Tuesday, October 11, 2005
BENEDICT ON BALTHASAR ACCORDING TO ZENIT
A reader sent in a link to this Zenit article. It reports on the address Benedict made to the international congress on von Balthasar. I have some questions about its content.
1. The congress is entitled "Love Alone is Credible". Ok, love is good. But does that mean that justice is not credible? Is God not a God of perfect justice?
2. There is a glaring ommission in his statements. Von Balthasar's seer, Adrienne von Speyer, is not mentioned. Balthasar would not be Balthasar without Speyer. He made that clear before his death. So why is von Speyer such a well-kept secret? Why is no credit whatsoever given to her in these praises of von Balthasar? That seems to be a gross injustice.
Not only is no credit given to her, I know of no evidence that an inquiry into sainthood of von Speyer has been opened. Neither have her revelations been given Church approval. In fact those groups keeping track of which mystics have Church approval and which do not don't even seem to know she existed. Yet Benedict indicates that he and Balthasar "undertook numerous works together" and had a "common commitment in theological research." Could Benedict have been ignorant of Balthasar's source?
3. Benedict tells us that Balthasar "sought the traces of God's presence and his truth everywhere: in philosophy, in literature, in religions..." What religions did he search? Did he believe that the Catholic faith was lacking in some way and so he looked to other religions to fill the gaps? And if so, why?
4. Zenit tells us that Benedict believed Balthasar was "always breaking those circuits which often imprison reason, opening it to the realms of the infinite." So Benedict has alluded to Balthasar's seer. Why then did he not come out and say it--Balthasar relied on a visionary for his theology. Why the injustice to von Speyer?
He alludes to it in another place in the Zenit report as well.
A theology conceived in this way led von Balthasar to a profound existential reading. For this reason, one of the central topics to which he dedicated himself with pleasure was to show the need for conversion. Change of heart was a central point for him; only in this way, in fact, is the mind freed from the limits that prevent it from acceding to the mystery and the eyes become capable of fixing their gaze on the face of Christ.
Was von Balthasar also a visionary? Perhaps he was:
The example that von Balthasar has left us is rather that of an authentic theologian who had discovered in contemplation the coherent action in favor of Christian witness in the world.
What does one do in contemplation but gaze on the face of God? Unless, of course, one gazes on the face of an angel or a disembodied spirit. There are no guarantees. Which is why Orthodox mystics fear the experience and do not like to talk about it.
