HANS URS VON BALTHASAR AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE PATRISTIC RENAISSANCE. PART II: GREGORY OF NYSSA AND MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31392/cult.alm.2024.4.12Keywords:
Church Fathers, philosophical and theological synthesis, mysticism, asceticism, Byzantine theologyAbstract
To supplement the analysis of Balthasar’s reading of St. Irenaeus and Origen presented in the first part of the survey, this article examines his interpretation of the treatises written by St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Maximus the Confessor. The interpretation of Gregory’s mystical theology considered the idea of God’s active nature, expounded by the great Cappadocian in Contra Eunomium. It was established that Balthasar highlighted this aspect with an apologetic purpose, to emphasize the existential character of Gregory's theology by showing its everlasting relevance against the background of the widespread fascination with the philosophy of M. Heidegger and J.-P. Sartre. The significant importance of the ascetic component in the theological epistemology of the Bishop of Nyssa is also outlined. Balthasar proposes to interpret the theology of St. Maximus the Confessor not as a simple compilation of previous patristic achievements, but rather as a masterful synthesis of Christian mysticism, monastic asceticism, elements of Aristotelianism (metaphysics of the Stagirite), as well as Neoplatonic apophatic theology and the cosmology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Balthasar’s emphasis on kinship and, probably, a direct connection between Maximus and Aquinas in the matter of the positive constitutive role of multiplicity within God's one creation is emphasized. Attention is also paid to critical voices regarding the methodology used by Balthasar in his Patristic studies. The conclusions unfold the idea that, on the one hand, Balthasar did not limit himself exclusively to the historicalcontextual study of the Fathers, on the other hand, his creative approach did not involve the provocative and artificial adaptation of their thought to modern philosophical-theological patterns to construct Balthasar's synthesis. It is also important that while creating his theological program Balthasar masterfully managed to avoid two more extremes – (1) a meticulous analytical dissection and fragmentation of the patristic treatises and (2) their unjustified harmonization that would nullify the characteristic authentic features of each of them.
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