The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness: Von Balthasar’s Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology

240 Pages·2000·4.15 MB·English

by  Victoria S. Harrison (auth.)

THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF HUMAN HOLINESS
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Volume 21
The titles published in this series are listed at the end ofthis volume.
THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF
HUMAN HOLINESS
Von Balthasar's Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology
by
VICTORIA S. HARRISON
8irkbeck Col/ege,
Universiry of London & Ulliversity ofNotre Dame,
(Lo"do1/ Centre)
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A c.I.P. CataIogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-010-3789-1 ISBN 978-94-010-0872-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0872-3
Printed an acid~free paper
AII Rights Reserved
© 2000 Springer Science-j Busincss Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edilion 2000
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permis sion from the copyright owner.
To my sister,
Who taught me that books can be just as much fun when they are upside
down, and that understanding doesn't always need words.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Current Scholarship 4
1.2 A Brief Overview of von Balthasar's Life and Thought 7
1.2.1 Some Fundamental Themes in His Work 8
1.3 The Aims and Structure of this Study 16
PART ONE: VON BALTHASAR'S CONCEPTION
OF HUMAN HOLINESS
2 The Role of Prayer in von Balthasar's Christocentric 24
Philosophical Anthropology
2.1 The Necessity of Prayer 25
2. 1.1 The Nature of Human Beings 25
2.1.2 Grace 31
2.1.3 Human Nature and Sin 32
2.1.4 The 'Idea' Unique to Each Individual 35
2.2 A Characterisation of Prayer 39
2.2.1 The Basic Character of Prayer 39
2.3 Conformity and Individuality 47
3 On Being Holy 50
3.1 The Importance of Human Holiness 54
3.1.1 Holiness as a Foundation for Apologetics and Theology 54
3.1.2 Can Human Holiness be Discerned? 58
3.2 Personal Holiness and the Church 60
3.2.1 The Universal Call to be Holy 63
Vlll THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF HUMAN HOLINESS
3.3 False Conceptions of Human Holiness 67
3.3.1 False Images of Human Holiness and the 67
Holiness of Jesus
3.3.2 Therese Martin and Two Further False Images 69
of Human Holiness
3.4 Living the Holy Life 71
3.4.1 Von Balthasar's Notion of 'Personal Identity' 73
3.4.2 'To Die and Be Born Again' 75
3.5 Human Holiness as Personal Integration 79
3.5.1 The Way Towards Integration 81
3.5.2 The Notion of 'Integration' 84
3.5.3 Integration within a Mission 86
P ART TWO: AN INTERNALIST INTERPRETATION
OF VON BALTHASAR'S PHILOSOPHY
4 Human Holiness, Theology and Science 92
4.1 The Separation of Human Holiness and Theology 98
4.1.1 The Genesis and Development of the Separation 99
4.1.2 The Theologian and Human Holiness 102
4.1.3 Theology and Spirituality 107
4.2 Revelation and Theology 110
4.2.1 Von Balthasar's Conception of Revelation 112
4.3 The Status of Theology as a Science 116
5 An Internalist Epistemology 125
5.1 Von Balthasar's Rejection of the Kantian Heritage 126
5.2 Hilary Putnam's 'Internal Realism' 133
5.3 Putnam on Rationality 139
5.3.1 Instrumentalist Conceptions of Rationality 140
5.3.2 Rationality Specifically Conceived as Scientific Method 142
5.3.3 Putnam's Alternative View 145
5.4 Some Key Similarities Between Putnam and von Balthasar 148
5.4.1 No External Standpoint of Knowledge 149
5.4.2 An Alternative Conception of 'Objectivity' 152
5.4.3 The Object of Knowledge 153
5.4.4 Science as Analogical to Other Forms of Reasoning 154
5.4.5 A Shift of Standpoint-Apologetics 155
5.5 Rationality Revisited 155
CONTENTS IX
PART THREE: HUMAN HOLINESS AS APOLOGIA
6 Human Holiness as Religious Proof 162
6.1 The Capacity of Theology to Speak to Those Outside the Faith 163
6.1.1 The Accessibility of the Form of Theology 163
6.1.2 The Accessibility of the Content of Theology 164
6.2 The Christian Life-form 168
6.3 The Holy Person as 'Proof' of the Truth of Revelation 173
6.3.1 Two Senses of 'Proof' 174
6.3.2 The 'Proof' for Non-Believers 176
6.3.3 The 'Proof' for the Holy Person 180
6.4 The Rationality of Accepting the Apologia of Human 182
Holiness
7 Knowledge, Freedom and Pluralism 188
7.1 Knowledge and Freedom 188
7.2 Christocentrism or Pluralism? 194
7.3 Concluding Remarks 200
Appendix: Von Balthasar's Ideal Theology 201
(a) The Early Centuries 201
(b) Von Balthasar's Proposals for the Way Forward in Theology 206
Bibliography 210
Index 226
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to begin by taking this opportunity to thank the Trappist monks
of Latroun, Israel, and especially Pere Nivard Khouzy, for providing me
with the original inspiration for this study. Special thanks are also due to
Anthony Baxter, for without his patience and understanding the research on
which this book is based would never have been completed. I am also greatly
indebted to Alan Carter for numerous philosophical discussions, for his
unwavering support and encouragement, and especially for showing me the
virtue of clarity. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable support of
my parents, Marjorie and Ian Harrison, who provided continual encourage
ment during the years which led up to the publication of this book.
Others who have contributed, in one way or another, to this work are far
too numerous to mention, but I would like to record my thanks to: Maurice
Gilbert, S.J., for his comments on earlier drafts of several of the chapters;
Elija Timmermann, O.S.B., for help with translations of the German texts;
and the Carmelite Sisters of Haifa, Israel, for aiding my research into
Therese of Lisieux, and for providing such congenial accommodation while I
pursued my research there.
Thanks are due to Patrick Sherry, Joseph Laishley, S.J., and Kluwer's
two anonymous referees for their comments on an earlier draft of this book,
and to Tom Deidun for comments on Chapters 2 and 3. Needless to say, any
errors remaining within this work should be attributed to me alone.
Thanks are also due to the library staff at Heythrop College, University of
London and at the University of London Library at Senate House for their
considerable patience in meeting my many demands over the years.
Slightly different versions of Chapters 2, 3, 5, and 6 of this book have
previously been published in academic journals. For permission to include
substantial parts of the following articles, I would like to express my grati
tude to the International Journal for Philosophy ofR eligion with respect to
'Putnam's Internal Realism and von Balthasar's Religious Epistemology',
from Volume 44 (1998), 67-92, and with respect to 'Human Holiness as
Religious Apologia', from Volume 46 (1999), 63-82 (both <D Kluwer Aca
demic Publishers), and to The Heythrop Journal with respect to 'Homo
xu THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF HUMAN HOLINESS
Orans: Von Balthasar's Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology', from
Volume 40, Number 3 (1999),280-300, and with respectto 'Personal Iden
tity and Integration: Von Balthasar's Phenomenology of Human Holiness',
from Volume 40, Number 4 (1999), 424-437 (both © The EditorlBlackwell
Publishers Ltd). Sections of Chapter 4 and the Appendix are forthcoming as
'Holiness, Theology and Philosophy' in Philosophy and Theology. I am
grateful for permission to include parts of that article here.
Finally, I would like to express my considerable gratitude to the British
Academy and to the British Federation of Women Graduates for funding this
research.
Victoria S. Harrison
Brighton, July 2000