Raising the Bastions

The Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar is a figure at once admired and scorned in U.S. Catholicism. An ostensible “radical” before the Second Vatican Council, his postconciliar reputation has long invited the suspicions of liberal Catholics and the cautious, sometimes grudging respect of conservatives. Many theologians are deeply ambivalent about him. The surface of Balthasar’s texts seems to take different shapes depending on the light in which they’re read. It’s not that there’s no meaning there; it’s that his work is difficult and vivid enough to reflect our struggles openly.