CHRISTOCENTRIC VISION

A Theological Perspective of Hans Urs von Balthasar

Thanh Tran

Introduction

The twentieth century witnessed a substantial shift in theological methodology, particularly marked by the transition from a cosmological to an anthropocentric focus in approaching the mysteries of the Christian faith. Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905 – 1988) stands as a pivotal figure who responds to this transition by articulating a robust Christocentric vision that seeks to restore Jesus Christ as the centre of theology, revelation, and salvation. Within his theological enterprise, Balthasar constructs a vision in which the person and work of Christ are not only foundational for understanding God and creation but also central to interpreting the meaning of human life, history, and the ongoing drama of redemption. This article explores Balthasar’s Christocentric perspective, examining its roots, contours, and implications, especially in dialogue with contemporary philosophies and the broader Christian tradition.

Christ-Centred Approach

Balthasar notices a significant transition in modern theology. It is a “transition from the cosmological approach of the ancients to the anthropocentric approach of the moderns” in which Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) provided the transitional link.[1] The anthropocentric approach places an emphasis on the importance of the human subject in approaching God and contends that “the objective contents of history and dogma are only important to the degree that they fulfil corresponding needs in the human subject.”^[2] This approach underestimates the Christ event and makes his death and resurrection somehow irrelevant as an objective event.

Against the influence of the anthropocentrism of the moderns, Balthasar developed a theology that centred on Jesus Christ, aiming to restore the biblical claim of, as well as the Church’s teaching on Jesus Christ as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world. He was inspired by Karl Barth’s theological vision that had Christ at the centre. In Barth’s view, all realities and history are impacted by Christ.^[3] Balthasar disagrees with Barth, however, in that Barth focused too much on the absolute saving power of Christ that left almost no room for a human response in the drama of salvation. In Balthasar’s view, Barth did not allow sufficient room for an ontological relationship between God as Creator and his creation by focusing too strictly on divine revelation.^[4]

Balthasar observes that human beings must continually discover their new centre in Jesus Christ and surrender themselves to the transforming power of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. As he remarks, “the invasion of nature by grace is a dynamism that requires a free assimilation on the part of man to the death of the Redeemer.”^[5] This implies that divine grace bestowed on nature is insufficient for redemption in a strict sense, for redemption requires human persons to actively engage in God’s redemptive act by allowing their lives to be incorporated into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the point of self-surrendering in love, making Jesus Christ the centre of their lives. As such, Balthasar’s theological writing always has the figure of Jesus Christ in mind – making Jesus Christ the centre of his theological meditation.^[6] He builds his Christology around the Christ-event – Jesus Christ’s life, teaching, suffering, death and resurrection. They are all interconnected. But there is more: everything about Jesus Christ is related to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end of creation. Differently put, Balthasar presents Jesus Christ as the lens through which the Triune God and creation are viewed and interpreted – thus making Jesus Christ the starting point, middle point and final point of all things.

This Christocentric vision enables Balthasar to sketch a holistic theological system that is capable of encapsulating all of Christian mysteries and of God’s creation grounded in biblical revelation, Sacred Tradition, and doctrinal teachings of the Church. It is Balthasar’s “Christocentric revolution.”^[7] As a result, he rejects any philosophical or scientific concepts that treat Jesus Christ and the mysteries of the Christian faith as mere objects for research, particularly the German Idealism of the twentieth century, Marxism, and evolutionism.^[8]

Howsare does a good service by pointing out four important characteristics of Balthasar’s Christocentrism. First, Balthasar’s Christocentric theology reaffirms the teaching of Gaudium et Spes (and the teachings of the Patristic and Medieval periods) that “it is only in the mystery of the Word incarnate that light is shed on the mystery of humankind.”^[9] Here, Balthasar highlights the essential relationship between nature and grace, philosophy and theology, divine offering and human response, and most importantly, the distinctiveness of Jesus Christ’s divine and human nature. He writes, “Since the person of the Logos is the ultimate union of divine and created being, it must constitute the final proportion between the two and hence must be the ‘concrete analogia entis’ itself. However, it must not in any way overstep this analogy in the direction of an identity.”^[10] In light of this, humanity can only reach its fulfilment in God through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.^[11]

