Wednesday, June 15, 2005
VON BALTHASAR’S AFTERWORD
to Meditations on the Tarot
The passage presented at the above link is section I verbatim from the book. I thought it would be interesting to unpack it.
A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us the symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis and magic, taking in also the Cabbala and certain elements of astrology and alchemy. These symbols are summarised in the twenty-two so-called "Major Arcana" of the Tarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to lead meditatively into the deeper, all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery.
Firstly, it may be recalled that such an attempt is to be found nowhere in the history of philosophical, theological and Catholic thought.
Might there be a good reason for that? Might it be because he is proposing a “new philosophical, theological, Catholic thought”?
The Church Fathers understood the myths born from pagan thought and imagination in a quite general way as veiled presentiments of the Logos, Who became fully revealed in Jesus Christ (which once again Schelling undertook to show at length in his later philosophical work).
What did the Church Fathers understand about the “myths born from pagan thought and imagination”? Some of you have read more of the material from the Early Church than I have. Please chime in.
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers this:
Nature Worship generally, and Agrarian in particular, were unable to fulfil the promise they appeared to make…. Much might have been hoped from these religions with their yearly festival of the dying and rising god, and his sorrowful sister or spouse: yet it was precisely in these cults that the worst perversions existed. Ishtar, Astarte, and Cybele had their male and female prostitutes, their Galli: Josiah had to cleanse the temple of Yahweh of their booths…
Are we now to believe that the Early Church Fathers did a 180 on the beliefs of the Jews? Does this strike anyone as questionable?
Returning to the Afterword:
Origen in particular, completing this line of thought, undertook as a Christian to elucidate not only the pagan philosophical wisdom in the light of Biblical revelation, but also the "wisdom of the rulers of this world" (I Cor.ii,6), by which he meant the so-called "secret wisdom of the Egyptians" (especially the Hermetic writings supposedly written by "Hermes Trismegistus". the Egyptian god Thoth). He also had in mind the "astrology of the Chaldeans and Indians...which purports to impart knowledge concerning supersensible matters" and nothing less than the "manifold teachings of the Greeks concerning the Divine".
From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
Whatever exists outside of God was created by Him: the Alexandrian catechist always defended this thesis most energetically against the pagan philosophers who admitted an uncreated matter…
More to the point, however, is this passage from the entry:
Were Origen and Origenism anathematized? Many learned writers believe so; an equal number deny that they were condemned; most modern authorities are either undecided or reply with reservations.
Can we say “controversial” here? Yes, I believe we can. Yet von Balthasar seems to be giving us what he considers to be an untarnished work when he cites Origen.
Back to the Afterword:
He believed it possible that the cosmic powers ("rulers of this world") do not bring their wisdom to human beings "in order to harm them, but because they themselves hold these things to be true". [1]. Similar ideas are to be found in the work of Eusebius (cf. Praeparation evangelica).
“Cosmic powers”? So the nuns got it from von Balthasar? Rulers of this world bring their wisdom to human beings because they hold these things to be true. Yes, they certainly do hold these things to be true. But whose truth are we talking about here? The “rulers of this world” oppose Christ.
Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so tht you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.(Eph. 6:10-12)
That is the most I have time for at the moment, but I'll come back to this.
