Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) is considered by many to be the greatest theologian of the twentieth century. Balthasar is said to have been Saint John Paul II’s favorite theologian, and he was one of Pope Benedict XVI’s favorite theologians as well. Henri Cardinal de Lubac referred to Balthasar as “perhaps the most cultivated [man] of his time” and marveled at the breadth of the sources from which Balthasar drew in formulating his theology:
If there is a Christian culture, then here it is! Classical antiquity, the great European literatures, the metaphysical tradition, the history of religions, the diverse exploratory adventures of contemporary man and, above all, the sacred sciences, St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, patrology (all of it)—not to speak just now of the Bible—none of them that is not welcomed and made vital by this great mind. Writers and poets, mystics and philosophers, old and new, Christians of all persuasions—all are called on to make their particular contribution. All these are necessary for his final accomplishment, to a greater glory of God, the Catholic symphony.i
Aidan Nichols, O.P. has praised Balthasar as “a doctor of the Church for the postmodern age,”ii noting that “there is much [in Balthasar’s work]—incredibly much—to inspire a Catholic Christianity that seems often lacking in the power to move its adherents or attract what should be its converts—move and attract imaginatively, dramatically, intellectually.”iii
There is, indeed, “much here”—over one hundred books and innumerable articles and essays authored by Balthasar, running to a total of several tens of thousands of pages! Balthasar, in addition to being a highly intelligent and learned person, was obviously incredibly prolific as well. But what is even more impressive than the quantity of his output is its uniformly high quality. In one of the volumes of his multi-volume masterpiece, his trilogy on the beautiful, the good, and the true, Balthasar asserted that “only beautiful theology, that is, only theology which, grasped by the glory of God, is able itself to transmit its rays, has the chance of making any impact in human history by conviction and transformation.”iv Balthasar managed this feat with his own theology, but his deep humility would have precluded him from saying so. Balthasar’s theology is, indeed, “grasped by the glory of God” and is able to transmit at least some of the rays of that infinite glory.
The sheer magnitude of Balthasar’s oeuvre, combined with his immense erudition, can be somewhat intimidating to readers who are approaching Balthasar’s theology for the first time, but anyone willing to put forth a little effort to read any of his works will find those efforts to be richly rewarded.
The question is, where to start?
You could start with an introduction to Balthasar’s theology, such as Aidan Nichols’ A Key to Balthasar, which provides readers with a brief introduction to Balthasar’s treatment of beauty, goodness, and truth. Or you could begin with my book on Balthasar’s theology of love, The Meaning of the World Is Love, which includes many of Balthasar’s deeply insightful observations regarding the topic of love, drawn from over sixty of his books and articles. Alternatively, you could start directly with one of Balthasar’s books. Some of his works are considerably more accessible than others, but any of the following books would provide a good initial point of entry to Balthasar’s theology: Engagement with God, Love Alone Is Credible, Prayer, The Threefold Garland, You Crown the Year with Your Goodness, or You Have Words of Eternal Life.
However, my personal favorite among all of Balthasar’s books, and the one that I often recommend to people who are approaching Balthasar for the first time, is Heart of the World. This book, which Erasmo Leiva, the translator of the book, claimed “deserves a place next to the Imitation of Christ,”v exposes the reader to some central Balthasarian themes in a highly readable format. Those themes include the pervasive Christocentrism of Balthasar’s theology, his beautiful portrayal of the divine love and of God’s invitation to all human beings to share forever in the divine life and love, and God’s call to each of us to fulfill a unique mission of love within Jesus Christ’s overall mission of love to the world.
