By Hans Urs von Balthasar
First Glance at Adrienne Von Speyr
A personal introduction to Adrienne von Speyr, a contemporary Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor, author and co-foundress of a secular institute. Fr. von Balthasar, her spiritual director for 27 years, includes an appraisal of her contributions, a complete bibliography, her prayers, and passages from her more than sixty books.
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A Short Primer for Unsettled Laymen
Von Balthasar addresses the critical issues facing today’s Catholic layman in a clear and readable manner. Speaking plainly on those ideas and questions which have unsettled many of the Catholic faithful, he brings much needed clarity into the contemporary confusion.
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Bernanos
This book is a double-treat: it combines the genius of the towering theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and his ability to make his subject come alive with the focus of that genius on someone with the spiritual depth and creative stature of Georges Bernanos, perhaps the greatest Catholic creative writer of the twentieth century.
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Christian Meditation
Through Christian meditation, we enter with mind and heart into God’s self-disclosure. In Jesus, God reveals his own inner depths to us. At the same time, because Jesus is God-made-man, he also reveals our inner depths to ourselves. This is both a book about meditation and a book on how to meditate.
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Convergences: To the Source of Christian Mystery
In an age of theological fragmentation, Hans Urs von Balthasar urges a reintegration of theology. The increasing specialization and compartmentalization to which theology has been subjected leads to confusion and disunity. He also argues against an imprudent simplification of theology by throwing away allegedly useless accretions.
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Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor, saint and martyr, is the theologian of synthesis: of Rome and Byzantium, of Eastern and Western theology, of antiquity and the Middle Ages. He reexcavated the great treasures of Christian tradition, which at that time had been buried by censure. This is the first English translation of the latest edition of this acclaimed work.
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Credo: Meditations on the Apostle’s Creed
In the twelve months before his sudden death, Hans Urs von Balthasar had been writing a series of reflections on the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed. These texts, which are undoubtedly among the last things he wrote, take on the character of a legacy, a spiritual testament. What he had set out in detail in numerous books over five decades, he summarizes here in contemplative plainness and simplicity.
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Dare We Hope (2nd Ed)
Critics contend that von Balthasar espouses universalism, the idea that all men will certainly be saved. Yet, as von Balthasar insists, damnation is a real possibility — for others but also for ourselves. At the same time, he contends that a deep understanding of God’s merciful love and human freedom, and a careful reading of the Catholic tradition, point to the possibility — not the certainty — that, in the end, all men will accept the salvation Christ won for all.
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Does Jesus Know Us? Do We Know Him?
Only one who is convinced that he knows Jesus as a person and that Jesus has personal knowledge of him has truly entered into his Christian faith. Balthasar sets forth and explains the Scriptural evidence for our ability to know the Lord.
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Elucidations
Among the topics that von Balthasar addresses are the mystery of God, the role of the saints and the Marian principle, the nature of Tradition and Authority, the Pope, the Priesthood, the nature of religious life, unity among believers, the subject of why one should remain in the Church, and more. Each of the twenty-five chapters focuses on a particular topic.
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Engagement with God
From the true Christian there radiates the kind of freedom that is constantly being sought after by the non-Christian. In modern times, the freedom of man is a theme that preoccupies everyone. As opposed to those whose search for freedom urges them onward into a barren void, the Christian stands as the messenger of freedom accomplished and a freedom attainable by all.
Epilogue
The great trilogy of theology by Hans Urs von Balthasar includes The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic. His Epilogue, a single volume, is the closing of his masterwork, giving final details and overview to the prior volumes in the trilogy.
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Explorations in Theology, Vol. 1: The Word Made Flesh
The first of four volumes of von Balthasar’s many essays and conferences. Each focuses on a specific aspect of theology or spirituality and presents it with all the richness which comes from his immense erudition, but in a style that is directed and intelligible, since few of these essays were intended for scholarly audiences.
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Explorations in Theology, Vol. 2: Spouse of the Word
In this volume, von Balthasar looks at the Church, “the Bride of Christ,” as both unspotted and unfaithful, the Church of saints and of sinners. He goes through Scripture and tradition looking at both sides of the Church and what they mean.
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Explorations in Theology, Vol. 3: Creator Spirit
In this third book, Balthasar presents various ways in which something of the Creator Spirit should be experienced through his manifestations: in the way in which he leads human persons to the living God (“Faith”), in the way in which he distinguishes the spirits of this time (“Crisis”), in the way in which he initiates into the mystery of the Incarnate One (“Night”), and more.
