Love Seeking Understanding: Aquinas, Balthasar, and the Renewal of Sapiential Theology

As Catholic theology emerged from the crisis of modernity, theologians turned to both patristic and medieval sources to recover lost wisdom from the theological tradition, and adapt it to the challenges of an age that separated reason from faith, the practice of theology from the spiritual life. In time, Thomas Aquinas and Hans Urs von Balthasar became the patrons of two very different approaches to this challenge. St. Thomas Aquinas offering contemporary theologians an approach rooted in the patristic-medieval Latin synthesis of Augustine and Aristotle that also draws on the East, and von Balthasar offering contemporary theologians a patristic-modern approach rooted in the Eastern theological synthesis of Maximus the Confessor and Erich Pzrywara, that also draws on the West. Although Aquinas and Balthasar, together with their contemporary followers, sought to unite reason and faith, theology and prayer, contemporary Thomists and Balthasarians have tended to diverge widely from one another, often with a polemical spirit. How should one understand the theological genius of St. Thomas Aquinas and Hans Urs von Balthasar today? How can two of the greatest theologians in the Catholic tradition be brought together in more fruitful and peaceful dialogue?

This edited volume comprises contributions from a range of scholars who elucidate the depth and breadth of two of the most prominent figures of the Catholic tradition today. A scholar from each school of thought contributes an essay on a particular theme: Metaphysics, Trinity, Revelation, Christology, Anthropology, Evil, and Eschatology. By presenting the two essays side by side, this volume provides the contemporary reader with an opportunity to better engage both thinkers and understand disagreements and areas for constructive movement forward. The tone of the volume is intentionally irenic, seeking points of constructive dialogue, and opening new pathways to the renewal of sapiential theology through a fruitful synthesis of Thomistic and Balthasarian thought. See more