A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord's love for his Bride the Church.

Heart of the World

Religion & Spirituality

Von Balthasar, Fr. Hans Urs

Christian Books & Bibles

Ignatius Press

The renowned Swiss theologian offers in this little book very beautiful and practical reflections for praying and living the 15 mysteries of the Rosary. He makes the profound truths and events of our salvation take on a freshness and splendor by allowing the reader to enter his own contemplation of the mysteries. Von Balthasar's theology is a theology that does not read like theology, but one that derives from prayer and leads back to prayer. 
Contemplating each of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries, with his focus on Jesus' giving himself for us - and Mary's part in it - Von Blathasar leads the reader to see that "Christian prayer can attain to God only along the path God himself has trod" - a God who not only addresses his Word to us, but makes it live among us. 
Von Balthasar says his meditations are designed to "free the prayer of the Rosary from a certain narrowness, alien to Mary's own spirit and easily leading to monotony, and to nourish it . . . with the fullness of God's saving thoughts and saving deeds for the world.

The Threefold Garland: The World's Salvation in Mary's Prayer

Only one who is convinced that he knows Jesus as a person and that Jesus has personal knowledge of him has truly entered into his Christian faith. Balthasar sets forth and explains the Scriptural evidence for our ability to know the Lord.

Does Jesus Know Us?: Do We Know Him?

In an age of theological fragmentation, Hans Urs von Balthasar urges a reintegration of theology. The increasing specialization and compartmentalization to which theology has been subjected leads to confusion and disunity. 
Convergences: To the Source of Christian Mystery begins by showing the unity between Christian thought (theology) and Christian living (spirituality). Then Balthasar turns to the specializations and divisions of theology, and shows how the unity of dogma governs and directs the specializations. Next, he examines "the dreadful multiplicity of churches and its pseudo-justfication through the alleged variety of theologies" in the New Testament". Finally, Balthasar has the reader focus on himself, challenging him to consider where "the integrated simplicity of his own existence might lie". 
Balthasar argues against an imprudent simplification of theology which seeks to return to the "simplicity" of ancient Christian thought by throwing away allegedly useless accretions. "It is thought," says Balthasar in the Foreword, "that liberating unity is achieved by ridding oneself of superfluous amassed goods." One cannot remain true to theology, argues Balthasar, by throwing parts of the tradition overboard in an attempt to find a lost, longed-for theological unity. A prior experience of the unity of theology is required to make sound judgments about what is useless and what is helpful.

Convergences: To the Source of Christian Mystery

Hans Urs von Balthasar A continuation of monographs in Volume II in which the aesthetical dimension of theology, its intrinsic beauty, is traced through some of the great Christian thinkers of modern times.

The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, Vol. 3: Studies in Theological Style: Lay Styles (Volume 3)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Balthasar provides illumination on the burning issues of our day. He brings his scholarship to bear on some of the major topics of our time: Women Priests, Humanae Vitae, the Laity, and the "Flight into Community," and much more.

New Elucidations

Henri de Lubac has described von Balthasar as 'probably the most cultured man in Europe'. In volumes II and III von Balthasar shows the extraordinary range of his knowledge and expertise in a series of essays designed to illustrate different ways in which theologians have shared their work. What he offers is 'a typology of the relationship between beauty and revelation' which shows 'that there neither has been nor could be any true great and historically fruitful theology which was not expressly conceived and born under the constellation of beauty and grace'. 
Volume II offers a series of studies of representative figures from the earlier period of Christian theology - Irenaeus, Augustine, Denys, Anselm and Bonventura.

Studies in Theological Style: Clerical Styles: The Glory of the Lord, A Theological Aesthetics, Volume 2

You Crown the Year with Your Goodness is a remarkable work, containing timely and timeless homilies for the liturgical year by a profound spiritual writer. Originally broadcast on the radio, the homilies in this volume span decades and represent some of the best of Father Hans Urs von Balthasar’s preaching. They are arranged to correspond with the Church’s liturgical calendar, and include homilies on major feast days of Christ, his Mother, and the liturgical seasons. Each homily makes for insightful, informative, and inspirational spiritual reading, deepening the reader’s appreciation for the Word of God and helping him to enter into the great Mystery of God. Also included are Father von Balthasar’s Year’s End Examination of Conscience and four talks on Jesus Christ, that address contemporary debates about the Lord. This work is a feast for the heart and the mind presented by a man described by Pope Benedict as “a priest who, in obedience and in a hidden life, never sought personal approval, but rather in a true Ignatian spirit always desired the greater glory of God”.

You Crown the Year with Your Goodness: Sermons Throughout the Liturgical Year

A collection of essays by three giants of twentieth-cenutry theology: Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Heinz Schurmann. Balthasar's and Schurmann's essays were written for the International Theological Commission. Schurmann examines how the New Testament's teaching provides enduring moral norms for Christian conduct. Balthasar presents nine basic principles of the Christian moral life. Ratzinger, who originally wrote this essay as a series of articles for L'Osservatore Romano , addresses the relationship between faith and morality, and the place of the Church's teaching authority with regard to moral issues.

Principles of Christian Morality

Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph

Von Balthasar shows the tension between the necessary unity in Christianity and the diversity that should and must exist. Today when most people talk about pluralism and really mean dissent and rebellion, von Balthasar shows how genuine variety is both possible and desirable within Catholic unity.

Truth Is Symphonic: Aspects of Christian Pluralism

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Books by Von Balthasar, Fr. Hans Urs