The prolific and often eccentric Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) must surely be considered one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of the past century. The author of over 100 books, founder of a secular institute and a publishing house, and a tireless translator, Balthasar left a legacy that professional theologians are still grappling with nearly four decades after his death.
For many, Balthasar’s name conjures up associations with a conservative theological agenda. He was, to be sure, decidedly traditional on certain hot-button issues (like women’s ordination), and his influence on the thinking of both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI is well known: John Paul II, for instance, named him a cardinal (although Balthasar died mere days before the consistory at which he would have been formally installed), and Benedict XVI collaborated with him on numerous academic projects (for example, founding the journal Communio together with Henri de Lubac, S.J., in 1972). And yet, to think of Balthasar exclusively in these terms would be to overlook many of the most innovative and farsighted aspects of his theological project.
Balthasar, for his part, rejected the “nonsensical division of humanity into a ‘left’ and a ‘right’” and deliberately sought ways of encouraging greater “cooperation and heartfelt like-mindedness” within the church, especially during the most turbulent years of the 20th century. For instance, his celebrated 1952 book Razing the Bastions anticipated key ideas that would predominate 10 years later at the Second Vatican Council, such as the need for a more active role for the laity and a greater theological emphasis on the interrelation of the church and the world.
Even more fundamentally, his entire cast of mind tended toward creative ressourcement of perennial Christian truths. It was fruitless, he wrote in Razing the Bastions, to “cling tightly to [existing] structures of thought….A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power” and eventually “becomes dusty, rusts, [and] crumbles away.” Nor did he deny that this obligation extended to the very structures of the church, which must continually renew its mission in the context of the contemporary world and amidst the contingencies of history.
It was this side of Balthasar that most likely attracted the interest of a young Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was known to have read, cited and assigned Balthasar’s work during his years as a Jesuit rector, professor and novice master in Buenos Aires. The Jesuit Diego Flores, who knew Bergoglio since the mid-1970s, went as far as to call Balthasar “one of Francis’ favorite authors,” and scholars likeJacques Servais andMassimo Borghesi have carefully traced the Swiss theologian’s influence on the future pope. In fact, many aspects of Francis’ remarkable program of ecclesial renewal are prefigured in Balthasar’s vision for the church.
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Travis LaCouter is a postdoctoral research fellow at KU Leuven. His first book, Balthasar and Prayer, was published by T&T Clark in 2021.
With thanks to America and Travis LaCouter, where this article originally appeared.
