad, No Bloodless Myth, and Say it is Pentecost) along with the essays in the four Explorations in Theology volumes and volume one of VB's Theo-Logic, The Truth of the World. Then, jump in and read The Glory of the Lord. Just remember, pace yourself and keep breathing...

It seems like that most readers who try to understand Balthasar might want to have a structural grasp of his aesthetic-dramatic-logic trilogy in his own words. However, the selections are presented in traditional Catholic categories of God, Jesus, Church etc. which usually cannot easily convey the main thrust of the theologian's project. I bought this book together with Edward Oakes' <Pattern of Redemption> and I found myself spending all my time reading Oakes' intro rather than this reader. This book is a complete disappointment for me.

The von Balthasar Reader. Edited by Medard Kehl and Werner Löser
Translated by Robert J. Daly and Fred Lawrence
New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985 and 1997
Pp. 437. Paper. $14.95

Review by Reverend Brian Van Hove, S.J.
Alma, Michigan
Published in Review for Religious, 46/5 (1987): 790-791

For some years now, Ignatius Press of San Francisco has chiefly popularized the works of von Balthasar, so it is good to see yet another publishing house making a contribution. Many would consider the venerable Swiss to be the greatest living Catholic theologian, which presents any reviewer with two immediate problems. The first is that no "reader" could ever be adequate to represent the thought of this great intellectual whose works already span more than sixty productive years. The second is that the complexity of Balthasar's theology will perhaps never be captured in any translation. As a kind of historian of German culture, Balthasar will always be idiomatically German.

The introduction to the book is a fine essay by Medard Kehl which calls itself a portrait. The main purpose is to trace the roots of Balthasar's own intellectual formation in four people: Erich Przywara, Karl Barth, Henri de Lubac and Adrienne von Speyr. Balthasar himself calls Przywara the greatest mind he was ever privileged to meet. On the other hand, the relationship he had with Adrienne von Speyr changed the course of all his work and thinking since 1940. She was a mystic, a medical doctor and a convert to Catholicism. Her influence on him would definitively keep his work away from the rationalistic and tie it into the spiritual. As Kehl says: "This ultimate mystery of faith is simply not capable of being `dissolved' by theological reasoning."

The organization of this book is under five headings: God, the Human Being, the Church, Life in Faith and Consummation. Most of the selections are between two and seven pages. Any one of them could serve as a daily meditation and deserves to be reread for yet another insight. Balthasar is both erudite and intuitive, and he is demanding. His own synthesis is his trilogy of theological aesthetics, Herrlichkeit, an enterprise in the making since 1961. Bits of this, of course, appear in our reader-anthology. There are also included some pieces from his controversial works and lesser writings. We do have a good sample in that sense. It is fitting that the editors end their task on a transcendent note, namely, the love which is beyond this life. One is tempted to recall the legend about St. Thomas Aquinas who was supposed to have said late in his life of his theology that "it is all straw."

This book is surely of value to anyone already interested in Balthasar, and may also serve as a guide for someone, lay or religious, who would like to become acquainted with him. It is worth the effort. It is also a consoling experience to read who can so beautifully express the ageless truths of the Catholic faith.