Kneeling in the Street: Recontextualizing Balthasar

This paper supports the burgeoning movement that looks to find affinities between Hans urs von Balthasar's theology and various liberation theologies. It does so by offering a “recontextualization” of Balthasar's thought. Specifically, it provocatively looks to recontextualize Balthasar as...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brown, Derek 1992- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Cambridge University Press 2018
In: New blackfriars
Year: 2018, Volume: 99, Issue: 1084, Pages: 788-806
Further subjects:B Liberation Theology
B Balthasar
B Goizueta
B Derrida
B Contextual Theology
B Literary Theory
B Crammer
B Maeseneer
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This paper supports the burgeoning movement that looks to find affinities between Hans urs von Balthasar's theology and various liberation theologies. It does so by offering a “recontextualization” of Balthasar's thought. Specifically, it provocatively looks to recontextualize Balthasar as a theologian of the street. The argument proceeds in three stages: First, the meaning of “context,” and so the possibility of recontextualization, is discussed. While the term has become commonplace in contemporary “contextual theologies,”, the most rigorous analysis of context is found not in theology, but in literary theory. Second, the particular locale of this particular recontextualization is discussed: the street. As sign, the street is ideologically and metonymically overdetermined. Here, Derrida, Goizueta, and Maeseneer are given as examples of thinkers who think with or from the street, who are contextualized by the street. Finally, the paper turns to specific instances in Balthasar's text that demonstrate his street contextualization: namely, his criticism of Rahner's martyrless Christianity and his discussion of the saints, particularly Joan of Arc. This section rejects those claims, epitomized by Murphy, that Balthasar's name signs a totally conservative context, and so completes my project of freeing space for the aforementioned liberatory movement to continue blossoming.
ISSN:1741-2005
Contains:Enthalten in: New blackfriars
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/nbfr.12320