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Explorations in Theology, Vol. 4: Spirit and Institution
The first part of the book looks at who man is, and then examines the distinctively Christian experience of God. The second part focuses on the Church, including topics like celibacy and the priesthood today, how we should love the Church, and understanding Christian mysticism. The third and final part is an eschatology in which Balthasar gives a brilliant summary of heaven, hell and purgatory.
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Explorations in Theology, Vol. 5: Man Is Created
In this final volume, Balthasar focuses on the purpose of man as created by God. Divided into two parts, “Praise, Reverence, and Service” and “Before God’s Face — In God’s Heart,” some of the many topics Balthasar covers include: The Serenity of the Surrendered Self, On the Christian’s Capacity to See, Health between Science and Wisdom, The Person, Sexuality, and Death, The Dignity of Women, and more.
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Heart of the World
A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.
In the Fullness of Faith: On the Centrality of the Distinctively Catholic
Virtually every aspect of Catholicism which is controversial within the Church or a stumbling block to non-Catholic Christians is treated in this book. Rather than avoiding what is most glaringly un-modern or what is most criticized by non-Catholics, Balthasar reviews these elements one by one, and shows how they are rooted in the central Christian mysteries and the commonly accepted tradition.
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Love Alone is Credible
In Hans Urs von Balthasar’s masterwork, The Glory of the Lord, the great theologian used the term “theological aesthetic” to describe what he believed to the most accurate method of interpreting the concept of divine love, as opposed to approaches founded on historical or scientific grounds. In this newly translated book, von Balthasar delves deeper into this exploration.
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Mary: The Church at the Source
Two great theologians endeavor to recover the centrality of Marian doctrine and devotion for the contemporary Church, offering a spiritually rich approach to Mariology. Ratzinger and von Balthasar show that Mary is both the embodiment of the Church and the mother who co-operates in giving birth to the Church in the souls of believers.
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Mary for Today
Fr. von Balthasar provides a profound and concise spiritual guide for all who desire to know and love the Mother of the Lord. The acclaimed theologian gathers from the Sacred Scriptures and the rich tradition of the Church to present a portrait of Mary that shows her importance and relevance for Christians today. This work is beautifully illustrated with lovely silhouette drawings by artist Virginia Broderick.
My Work: In Retrospect
“Von Balthasar’s theological universe … grew so vast that every decade he had to draw a road map of the work accomplished in his titanic enterprise. To the reader venturing into the thicket of the hundreds of books, articles, and editions in which he realized his project of overcoming the modern gap between nature and grace, these guides have become indispensable. This collection presents them all in one volume.” —Louis Dupre, Yale University
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New Elucidations
Balthasar provides illumination on the burning issues of our day. He brings his scholarship to bear on some of the major topics of our time: Women Priests, Humanae Vitae, the Laity, and the “Flight into Community”, and much more.
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Our Task
This book describes the common task which Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr undertook, the founding of a secular institute: The Community of St. John. He also describes their common theological work and explains the theology and role of secular institutes.
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Paul Struggles with His Congregation: The Pastoral Message of the Letters to the Corinthians
Commenting on the pastoral questions taken up by Saint Paul in his letters to the Corinthians, Hans Urs von Balthasar offers a meditative interpretation of Paul’s writings and difficulties with the Christians at Corinth. He discusses the different roles of pastors and believers, and we see how the problems are resolved through Paul’s advice, example and prayerful patience.
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Prayer
This is perhaps the best and most comprehensive book on prayer ever written. From the persons of the Trinity through the Incarnation to the Church and the very structure of the human person, this book is a powerful synthesis of what prayer is and how to pray. The testament of a great theologian on something which is most personal and interior, contemplative prayer.
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Priestly Spirituality
Again and again, in his theological writings, Hans Urs von Balthasar has addressed the fundamental issues of office and ministry, of priesthood and discipleship. He has uncovered the foundations from a biblical and theological historical perspective and has offered answers to the current problems of priestly existence.
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Principles of Christian Morality
In this collection of essays, Balthasar presents nine basic principles of the Christian moral life. Ratzinger, who originally wrote this essay as a series of articles for L’Osservatore Romano, addresses the relationship between faith and morality, and the place of the Church’s teaching authority with regard to moral issues.
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Razing the Bastions: On the Church in this Age
Written in the 1950s, this book defines and anticipates, in a prophetic way, the role of the laity in the Church, and the intimate relationship between the Church and the world. Von Balthasar’s “bastions” are barriers erected over the centuries which separated the laity from the clergy and the Church from the world. He pleads for a Church that allows herself to be awakened by the Holy Spirit and by the age.
