Still Running Off at the Keyboard

BALTHASAR'S THEOLOGY

Can love alone be enough?

Fr. John R. Cihak explains Balthasar's theology in an article at Ignatius Insight titled "Love Alone is Believable: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Apologetics".

There is a picture of him at the bottom of the website. He looks young. In any case, he indicates that Balthasar studied under Jesuits Erich Przywara and Henri de Lubac. De Lubac is ranked among liberal theologians.

Is the idea that love is all we need credible in a world still suffering the effects of original sin? Can it even be possible without a corresponding concept of justice? Can we understand a love that is all in a culture such as ours which equates love with sex? Could Balthasar's love alone be a foundation for clergy sexual abuse? Those are just a few questions that the article raises in my mind. I don't have the answers.

In any case Fr. Cihak begins with this premise:

The greatest challenge I find in bringing someone to Christ and his Church is finding ways to engage him in meaningful conversation.

Talk of truth is often met with a yawn, and an assertion about what is good is met with a stare of incomprehension. In the malaise of contemporary American life, people do not seem to be moved much by claims of truth or goodness. Relativism has made truth to be whatever one desires, thereby turning the good into whatever makes one "feel" good. With access to these roads of Truth and Goodness into the human heart darkened by relativism, how can one engage the average non-believer? How can one place him on the road that would ultimately lead him back to the Truth and the Good?

Though people may glaze over when one makes claims of truth and goodness, their ears seem to perk up at the mention of beauty...

We are awed by beauty. But has truth and goodness really become irrelevent? Isn't the desire for truth and goodness what motivates man to seek faith?

In any case someone in the comments box asked for the name of Balthasar's community. It's given in the article as the Community of St. John. That community is described as "a community whose members take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience but live in the world engaged in secular professions." With that in mind, consider this passages from Gurdjieff's disciple and chief apologist P. D. Ouspensky's book titled IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS: THE TEACHINGS OF G. I. GURDJIEFF, in which he documents Gurdjieff's lecture on the Fourth Way:

In the next meeting G. began where he had left off the time before. "I said last time," he said, "that immortality is not a property with which man is born. But man can acquire immortality. All existing and generally known ways to immortality can be divided into three categories:

1. The way of the fakir.
2. The way of the monk.
3. The way of the yogi.

That passage can be found on p. 44. After expounding on each of these approaches to illumination, he explains Gurdjieff's Fourth Way:

The fourth way requires no retirement into the desert, does not require a man to give up and renounce everything by which he formerly lived. The fourth way begins much further on than the way of the yogi. This means that a man must be prepared for the fourth way and this preparation must be acquired in ordinary life and be a very serious one, embracing many different sides. Furthermore a man must be living in conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which create insuperable barriers to the fourth way. Furthermore, the fourth way has no definite forms like the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. And, first of all, it has to be found. This is the first test. It is not as well known as the three traditional ways. There are many people who have never heard of the fourth way and there are others who deny its existence or possibility.

At the same time the beginning of the fourth way is easier than the beginning of the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. On the fourth way it is possible to work and to follow this way while remaining in the usual conditions of life, continuing to do the usual work, preserving former relations with people, and without renouncing or giving up anything. On the contrary, the conditions of life in which a man is placed at the beginning of his work, in which, so to speak, the work finds him, are the best possible for him, at any rate at the beginning of the work. These conditions are natural for him. These conditions are the man himself, because a man's life and its conditions correspond to what he is. Any conditions different from those created by life would not be able to touch every side of his being at once. (p. 48-49)

Gurdjieff, like Balthasar, recommended a community in which members stayed active in the world. Did Gurdjieff influence Balthasar? I ask the question while keeping in mind that Gurdjieff's enneagram has become popular in Catholic spirituality as taught by Richard Rohr and the monks at Monastic Interreligious Dialogue/Centering Prayer. Additionally, two of those monks have lectured at the Gurdjieffian church, called the Church of Conscious Harmony. You can look at the following links for verification that Gurdjieff's system has invaded Catholicism.

Heart of Texas Contemplative Outreach (Here you can see that the Church of Conscious Harmony is on their schedule.)

The Church of Conscious Harmony (There is a picture of Gurdjieff here and an explanation of his Work.)

Their Sunday Service (The service includes Lectio Divina, centering prayer, and the Sacrament of Communion.)

Fr. Thomas Keating is pictured on their website.

The Core Beliefs page in their website indicates that "Man's basic nature, like God's nature, is absolute good." (What happened to Original Sin? Is it only coincidental that the exchange of original sin for original grace is being proposed in some Catholic circles?) "God is love and His love is eternally present." and "Love bears all." No counterbalancing characteristic of God's eternal being is offered. Yet God is more than love.

IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS discusses alchemy, reincarnation, clairvoyance and the Tarot. None of these can be found in Roman Catholic doctrine, yet they can all be found in esoteric Christianity and in Gnosticism which are nearly the same thing. They can also all be found in MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT.

Where did Balthasar get his ideas? From a channel named Adrienne von Speyer. What spirit did she channel?