It has been a long break from my Balthasar project. In 2007 I began this project with the intent of reading his trilogy, The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic. Life events have gotten in the way. Yet Hans Urs von Balthasar continues to tug on my spiritual strings and so I return, picking up where I left off, at Volume 7 of The Glory of the Lord. I pray the Lord provides me the time and the determination to complete my project.
In the prelude to Volume 7 Balthasar describes it's purpose. He describes this work as unconventional and seemingly "amateurish" to professional theologians, but states, “ … it is more important to get at all costs to a
point from which we can see the essential matter, than to lay down orderly
roads that lead to that point.”
“It is considerably harder to clear a path in the new
covenant to the prospect we seek, than in the old covenant; the latter unfolds
in a history that can be followed clearly through centuries, but the new
covenant bunches everything together into the shortest space of time, in the
midpoint of which stands the breakdown-point which can be delimited in external
chronology as the ‘Triduum Mortis’, but which internally means that time has
come to an end and that there is a new beginning such that all temporal
categories of ‘end’, ‘midpoint’, and ‘beginning’ are shattered; and this means
that not only the main subject (the theological content of the fate of Jesus),
but also the position of the existentially involved observer (the Christian who
seeks to understand his faith, in order to live it) slip away at the very point
where they ought to be made secure. But
it is not our concern to get a secure place to stand, but rather to get sight
of what cannot be securely grasped, and this must remain the event of Jesus
Christ; woe to the Christian who would not stand daily speechless before this
event! If this event truly is what the church believes, then it can be
mastered through no methodology …." (Bold emphasis mine)
For an explanation of the Balthasar's concept of Triduum Mortis see his work, Mysterium Paschale.
It has been a long break from my Balthasar project. In 2007 I began this project with the intent of reading his trilogy, The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic. Life events have gotten in the way. Yet Hans Urs von Balthasar continues to tug on my spiritual strings and so I return, picking up where I left off, at Volume 7 of The Glory of the Lord. I pray the Lord provides me the time and the determination to complete my project.
In the prelude to Volume 7 Balthasar describes it's purpose. He describes this work as unconventional and seemingly "amateurish" to professional theologians, but states, “ … it is more important to get at all costs to a
point from which we can see the essential matter, than to lay down orderly
roads that lead to that point.”
“It is considerably harder to clear a path in the new
covenant to the prospect we seek, than in the old covenant; the latter unfolds
in a history that can be followed clearly through centuries, but the new
covenant bunches everything together into the shortest space of time, in the
midpoint of which stands the breakdown-point which can be delimited in external
chronology as the ‘Triduum Mortis’, but which internally means that time has
come to an end and that there is a new beginning such that all temporal
categories of ‘end’, ‘midpoint’, and ‘beginning’ are shattered; and this means
that not only the main subject (the theological content of the fate of Jesus),
but also the position of the existentially involved observer (the Christian who
seeks to understand his faith, in order to live it) slip away at the very point
where they ought to be made secure. But
it is not our concern to get a secure place to stand, but rather to get sight
of what cannot be securely grasped, and this must remain the event of Jesus
Christ; woe to the Christian who would not stand daily speechless before this
event! If this event truly is what the church believes, then it can be
mastered through no methodology …." (Bold emphasis mine)
For an explanation of the Balthasar's concept of Triduum Mortis see his work, Mysterium Paschale.
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