Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian born in Lucerne to a well-established family. Von Balthasar joined the Society of Jesus in 1929 upon the completion of his dissertation. At the leading of Henri de Lubac, von Balthasar studied Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor where he discovered a hope for the salvation of the world. During his time as a chaplain in Basle, von Balthasar met the protestant theologian Karl Barth, who would go on to become close friend and major influence upon von Balthasar’s theology. While friends, von Balthasar was nonetheless critical of Barth at times, fearing Barth’s program led to “apokatastasis panton,” a set of beliefs von Balthasar feared to claim too much knowledge about God’s actions in the afterlife. Von Balthasar was also heavily influenced by the mystic Adrienne von
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This resulted in attacks from von Balthasar’s contemporaries such as G. Hermes, H. Schaf, J. Bokmann, and others, who claimed von Balthasar was a Christian universalist. The dialogue surrounding von Balthasar’s work was incredibly frustration for him to not only endure, but respond in such a way that maintained dialogue without polemics. Frustrated and weary, von Balthasar responded to critics who either misrepresented his views or simply did not approve of his program by acknowledging the peculiarity of his situation: “if I have been cast aside as a hopeless conservative by the tribe of the left, then I now know what sort of dung-heap I have been dumped upon by the right.” Not only did von Balthasar endure critiques of his theology, which is to be expected, but von Balthasar avoided speculations as to the nature of his relationship with Adrienne von Speyr, of whom he had the utmost
This resulted in attacks from von Balthasar’s contemporaries such as G. Hermes, H. Schaf, J. Bokmann, and others, who claimed von Balthasar was a Christian universalist. The dialogue surrounding von Balthasar’s work was incredibly frustration for him to not only endure, but respond in such a way that maintained dialogue without polemics. Frustrated and weary, von Balthasar responded to critics who either misrepresented his views or simply did not approve of his program by acknowledging the peculiarity of his situation: “if I have been cast aside as a hopeless conservative by the tribe of the left, then I now know what sort of dung-heap I have been dumped upon by the right.” Not only did von Balthasar endure critiques of his theology, which is to be expected, but von Balthasar avoided speculations as to the nature of his relationship with Adrienne von Speyr, of whom he had the utmost