267 - The Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar

The Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar
By Louis Roberts
Washington, The Catholic University of America Press, 1987. 266 pp. $36.95.

Louis Roberts' study is an attempt both to describe and to assess the major focus of Hans Urs von Balthasar's massive oeuvre: the beautiful. The book contains a brief biographical introduction to Balthasar but concentrates chiefly on the beautiful as a theme in Balthasar's writings on classical Greek and Patristic writers (from Homer to Maximus). In the latter part of the book, Roberts relates the beautiful to broader issues-history, the nature of faith, the church-and to Balthasar's still-untranslated (but now complete) Theodramatik and Theologik. Contemporary theology is in need of a good secondary text on Balthasar, and while this work offers some analysis of the philosophical and theological tradition to which Balthasar is indebted, the book disappoints in other important ways. It is not clear what audience Roberts has in mind, and where some sections (notably that on the ancient Greeks) are rich in detail, others (the Greek Fathers) are far too brief. The book lacks a clear focus and would have benefited from more attention to style and organization as well as the use of inclusive language. Nevertheless, Roberts' book demonstrates his immersion in the thought of Balthasar and could serve as one resource in understanding the Swiss theologian's complex and wide-ranging thought.

Susan A. Ross
Loyola University of Chicago
Chicago, III.