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Romano Guardini: Reform from the Source
As an introduction to Guardini, von Balthasar’s study is intended to challenge readers to take up Guardini’s own writings and to find in him the wisdom that has inspired so many others. Many of Guardini’s influential works are still in print today, works that cover a wide range of important spiritual, theological and moral issues.
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Test Everything, Hold Fast to What Is Good
Von Balthasar speaks from the heart in an illuminating interview with Angelo Scola, now a high ranking Vatican Cardinal, giving his views on some of the most controversial topics of the day: the Jews, the anti-Roman attitude, sexuality, liberation, theology and others, all in a clear, concise and readable manner.
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The Christian and Anxiety
In these dense and luminous pages, Balthasar enters into intimate dialogue with contemporary thought and in particular its existentialist expression. For Balthasar, the Christian faith does not offer a ready made response, but is simultaneously a journey through the torment of the cross and the liberation from fear by the gift of grace.
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The Christian State of Life
One of von Balthasar’s masterworks, this book is a profound meditation on the Christian’s call to choose a state of life according to God’s will.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 1 (2nd Ed): Seeing the Form
This magnum opus opens with a critical review of developments in Protestant and Catholic Theology since the Reformation which have led to the steady neglect of aesthetics in Christian theology. From here, von Balthasar turns to the central theme of the volume: the question of theological knowledge. He gives due place to the particular kind of ‘knowing’ which develops within the personal relationship of the believer to Jesus Christ. Also available as an ebook.
The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 2: Studies in Theological Style: Clerical Styles
In volumes II and III, von Balthasar offers ‘a typology of the relationship between beauty and revelation’ which shows ‘that there neither has been nor could be any true great and historically fruitful theology which was not expressly conceived and born under the constellation of beauty and grace’. Volume II offers a series of studies of earlier representative figures — Irenaeus, Augustine, Denys, Anselm and Bonventura.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 3: Studies in Theological Style: Lay Styles
Volume III contains studies of Dante, John of the Cross, Pascal, Hamann, Soloviev, Hopkins and Peguy.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 4: The Realm of Metaphysics in Antiquity
Here, von Balthasar considers the metaphysical tradition of the contemplation of Being. He provides major studies of Homer, the Greek Tragedians, Plato and Plotinus and the development of this tradition in the Middle Ages. The book is a remarkable attempt to rediscover the ancient vision of Being as the context within which the specifically Christian vision took form and was expressed.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 5: The Realm of Metaphysics in the Modern Age
In this second volume on the metaphysical traditions of the West, von Balthasar presents a series of studies of representative mystics, theologians, philosophers and poets and explores the three main streams of metaphysics which have developed since the ‘catastrophe’ of Nominalism.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 6: Theology: The Old Covenant
Starting with the theophanies of the Patriarchal period, this volume shows how such glory is most fully expressed in the graciousness of the Covenant relationship between and Israel. But the breaking of that relationship by Israel means that in the later books of the Old Testament, the divine glory is seen in God’s willingness to bear with his people in the dark side of their history.
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The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 7: Theology: The New Covenant
In this final volume of his great work, von Balthasar reflects on the New Testament vision of God’s revelation of his glory in Christ. Christ is the man who represents God and is also God; he is a symbol of the world and is also the world. He dies, but in dying rises into the eternal life of God. It is in Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection that the joining of God and the world in the new and eternal convenant is realised.
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The Grain of Wheat
Unique among his works, this is a collection of short, personal and very readable reflections and aphorisms on the central themes of the Christian spiritual life. Balthasar’s style—intimate, lucid, precise and yet poetic, along with the intensity of his contemplative vision—invites every reader to meditate deeply on the fullness and dynamism of Christian truths in all their splendor.
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The Laity in the Life of the Counsels
Overcoming the dualism between the Church and the world requires a decisive engagement: the yeast must disappear into the dough in order to become bread, but this bread must in turn be consecrated to God. This book, which is a collection of essays von Balthasar wrote over a period of forty years, makes apparent like no other the significance of secular institutes and their fruitful potential.
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The Moment of Christian Witness
Balthasar puts his finger on the precise origin of all those elements in modern Christianity which see the real Jesus Christ as unknowable, the Gospels as merely the confused reflections of later Christians, and Christian tradition as a perpetuation of the mythology.
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The Office of Peter And the Structure of the Church, 2nd Edition
On the one hand, the Papacy is not “above” the Church, nor is the mystery of the Church reducible to the Papacy. On the other hand, writes von Balthasar, the Petrine ministry of the Pope is a crucial element among other indispensable, constitutive principles, which include what von Balthasar calls the Johannine and Pauline dimensions, and above all else the Marian aspect of the Church.
