Spiritual life and literary works of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1940–1988). A brief introduction

Abstract

Hans Urs von Balthasar is considered to be one of the most significant Roman Catholic theologians of the Twentieth century. His bibliography is an interesting introduction not only to his original theological writings but also to understand the central motives of the whole theology of the Twentieth century. The years 1940 through to 1988 were a period in Balthasar’s life, which was then generously filled with important events and encounters with people that significantly influenced his life and his theological work.
During this time Balthasar lived and worked in Basel, Switzerland, the place he is mostly associated with and where he met Adrienne von Speyr. This meeting had a major influence on his writings as well as his private life (it led him to the difficult decision about leaving the Society of Jesus). According to Balthasar the fruit of his relationship with Adrienne von Speyr and theirs mission – was the foundation of a religious society „Community of Saint John” (Johannesgemeinschaft), a new publishing house Johannes Verlag and especially the new theological thought which was also influenced by the writings of Saint John the Apostle. Furthermore it was a time that the Second Vatican Council was highly significant for Balthasar’s life and in his literary works.
These factors and other important events and people he had met in his life may help us to understand the process that led to the publishing of the well-known Balthasar’s Trilogy (Theological Aesthetics, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic). This major work inspired Balthasar’s Theology of Holy Saturday and led to express the Christian thought with the assistance of tools borrowed from theatrical theory.