Related Papers
Studia Hist. Ecc. vol.46 n.1
Woza Albert! Performing Christ in Apartheid South Africa
2020 •
Marthinus J . Havenga
This article investigates the important South African anti-apartheid protest play, Woza Albert!, written and performed in 1981 by Percy Mtwa and Mbogeni Ngema, which retells the story of Jesus Christ so that it takes place in apartheid South Africa. The article begins with a historical overview of how the play came into being, followed by an exposition of the play's script, specifically focusing on the way it reimagines the gospels' account of Christ's life, death and resurrection. The article finally engages theologically with the play (with the help of Hans Urs von Balthasar's theological dramatic theory), in an attempt to see why Woza Albert! has proved to be such an effective literary tool in speaking out and protesting against the injustices of the apartheid state.
Irish Theological Quarterly
Can God be Enriched? On the Metaphysical Underpinnings of Von Balthasar’s Theology
2019 •
Paul O'Callaghan
Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his work Theo-drama, on the basis of the profound, Christologically based bond between the Trinity and the created world, speaks of the possibility of God being ‘enriched’ by creatures. The study considers his explanation and justification of this position. It goes on to present the position of a variety of authors who favour Von Balthasar’s view on the basis of a more ample idea of ‘being’ that includes receptivity and donation. Others however point out that the ‘enrichment’ of God would place potency and change in the divinity, and thus should only be spoken of in metaphorical terms. Receptivity would only be a perfection in created being, not in God.
Retrieving the Goat for Azazel: Balthasar's Biblical Soteriology
Richard J. Barry
In this article, I argue that Gary Anderson’s work exploring the different metaphors used for sin in Jewish theology helps to clarify Hans Urs von Balthasar’s soteriology, especially in reference to his controversial teaching on Christ’s descent to hell. I first propose that modern theologies of the cross can be read in terms of the two (identical) goats used in the Levitical Yom Kippur ritual. Anderson has shown that it is the metaphor of “sin as burden” that animated early Jewish atonement theology. The goat for Azazel (commonly called the scapegoat) carries this “burden” into the wilderness, away from God and God’s people. The goat for Azazel's ritual function is therefore essential and different from the function its “twin,” the goat for the Lord, who is offered as a holy sacrifice in the temple. While some modern theologians emphasize the goat that is offered as sacrifice, Balthasar focuses instead on the goat for Azazel. Although Balthasar uses many metaphors for sin, the primary metaphor is the metaphor of “burden.” Anderson’s work helps us to see that Balthasar’s “descent to hell” is an appropriation of and elaboration on Old Testament atonement theology in a Christian context. He understands Christ to be the goat for Azazel who, through his descent, takes on and removes sins to the “wilderness,” as far from God as possible. Understanding that Balthasar is working with and developing biblical themes helps to explain the continuing importance of his insights for Christian theology.
Transformation in Higher Education
Decolonising an introductory course in practical theology and missiology: Some tentative reflections on shifting identities
Ian Nell
Theological Studies
Christ's Human Knowledge: A Conversation with Lonergan and Balthasar
2010 •
Randy Rosenberg
The article explores the contribution of Balthasar and Lonergan to a contemporary understanding of Christ's human knowledge. It argues methodologically that Lonergan's account of Christ's human knowledge, by its use of technical terms and a carefully worked out analogy from human knowing, represents an advance on Balthasar's often fluid position. While sympathetic to the notion of systematic theology as primarily an explanatory discipline, the article suggests several openings where more dramatically oriented categories might complement such an approach.
And still we wait: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and Its Implications for Christian suffering and discipleship
2016 •
Riyako Cecilia Hikota
Transformation in Higher Education
Decolonising an introductory course in practical theology and missiology: Some tentative reflections on shifting identities. Transformation in Higher Education, 2021.
2021 •
Prof. Ian Nell
Background: The shifting identity of a first-year class over a decade in terms of demography and representation, inevitably led me to reflect deeply on what I teach them and how I facilitate the learning process. I had to pay close attention to decolonisation and contextualisation. The basic research question is: How does one reflect on the shifting identity of a first-year class and how does one decolonise a first-year module in Practical Theology and Missiology? Aim: To answer the research question by taking the following route. Firstly, aspects of the changed context and shifting identity will be discussed and secondly, attention will be given to what is meant by decolonisation, with specific reference to the curriculum. Thirdly, the focus will be on a proposed curriculum that uses a theo-dramatic approach. Fourthly, I reflect on the learning process (pedagogy) and how it also contributes to a shift in my own identity. Setting: The research is set against the backdrop of changes that took place over the last two decades in Higher Education in South Africa including the commodification of higher education, the lack of adequate financial resources and the #FeesMustFall movement. Methods: As the research design, a case study is selected for the study project. Results: The development of a new pedagogy. Conclusion: With this contribution, I attempted to reflect, in the light of the changing profile of the class composition of a first-year module in Practical Theology and Missiology in terms of demography (BCI students), to what extent it also leads to a shift of identities. Keywords: decolonisation; contextualisation; practical theology; #FeesMustFall movement; pedagogy; curriculum; theo-drama.
The Third Yes: Invitation, Response, and Collaboration in Dramatic Theology
Martha (Matte) Elias Downey
In this thesis, I position theology and theatre as conversation partners in order to argue that a dynamic, dramatic theology provides a viable and vibrant methodology capable of revealing what Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar identified as the “fire and light” at the heart of theology. This methodology stands firmly on the foundation of revelation through faith, tradition, and reason, but moves beyond this to dramatic encounter and the possibility of participation in the glory of God. At the intersection of theology and theatre I find three Yeses: divine invitation, human response, and divine/human collaboration or synergos. Using Balthasar’s Theo-Drama as a starting point, I engage with both theological and theatrical texts and practices in order to illustrate that the paradigm of gift as well as the aspects of “entering in,” movement, and embodied, live action are found in both disciplines. Four different approaches are utilised to illustrate the third Yes of divine/human collaboration: covenant, the plerosis of incarnation, theatrical and musical improvisation, and the concept of human interconnectivity in twentieth-century philosophy. Two important texts, the biblical book of Job and Luigi Pirandello’s play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, serve as proving grounds for the presence of the third Yes in both theology and theatre. By allowing the dialectic of divine initiative and human responsibility to play out within the context of drama, I seek to make room for a third way, one which is not biased toward either a theology from above or a theology from below, but one which reflects the ongoing dramatic encounter between divine and human actors.
GOD AND THE CROSS: THE DOCTRINE OF GOD IN THE WORK OF HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
Martin Bieler
Love Alone. Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Trinity and the Paschal Mystery
The Unconditional Givenness of Revelation of the Trinity in the Paschal Mystery
2020 •
John Anthony Berry
Von Balthasar approaches the mystery of the Trinity from the perspective of its interconnection with the paschal mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thus, the mystery of the Trinity cannot be separated from the paschal mystery. The latter is fully understood in the light of the eternal love of the unique and Triune God. Von Balthasar insists that God’s glory can embrace transcendentally even the uttermost contradictions. God’s glory was to be revealed in Jesus Christ’s absolute obedience right to the point of the cross and hell. The powerfulness in God’s glory shines forth in complete powerlessness. It is this abyss of God’s love, revealed most dramatically in Jesus’ descent into hell, which lies at the heart of von Balthasar’s theology. “For it is precisely in the kenosis of Christ (and nowhere else) that the inner majesty of God’s love appears, of God who ‘is love’ (1 John 4, 8) and therefore a trinity.” He continues that in the Lord’s actions there is not only a sublime metaphor of eternal love, but eternal love itself.
