Hans Urs von Balthasar Quotes

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Being disguised under the disfigurement of an ugly crucifixion and death, the Christ upon the cross is paradoxically the clearest revelation of who God is.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Ugly, Who God Is, Christ

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When you say Yes to God unconditionally, you have no idea how far this Yes is going to take you. Certainly farther than you can guess and calculate beforehand... but just how far and in what form? At the same time, this Yes is the sole, non-negotiable prerequisite of all Christian understanding, of all theology and ecclesial wisdom.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Faith, Christian, Inspiration

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Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Love, Faith, Unity

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Hence the importance of patience in the New Testament, which becomes the basic constituent of Christianity, more central even than humility: the power to wait, to persevere, to hold out, to endure to the end, not to transcend one's own limitations, not to force issues by playing the hero or the titan, but to practice the virtue that lies beyond heroism, the meekness of the Lamb which is led.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Lying, Hero, Humility

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Lovers are the ones who know most about God; the theologian must listen to them.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Lovers, Theologian, Knows

Hans Urs von Balthasar (2004). “Love Alone is Credible”, p.10, Ignatius Press

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A truth that is merely handed on, without being thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Foundation, Lost

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1993). “Razing the Bastions: On the Church in this Age”, p.18, Ignatius Press

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Faith means the fundamental response to the love that has offered itself up for me. It thus becomes clear that faith is ordered primarily to the inconceivability of God's love, which surpasses us and anticipates us. Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the 'work' of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Believe, Mean, Achievement

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There will never be beings unloved by God, since God is absolute love.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Absolute Love, Absolutes, Being Unloved

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1988). “Dare We Hope: "that All Men be Saved"? ; With, A Short Discourse on Hell”, p.118, Ignatius Press

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Every experience of beauty points to [eternity].

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Eternity

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We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past -- whether he admits it or not -- can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Believe, Past, Order

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1982). “Glory of the Lord VOL 1: Seeing The Form”, p.18, A&C Black

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It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Christian, Jesus, Easter

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1991). “Unless You Become Like this Child”, p.57, Ignatius Press

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Without Easter, Good Friday would have no meaning. Without Easter, there would be no hope that suffering and abandonment might be tolerable. But with Easter, a way out becomes visible for human sorrows, an absolute future: more than a hope, a divine expectation.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

God, Friday, Spiritual

Hans Von Balthasar, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Adrienne von Speyr (2010). “To the Heart of the Mystery of Redemption”, p.39, Ignatius Press

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Whoever removes the Cross and its interpretation by the New Testament from the center, in order to replace it, for example, with the social commitment of Jesus to the oppressed as a new center, no longer stands in continuity with the apostolic faith.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Jesus, Commitment, Order

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The greatest tragedy in the history of Christianity was neither the Crusades nor the Reformation nor the Inquisition, but rather the split that opened up between theology and spirituality at the end of the Middle Ages.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Age, Splits, Spirituality

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Only in Christ are all things in communion. He is the point of convergence of all hearts and beings and therefore the bridge and the shortest way from each to each.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Heart, Bridges, Way

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To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Children, Mean, Giving

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Without a doubt, at the center of the New Testament there stands the Cross, which receives its interpretation from the Resurrection.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Doubt, Resurrection, Crosses

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Only the Christian religion, which in its essence is communicated by the eternal child of God, keeps alive in its believers the lifelong awareness of their being children, and therefore of having to ask and give thanks for things.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Christian, Children, Essence

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Hell is to be contemplated strictly as a matter which concerns me alone. As part of the spiritual life it belongs behind the 'closed door' of my own room. From the standpoint of living faith, I cannot fundamentally believe in anyone's damnation but my own; as far as my neighbor is concerned, the light of resurrection can never be so obscured that I would be allowed or obliged to stop hoping for him.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Spiritual, Believe, Doors

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1986). “Prayer”, p.266, Ignatius Press

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God defines himself as "I am who I am", which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Mean, Who I Am, Becoming

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1991). “Unless You Become Like this Child”, p.55, Ignatius Press

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Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Two, Decision, Demand

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1982). “Glory of the Lord VOL 1: Seeing The Form”, p.18, A&C Black

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The inner reality of love can be recognized only by love.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Reality, Reality Of Love

Hans Urs von Balthasar (2004). “Love Alone is Credible”, p.60, Ignatius Press

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The Holy Spirit knows what a particular age's most pressing need is far better than men with their programs.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Faith, Inspiration, Men

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1987). “Truth is Symphonic: Aspects of Christian Pluralism”, p.97, Ignatius Press

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There is much in Christianity which can be subjected to exact analysis. But the ultimate things are shrouded in the silent mysteries of God.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Analysis, Mystery, Christianity

Hans Urs von Balthasar (2016). “Prayer”, p.101, Ignatius Press

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What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Father, Self, Giving

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1991). “Unless You Become Like this Child”, p.44, Ignatius Press

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Hans Urs von Balthasar

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Born: August 12, 1905
Died: June 26, 1988
Occupation: Theologian
Cite this Page: Citation

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