The Work
The Glory of the Lord (Herrlichkeit: Eine theologische Asthetik) is the first volume of Hans Urs von Balthasar's vast theological trilogy -- followed by Theo-Drama (Theodramatik) and Theo-Logic (Theologik). The first volume, Seeing the Form, was published in German in 1961 by Johannes Verlag; the full seven-volume series was completed in 1969. The English translation (T&T Clark) is published in seven volumes. Volume 1 (Seeing the Form, 1982) is the most widely read. The trilogy as a whole is approximately 10,000 pages -- one of the longest works of systematic theology ever written by a single author.
Biblical Engagement
Balthasar's organizing claim is that the fundamental category of Christian theology is not being (as in Thomism) or subjective experience (as in liberal theology) but beauty -- the radiant form of divine self-disclosure that compels vision and draws the beholder. He grounds this claim in Scripture throughout.
Psalm 27:4 ("One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple") is the psalmic foundation for theological aesthetics. Balthasar reads this verse as expressing the fundamental orientation of the human person toward the beauty of God -- a beauty that is not decorative but ontological, the radiance of divine being itself.
John 1:14 ("And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth") is the central text. Balthasar interprets "we beheld his glory" (etheasametha ten doxan autou) as the paradigmatic act of theological perception: seeing the form of Christ is seeing the glory of the Father. The Incarnation is not the concealment of God's glory but its supreme revelation in the form of the crucified and risen Christ.
Matthew 17:2 (the Transfiguration: "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light") is the biblical moment when divine glory becomes visible through human form. Balthasar uses the Transfiguration as a model for theological aesthetics: the disciples see the same Jesus they have always known, but now they see him as he truly is. Theological perception is the capacity to see form as form -- to see the visible shape of divine self-giving.
Exodus 33:18-23 (Moses's request to see God's glory, and God's response -- "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live") provides the framework for the dialectic between revelation and concealment that runs through Balthasar's aesthetics. Divine glory is not directly accessible to fallen human vision; it requires the mediating form of the Incarnation. Yet even the Incarnation does not remove the kenotic dimension: the glory is revealed in the form of the cross, which scandalizes the Greek and Jewish searches for beauty and wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:22-23).
Author and Context
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, into a Catholic family of ancient lineage. He studied German literature, philosophy, and theology in Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich, earning his doctorate with a study of German idealism. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1929 and was ordained priest in 1936. His friendship with the theologian and mystic Adrienne von Speyr, whom he received into the Catholic Church in 1940, was formative: her mystical theology, particularly her meditations on Holy Saturday (Christ's descent into hell) and on trinitarian love, deeply influenced his systematic theology.
Balthasar left the Jesuits in 1950 -- a painful separation -- to found the Community of Saint John with von Speyr. He was never appointed to a university faculty and worked without institutional academic support for most of his career. He was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1988 but died two days before his installation. His marginalization by the academic establishment gave his work a freedom from disciplinary constraints that enabled the extraordinary range and ambition of the trilogy.
Balthasar wrote against two forms of reductionism simultaneously: the rationalism that reduces theology to propositions and arguments (scholasticism in its decadent forms) and the pietism that reduces it to religious feelings (liberal theology from Schleiermacher onward). Against both, he argued that theology's proper medium is beauty -- the capacity of form to communicate meaning, the radiant self-giving of the divine in visible, historical, particular shape.
Critical Reception
The Glory of the Lord was recognized as a major work from publication. Critics noted both its extraordinary ambition -- the integration of patristic, medieval, and modern sources in a single systematic vision -- and its difficulty. The seven-volume series requires sustained engagement; volumes 2 and 3 offer studies of biblical and patristic aesthetics, volumes 4 through 7 trace the history of theological aesthetics through Dante, John of the Cross, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Peguy, and others.
Within Catholic theology, the work is widely regarded as the greatest systematic theology of the twentieth century. Aidan Nichols, Edward Oakes, and Cyril O'Regan have written major studies. The question of whether Balthasar's theology is orthodox (Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were enthusiastic) or heterodox (some critics have questioned his universalism and his account of Christ's descent into hell) remains debated.
Theological Significance
Balthasar's theological aesthetics integrates Scripture, liturgy, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts into a single vision of how the divine glory discloses itself in form. The implications extend across systematic theology: Christology (the form of Christ as the definitive revelation of the Trinity), soteriology (the cross as kenotic beauty), ecclesiology (the church as the community that bears and transmits the form of Christ), and eschatology (the final vision of God as the fulfillment of aesthetic desire).
Legacy
Balthasar's influence on Catholic theology -- and increasingly on Protestant theology -- in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has been enormous. His integration of biblical interpretation, patristic theology, and engagement with secular literature and philosophy has inspired a generation of theologians including David Bentley Hart, Rowan Williams, and many others. His work has been central to the ressourcement movement (the return to patristic and medieval sources) that has transformed Catholic theology since Vatican II.
Reading Alongside Scripture
Readers should study Psalm 27 (the desire to behold God's beauty), Exodus 33:12-34:9 (Moses's encounter with God's glory), Isaiah 6:1-8 (the vision of divine glory in the temple), John 1:1-18 (the Logos and the glory of the Incarnation), Matthew 17:1-9 (the Transfiguration), and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (the foolishness of the cross as the hidden glory of God).
Further Reading
- Aidan Nichols, The Word Has Been Abroad: A Guide Through Balthasar's Aesthetics (1998) -- an accessible introduction to the first volume of the trilogy. - David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth (2003) -- a major constructive work deeply indebted to Balthasar. - Rowan Williams, Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology (2007) -- includes important essays on Balthasar's method and influence.