The Immutability of God in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar

This study shows how the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar sheds light on the controverted question of God's immutability.

Gerard F. O'Hanlon (Author)

9780521366496, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 October 1990

244 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.418 kg

"In opening up these questions, O'Hanlon's important book identifies the areas where dialogue with Balthasar's work might best begin, even as it makes its own constructive contribution to theology." David L. Schindler, The Thomist

This study shows how the trinitarian theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar opens up an aproach to the controverted question of God's immutability and impassibility which succeeds in respecting both the transcendence and the immanence of God. Contrary to both Process thought and the classical Thomist position, von Balthasar's scattered treatment is here presented thematically, in a way which makes it clear that his idea of an analogous event in the trinitarian God (in which we participate) is a radical reinterpretation of the traditional Christian axiom of divine immutability. In the course of outlining the distinctiveness of von Balthasar's approach, O'Hanlon introduces the reader to some of the fundamental themes of one of the major Roman Catholic theologians of this century, who is still relatively unknown in the English-speaking world.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction 1. Christ and God's immutability
2. Creation and God's immutability
3. Time, eternity and God's immutability
4. Is the trinitarian God immutable?
5. Balthasar and other approaches
6. Final assessment
Notes
Bibliography
Index of names
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM]