The Consubstantial Otherness of God: Divine Simplicity and the Trinity in Hans Urs von Balthasar

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 542-557
Author(s):  
Jennifer Newsome Martin
Keyword(s):  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
The Trinity

scholarly journals TO THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE: The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity and its Interrelatedness to the Economy of God in Salvation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
Robb Lawrence Torseth
Keyword(s):  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Theology Proper

It is a contemporary trend by many theologians and philosophers to view the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity (from hereon, DDS) as an unnecessary, illogical, and problematic addendum of scholasticism to theology proper. However, upon further investigation, this doctrine is found to be prevalent and implied in biblically orthodox ontology. Furthermore, it may be shown that the DDS bears potentially broad ramifications to how we understand the Trinity (given that it proceeds from simplicity in logical priority) and, subsequently, how we understand the initial, sustained, and perfected work of God in salvation through grace. Therefore, contrary to current theological trends, it may be stated that the DDS is, in fact, a centrifugal, practical, and even indispensablepart of the Christian understanding of how we know God. 

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-67
Author(s):  
Richard Cross
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
William Of Ockham ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Do So

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham engage with Aquinas’ thought in fundamentally negative ways. They never make distinctively Thomist positions their own, and when they use Aquinas’ thought, they do so merely as a way of sharpening their own theologies through the dialectical process of rejecting an opponent’s view. This chapter first considers the role of Aquinas’ thought in Scotus’ teaching on religious language and univocity, divine simplicity and omnipresence, the Trinity, cognitive theory, the question of the first object of cognition, angelic individuation, the beatific vision, the plurality of substantial forms, free will, and normative ethics. A second section discusses Aquinas’ place in Ockham’s teaching on common natures, intuitive cognition, divine ideas, and the nature of grace.

Classical Theism and the Doctrine of the Trinity

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Charles J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Classical Theism ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

It is well known that Augustine, Boethius, Anselm and Aquinas participated in a tradition of philosophical theology which determined God to be simple, perfect, immutable and timelessly eternal. Within the parameters of such an Hellenic understanding of the divine nature, they sought a clarification of one of the fundamental teachings of their Christian faith, the doctrine of the Trinity. These classical theists were not dogmatists, naively unreflective about the very possibility of their project. Aquinas, for instance, explicitly worried about and fought to dispel the seeming contradiction between the philosophical requirement of divine simplicity and the creedal insistence on a threefold personhood in God.1 Nevertheless, doubts abound. Philosophers otherwise friendly to Classical Theism (CT) still remain unsure about the coherence of affirming a God that is at once absolutely simple and triune.2 A less friendly critic has even suggested that the theory of divine simplicity pressured Augustine and his medieval followers away from recognizing that real complexity within the life of God which Trinitarianism expresses.3

Barth and Roman Catholic Theology

2019 ◽  
pp. 669-686
Author(s):  
Paul D. Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Analogy Of Being ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Analogia Entis ◽  
The Trinity

Taking Barth’s doctrines of revelation and the Trinity as a starting point, this chapter places Barth’s thought primarily in conversation with Walter Kasper. It considers Kasper’s work as an attempt to integrate insights drawn from Barth and Karl Rahner, while placing their views within the wider context of post-Vatican II Roman Catholic theology, as well as the thinking of Hans Urs von Balthasar. By focusing on the different attitudes of Barth and Kasper to the analogia entis (analogy of being), the chapter proposes that the primary issue related to ecumenical unity that emerges concerns whether, and to what extent, contemporary theologians are willing to allow Jesus Christ himself to stand as the first and the final Word in all theological reflection.

Truth as Love: The Understanding of Truth According to Hans Urs von Balthasar

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-211
Author(s):  
John O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The key to Balthasar's logic is his understanding of truth as aletheia or unconcealedness. Theologically, the event of truth happens when the Word becomes flesh. Only a methodology from above can account for the leap which is implied in Jesus' affirmation: I am the truth. The unveiling of the truth in the Christ-event, and its presence in the Church through the Holy Spirit shows that the ultimate meaning of truth is love, the love of the three persons of the Trinity revealed in the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus Balthasar argues that the only Christian logic is the logic of love, not verified by reason, but grasped through doing the truth in love.