Balthasar once wrote that good theology should be inspired by prayer and should, in turn, inspire prayer.vi Heart of the World is and does both, in part because of the sheer beauty of its poetic language and in part because here, more than anywhere else in Balthasar’s writings, the fire of Balthasar’s own faith in Jesus Christ shines forth, as Leiva described so eloquently in his translator’s note to the book:
…the vibrant Christological poetry before us [in Heart of the World] is the epiphany of a lively faith that issues from the depths of the experience of God, a faith that cannot help but sing in a music of image, surprise, color, movement. These poetic elements go to shape a breathless hymn of praise whose continual invention and variety witness to the infinite richness of the object in question: the human Heart of God.vii
Perhaps the best way to encourage you to pick up a copy of Heart of the World is to quote, at some length, what I judge to be one of the most beautiful and inspiring passages in the book and, indeed, in all of Balthasar’s profound corpus:
Who can grasp the Lord’s meaning in his creation and beyond it? Who can tie up with a short string the unbounded bouquet of wisdom? Who can tame the jungle of his incomprehensibility? See how man’s spirit and whole being lies, like the bowl of an impetuous fountain, under the downpour of so many mysteries. Let it gush! By letting it gush you will grasp what you can, and what you can is to be a bowl for the flood. Open up heart and brain and do not attempt to clutch tightly. By being washed out you will become purified. The strange thing that flows through you is precisely the meaning you seek. …
Everything must enter this current, like icefloes that crack open under the sun with a roar and lose their own shape and roll out to the sea in a mighty tumble. But this movement is produced by the heartbeat at the Center, and what appeared to be a chaotic impulse is the blood circulating in the Body of the cosmic Christ.
This is the body in which you are to flow, letting yourself be driven ever anew as a drop through red ventricles and throbbing arteries. In this circulation you will experience both the futility of your resistance as you put up a struggle and the power of the muscle that drives you forward. You will experience the anguish of the creature that must humble and lose itself, but also the sheer joy of the divine life, which consists in being a closed circuit of endlessly flowing love. Washed along on the tide of the sacred Blood, you will encounter all things as pebble knocks against pebble in the cataracts of a mountain stream, but also in the way handsome sailboats cross on the gently changing landscape of a royal river. Pushed along in the detachment of dark solitude, you will learn to know that the communion of all beings among themselves is their contact with one another and their selfhood within the flowing channels of that Body. Thus related to all things and all natures, you will at last be able to commune with yourself, and by way of self-forgetfulness—that lengthiest of all detours—you will be brought to the festive Table of Offerings upon which you will find yourself lying as a stranger who is given to himself as a new gift. Expelled from the Heart, out to all the members of that colossal Body, you will undertake a voyage longer than any of Columbus’. But just as the earth rounds itself off into a ball, so, too, do the veins make a return to the Heart and love goes out and comes back eternally. Slowly you will master the rhythm, and you will no longer grow fearful when the Heart drives you out into emptiness and death, for then you will know that that is the shortest route to be admitted again into the fullness of delight. And when it pushes you away from itself, then you should know that this is your mission: being sent away from the Son, you yourself repeat the way of the Son, away from the Father and out to the world. And your way to remote places, where the Father is not, is the way of God himself, who goes out from himself, abandons himself, lets himself fall, leaves himself in the lurch. But this going out of the Son is also the going out of the Spirit from the Father and the Son, and the Spirit is the return of the Son to the Father. At the outermost margin of existence, at the furthest shore, where the Father is invisible and wholly hidden, there the Son breathes out his Spirit, whispers it into the chaos and the darkness, and the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. And hovering in the Spirit, the Son turns back to the Father glorified, and you along with him and in him, and the departure and the return are one and the same. Nothing any longer exists outside of this one and only flowing life.viii
Endnotes:
i Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J. “A Witness of Christ in the Church: Hans Urs von Balthasar,” in David L. Schindler (ed.), Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work (San Francisco: Communio Books/Ignatius, 1991), 272-273.
ii Aidan Nichols, O.P., Scattering the Seed (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2006), vii.
iii Aidan Nichols, O.P., Say It Is Pentecost (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2001), 212.
iv Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord II: Studies in Theological Style: Clerical Styles (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1984), 13-14.
v Erasmo Leiva, “Translator’s Note,” in Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1979), 9.
vi Hans Urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology I: The Word Made Flesh, (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989), 206-208.
vii Erasmo Leiva, “Translator’s Note,” Heart of the World, 8.
viii Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World, 211-214.
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A lot of beautiful poetic images, but then back to the “cosmic Christ” (which makes me squirm). Not sure where those remote places are “where the Father is not” but I admit to being more comfortable with that Thomistic path of hard-won virtue rather seeking a way to “commune with myself.” True, the path of self-forgetfulness is key, but I’ve found the motherhood slog requires me to be somewhat more prosaic in that effort, even as I tap into that “gushing fountain” of grace.
Thank you for an interesting essay.
The greatest theologian of the 20th century is Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP.
Yes, von Balthasar is a great mind, resourceful apologist, adventurous theologian. Appealing and yet possessing an edge puncturing the far side. Please don’t press why I’ve always felt a bit aloof. “What appeared to be a chaotic impulse is the blood circulating in the Body of the cosmic Christ” [Balthasar], although this I submit as one a posteriori reason why in unhappy memoriam of Cyrenaic Fr Arius. Christ is indeed universally present in the Spirit, although it’s imperative that we distinguish between his formal presence as God who keeps all in existence and his material presence when we chose to do his will, his moral presence in our heart.
Then there’s the universally attractive, simultaneously troubling, idea of a virtual nonexistent eternal condemnation for sin. As John Milton’s justification of Lucifer’s rebellion finds purchase among the poetic intellectual. But even there the plain desire for an emptied Hell though apparently opposite of revelatory scripture is itself benign even if dreaming. Now don’t fault me as one sided because I’ve quoted him in support of some of my comments. It’s just that I think the refined Alpine air of Schweiz can make even a genius a bit lightheaded
Approaching Balthasar must include approaching medical doctor and assumed mystic Adrienne von Speyr. Her life offers a reasonable, gifted, sensitive woman given to interior enlightenment, hands on charity. Calvinist Protestant with leanings toward Catholicism, she meets Jesuit Hans von Balthasar who convinces her of the truth of Catholicism. As her confessor Balthasar becomes both spiritual advisor and in a converse sense a disciple of von Speyr. He, impressed by her life, visions abandons the Jesuits and becomes cofounder with her of a Catholic lay society. On a positive plane she’s said to have good rapport with Romano Guardini, de Lubac, Hugo Rahner. Perhaps on the far side she touted that the lay organization was their [her’s and Balthasar’s] child.
Much of what Hans von Balthasar developed theologically is drawn from the mystical experiences of Adrienne von Speyr. Should we raise the question of true or falsely inspired theology? Theology must stand on its own legs, but only if consistent with revealed truth, however if theology is speculative its source, here largely von Speyr, as David alludes below requires prudent hesitance and close scrutiny.
Balthasar needs to undergo much more critical analysis. It’s almost strange how much he is a sacred cow of “conservative” Catholics, who seem not to want to entertain criticisms of his life and work; and those who have can find themselves censored or ignored, which once even occurred on this site, when a positive review of a book by Ralph Martin on the various problems with Balthazar was swiftly taken down. (At least the editors admitted it’s because they didn’t want to have bad p.r. as they are the sole publisher of Von B.’s corpus in english translation.)
The fact that more and more he based his work on the alleged revelations of von speyr- a seriously flawed methodology- is often just described as a strange way of doing theology! He even came to say it was inseparable from Speyr’s “experiences.” There is also the questionable nature of many of said revelations, which at this point in time especially can be judged to be seriously doubtful, in so far as they involved prophecies that have not come true. Some of their content is odd and in conflict with accepted views- universalism being one infamous example- and so the lack of questioning of them is again, strange; and how could one so readily put so much stock in work based so much on alleged private revelations? Here we find a kind of circular logic often employed- Balthasar vouched for these revelations at the time, so they must have had some legitimacy right?
Some scholars have now argued with some conviction that Von B. did misuse some Tradition, such as the Fathers, to support the claims he wanted to make to advance Von Speyr’s “revelations.” In the flawed methodology, instead of finding support for an idea in Tradition, he started with an alleged revelation, then went back to try to dig up, perhaps, create, some support for it. Again, that conservative theologians will tend to dismiss this methodology as just an oddity is baffling.
The strange nature of the relationship between Von B. and speyr has also escaped scrutiny. This includes the fact that he took it upon himself to largely be the judge of the revelations, rather than having other third parties do so, which would have been a basic prudential call. Here again the dubious logic often employed- Balthasar vouched for these revelations at the time, so they must have legitimacy? Perhaps now that a cause for beatification has been considered, such scrutiny will take place. At the least, room for open debate should be allowed and not shunned, as arguably has happened to some degree.
Right on, dear David.
The prolonged intellectual (& domestic) proximity of vB and vS triggers alarm bells. vS’s impanation interpretation of the Holy Eucharist (uncorrected by vB) should have been enough to cause unease in every wise Catholic. Professor Ralph Martin discerns the dangers here: heterodoxy readily arises in spiritual tete-a-tetes bereft of sound episcopal oversighting.
vB’s much publicized ‘hope’ is absurd without him believing it’s POSSIBLE for that hope to be realized in the future. Yet, if vB’s ‘hope’ did result in everyone in fact being saved, that would flatly contradict statements in The New Testament & in the Church’s magisterial wisdom incorporated in our Catechism of the Catholic Church.
That is, vB (inspired by vS) prefers his own innovations to The Apostolic Witness to Christ’s holy revelation. The truth is: we are instructed that Judas is lost in Hell (or will be). Propagating a hope of everyone being saved is a hope for the Apostolic sources of revelation to be false and it’s a ‘blinding insight’ that sets aside the natural law principle of noncontradiction.
The ‘hope’ of vB throws out the natural law & unchangeable truth as known by The Church. At base, it doubts our Faith and the main sources of revelation, preferring its own speculations (within a matrix of self-referential books, articles & wordiness).
Our LORD Jesus Christ & His Holy Spirit-anointed Apostles taught that Judas and others are in Hell (or will be). vB’s ‘hope’ for universal salvation is thus a hope that The LORD made erroneous statements.
As with many sacred texts, it’s impossible to think that in Matthew 25:46: “And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.”, the LORD Jesus is somehow referring to universal salvation. Then there’s: “. . the broad way to perdition that many take” in Matthew 7:13; expanded on in verses 49-50, with the angels of God preserving the just and throwing the wicked into the blazing furnace.
Jesus Christ instructs: “You are from below; I Am from above. You are of this world; I Am not of this world.” John 8:23. “Anyone who loves their life loses it; anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.” John 12:25. “. . the Holy Spirit of Truth who the world can never receive . .”. John 14:17. “If you belonged to the world the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My choice withdrew you from the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 16:19. “I Am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You;”. John 17:9. “Jesus replies: ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world . .'”. John 18:36. ” . . the world, with all it craves for, is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains forever.” 1 John 3:17. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of The Father is not in those who love the world.” 1 John 2:15. “. . don’t you realise that making the world your friend is making God your enemy.” James 4:4. ” . . so that we may not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:32b. “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:16. “And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” Revelation 21:2.
Clearly, this wealth of Apostolic witness against the world and for the heavenly City of God, is contradicted by vB’s theology (subject to vS’s spiritism) as in their: ‘The Meaning of the World is Love’, ‘Heart of the World’, and piles of similar New Age-influenced stuff, dressed up as Catholicism.
Richard Clements, almost worshipfully, provides us with the grotesque image (deriving from vS’s knowledge of circulatory physiology) of saved souls as blood corpuscles being batted around the blood vessels of a cosmic christ. SO inappropriate, in that, far from being eternal, blood cells are constantly broken down and replaced by different ones. In contrast, the beautiful truth is that those who are found in Christ, have ALL of Him, forever. Praise God!
That these wealthy, aristocrats, amidst a coterie of ‘innovative’ theologians were and still are influential among some of the highest Catholic leaders goes a long way in helping us comprehend the sources that have subverted the beautiful & awesome truths we have inherited from the Apostolic witnesses to our LORD’s instructions and life of exemplary self-giving love. “You are not to allow yourselves to be called ‘teachers’, for you have only one Teacher, the CHRIST.” Matthew 23:10.
For Catholics committed to evangelism and working for the healing of divisions between Christians, the vB/vS ‘insights’ are hugely unhelpful.
