Theo-Drama, vol. IV: The Action
Overview
Having presented his Christology and Mariology under the sign of the “Dramatis Personae” in volume three of Theo-Drama, von Balthasar now turns to the action of the divine drama itself. Here we find his soteriology, where time, freedom, history, power, sin, and conflict are seen in the light of the Cross, the culmination of the action and passion of God and man.
As Balthasar expresses it in the conclusion to his preface: here “we discern the unity of ‘glory’ and the ‘dramatic’. God’s glory, as it appears in the world—supremely in Christ—is not something static that could be observed by a neutral investigator. It manifests itself only through the personal involvement whereby God himself comes forth to do battle and is both victor and vanquished. If this glory is to come within our range at all, an analogous initiative is called for on our part. Revelation is a battlefield. Those who do battle on it can only be believers and theologians, provided they have equipped themselves with the whole armor of God (Eph 6:11).”
With the Logos edition the reader has an abundance of resources that offer applicable and insightful material for their study. You can easily search the subject of theological dramatic theory to access an assortment of useful resources and perspectives from a variety of pastors and theologians.
Key Features
- Insight on the unity of “glory” and the “dramatic”
- Discusses that only “in Christ” theological persons can exist at all
Top Highlights
“As a result of biblical revelation, however, the ‘numinous’ dimension in man’s relationship with the universe is finally ‘clarified’, that is, shown to speak of Christ, and the world is ‘secularized’ (in a correct sense) and shown to be God’s ‘other’, God’s partner. Thus the world’s relation to the Paternal (and trinitarian) Origin is infinitely heightened: its journey through meaning and time is illuminated by having a beginning and an end, an Alpha and an Omega. Christians must always be aware of this context whenever there is talk of a ‘secular world’.” (Page 444)
“even the sinner’s alienation from God was taken into the Godhead, into the ‘economic’ distance between Father and Son” (Page 381)
“On the one hand, in the realm of the immanent Trinity, the glory the Son has regained through his passing through darkness is the same glory he possessed with the Father ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Jn 17:5). On the other hand, it is also true that his humanity only comes to share in this glory through the dramatic act of the economic Trinity, by being finally opened to all (in the Eucharist) and drained (ultimately, in the opening of his heart).” (Pages 362–363)
“Within the Trinity, God’s all-powerful love is also powerlessness, not only giving the Son an equal, divine freedom but also giving the creature itself—the image of God—a genuine power of freedom and taking it utterly seriously. What it does mean is that, because of the Son’s all-embracing eucharistia, God cannot be entangled in some kind of tragic role; he is not torn in two, which would signify a persistent, unconquerable hell in God.” (Pages 330–331)
Praise for the Print Edition
Balthasar’s most important works, at least in his own eyes, are not his writings but his foundations.
—Peter Henrici
. . . meeting Balthasar was for me the beginning of a lifelong friendship I can only be thankful for. Never again have I found anyone with such a comprehensive theological and humanistic education as Balthasar . . . and I cannot even begin to say how much I owe to my encounter with him.
—Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Product Details
- Title: Theo-Drama, vol. IV: The Action
- Author: Hans Urs von Balthasar
- Publisher: Ignatius
- Publication Date: 1994
- Pages: 511