Second, Jesus Christ is the standard by which we speak of God. This does not mean that the natural human person is incapable of knowing or speaking about God at all. Rather, it means the mystery of God can only be fully made known in Jesus Christ; and thus, natural knowledge, if it seeks truth, must be measured against God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ, for God communicates himself to humanity as Jesus Christ. In Balthasar’s view, God’s self-communication is always the exchange of love between the Father and the Son, and the Son is at all times conscious of this kenotic love.[12] Therefore, love is the best mode of knowledge.^[13]

Third, Balthasar’s Christocentrism cannot be limited to Jesus Christ alone but also to the Father and the Holy Spirit.[14] As such, his Christology cannot be opposed to a trinitarian approach. In Balthasar’s view, the immanent Trinity can only be known to us through the incarnation of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.^[15]

Finally, Balthasar’s Christocentrism implies the central place of divine revelation through scripture and Tradition. Having said that, it does not diminish the important role of philosophy, natural sciences, or the human search for God. Rather, it points to Jesus Christ as the beginning and the end of all movements towards God.^[16]

All that Balthasar has to say about Jesus Christ is not mere decoration but pivotal to our existence and salvation. If Jesus Christ is the centre of everything, then there is no other form of mediation between us and God, except for Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine. Consequently, Balthasar’s Christocentric vision plays an important role in distinguishing Christianity from non-Christian religions. This does not mean that Christianity sidelines other religions, for according to Balthasar, the God, the universal and “the totality of being,” becomes a “partner” with humanity, and thus every creature represents a part of the whole.[17]

The significance of this theological vision is a profound shift towards an intimate and reciprocal divine-human relationship which underscores God’s active engagement with the world. God is not just above or outside the world; his presence is an all-encompassing presence that permeates all aspects of existence, and the dynamism of all life forms is an expression of the divine whole. For this reason, Balthasar warns, “[…] the Christian preacher must treat the religious experience of other peoples with the most profound and sincere respect – even and especially that of the Asiatics.”[18] This calls for a profound respect towards all religious experiences, particularly the rich spirituality of Asian religions, which may offer valuable insights into the divine beauty, goodness, and truth. Having said that, Balthasar also wants to affirm the uniqueness and centrality of Jesus Christ, singling him out as the utterly Other, who fulfils and gives meaning to all aspects of existence. In a nutshell, Jesus Christ cannot be equated with other religious figures, moral teachers, or sages such as Buddha, Confucius, or Lao Tzu. The Christian definitive claim is that Jesus Christ is the universal Saviour to whom all religious searching points and in whom all religions find their ultimate meaning. In affirming the interconnection between the Old and New Testaments, Balthasar’s Christocentric vision can help us understand that the existence of other religious traditions serves a divine purpose: to prepare for and point to the Incarnation of the Logos, Jesus Christ.

Dramatic Encounter with Jesus Christ

For Balthasar, God communicates himself in creation, through the prophets of old and in everyday experiences, but above all, it reaches its perfection and culmination in the Incarnation. In Jesus Christ, God revealed himself in a dramatic and extraordinary manner. In dealing with the fallen world, God became human and was put to death on the cross. Yet it was in the death of Jesus Christ that the self-emptying love of the Father, the self-surrendering love of the Son, and the perpetual bond of mutual love-exchange in the Holy Spirit came to light. In Jesus Christ we are all taken by surprise by the unsurpassability of God’s love. In this regard, Jesus Christ is the “expositor” of the invisible God (Col 1:15); or in Johannine terms, Jesus Christ is one with the Father (John 10:30).[19] In Jesus Christ, God does not show himself as a pure concept or an absolute idea, but as real and near. His life, passion and resurrection reveal the ultimate mystery of God. Hence, Balthasar rightly contends that the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity.[20] However, he argues that the invisible image of the Father, which is firmly established both in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, is never taken back, even when being revealed in the Son. He writes, “Christ, going beyond the law and the prophets, presents himself as the expositor of God as he is in himself. Indeed, he unveils in his own visibility the invisible God, even while simultaneously leaving this God his fatherly invisibility.”[21] In so doing, Balthasar refuted Hegel’s philosophical position whereby he approached the mystery of God from an anthropocentric perspective and from various structures of humanity’s being.[22] Balthasar declared that Hegel’s image failed because it looked upward from below. In Balthasar’s view, God is infinitely beyond any human construction and projection – an insight that had been touched on by Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Richard of Saint Victor, and M. Scheeben.[23]

Consequently, on the one hand, Balthasar presents a Christology “from below” in the sense that he begins with the earthly Jesus through the historical narrative as recorded in the Gospels; on the other hand, he points beyond this historical perspective to the ineffable mystery called God whom Rahner calls the “absolute” or “holy” mystery, and as absolute mystery God is “incomprehensible and impenetrable.”[24] For Balthasar, this incomprehensibility and impenetrability of God lies in his ultimate self-emptying love manifested through the Incarnation. Thus, in Jesus Christ, the inner life of God is unveiled to us. Jesus Christ reveals God to us as infinite love and absolute self-surrendering for the world’s sake. As the evangelist John succinctly puts it, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).[25]

Therefore, a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ is crucial in Balthasar’s theology. Through this encounter we are enraptured by the wonder of God’s love. God loves us into being and restores us into friendship with him when this friendship is hindered by sin. This enables us to discover our true self and identity as being God’s sons and daughters and call God “Our Father.” Paul perfectly articulates this in his Letter to the Romans: “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God” (5:8-9). This is dramatic: In light of Balthasar’s exposition of God’s wonderful love, a dramatic encounter with Christ is transformative and life-changing in the most profound sense. It is ontological and not just phenomenal; and it is deeply internal, not merely external.

The question is: how can Christians advocate a Christocentric vision in today’s context? Balthasar’s Christology is a tool for fostering a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ because he casts his theology as God’s enacting in the world’s history through Jesus Christ. In Balthasar’s view, salvation history is the divine narrative of God’s involvement with his creatures in which God acts to save the world in and through Jesus Christ, who is the protagonist of the theo-drama. In this divine drama of redemption, we are not mere outsiders but active participants – each playing his/her unique role or mission with and alongside Christ. It is a mission entrusted by God himself and is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Balthasar speaks of an encounter with Christ on four levels: the world, the Church, and personal witness of charity.[26]

First, he posits Christ as the cosmic centre rooted in the concept of Logos. Christ is the Word that became flesh and dwells among us (cf. Jn 1:14). This Christological claim implies that God did not remain hidden and silent. Rather, he chose to communicate himself in the form of a human being, stripping himself of his own power and glory while retaining his divine transcendence. This also implies that there is an ontological relationship between God and creation in which God encompasses creation.

Secondly, Christ is present in the Church because the Church is his Mystical Body and he is its Head. Balthasar thus speaks of an encounter with Jesus Christ through the Church and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Accordingly, the Church is the spiritual location where the Holy Spirit makes the risen Christ present. Balthasar does not speak of the Church as a mere institution, but as a mystery whom we encounter – a mystery of love and communion. His favourite image of the Church is that of the Mystical Body of Christ. He underscores the sacramental dimension, particularly the Eucharist, as the place of human and divine interaction.

Furthermore, Balthasar emphasises the importance of prayer because through prayer we enter into a relationship with God who is present in the very depth of our being and existence. Prayer touches us in the depth of our being and opens us up to the Transcendent. He remarks that through prayer, we become attuned to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, making us holy because we become more receptive to God’s bestowal of grace.

Finally, Balthasar speaks about a personal encounter with others through charity and witness of a holy life. This is an essential aspect of life, for human beings are not independent individuals but social beings. They are at best when living in a community, sharing a common mission for the good of all and for the Kingdom of God. In a word, for Balthasar, the Christian life and the life of the world evolve around Jesus Christ who in turn draws all creation to the Father.

Conclusion

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Christocentric vision offers a compelling and holistic theological framework that re-centres Christian doctrine, spirituality, and ecclesial life firmly on the person of Jesus Christ. By situating Christ as the lens through which the Triune God and all creation are interpreted, Balthasar not only addresses the reductionism inherent in anthropocentric modern theology but also affirms the uniqueness and universality of Christ as the consummation of divine revelation and human hope. Ultimately, Balthasar’s theology calls for an ongoing, dramatic encounter with Christ—one that integrates doctrinal fidelity, liturgical participation, prayerful contemplation, and loving witness in the world, thus embodying the transformative power of the Incarnation at the heart of Christian existence.