Sound advice to every sincere Catholic, clergy & lay: “Base all your theology on a detailed knowledge of The New Testament and The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Measure every other claim to faith, truth, beauty, & love by THAT standard. Compost all that doesn’t collate!”
Always seeking to hear & lovingly obey King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
If you can access Nova et Vetera, Thomas J. White has this invaluable article: Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God, Nova et Vetera, Summer 2006 (Vol. 4, No. 3).
Card. Dulles’ 2003 article in First Things is online without fee. The article is fair and fairly comprehensive. http://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-population-of-hel
The universalist theory tends to peril; it may well mislead the average pew-sitting 1x/year mortally sinful confession-visitor into presumptuous thinking: God is so good, so full of infinite love that He could not possibly allow a weak human to suffer eternally.
Thank you for pointing to the White article, quite helpful!
You are very welcome.
Everybody is a theologian just as everybody is a scientist. The point is that the best theologian necesserly weave all of God’s work aka knowledge he/she comeacross using the axiom God and this tapestry’s perfection is proportional to his/her holiness aka sincerity to the Truth, that is his/her willingness to raise the hitherto conceived omnipotence of hitherto imagined God to account not only his/her nagging doubts but that of lesser faithfuls, who are also living up in this world by the same God, our Father till death. In other words, ones Faith is reflected in his theology, and one who got true Faith aka Hope for everlasting life must have a theology surpassing that of Jesus or Paul at this time considering God has run this world another 2000 years!
True but not without God.
Also, false, in so far as you’re trying to supplant Aquinas or make him too diffuse or antiquated.
Same for the way you reference Jesus and Paul.
Fr. John Saward, who has also written extensively on Von B, recently did an interview where he too expressed serious concern with the thought of Von B. His comments on the Catholic Culture podcast are worth listening to.
Yes, Fr. Saward is a good resource- he translated some of his work and is quite familiar with it. He actually says he is now embarrassed by the fact he used to hold Von B in such esteem and thinks a number of the latter’s ideas are heterodox, while he does not think his thought can used in theologizing along with other standard sources. Perhaps this will come to be the general position- people will come to ask themselves how they could have put such stock in Von B.’s thought. Like a lot of material that came out at that time, it is somewhat historically conditioned on fads/movements present at the time; and even moreso, conditioned on the claims of a single person, Von Speyr. The latter fact should make people very cautious, yet strangely it necessarily doesn’t. I think it’s like the same dynamic we see in progressive circles- although Von B. also adopted some “progressive” dynamics himself- people are taught in seminary or somewhere by some professor who likes Von B., or Rahner or whomever as the case may be, and someone in turn passes it on to new students.
“Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.”
If you pray this prayer in between decades of your Rosary, you are in essential agreement with Balthasar’s theological writings. If Balthasar strikes you as heretical, be honest and stop praying the Fatima prayer, since you neither believe what you say nor want it to come to pass.
Nonsense – you can’t cherry pick the Fatima prayer and set it against the other revelations of Fatima that say hell is not empty. The prayer can easily be taken as a prayer that all (as in each) currently living on earth be saved – which is in principle possible – not as an prayer that everyone in the past has been saved. In addition to Our Lord’s words about Judas’ damnation, we have at least one papal encyclical, the prayers of the traditional Roman liturgy, and the Catechism of the Council of Trent saying Judas is in hell, as well as the dominant theological tradition (Fathers and Doctors).
Larry Chapp addressed this very point on his most excellant blog:
“Our Lady at Fatima told the children to pray that God will ‘lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.’ Had she not already shown the children that there are lots of people in Hell, mainly because of sins of the flesh? Was Our Lady therefore being cheeky here in this prayer? Was she contradicting herself? Was she leading the children into a satanic deception? Why would she ask them to pray for something she knew from her heavenly vantage point to be untrue and impossible? To pray for the salvation of all is to hope for the salvation of all. But perhaps we are meant to pray this way with our fingers crossed and with the wry smile of ‘one who knows better.’ Perhaps we are not meant to really take the Church or Mary seriously here and must add our own ‘qualifications’ and ‘distinctions’ that neither the Church nor Mary make, lest our hope for “all” really be construed as a hope for all. We can’t after all, allow our hope to be overly exuberant and joyous here can we? We can’t really entertain the hope that God’s universal will to save all will actually bear fruit, can we?”
