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Post Vatican II Council held 1962-1965...
Sociological Cross Reference: Births of Silent Generation 1936-1945
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Index of topics on this page link
General Directory for Catechesis
Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar
Moral Theology Since Vatican II
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The Second Vatican Council established the need for more detailed instruction in the the basic elements necessary for a mature faith, and ---by implication--the elements necessary for developing a personal relationship with Jesus. Indeed, every day is a conversion for the mature Catholic. The document generated, in 1971, from this initiative is the General Directory for Catechesis, (GDC), pictured to the right. Serendipitously, the GDC is a faithful companion for understanding the full range of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (CCC), as it was well intended to be. One should study them in tandem. Or, at least use the GDC as an introduction to the reading of the CCC Here is a brief summary of one key passage, of the GDC, that illustrates its "existential" importance. |
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According to the GDC (Paragraph 130 and ff.) there are seven essential elements for the catechesis of adult faith. They are: From the 3 phases of the history of salvation 1] The Old Testament 2] The Life of Jesus --NT implied 3] History of the Church --Traditio, & patristics implied From the 4 pillars of exposition 4] Creed 5] Sacraments 6] Ten Commandments 7] Our Father ---Tertullian says the Our Father sums up the whole Gospel.
Please note that the four pillars of exposition, mentioned immediately above, serve as the outline of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. For additional notes on the importance of these four elements, go to the Prayer and Liturgy section of this web site. |
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Understanding our post-Vatican II era presupposes some understand of Vatican II. There are several web sites dedicated to the council. Here is one that has a powerful search engine inserted in the opening page.
http://www.stjosef.at/council/search/
Some of the important, early Post Conciliar Documents can be studied in printed editions appended to the Conciliar Documents themselves, as exemplified by Rev. Austin Flannery's 1981 editing in the (paperback) text titled: Vatican Council II, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. |
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Complexity And Depth of Vatican Web Site
A visit to the front door of the Holy Vatican site at: http://www.vatican.va/ may not be an easy going experience, if you are in the quest for particular information. The site is so large, wide and deep that it takes some getting used to to master its corridors. In fact, sometimes a Google inquiry will take you deep into the files unexpectedly. Example: An analysis of the Canticle of Anna appears in a file dedicated to the Pope's General Audiences for 2002
All the Encyclicals Of John Paul II directly available at the Vatican website dedicated to him at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/index.htm
To reach all the recent Encyclicals, you can go through the front door of the Vatican web site: http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm then click on "The Holy Father" link to go to a listing of 9 Popes, From Leo XIII to John Paul II. Select a Pope, and you will be led to his various accomplishments and writings.
If you enjoy reading in a foreign language, or have a friend who can only read in one, note that virtually all of the Vatican sites offer texts in German, Spanish French, Italian, Portuguese and English. |
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Catechism of the Catholic Church, via chapter and text page layout.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, via indexed topical search engine. |
Hans Urs von BalthasarA Summary of His Theology
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"It is increasingly clear that the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (d. 1988) is among the most lastingly significant theologians of the twentieth century, and certainly in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II (he has been called "the Pope's favourite theologian")."
Words from the web site of Stratford Caldecott (Plater College, Oxford) http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/balthasa/introduc.html
The text presented in this document was discovered on the Overview site http://www.lasalle.edu/~garver/overview.htm …. Which was found via the specific Balthasar site http://www.catechesis.net/vonbalthasar/vonbalthasar_research.htm
Bold face emphasis added by editor of this web page.
OVERVIEW
The following summary is drawn from Balthasar’s own "Retrospective" (1988). He starts with the philosophical wranglings of humanity: we recognize our own finitude and contingency as well as the contingency of the world of things around us—and yet we are aware of being itself as something absolute and unlimited. Various philosophical and theological attempts have been made at explaining the problem of being.
Some (such as Parmenides) have tried to say that all things are infinite and immutable being, while others (such as Heraclitus) have said that everything is movement and becoming. The Parmenidean solution—which is also that of Buddhism and neo-Platonis m—falters since anything finite must be non-being, an illusion to be discovered, and the One is attained only through mystical experience. The Heraclitean solution must end in contradiction, identifying life with death, wisdom with folly. We are left then with an inescapable dualism between finite and infinite, contingent and necessary, and so on. But leaves the question of the source of this duality. On one hand the duality may be the result of a falling away from or rupture with a primordial unity and thus salvation is achieved through a reabsorption into the infinite One—but this is theopani sm. On the other hand, perhaps the infinite had some need of the finite in order to perfect itself or to actualize its potential or the like—but this is pantheism. Wither case founders on the problem that the infinite is reduced to the finite.
According to Balthasar only theology—in particular Christian Trinitarian theism—could give an adequate response to these philosophical problems and, in fact, the solution could only be given to us by the infinite Being Himself, revealing Himself from Himself. But, asks Balthasar, could creatures such as us understand the revelation? He answers that this is the case only if the God of the universe is the God of the Bible since this God is the creator of the world and man, of the ear and of language. This is the God who constituted man to receive this revelation of the God who speaks and hears. This is the fundamental openness of man to the divine and so, simultaneously, knowledge of God and self-knowledge are inseparable.
