Master Class on "Love Alone is Credible"
Rémi Brague (Sorbonne; University of Munich)
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the readings will be provided. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.
The thin pamphlet (1963) summarizes Hans Urs von Bathasar’s (1905-1988) masterpiece The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics (1961-1969). The booklet is compact, but rich. As a consequence, the reading is arduous, but extremely rewarding. After a sketch of the evolution of Christian theology in its two main epochs, von Balthasar brings the content of Revelation back to the self-assertion of God’s love through Christ. Beyond any merely human work of love, always finite and imperfect, the Christian message allows us to access Love as the ground of Being. The class will focus on the two central chapters 3 and 6 and possibly end with a foray into chapter 10.
REQUIRED READING:
H. U. von Balthasar, Love Alone Is Credible, tr. D. C. Schindler, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2004. Chs. 3, 6, & 10.
SECONDARY READING:
Peter Henrici, SJ, “Hans Urs von Balthasar: a Sketch of His Life”, Communio: International Catholic Review 16/3 (fall, 1989): 306–50.
