A Key to Balthasar: Hans Urs von Balthasar on Beauty, Goodness, and Truth

Fr. Aidan Nichols hits it out of the park with this great introduction to Balthasar's magnum opus, the famed "Trilogy". He manages to condense and present some of the essential points of each of the three segments of the Trilogy: Glory of the Lord (Aesthetics), Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic. It may be I'm a little bit unprepared for it, but the chapter on Theo-Logic seemed much more heady and complex than the others, which is a good segue into this: although this is a good introduction, it is not by any means overly simplified. Fr. Nichols takes great care to paint a careful, meticulous summary and present a key to Balthasar's thought, but does rely on the reader having some idea of basic philosophical vocabulary and understanding (metaphysics, ontology, etc.), as well as a rudimentary understanding of the basics of Christian Doctrine and Theology. For me, this was a great help to understand the overall "arc" of Balthasar's Trilogy, and is a good primer. It's a short book that packs a punch.

Very useful as a concise and clear overview of von Balthasar's "The Glory of the Lord." If one wants to explore von Balthasar's thought further without committing to reading that massive, 16-volume work, one might acquire Fr. Nichols's three-volume "introduction to Hans Urs von Balthasar," which, based on my satisfaction with this much shorter "Key," I did.

Balthasar is difficult to understand but this book by Nichols is a worthy introduction to his writings.

The author, Father Nichols, perhaps made an understatement when he described Von Balthasar as not only a prolific author, but a prolix one as well. To me, brilliant and profound though Von Balthasar's insights were, his philosophy and theology needed the utmost dedication of time in order to understand them clearly. Unless one possesses the gifts of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, among others, one is inclined to exercise due care in trying to decipher the works of this great philosopher. And towards this goal, Father Nichols' work is of immense help. Although it might not do justice to the arguably greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century to reduce his work to a mere 115 pages, I credit Father Nichols for doing his best to, at the very least, attempting to provide a concise but nonetheless exemplary introduction to Von Balthasar, particularly to his views on the "transcendentals" of beauty, good, truth and unity. Accordingly, I give this book five stars.

Father Aidan Nichols, O.P. adeptly overviews and guides the reader through Hans Urs von Balthasar's Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama, and Theo-Logic, all in 115 pages! He begins by exploring Balthasar's understanding of ontology (key word "being;" comprised by essence and existence) and his view of the transcendentals (beauty, truth, goodness, and unity), then offers a "key" word to understanding Balthasar's aesthetics ("form"), his dramatics ("freedom"), and his logic ("logic"). While I doubt anyone familiar with him would expect Fr. Nichols to be overly simplistic, let me nonetheless provide a word of warning: while most of this work is accessible to someone schooled in basic academic-level philosophy and theology, he does "put cookies on all the shelves." Some must be stretched for to be enjoyed!