THE WAY a review of Christian spirituality published by the British Jesuits October 2005 Volume 44, Number 4 SPIRITUALITY, TRADITION AND BEAUTY a Special Number in honour of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) … if God wishes to reveal the love that He harbours for the world, this love has to be something that the world can recognise, in spite of, or in fact in, its being wholly other. The inner reality of love can be recognised only by love. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone Is Credible THE WAY October 2005 Introduction 5-6 The Beauty of Christ 7-20 Gerald O’Collins A meditation on a sermon of Augustine’s about the beauty of Christ in every phase of his existence: his eternal generation; his incarnation, his cross and resurrection; his return to heaven. Caravaggio and the Resurrection of the Body 21-35 Thomas J. McElligott How three great paintings by Caravaggio convey and nourish Christian faith in the resurrection of the body and soul—faith which involves commitment as well as assent. Responding to Beauty’s Call: The Shape of an Aesthetic 36-47 Spirituality Christine Valters Paintner When we awaken to the call of beauty, we become aware of new ways of being in the world. Christine Valters Paintner considers how beauty, both natural and artistic, can nourish the spiritual life. Hans Urs von Balthasar—Theologian of Beauty 49-63 Joan L. Roccasalvo An introduction to the life of the great theologian whom this collection celebrates, and an exploration of beauty’s role in his thought. On Pilgrimage to Chartres: Honouring the Centenary of 65-80 Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Birth Leo J. O’Donovan How one great building, the cathedral in Chartres, can open our hearts and spirits to prayer. THE WAY October 2004 ‘Blessed Tension’: Barth and Von Balthasar on the 81-95 Music of Mozart Philip McCosker Both von Balthasar and the great Reformed theologian, Karl Barth, lived in Basel. They became friends, and Barth was a major influence on von Balthasar’s work. Philip McCosker looks at the shared love of Mozart’s music that contributed much to their friendship. Von Balthasar and the Office of Peter in the Church 97-114 John McDade How von Balthasar developed a vision of the Church as the interplay of different charisms, each of which contributes to the richness of the whole. Hans Urs von Balthasar and Ignatius Loyola 115-130 Werner Löser Von Balthasar thought of himself as a dramatic theologian. A long- standing friend and editor of von Balthasar’s work looks at what this dramatic theology owed to the Ignatian Exercises and at how it can help us understand better the Contemplation to Attain Love. The Divided Self, the Encounter with Christ, and the 131-145 Journey of Commitment: Ignatius, Von Balthasar and the Human Condition Erhard Kunz In the Spiritual Exercises, sinful humanity confronts a God whose will is to save the whole human race, and who draws us into the implementation of that project. Erhard Kunz shows how this vision shapes not only Ignatius’ writing, but also von Balthasar’s massive theology. Tradition and the Icon 147-159 Andrew Louth Icons have become familiar well beyond the boundaries of Orthodox Christianity. Andrew Louth here explains the rich sense of Tradition which they express, and explores how the practice of icon painting has changed over time. THE WAY October 2005 Sex, Death and Melodrama: A Feminist Critique of Hans 160-176 Urs von Balthasar Tina Beattie A look at the problems raised by von Balthasar’s richly symbolic theology for many feminists, particularly when people use it to support restrictive positions about women’s vocations. FOR AUTHORS The Way warmly invites readers to submit articles with a view to publication. They should normally be about 4,000 words long, and be in keeping with the journal’s aims. The Editor is always ready to discuss possible ideas. Further details can be found on The Way’s website, www.theway.org.uk. In 2006 the special number, marking jubilees for Ignatius and for his first two companions, Pierre Favre and Francis Xavier, will be about Ignatian spirituality and growth in relationships. Contributions for this project will be especially welcome. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Translations: Philip Endean SJ. Illustrations: Peter Brook SJ; Cornelia Capol at Johannes Verlag; Philip McCosker; www.visipix.com. INTRODUCTION N HIM WE SEE OUR GOD MADE VISIBLE, and so are caught up in love ‘Iof the God we cannot see.’ Hans Urs von Balthasar quotes the Latin original of this sentence as he articulates what he means by a ‘theological aesthetics’.1 From within the beautiful form of Christ, a new light breaks forth, transforming us. The Word of God appears to us as something beautiful. For all that God’s own life in grace transcends any created reality, we can nevertheless draw on our experience of beauty, both natural and artistic, to help us understand the life of faith. This special number of The Way honours Hans Urs von Balthasar’s centenary, and focuses chiefly on one theme in his work: what Gerald O’Collins refers to as the beauty of Christ. But the essays range far more widely in their explorations of beauty and God. Thomas J. McElligott considers some late paintings of Caravaggio; Philip McCosker looks at why both von Balthasar and his great Protestant contemporary and fellow Swiss, Karl Barth, were fascinated by the music of Mozart; Leo O’Donovan explores the architecture of Chartres cathedral. Christine Valters Paintner presents a more general account of a spirituality centred on beauty, while Joan L. Roccasalvo introduces us to von Balthasar’s life and to the theme of beauty in his work. One can only be selective with Von Balthasar. His achievement is massive, and it is only now, as we go to press, that English translations of the final volumes of his major three-part work are being announced. Probably no one is yet in a position fully to appreciate how his work as a whole holds together. His legacy appears at present as a set of fascinating, controversial fragments, often pointing in different directions. An immensely learned man, von Balthasar nevertheless attributed his theology in large part to the revelatory experiences of Adrienne von Speyr. Some reactionary forces in the Church may have adopted von Balthasar as their court theologian, particularly as regards 1 Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics: Volume I: Seeing the Form, translated by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1982 [1961]), 119- 120. The whole section (pp.117-127) has influenced this introduction. The Way, 44/4 (October 2005), 5-6 2 Introduction women and vocation (a theme explored trenchantly here by Tina Beattie). Nevertheless, von Balthasar’s theology of Church and authority was rich, nuanced and pluralist, as John McDade admirably shows. Moreover, von Balthasar’s belief that we may at least hope for universal salvation (one that Erhard Kunz’s essay suggests may be prefigured in Ignatius), leads some authoritarian figures to be highly suspicious of him. In focussing on the themes of tradition and beauty, this collection in no way summarises von Balthasar’s achievement as a whole, nor resolves the questions it raises. The apprehension of divine beauty is only the beginning of the Balthasarian process, one that continues through the drama of God’s engagement and culminates in a reflection on divine logic. If beauty leads us to God, then our sense of what is beautiful cannot remain merely conventional, as Andrew Louth’s rich and subtle essay on the traditions of icon painting vividly reminds us. Christian tradition inevitably expands our sense of the beautiful, until it includes, like the creative love of God, the whole cosmos: … it embraces the most abysmal ugliness of sin and hell by virtue of the condescension of divine love, which has brought even sin and hell into that divine art for which there is no human analogue. We may begin with Mozartian elegance, with the kind of writing that T.S. Eliot evoked at the end of ‘Little Gidding’: The common word exact without vulgarity, The formal word precise but not pedantic, The complete consort dancing together. But such easy graciousness eventually breaks down; the Incarnation we only half understand confronts us with the more mysterious beauty that Eliot evokes in ‘The Dry Salvages’: … music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts. Philip Endean SJ THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST Gerald O’Collins N THE WEST FRONT of the thirteenth-century cathedral of OAmiens, there is a carved stone figure of Christ standing on evil beasts in serene majesty, and it is called ‘le Beau Dieu’. The idea of presenting Christ as both beautiful and sovereign may typify the sensibility of the Middle Ages. But the theme of Christ’s beauty goes back to sermons by St Augustine of Hippo, to the awesome and victoriously beautiful Christ in the Book of Revelation, and to his identification elsewhere in the New Testament with the radiantly beautiful Lady Wisdom of the Jewish Scriptures. Augustine provides one of the finest statements of this theme when commenting on a love song, on the royal wedding song that we know as Psalm 45: He then is beautiful in heaven, beautiful on earth; beautiful in the womb, beautiful in his parents’ arms; beautiful in his miracles; beautiful under the scourge; beautiful when inviting to life … beautiful in laying down his life; beautiful in taking it up again; beautiful on the cross; beautiful in the sepulchre; beautiful in heaven.1 This eloquent passage from Augustine takes one ‘from heaven to heaven’—that is to say, from Christ’s pre-existent life ‘before’ the incarnation to his ‘post-existent’ life when risen from the dead.