Hans Urs von Balthasar and Weakness as Apologetic Form

Last updated on: May 1, 2014 at 11:46 am by Artur Rosman

Hans Urs von Balthasar and Weakness as Apologetic Form 2014-05-01T11:46:33-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Stephen Bullivant suggests this shirt I saw on Resurrection Sunday 2006 might not blow people away. I also saw Owen Wilson next to these guys. I don’t know how to work that into this thread.

Christians are not immune to the desire to come across as powerfully convincing in what they proclaim. Shouldn’t the New Evangelization be about finally speaking clearly and powerfully to a culture of death? What’s there not to like about powerful rhetoric that blows away your competition by exposing them for the stupids they are? But what if in your victory you end up losing?

That’s a paradox I’ve proposed in my latest (von Balthasar inspired) Ethika Politika piece, “Apologetics and the Perversity of Reason.” It combines examples from Richard Dawkins with a plea to David Bentley Hart to tone down his rhetoric. It’s part of a larger conversation I started in “Neither Nye, Nor Gopnik.”

I’ll only add that Stephen Bullivant’s new book Faith and Unbelief rounds out these reflections (for now) by arguing that the New Atheists, especially the “Ditchkins” duo so hated by Terry Eagleton, provide Christians with the following important services precisely by reducing Christians to the dust they are:

a) The New Atheists keep us honest about our history by pointing out how scandalously dreadful it has frequently been.

b) They remind us how scandalous it is to believe in a scum of the earth Messiah who was executed brutally and then somehow came back from the dead.

Keeping these wounds exposed, instead of covering them up and running away from them, is one way of taking up the cross of becoming an Alter Christus. I think this is part of what Jean-Yves Lacoste means in From Theology to Theological Thinking when he provocatively says, “Balthasar did not hesitate to say that the only adequate Christian response posed to Nietzsche was by Therese of Lisieux.”

Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote a whole book about Therese and Elizabeth of the Trinity and their unique witness of weakness.

Beauty

Catholic

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Apologetics

David Bentley Hart

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Jean-Yves Lacoste

Previous Post

April 29, 2014

The Consequences of Real-Existing Capitalism for Fertility

Next Post

May 7, 2014 Science Doesn't Think: Neil deGrasse Tyson Busts a Move on Philosophy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which harvest festival is also called the Feast of Booths?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hanukkah Purim Passover Sukkot