특집: THEOLOGIA, Hic et Nunc Hans Urs von Balthasar and Ignatius of Loyola Werner Löser S.J. Germany, St. Georgen Universität 1. von Balthasar’s interpretation of the Ignatian Exercises 2. The Contemplation to Attain Love 3. Theme and Variations I have been invited to present some insights into the actual situation of the catholic theology. It seems to me to be caracteristic for this situation that the now living and working theologians still depend on those who belonged to their previous generation. In Europe we had, indeed, some excellent theologians in the midst of the last century. They had a signicant influence on the Second Vatican Council. The most famous theologians were Karl Rahner, Henry de Lubac, Otto Semmelroth and some others. And there was still another theologian who has not participated to the Hans Urs von Balthasar and Ignatius of Loyola 117 council, but nevertheless has had an very important influence to its reflexions and decisions: Hans Urs von Balthasar. He lived in the same period as Karl Rahner. They knew each other and had an high respect for their theological positions, though there were also some theological differences between them. Both, Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, are deeply influenced by the charism of Ignatius of Loyola. In my contribution I’ll try to describe the Ignatian motives that can be detected in the thought of von Balthasar. Henri de Lubac once said of Hans Urs von Balthasar that he was a ‘fervent disciple’ of St Ignatius.1) His joining the Society of Jesus as a young man - in 1929 -, his departure from it in 1950, that was a very painfull stepp, and his attempt in his final years to rejoin it are all part of a life of constant loyalty to Ignatius. One of the latest texts that he wrote in 1986, was a theological meditation about the Ignatian motif “To find God in all things”2) - a moving document of theological and spiritual reflexion. In 1974, when we were walking together, von Balthasar told me that he always used to let Ignatius lead him, and that he himself was like a blind man relying on his guide-dog. von Balthasar let Ignatius’ insights exert a significant influence on his thought—it is no coincidence that references to the Ignatian heritage appear throughout his work.3) It might be interesting to know that von Balthasar himself gave the Exercises to others regularly. 1) Henri de Lubac, A Witness of Christ in the Church: Hans Urs von Balthasar, 1967, now most easily available in Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work, ed., David L. Schindler (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1991), 271-288, here 273, where fervent is translated ‘devoted’. 2) In Homo creatus est, Skizzen zur Theologie, V, (Einsiedeln: Johannesverlag, 1986), 368-375. 3) For a helpful compendium of such texts see von Balthasar, Texte zum ignatianischen Exerzitienbuch, ed., Jacques Servais, (Einsiedeln: Johannes, 1993). See also Servais' study, Theologie des Exercices spirituels: H. U. von Balthasar interprète saint Ignace, (Paris, 1996), and my earlier article, “The Ignatian Exercises in the Work of Hans Urs von Balthasar”, in Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work, (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1991), 103-122. 118 신학과 철학 제25호 What was distinctive in von Balthasar’s reading of Ignatius? To answer this question, I will first try to bring out what von Balthasar and Ignatius had in common. That means that I will try to sketch von Balthasar's central hermeneutical approach to the Ignatian Exercises. Then - in a second part - I will offer a short reconstruction of von Balthasar’s reading of the Ignatian Contemplation to Attain Love, as a way of illustrating and corroborating the relationship between them. 1. von Balthasar’s interpretation of the Ignatian Exercises : as integrated in his entire theology The Ignatian Exercises have provoked a wide variety of interpretations, both in theory and in practice. We can separate out two basic approaches: the ascetical and the mystical. The ascetical tradition has recently been rearticulated by Gottfried Maron, the noted German Protestant historian, and then rejected-from a Protestant perspective and not entirely unfairly-as unbiblical, counter to the Gospel.4) Maron reminds us of the near-definition we find towards the beginning of the text: “Spiritual Exercises to conquer oneself and regulate one's life without determining oneself through any affection that is disordered” (Ex 21). He then goes on to show how the ideas of self-conquest and ordering run through the whole book, arguing that both of these motifs arise from a Stoic ethics that has perverted the biblical gospel, transforming it into a subtle form of Pelagianism. Maron's description is without doubt fair to a way of interpreting the Exercises that was for a long time dominant. Nevertheless this ascetical approach has been largely replaced by what is termed a ‘mystical’ one- ‘mystical’ here meaning a Christianised form of the Platonist and Neoplatonist idea of a quasi-erotic striving for God. Often times a synthesis with spiritual experiences and practices that have their origin in Asian 4) Gottfried Maron, Ignatius von Loyola: Mystik-Theologie-Kirche, (Göttingen: Vanden-hoeck und Ruprecht, 2001). Hans Urs von Balthasar and Ignatius of Loyola 119 traditions is intended. We find all this reflected in many publications and practiced in many courses. A modern representative of a mystical tradition is – in a very special and personal way - Karl Rahner as a theologian, who reflected deeply in his transcendental method the Ignatian doctrine of spiritual life.5) From quite early in his career, von Balthasar was consciously presenting an alternative to these two kinds of interpretation. We could call his access to the Exercises a ‘dramatic’ one. He himself did not use this term to describe his way of proceeding. But because he spoke sometimes of the dramatical character of his entire work and because his thoughts about the Ignatian Exercises are fully integrated in this work, it is right to speak of a dramatical approach to them. von Balthasar’s multi-volume major work- the trilogy of The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic-presents above all a dramatic theology. The basic options implicit in this style of theology, options which are quite decisive for von Balthasar’s thought, have their chief source in the Ignatian ideas that von Balthasar picked up principally from his thirty-day retreat in 1927 near Basel. He was 22 years old, a student of philosophy and German literature in Wien and Berlin. In addition to that it is very important that he took part – in this same year - to a seminar that Romano Guardini held - in Berlin - about Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. What he learned in this seminar from Guardini about Kierkegaard and Nietzsche disposed him in a very special way to follow the 30-days-retreat. He accepted from Kierkegaard and should never neglect the importance of what we would call “Existenz” - existence, existential. And he adopted from Nietzsche a deep scepticism against the Platonist heritage in traditional forms of christian theology and spirituality. This is and stayed always very typical for von Balthasar’s thinking throughout all of his writings. 5) See K. Rahner, “The Logic of Concrete Individual Knowledge in Ignatius Loyola” , in The Dynamic Element in the Church, trans. W. J. O'Hara, (London: Burns and Gates, 1964), 84-170. 120 신학과 철학 제25호 In his own exercises von Balthasar experienced what that means: to be called, to be elected by God - the fundamental insight into the centre of the God-world-Drama. The consequence of these events was that von Balthasar decided to join the Society of Jesus, and that his philosophy and theology should have dramatic structures everywhere in his thougts and insights. The title of David C. Schindler’s recent book captures well von Balthasar’s cast of mind: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Dramatic Structure of Truth.6) The term had already been used by Raymund Schwager in his doctoral thesis on the tension-laden relationships surrounding Ignatius’understanding of the Church.7) But that was yet a limitated field - in comparison with the rich implicit theology of Ignatius that von Balthasar should make explicit. Dramatic thinking in Ignatius’work - dramatic structures in von Balthasar’s work two worlds with apparent analogies. And a surprising confirmation of the idea that von Balthasar is a ‘dramatic’ theologian comes when we compare his work with that of Karl Barth. For all their differences, they inhabit neighbouring worlds of thought. Recently in Germany a book was published by a Protestant author – Hans Wilhelm Pietz – “Das Drama des Bundes: die dramatische Denkform in Karl Barths ‘Kirchlicher Dogmatik’.”8) Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar met each ather many times - from 1940 till 1967 - and shared in their disputes the dramatical view on God’s history in and with his world. The specific profile of von Balthasar’s doctrine, compared with that of Barth, consists in his stressing the active role of the human beings in this drama.9) What does all this mean for the interpretation of the Exercises? The Exercises are - in von Balthasar’s work - understood as the time in that someone - a 6) New York: Fordham UP, 2004. 7) Raymund Schwager, Das dramatische Kirchenverständnis bei Ignatius von Loyola, (Zurich: Benziger, 1970). 8) Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1998 9) cf. Wolfgang W. Müller, ed., Karl Barth-Hans Urs von Balthasar, Eine theologische Zwiesprache, (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 2006). Hans Urs von Balthasar and Ignatius of Loyola 121 Christian - in reflexion, meditation, prayer tries to be aware of his personal place and role in God's history in and with his world: in the Theodrama.