Hipótesis

particular, and larger theological project, in general, the first thing that should be noted is the strong emphasis that is placed on these dimensions in the opening sections of the first volume of his dramatics. From the very first pages of this work, it is clear that when he speaks of ‘the good’, it should be understood to include the socio-political realities of this world. This is also then confirmed by Balthasar’s inclusion of ‘Orthopraxy’, which, according to John de Gruchy, could be seen as another term for ‘Liberation Theology,277 _{as well as ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Political} Theology’ in his discussion of contemporary theological trends, which will provide the building blocks of his theodramatic theory. All three of these trends, as seen in our discussion in the previous chapter, have strong socio-political focuses, which Balthasar does not shy away from, but actively explores and engages with in the light of his proposed theodramatic theory. It is also in the context of this introductory discussion that Balthasar states that one of the main

275 _{Quash, ‘Hans Urs Balthasar’s “Theatre of the World”,’ 27.} 276 _{Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Volume I, 119.}

aims of his dramatics is to “do justice to concrete Christian existence in its personal, social, and political dimensions”.278

When reading through the five volumes of his dramatics, it is indeed then seen how Balthasar, while developing different aspects of his theodramatic theory, sporadically addresses, and engages with, various socio-political issues. Examples of this include his discussion on how ‘the struggle for the good’ has been portrayed on the theatre stage throughout the ages; how drama has the ability to place certain ethical demands on people’s lives; and how the Christ- event, through which the kingdom of God breaks into the world, challenges earthly kingdoms, and asks for the “removal of injustice”, the countering of “racial discrimination”, and the ending of “repression of classes or people”, while bringing about “hope” for the “poor and the oppressed”.279 _{It is, however, also the case, as some commentators have noted,}280 _{that at certain} key moment in his dramatics, especially in the last three volumes, Balthasar seems to be oddly quiet about the possible socio-political implications of his thought.

It is often suggested that one of the main reasons behind Balthasar’s hesitation to address socio- political matters at certain key points in his theodramatic theory, is the number of uncertainties he harboured with regards to Liberation Theology at the time; uncertainties that would have been fuelled on by his friendship with Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI,281 _{and should also be understood against the larger political developments in the world} and in Germany, where the GDR ruled with an iron fist in the East. In one of the last interviews Balthasar ever conducted, he explicitly stated that, for him, ‘Liberation Theology’, with its “preferential option for the poor”, is the most promising development in Catholic theology today,282 _{but in the years leading up to this assertion, Balthasar raised a few concerns about this} ‘theological movement’ out of Latin America, most notably in a short, almost detached section in Theo-drama IV,283 _{and in an essay titled ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation}

278 _{Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Volume I, 119.}

279 _{Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Volume IV, 422; Theo-Drama, Volume V, 176-66.}

280 _{See Walatka, Von Balthasar and the Option for the Poor, 1-20. See also Thomas G. Dalzell, ‘Lack of Social}

Drama in Balthasar’s Theological Dramatics,’ in Theological Studies 60, no. 3 (1990): 457-75.

281 _{Ratzinger’s opposition towards Liberation Theology is well documented. With Ratzinger as prefect, the}

Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, for example, published at least three official statements that critiqued certain aspects of Liberation Theology: “Ten Observations on the Theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez” (1983), “Introduction on Certain Aspect of the ‘Theology of Liberation’ (1984), and ‘Introduction on Christian Freedom and Liberation’ (1986). All of these texts are collected in Liberation Theology: A Documentary History, ed. Alfred T. Hennelly (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1990).

282 _{Balthasar, ‘Last Interview with Hans Urs von Balthasar’ (Ignatius Press YouTube Channel), from the 53}rd

minute onwards. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygKIWUa-iLM [Accessed 20 November 2018].

History’.284 _{These concerns included, amongst other things, that the theological tradition would} be replaced by contemporary sociological, and especially Marxist, analyses; that the whole of salvation history would only be seen and understood in socio-political terms; and, most importantly, that a dangerous Prometheism would take hold of Christianity, where everything would depend on humankind’s own, self-initiated actions on the world stage.285

With regards to these concerns of Balthasar, the following could be said: On the one hand, his words of caution definitely carry some weight and should not be dismissed out of hand, as someone like John de Gruchy has argued.286 _{There is always the danger that Christianity can} be co-opted for, and reduced to, certain promethean ends, in which one man-made kingdom is simply replaced by another. On the other hand, it should also be said that Balthasar’s warnings do not really seem to apply to any of the prominent liberation theologians of his time, and that if he had put more effort into reading the works of, say, Gutiérrez, or Sobrino, or Boff, he would have come to different conclusions much earlier.287 _{What is, however, interesting and} important to take note of is that, even while Balthasar was voicing these concerns, he also, in the very same texts, strongly affirmed and applauded Liberation Theology’s focus on the plight of the poor, the destitute, and the oppressed. He even remarked that, in its “summoning of” the Christian’s “crucial, world-transforming cooperation”, Liberation Theology “reveals the dramatic situation of the Christian in this world, as perhaps nothing else does” – a remark which, as Walatka notes, is “no small praise for someone constructing a theodramatic theology”.288 _{While Balthasar believed that the Christ-event and the coming of the kingdom of} God should not solely be construed in socio-political terms, as he was afraid Liberation Theology might try to do, he remained convinced that socio-political liberation still formed an

284 _{For an insightful treatment of Balthasar’s reading of Liberation Theology (which expands on everything said}

in this short discussion), see Kevin Mongraine, The Systematic Thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar: An Irenaean

Retrieval (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002)166-74.