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The Scandal of the Incarnation
St. Irenaeus (born about 130 A.D.) offers a critique of Gnosticism, the ‘anti-body’ heresy, which, far from dying out, continues to flourish as the main threat to the Christian faith in our own day. Quotations have been arranged thematically in order to show the unity of his Christian view of the world. The texts have been selected and are introduced by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
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The Theology of Henri De Lubac
Hans Urs von Balthasar prepared this overview of the theology and spirituality of Henri de Lubac, whom he calls friend and master, on the occasion of the latters’s eightieth birthday. Beginning with personal reflections drawn from the then unpublished pages of “memoirs” which de Lubac placed in his hands, von Balthasar offers a review of all the major works of de Lubac.
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The Threefold Garland
Von Balthasar offers meditations on the mysteries of Rosary, explaining that he hopes to “free the prayer of the Rosary from a certain narrowness, alien to Mary’s own spirit and easily leading to monotony, and to nourish it … with the fullness of God’s saving thoughts and saving deeds for the world.”
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Theo-Drama, Vol. 1: Prologomena
This is the introduction to the second part of the trilogy which is von Balthasar’s major work. In this first volume von Balthasar shows how many of the trends of modern theology (e.g. “event”, “history”, “orthopraxy”, “dialogue”, “political theology”) point to an understanding of human and cosmic reality as a divine drama.
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Theo-Drama, Vol. 2: Dramatis Personae: Man in God
This volume describes the actors, the dramatis personae, on the stage of the real universe. This is von Balthasar’s theological anthropology concerning man, his freedom and destiny in the light of biblical revelation. He approaches the dramatic character of existence as a whole, considering the various conditions and situations of mankind as a drama that involves both the Creator and his creatures.
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Theo-Drama, Vol. 3: Dramatis Personae: Persons in Christ
This third volume of Theo-Drama is considered the most central book of von Balthasar’s entire theological project. It contains his synthetic treatment of the central mysteries of the Catholic Faith: Christ, Mary, the Church, man and the Trinity. The various elements of von Balthasar’s theological reflection converge here; it is both a one-volume compendium of this theology and a key to his trilogy and other writings.
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Theo-Drama, Vol. 4: The Action
In this fourth volume, von Balthasar turns to the action of the divine drama itself. Here we find his soteriology, where time, freedom, history, power, sin, conflict are seen in the light of the Cross, the culmination of the action and passion of God and man.
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Theo-Drama, Vol. 5: The Last Act
This is the final volume of this series on “theological dramatic theory” by the great 20th century theologian He maintains that it is in the theater that man attempts a kind of transcendence to observe and to judge his own truth about himself. He sees the phenomenon of theater as a source of fruitfulness for theological reflection on the cosmic drama that involves earth and heaven. This fifth volume is trinitarian, focusing on the mystery of God.
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Light of the World
It is not only the Catholics who attend Sunday Mass, but also the priests who preach at Mass who feel overwhelmed by the three scripture readings in which for the most part only the first from the Old Testament and the third from the Gospel have any interconnection, while the second from the apostolic letters stands by itself. This book seeks to present the common theses that connect all three of the readings for Sundays and feasts of the Lord in the three year cycle of readings.
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Mysterium Paschale
This is an account, at once rigorously theological and warmly devotional, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and their significance for the Christian life. Von Balthasar offers sharp insights into some current controversies—for example, the ‘bodiliness’ of the Resurrection—and spiritual inspiration for the year round.
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The Theology of Karl Barth
Written in 1951 (with a second edition in 1961), this book takes its place within an impressive array of attempts to wrestle with Karl Barth’s theology from a Catholic point of view. The book adopts the twofold strategy of presenting an exposition of “the whole of Barth’s thought,” while doing so for the purpose of a confessional dialogue among theologians.
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Theo-Logic, Vol. 1: Truth of the World
Theo-Logic is the third and crowning part of the great trilogy of the masterwork of theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, following his first two parts, The Glory of the Lord and Theo-Drama. Theo-Logic is a variation of theology, being about not so much what man says about God, but what God speaks about Himself — the concrete and mysterious richness of a personal and loving God.
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Theo-Logic, Vol. 2: Truth of God
Theo-Logic is the third and crowning part of the great trilogy of the masterwork of theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, following his first two parts, The Glory of the Lord and Theo-Drama. Theo-Logic is a variation of theology, being about not so much what man says about God, but what God speaks about Himself — the concrete and mysterious richness of a personal and loving God.