Some further observations. Humanity exists only in dialogue with the neighbor—even infants are only brought to consciousness of themselves by love, as Balthasar is fond of saying, only by "the smile of the mother." This truth reveals four things. First, (Editor’s insert: the absolute transcendental) love unites the different as one even as it establishes that difference. Second, since love is joyful, (1) being must be beautiful. Third, since love is good, (2) being must be good. And finally, since love is true, (3) being must be true. (1,2 &3 =the, dare we say, relative transcendentals within being, within love) There we have the basic outline of the Trilogy: aesthetics (beauty) =Love of the Spirit, dramatics (goodness) = The Fathers will, and logic (truth) =Intelligibility of all reality in The Son . We also have its major motif: while there is an absolute distinction between God and the creature, there is also an analogy between them and s o God is beauty, goodness, and truth.
Thus, we conclude the following. First, since we exist only in interpersonal dialogue, God Himself must exist as interpersonal dialogue. Speech—the Word—is of His essence. Second, since God is truly God and in no need of the creature, He must be the tr ue, the good, and the beautiful in Himself. So the analogous manifestation of these realities in the creature is only partial and finite. For example, for us as humans our unity as humans could either be that each of us is part of one humanity or that ea ch of us is an individual. Only in the Trinity is such partial unity resolved since God’s unity is precisely in the individuality of the Persons.
Balthasar’s Trilogy, then, is an attempt to examine the True, the Good, and the Beautiful as they are concretely revealed (and not just as philosophical abstractions), working with the assumption of the analogia entis and the internal relations between these attributes. Thus the beautiful is also true and good. A thing appears to us as beautiful and in doing so gives itself to us. Such self-giving is the essence of goodness. And in giving itself it bespeaks itself, revealing the truth of its elf.
In reference to God we have a theological aesthetic. God appears in theophany to Abraham, to Moses, to the prophets. Finally God appears to us in Christ. But we are left with questions. What makes this appearance distinct from every other phenomenon? What is different about the God of Israel from the idols of the pagans? What is different about the God of Israel from the vain philosophies of men? What is unique about the glory of this God revealed in Christ hung upon a Cross and Resurrected from the grave?
We also have a theological dramatics. God gives Himself to us in the drama of salvation. But more questions. How does the absolute freedom of God in Christ interact with the relative, but real, freedom of us? How is the final victory achieved?
And finally we have a theological logic. In Christ God has made Himself truly known, in the God-man. How can an infinite Word express Himself in a finite word? This is related to the two natures of Christ. How can finite men come to understand the unlimited riches of the Word of God? This is the work of the Holy Spirit. [See Footnote below on St. Anselm]
Balthasar concludes this retrospective of his work by noting that Christianity alone is capable of answering the question why God created a world of which he had absolutely no need in order to be God. The monotheisms of Judaism and Islam cannot answer this question.
The doctrine of the Trinity alone tells us that God is one, good, true, and beautiful because His is essentially Love which both establishes the Other and their Unity. Thus God has no need of the creation, but freely creates it out of a Love which is already fully expressed. Moreover, since the Trinity necessarily includes otherness, the creation is not a fall from infinite perfection, but an image of God’s own otherness even while it is distinct from God. Since the Son is the express image of the Father, He can assume to himself the creation which already images God. He can do so without, on one hand, dissolving the created order or, on the other hand, merely extrinsically adding something to a creation that is already complete in itself. Balthasar concludes: All true solutions offered by the Christian Faith hold, therefore, to these two mysteries [the Trinity and the Incarnation], categorically refused by a human reason that makes itself that absolute. It is because of this that the true battle between religions begins only after the coming of Christ. Humanity will prefer to renounce all philosophical questions—in Marxism, or positivism of all stripes—rather than accept a philosophy that finds its final response only in the revelation of Christ. Foreseeing that, Christ sent his believers into the whole world as sheep among wolves. Before making a pact with the world, it is necessary to meditate on that comparison.
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The depth --and audacity?-- of Balthasar’s argument as presented above, is typical of the inspired struggle of the human mind. The Spirit at work in us is in similar bold searches is exemplified by Jacob wrestling with God in the Old Testament, Augustine pondering the Trinity at the end of the Patristic Age, and Anselm lighting up the beginning of the Scholastic Age. Anselm asks, and has the audacity to answer, the opus title: Why Did God Become A Man? You may find Anselm's masterpiece on the Internet by clicking on the Latin title: Cur Deus Homo
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The
College of St. Benedict | St. John's University
has a web site that offers wide
ranging and authoritative passages into Catholic moral theology. The
complexity of the general subject is organized into three basic sub topics:
This site also offers texts in a variety of languages, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish and German. To visit, click on the URL below. http://www.csbsju.edu/library/research/theomorl.html
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Recommended Ethics Text Book One of the leading Catholic moralists of the 21st Century is Rev. Richard M. Gula,SS Among his virtues as an author is the fact that he is a good writer, and his texts are very readable. Here's a quote from one of his recent lectures "The trouble with most people is that they have just enough religion to make them miserable." That is (he goes on to say), we often fail to learn how the good news of the moral life is a grateful response to the liberating love of God. Yu can find a sample of his thinking on line at: A Professional Code of Ethics And you may also read his view in depth in Reason Informed By Faith, Foundations of Catholic Morality, Paulist Press, 1989.
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