The Divine Simplicity in St Thomas

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Divine Essence ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
The Trinity

In the Summa Theologiae ‘simplicity’ is treated as pre–eminent among the terms which may properly be used to describe the divine nature. The Question in which Thomas demonstrates that God must be ‘totally and in every way simple’ (1.3.7) immediately follows the five proofs of God's existence, preceding the treatment of His other perfections, and being frequently used as the basis for proving them. Then in Question 13 ‘univocal predication' is held to be ‘impossible between God and creatures’ so that at best ‘some things are said of God and creatures analogically’ because of the necessity of using ‘various and multiplied conceptions’ derived from our knowledge of created beings to refer to what in God is simple for ‘the perfections flowing from God to creatures… pre–exist in God unitedly and simply, whereas in creatures they are received divided and multiplied’ (1.13.5). In line with this, in the De Potentia Dei the treatment of analogical predication is integrated into that of ‘the Simplicity of the Divine Essence’ (Q 7). Moreover, it lies at the root of Thomas's rejection of any possibility of a Trinitarian natural theology such as, for instance, St Anselm or Richard of St Victor had attempted to develop, on the grounds that ‘it is impossible to attain to the knowledge of the Trinity by natural reason’ since ‘we can know what belongs to the unity of the essence, but not what belongs to the distinction of the persons’ (1.32.1). Even modern minds sympathetic to Thomas have clearly found it difficult to understand his concern for the divine simplicity: in his Aquinas Lecture Plantinga speaks for many in stating that it is ‘a mysterious doctrine’ which is ‘exceedingly hard to grasp or construe’ and ‘it is difficult to see why anyone should be inclined to accept it’. Not surprisingly, therefore, some of the most widely read twentieth–century commentators on Aquinas have paid little attention to it. Increased interest has recently been shown in it, but a number of discussions pay insufficient attention to the historical context out of which Thomas's interest in the doctrine emerged, and consequently tend to misconstrue its nature.

scholarly journals MENDALAMI DOKTRIN TRINITAS DALAM PANDANGAN HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Markus Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
God's Love ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

All the Hans Urs von Balthasar theology is the Trinity. For him everything flows from interpersonal relationships in the Trinity. The starting point for understanding the Trinity must depart from the event of love. Jesus is a manifestation of God’s love that appears to humans. God’s love is beautiful. Jesus revealed the beauty of the Triune God. The fundamental aspect of beauty is obedience from Jesus. Jesus as the beauty that manifest the Father and the Holy Spirit. We will not be able to understand the beauty of Christ without referring to inter-Trinitarian beauty. It does not stop at mere beauty but God is involved in the history of human life. In other words, God is involved in drama with humans. On the Good Friday, there was a drama between God and the world on the cross. But a more dramatic drama took place on Holy Saturday. Drama also occurs in the life of the Trinity. The three divine persons empty themselves which are united in a bond of love. The real kenosis occurs in a triune life. The Trinity lives in the Church and maintains the Church. The church’s teachings are undeniable because of the truth of the Trinity itself.   Seluruh teologi Hans Urs von Balthasar adalah Tritunggal. Baginya segala sesuatu mengalir dari relasi antar pribadi dalam Tritunggal. Titik tolak untuk memahami Tritunggal harus berangkat dari peristiwa kasih. Yesus adalah wujud kasih Allah yang tampak kepada manusia. Kasih Allah sendiri sangat indah. Yesus mewahyukan keindahan dari Allah Tritunggal. Aspek fundamental dari keindahan itu yakni ketaatan dari Yesus. Yesus sebagai keindahan yang mewahyukan Bapa dan Roh Kudus. Wujud dari Yesus mengacu kepada wujud dari Allah dalam diri-Nya sendiri.Trinitas seperti cinta di dalam dirinya sendiri. Kita tidak akan dapat memahami keindahan Kristus tanpa mengacu pada keindahan inter-Trinitaris. Tidak berhenti pada keindahan semata tetapi Allah terlibat di dalam sejarah kehidupan manusia. Dengan kata lain Allah terlibat drama dengan manusia. Pada peristiwa Jumat Agung terjadi drama antara Allah dan dunia di kayu salib. Namun drama yang lebih dramatis terjadi pada Sabtu Suci. Drama juga terjadi juga di dalam kehidupan Tritunggal. Tiga pribadi ilahi saling mengosongkan diri yang disatukan dalam ikatan cinta. Tritunggal itu yang hidup di dalam Gereja dan memelihara Gereja. Ajaran-ajaran Gereja tidak terbantahkan karena kebenaran Tritunggal itu sendiri.

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