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Theo-Logic, Vol. 3: The Spirit of Truth
Theo-Logic is the third and crowning part of the great trilogy of the masterwork of theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, following his first two parts, The Glory of the Lord and Theo-Drama. Theo-Logic is a variation of theology, being about not so much what man says about God, but what God speaks about Himself — the concrete and mysterious richness of a personal and loving God.
Also available as an ebook.
Tragedy Under Grace
In Tragedy Under Grace, Hans Urs von Balthasar presents a magisterial portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the European Catholic renaissance, the historian and man of letters, Reinhold Schneider, whose response to the spiritual collapse of the West led him to Christ and to an interpretation of history in the light of the cross.
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Truth Is Symphonic
Von Balthasar shows the tension between the necessary unity in Christianity and the diversity that should and must exist. Today, when most people talk about pluralism and really mean dissent and rebellion, von Balthasar shows how genuine variety is both possible and desirable within Catholic unity.
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Two Sisters in the Spirit
Von Balthasar’s unique volume on Thérèse of Lisieux and Elizabeth of the Trinity presents a theological biography of each of these holy Carmelite sisters which gives profound insights into their spirituality, showing that their differences actually complement one another. Balthasar probes the depths of the contemplative mission of each of these young Carmelites who both died in their twenties.
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Unless You Become Like This Child
After giving us the numerous weighty tomes comprising the theological trilogy, von Balthasar, as a kind of last will and testament, proclaims to a self-important and dreadfully earnest generation of contemporaries that only that person is lastingly wise, thoroughly fulfilled, who allows God’s mercy to give him second birth and surround him for good with maternal care.
You Have the Words of Eternal Life
The highly-respected Swiss theologian provides short, profound meditations on numerous scriptural passages throughout the New Testament. The simplicity and wisdom of these meditations demonstrates that, although he was a great theologian, von Balthasar was deeply interested in sustaining the spiritual lives of modern men and women in this difficult time of the Church.
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You Crown the Year with Your Goodness
Originally broadcast on the radio, the homilies in this volume span decades and represent some of the best of Father Hans Urs von Balthasar’s preaching. They are arranged to correspond with the Church’s liturgical calendar, and include homilies on major feast days of Christ, his Mother, and the liturgical seasons.
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Life Out of Death
Death and dying are inseparably linked with life. They are self-evident and at the same time cannot be grasped by reason alone — they are ordinary, and yet so incredible. In these meditations, the acclaimed theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar investigates this great mystery. He asks about the contradiction of wishing to achieve something “imperishable in transitoriness” and gives an answer culled from the Scriptures and from the Church Fathers.
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To the Heart of the Mystery of Redemption
In the 1960’s, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar gave two conferences in Paris on the subject of redemption. One considered the perspective of Christ the Redeemer. The other gave a view of the redemption from the perspective of Mary and the Church, consenting to the sacrifice of Jesus. These two conferences are what Fr. Jacques Servais, S.J., in his foreword calls “a lantern of the Word”, shedding light amidst the advancing turmoil of the postconciliar period.
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With Contributions by von Balthasar
Josef Pieper: An Anthology
Josef Pieper has himself compiled this anthology from all his works. He has selected the best and most representative passages and arranged them in an order that gives sense to the whole and aids in the understanding of each excerpt. He is a philosopher who writes in the language of common sense, presenting involved issues in a lucid and simple manner.
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Mary: God’s Yes to Man
The development of traditional Marian dogma in the light of the present day bears the Pope’s unmistakable personal stamp. This encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, draws predominantly from Sacred Scripture and the central documents of the Second Vatican Council. There is a particular emphasis on ecumenism.
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The Scandal of the Incarnation
St. Irenaeus (born about 130 A.D.) offers a critique of Gnosticism, the ‘anti-body’ heresy, which, far from dying out, continues to flourish as the main threat to the Christian faith in our own day. Quotations have been arranged thematically in order to show the unity of his Christian view of the world. The texts have been selected and are introduced by Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Also available as an ebook.
About Hans Urs von Balthasar
A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century
In this wide-ranging and ambitious volume, Robert Royal, a prominent participant for many years in debates about religion and contemporary life, offers a comprehensive and balanced appraisal of the Catholic intellectual tradition in the twentieth century. The Catholic Church values both Faith and Reason, and Catholicism has given rise to extraordinary ideas and whole schools of remarkable thought, not just in the distant past but throughout the troubled decades of the twentieth century.
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