285 _{For Balthasar, this temptation to place the focus on humanity own actions and initiatives, is not only}

problematic because he believes that true liberation (also then understood politically), should be grounded in what God does (principally through Christ); but also because he is quite sceptical about humanity’s ability to bring about the ‘good’ on the world stage on their own, without digressing back into exactly the same unjust, power- hungry and oppressive ‘systems of rule’ that was once fought against. For Balthasar, as Rowan Williams writes, the “world is not a world of well-meaning agnostics but of totalitarian nightmares, of nuclear arsenals, labour camps and torture chambers”. Whereas the coming kingdom of God, “built on the foundation of” Jesus Christ, is always marked by ‘weakness’ (as emphasised above), earthly kingdoms that are built up by humanity (even then by those initially fighting against injustice), usually succumb to the lure of ‘power’. As “the will-to-power increases with each success”, Balthasar writes, “it is hardly possible to say where working for sheer survival [will turn into] working for the sake of pure domination”. See Rowan Williams, ‘Balthasar and Rahner,’ in The Analogy

of Beauty, 11-34 (here 33); and also, Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Volume IV, 482-3.

286 _{De Gruchy, Christianity, Art and Transformation, 131-33.}

287 _{See Walatka, Von Balthasar and the Option for the Poor, 66; and also, De Gruchy, Christianity, Art and}

Transformation, 134-5.

essential part of Christianity’s larger message.289 _{In the section on Liberation Theology in Theo-}

drama IV, he thus writes, that it is the “strict Christian duty to fight for social justice on behalf of the poor and the oppressed” – a work “according to which the Christian, and indeed everyone, will be judged”.290 _{He also repeats this sentiment in his essay, ‘Liberation Theology} in the Light of Salvation History’, where he declares that the political “liberation of the poor and the oppressed … is one of the signs demanded of the Christian”,291 _{and that, since Jesus} “sides with the poor”, the Church, too, “must by preference side with the poor”.292 _{In “practical} terms”, he continues in the same essay, Christian should shape “the world as a whole in a manner conforming with Christ”, and indeed “convert hearts to their political responsibility”, so that the “conversion of structures” could be affected.293 _{The only effective way to “convert} the structures of the world from sinfulness and to transform them”, he declares, is “by the – dramatic! – collaboration of all”.294

Even though Balthasar thus expressed some concerns about Liberation Theology, it can confidently be stated that he did not ever waver in his belief that the drama of the Christ-event is focused towards, and intrinsically tied to, the lives of those who are hungry, poor, and oppressed.295 _{In an important and oft-quoted passage, Balthasar asserts:}

Whoever is concerned about the demolition of injustice, lovelessness, and hard- heartedness in any shape or form – by helping the poor, by really taking up the cause of the rights of the proletariat … by fighting for the elimination of war, of nationalism, of racial hatred, or against whatever there is of unbearable injustice in the world – stands right at the place where one encounters God (in Jesus Christ).296

The thoughts expressed in this passage are not unique, but permeate numerous of Balthasar’s writings, especially those who are closely related to his theodramatic project. This has hopefully been seen throughout this chapter, where I – together with the work Theo-drama itself – consulted numerous other texts such as the essay ‘The Beatitudes and Human Dignity’, and well as books such as Mysterium Paschale, Engagements with God, Theology and History,

289 _{Hans Urs Von Balthasar, ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation History,’ trans. Erasmo Leiva-}

Merikakis, in Liberation Theology in Latin America, ed. James Schall (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1982), 128.

290 _{Balthasar, Theo-Drama, Volume IV, 486.}

291 _{Balthasar, ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation History,’ 138ff.} 292 _{Balthasar, ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation History,’ 142.} 293 _{Balthasar, ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation History,’ 146.} 294 _{Balthasar, ‘Liberation Theology in the Light of Salvation History,’ 146.}

295 _{Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Spiritus Creator: Skizzen der Theologie: Band 3 (Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1967),}

371, as quoted and translated in De Gruchy, Christianity, Art and Transformation, 131.

296 _{Balthasar, Spiritus Creator, 374, as quoted and translated in De Gruchy, Christianity, Art and Transformation,}

and importantly, The Christian State of Life, to name but a few. One part of Balthasar’s corpus that I have purposely not included in our discussion so far, but that I would like to briefly turn towards at the end of this chapter, is Balthasar’s sermons, in which he interestingly places a very strong focus on the socio-political dimensions of both the drama of the Christ-event and the drama of Christian mission. As was noted in the second chapter, Balthasar saw his work in ministry as an extension of his theological endeavours, and vice versa, and by looking at some of his most prominent sermons one is indeed encouraged to take up Rowan Williams challenge to bring Balthasar’s theological thought into contact with the concrete political dramas that are playing out on the world stage and on the theatre stage in our contemporary world, as we will attempt to do in the following chapter.297