Bibliography

Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Explorations in Theology I: The Word Made Flesh. Translated by A. V. Littledale with Alexandra Dru. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989.

———. Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter. Translated by Aidan Nichols. Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1990.

———. Presence and Thought: An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa. Translated by Mark Sebanc. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988.

———. The Christian State of Life. Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1983.

———. Theo-Drama III: Dramatis Personae - Persons in Christ. Translated by Graham Harrison. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992.

———. Theo-Logic II: Truth of God. Translated by Adrian J. Walker. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004.

Howsare, Rodney A. Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: T & T Clark International, 2009.

Levering, Matthew. Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation: The Mediation of the Gospel through Church and Scripture. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2014.

McIntosh, Mark A. "Christology." Chap. 3 In The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs Von Balthasar, edited by Edward T. and Moss Oakes, David, 24-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Rahner, Karl. The Content of Faith: The Best of Karl Rahner's Theological Writings. Edited by Karl Lehmann and Alert Raffelt. New York: The Crossroad, 1993.

———. The Trinity. Translated by Joseph Donceel. New York: The Crossroad, 1970.

Vatican Council II. Gaudium et Spes. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. In The Basic Sixteen Documents, edited by Austin Flannery. New York: Costello Publishing Company, Inc., 1995.

Wigley, Stephen. Balthasar's Trilogy: A Reader's Guide. New York: T&T Clark International, 2010.

[1] Rodney A. Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed (New York: T & T Clark International, 2009), 46.

[2] Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 46.

[3] Mark A. McIntosh, "Christology," in The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar, ed. Edward T. and Moss Oakes, David (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024), 24.

[4] Stephen Wigley, Balthasar's Trilogy: A Reader's Guide (New York: T&T Clark International, 2010), 31.

[5] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Presence and Thought: an Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa, trans. Mark Sebanc (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988), 148; Mark A. McIntosh, "Christology," in The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar, ed. Edward T. and Moss Oakes, David (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024), 25.

[6] McIntosh, "Christology," 24.

[7] Aidan Nichols’ introduction to Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, trans. Aidan Nichols (Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1990), 4.

[8] Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, 5.

[9] Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (7 December 1965), n. 22 in The Basic Sixteen Documents, ed. Austin Flannery (New York: Costello Publishing Company, Inc., 1995).

[10] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama III: Dramatis Personae - Persons in Christ, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992), 221-22. Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 64.

[11] Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 63-64.

[12] Matthew Levering, Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation: The Mediation of the Gospel through Church and Scripture (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2014), 37.

[13] Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 65.

[14] Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Christian State of Life, trans. Mary Frances McCarthy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1983), 186-91.

[15] Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 66.

[16] Howsare, Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed, 66.

[17] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology I: The Word Made Flesh, trans. A. V. Littledale with Alexandra Dru (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989), 252-53.

[18] Balthasar, The Word Made Flesh, 253.

[19] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic II: Truth of God, trans. Adrian J. Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 67.

[20] Rahner also shares this insight. His famous trinitarian axiom is “the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity.” See Karl Rahner, The Trinity, trans. Joseph Donceel (New York: The Crossroad, 1970), 22. However, while Balthasar agrees with Rahner on the former, he disagrees on the latter. For Balthasar, the economy Trinity is the immanent Trinity but not the other way around. See Balthasar, Persons in Christ, 508.

[21] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic II: Truth of God, trans. Adrian J. Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 67.

[22] Balthasar, Truth of God, 65.

[23] Balthasar, Truth of God, 65.

[24] Karl Rahner, The Content of Faith: The Best of Karl Rahner's Theological Writings, ed. Karl Lehmann and Albert Raffelt (New York: The Crossroad, 1993), 45.

[25] All scripture quotes are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the bible.

[26] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Razing the Bastions, trans. Brian McNeil (San Franciso: Ignatius Press, 1993), 69-70.