Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
Why Did Hans Urs von Balthasar Remain Catholic?

Why Did Hans Urs von Balthasar Remain Catholic?

Last updated on: February 18, 2016 at 12:36 pm by Artur Rosman

Why Did Hans Urs von Balthasar Remain Catholic? 2016-02-18T12:36:23-07:00 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.

This looks sane compared to some theological arguments, but von Balthasar says it’s been that way since at least St. Paul (Raden Saleh, Lion Attacking a Horse, 1840; Source: Wikimedia Commons, PD-Old-100).

If you think that Catholicism is in some special mess today, then you really have no historical perspective at all.

For example, when we admire their great beauty we frequently forget that the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar come to us from one of the most crisis-ridden times in Catholic history: Catholicism before Vatican II.

There was so much controversy and backroom dealing during the time that von Balthasar, clearly the most important Catholic theologian of the 20th century, was shut out of the Council, while a tertiary figure such as Hans Kung was invited and given a prominent role.

The blog Fully Christian gives us a surprising view of what that period looked like to an outsider (the author is a convert):

There is no way the Council could have caused the collapse of all denominations in Western Christianity, particularly those of our separated brethren in the Protestant world . . .

. . . Rather, it seems to me, that what really happened was this. Western Christianity was on the precipice of implosion in the 1950s, after the Second World War. The emerging new Western ‘religion’ of the 1950s was psychology and relativism. The plans to throw out tradition, and ‘modernise’ the Catholic Church were already in the works during the 1950s, as well as in the Protestant churches. The movement was gaining steam in the entire Western World. Then in the early 1960s, Vatican II happened, and it happened while Western Christianity was already imploding all around it. Had Vatican II never happened at all, the implosion of Western Catholicism would have been worse not better. I say this because, prior to the Council, most Catholics generally ignored the Scriptures, and saw Catholicism as a list of rules and traditions, not a living and breathing Church organism. As we have seen in recent decades, Catholics with this mindset cannot withstand the onslaught of Modernism on one hand (which tells them that tradition is obsolete), and Protestant Fundamentalism on the other hand (which tells them that Catholicism contradicts Scripture). On a personal note; as a former Protestant fundamentalist, I can attest that these are the easiest Catholics to convert. They have no concept of what Scripture teaches. They simply follow the rules of the Church. Once you break through that edifice, and show them that what they’re doing ‘appears’ to contradict Scripture, the whole Catholic edifice comes crumbling down rather quickly. I converted plenty of ‘good old fashioned’ Catholics in my day, some who went to the Latin mass and considered themselves ‘traditional’. It was easy pickings. Catholics need to have at least a cursory understanding of Biblical hermeneutics to survive both the onslaught of Modernists and Protestant Fundamentalists. Vatican II put an emphasis on this, and reoriented the Church accordingly.

Yet, we all know the Church did not magically stop being a mess after the Council. One example of this is von Balthasar’s essay “Why Do I Still Remain in the Church?” in the collection Elucidations:

Because, despite the high degree of idiocy we have displayed, the Church has miraculously managed to survive. Indeed, the greater the violence used against her the more radiant her inviolability; the more the Church is humiliated so much more clearly is she seen to occupy her proper place. Jesus and his apostle Paul often speak of the “lowest place.”

He then goes on to develop a Pauline account of a Church of sinners, both arguing against, but also implicitly giving a permanent place, to a particular group of Puritan complainers about the mess:

If they [the emotivist Puritans] refuse, I fail to understand how they can assert they are in the Church and not outside fighting against her. However, let us leave them to their fate or, better, to a gentle Providence who may open their eyes to this truth: a sinless, all-knowing Church that would sell off the old dusty one would be no Church at all but only a Montanist-Donatist-Pelagian sect not worth remaining in and having nothing in common with the Church of Jesus Christ. We leave them to draw that simple conclusion, and proceed to positive argumentation.

I remain in the Church because the old catholica still resembles the Church which leaps to the eyes from the pages of St. Paul’s Epistles and the Acts. Indeed, the resemblance is so striking as to be offputting. The very Corinthians whom Paul lauds “for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, be-cause in everything you have been enriched in him” (I Cor.1 ff.), he proceeds to denounce in chapter after chapter for forming cliques, for their arrogance and their incontinence, for loveless behavior at the Eucharistic party (the expression comes from a Swiss parish bulletin), finally for their denial of the Resurrection by attempts to rationalize it.

As you can see, this biblically affirms the Catholic mess. Ergo, even though the feces change, the script remains the same!

Those who argue a bland clarity without confusion are neither Catholic, nor biblical (not that the latter matters much).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you know German, then you’ll love the following film. Even if you don’t, you’ll learn something about von Balthasar by watching it:

You might also be curious why Holly Taylor Coolman and Emily Edmondson remain Catholic.

Please consider making a donation to this blog through the donation button on its homepage.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Stay in touch! Like Cosmos the in Lost on Facebook:

Cosmos the in Lost

#WhyRemainCatholic

Catholic

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Bible

Catholic

Hans Urs von Balthasar

History

theology

why am i still catholic

why remain catholic

Previous Post

October 22, 2015

TOP10 Books On Theology and Neuroscience

Next Post

October 25, 2015 Cosmos: Weakened Edition, 4

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

Who was the oldest person recorded in Genesis?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Noah Adam Jared Methuselah