Quotes from Hans Urs von Balthasar

Dios no se enfrenta sólo a lo antidivino desde fuera o desde arriba, sino que se da la situación inaudita de que se expone a su fascinación para pinchar desde dentro el deslumbrante globo de colores. O por mejor decir, utilizando el símbolo de Jonás, para matar desde dentro al monstruo devorador.

this synthesis of God and the world is a divine idea, which is older and more deeply hidden than all things and for which everything else remains simply an approach, a means of achievement.64

The letter kills, it is the Spirit that gives life!" (2 Cor 3:6). You may be sure, reverend sir, that I will never accept some concept from Scripture if I have not really understood its meaning.

the Christian must hold that all created being, whether substance or accident, comes from nothing and therefore stands far below God's being in dignity;

God is not "Being" but beyond being, because being necessarily includes multiplicity.98 Yet this "many", as Maximus explains along with Pseudo-Dionysius, is always such only because of unity.

Desde un principio se contiene en la revelación la respuesta a cualquier pregunta que pueda preocupar al creyente». Así puede resonar (en 16, 23) la panorámica del final de los tiempos: «En aquel día no me preguntaréis ya nada».

Prin instruirea sufletului s?u, potrivit imaginilor frumuseÈ›ii obiective, omul care se maturizeaz? trebuie s?-È™i însuÈ™easc? treptat arta discern?mântului, adic? a desluÈ™irii frumosului în sine.

Maximus envisages a naturally lasting cosmos as the supporting ground for all supernatural divinization.

can only be conceived as a shuttling back and forth within the bounds of finitude, while genuine unity withdraws beyond the circle of creation into the realm of the inconceivable. So "every created thing has the divine and ineffable monad, which is God himself, as its origin and its end, because it comes forth from him and ultimately returns to him"

is gleaned from both "books" together. The "contemplation of nature" (?????? ??????) and of the structures of meaning (?????) hidden within it, structures that are part of every single being, becomes for Maximus a necessary step, a kind of initiation, into the knowledge of God.

person and existence are forced to draw together, and from the same depths of being—which is more than all intelligible essence—arises the invitation of a personal God to his created child, an event that belongs to another realm altogether than all the in-built natural orientations—however mystical—of intellectual beings.

F?r? cunoaÈ™terea estetic?, nici raÈ›iunea teoretic?, nici cea practic? nu pot s?-È™i ating? împlinirea total?.

CredinÈ›a este lumina lui Dumnezeu care lumineaz? în?untrul omului.

the goal God sets for the world is now not simply dissolution in him alone but the fulfillment and preservation also of the created realm, "without confusion (?????????)", in the Incarnation of his Son.

the words, actions and sufferings of Jesus form an aesthetic unity, held together by the 'style' of unconditional love.

Del mismo modo que no podemos «comprender» una melodía hasta que no se extingue su última nota, y juntándolas todas reconstruimos en nuestra memoria su unidad original, así tampoco podemos comprender el acontecimiento de Cristo en su totalidad más que mirándolo desde la resurrección.

El creyente vive desde la resurrección (a la que fundamentalmente le ha conducido el bautismo) mirando a la cruz, pero vive también desde un estado de crucifixión cotidiana con la mirada puesta en la resurrección.

the mysterious character of providence, which does not stop at simply steering things "in general", but precisely pursues the individual, that which is distinguished from everything else, and dwells in the whole confusing particularity of the world.

A quien se le ha dicho: «Vete y no peques más» (Jn 8, 11), es preciso acompañarle hasta que se encuentra suficientemente fortalecido en su libertad.

The first concern must, then, not be to speak as others speak, but to conceive of the word of truth with understanding and exactitude. . . . It is not a matter of refuting the opinions of others, but of presenting one's own; not a matter of contesting some aspect of the teaching or behavior of others that seems not to be good, but of writing on behalf of truth.59

this speciously deep thought was to haunt Christian metaphysics: that love without pain and guilt remains simply a joke, a game.

he begins with the assumption that there is, in the final analysis, one single question for human thought at every time and in every place: whether, and tinder what conditions, the world can be affirmed in all its finitude. As is evident here, the value that von Balthasar attaches to the work of a thinker is ultimately determined by his answer to this question.16

He is such all the more in that through this—concretely, through his Cross—he can demonstrate his infinite gratitude to the Father. And in doing precisely that, he will be allowed to prove to the creatures that God, despite all appearances, is the love that goes all the way "to the end" (Jn 13:1) of its possibilities.

FrumuseÈ›ea ca înzorzonare ÅŸi alunecare decadent?, sedus?, în puterea pl?cerii ÅŸi pl?cerea puterii, st? contra frumuseÈ›ii adoraÈ›iei ÅŸi a slujirii unicului Dumnezeu glorios.