It amazes me that after the JP2/B16 era, we’re still having these debates about Von Balthasar. Like the secular clergy of 13th century France who burned St. Thomas’ works in the streets, we are happy to condemn that which we do not understand because it is new. The comment section of this website begins to ressemble the article at WPI and the National Catholic Reporter in having the shared disdain for the Wojtylan era of Catholic theology. Never mind that brilliant minds like Aidan Nichols, whom this website lauded just a week or so ago, has done a titan’s work in studying and researching the teachings of V2 and Von Balthasar, and showing that a synthesis of tradional pre-conciliar theology with ressourcement theolgy can indeed be done.
Praying that God lead all “souls” to heaven is more a prayer for God to take POOR SOULS out of purgatory. Most moderns don’t nowadays think much about purgatory, but the Church does still teach it. Traditional Church teaching is that our prayers DO HELP souls out of purgatory and into heaven. AAMOF, the Church dedicates the entire month of November to reminding and encouraging the Church Militant to pray for its many Suffering members.
So do you think that prayer is ineffective in regard to souls here on Earth? Or that your prayers are ineffective to help not only souls currently in purgatory, but souls on Earth, yet to be born, or already dead?
I think that God’s will is sovereign. On Holy Thursday, Jesus prayed that the cup would pass from him. Was his prayer ineffective? What do you think?
Somewhat curious about Balthasar since watching an interview with Bishop Robert Baron where this theologian — a critical inspiration of VCII formulations — was discussed at length.
Based on the lengthy quote from Balthasar in this appreciation of “Heart of the World”, I must muse that the gobbledygook pronouncements of recent popes on the many topics they’ve addressed seem to be modeled on the inchoate poetry of this theologian. Readily acknowledging that Balthasar is an intellect much beyond mine, I would simply propose a thought experiment suggested to me within one of the comments above. Take the simple statement addressed to children by Our Lady at Fatima, “I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not continue to offend Our Lord, Who is already too much offended.”, and set it beside the passage quoted from Baltazar — or any of the innumerable similar quotes that can be extracted from post VCII papal encyclicals, addresses at papal audiences, or the most recent fruit from that fruitful tree on “Infinite Dignity” — and ask which conveys the greater lesson, or the necessary lesson, or provides fodder for composition if one hundred books to nourish the Church with theological truths to foster the blossoming of faith.
The Church was shaken by the Reformation and the readiness of the reformers to provide resplendent truths in the common language. Masking the essential matter by whipping a lot of air into it does not improve the visibilty of the essential matter. Just saying.
“Just saying” and RIGHT ON, dear Webster B.
A self-destructive track, ever since cleverness & political astuteness were promoted in our Catholic clergy, to replace holiness and Christ-relatedness.
The clever and astute clergy then demand worship from the flock and forget their commission to humbly teach what Jesus and His Apostles taught; most importantly: that in season & out of season we joyously give all glory to The Holy Trinity.
Saint Francis of Assisi & his brothers who built the mission of Saint Juan Capistrano would recognize the authenticity of this wholehearted proclamation of Gospel truth.
Matt Redman – Even Still Even So (Live from the Mission) (youtube.com)
Always in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
This is all I can find on Aidan Nichols O.P. for now, that would be usefully informative. WIKIPEDIA is a simple biographic.
It seems to say he stresses on “modern theology” although he questioned Amoris as jeopardizing Rome’s “reputation” over “doctrinal clarity” and “holding a place in the confessional scheme”.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/recalling-the-church-to-its-mission-apologia-a-memoir-by-fr-adrian-nichols/
Couldn’t agree with you more, Genevieve. Balthasar appears to have a dazzling intellect, yet the above quotations sound more like Buddhist-influenced Gnosticism to my ear than any Christianity I recognize. I do wonder what this erudite man taught regarding the nature of evil, the nature of sin, and soteriology – and the relationship of all these things to love. Moreover, I do wonder what kind of thinker writes over 100 books?