{"id":189,"date":"2016-05-29T20:23:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T04:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/theruleandtheraven\/?p=189"},"modified":"2016-05-29T20:39:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T04:39:59","slug":"theology-poetry-theological-poetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theruleandtheraven\/2016\/05\/29\/theology-poetry-theological-poetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Theology. Poetry. Theological Poetics."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Dante and Virgil At the Entrance to Hell,\" Edgar Degas
\u201cDante and Virgil At the Entrance to Hell,\u201d Edgar Degas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

So, I wrote this book called\u00a0Theo-Poetics: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Risk of Art and Being<\/a><\/em>. It is essentially a scholarly exploration of Balthasar\u2019s theological \u201cstyle\u201d or method, and I proceed\u00a0through his oeuvre\u00a0in order to indicate\u00a0a relatively basic thesis, though one quite difficult to perform: Balthasar conducts theology under the strictures of philosophy and<\/em>\u00a0the arts. In other words, he has two modes of theology that he flickers between and often writes in simultaneously: the metaphysical and the \u201cpoetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want to review this informally since \u2013 also informally \u2013 there has been some confusion over what I am, and am not, articulating. If this isn\u2019t your thing, forgive me my obscurity.<\/p>\n

To be clear: this is about one aspect of the book, not all of it, though a rather key aspect.<\/p>\n

The thesis of the book, for one thing, lays out the groundwork for appropriating and critiquing Balthasar in his own terms. It allows his readers to understand what he is saying and how, which is often a point of perplexity and controversy in scholarship and elsewhere. Conservative and liberal scholars have expressed wide-ranging and cutting criticisms of his work. I essentially turn back to Balthasar and ask how<\/em>\u00a0he means what he means, which would give us access to what<\/em> he means in the first place, and\u00a0it is exactly there\u00a0that he is lost or redeemed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords mean what they say,\u201d Alyssa Lyra Pitstick writes near\u00a0the end of her severe critique of Balthasar in Light in Darkness<\/a><\/em>. The book is one of the more famous critiques of his theology.\u00a0Words mean what they say<\/em>,\u00a0Pitstick argues, so if we take Balthasar at his word, he is simply heretical. My book never quite directly addresses her, but my\u00a0work asks itself, Do<\/strong> words mean what they say?<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a useful question to ask. It is also just the one to ask considering critiques of Balthasar from other corners. So much so that students are frequently taught this suspicion, making such a negative\u00a0interpretation of Balthasar a tradition and a legacy. But is it\u00a0fair or accurate? If it isn\u2019t, then how do people walk away from him with these wildly different reads of him?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo be it; 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. But back to matters of substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We Hope?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well then, back to it: do words mean what they say?<\/p>\n

For Balthasar, the answer is basically, \u201cYes and no.\u201d Yes<\/em>, because he does think that words have meaning \u2013 quite powerfully so \u2013 and No<\/em>, because he does not think that words have only one meaning. Words are not identical with meaning. This is why we can lie with words. More importantly, this is also why our words can speak truly of the infinite God.<\/p>\n

A human word cannot be identical with, cannot summarize, God. It would have to be infinite for that, and there is only one infinite Word<\/em> who is identical with God. Human words, therefore, function via analogy. (And if that Word were to become flesh and speak with human words\u2026oh<\/em>. What a wonder that would be.)<\/p>\n

Balthasar is interested in more than human language, however. Or rather, he \u201cplays\u201d with what language\u00a0can do. He speculates according to the iron laws of classical metaphysics, and does so with keen logic and consistency. (I am, if anything, usually hellbent on proving that<\/em> most of all.) He also speculates using images, metaphors, repetitions. This latter form of speculation is not strictly metaphysical \u2013 and not not<\/em> metaphysical, since it presupposes metaphysics \u2013 but is what I call poetic<\/em>. We could arguably pick another\u00a0word for this second mode of theology. Perhaps \u201csymbolic\u201d or \u201csacramental\u201d or (to push\u00a0you, dear reader) aesthetic-dramatic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In my book, I chose to highlight poetry for a number of reasons. One was because much of Balthasar\u2019s more image-intensive theories often imitate the \u201claws\u201d of poetry: ambiguous, vulnerable, precise. (Yes, I said precise<\/em>.) Another is because Balthasar often uses poets and their works to reflect on theology, including writing about their poems in the middle of a book (dammit, Theo-Drama V!<\/em>), or quoting poems, and even standing against poems. Words are meaningful, which means that poetry has theological implications \u2013 for good and<\/em> for ill. Finally, I chose to do this because I am also good at poetry. I\u2019m good at philosophy and I\u2019m good at poetry, which helps\u00a0me to navigate between the two in Balthasar and then explain it to others.<\/p>\n

Hopefully more clearly than he does. Sometimes, he isn\u2019t clear at all. Thus the world\u2019s perpetual confusion toward\u00a0him.<\/p>\n

For Balthasar,\u00a0borrowing from poetry (and the other arts) enables theology to perform speculation that it could not otherwise. At the same time, theology needs philosophy, and theology is not<\/em> poetry. Balthasar\u2019s\u00a0theology uses language in ways that are analogous to poetry, but the two\u00a0are not the same. Poetry is a realm with its own interior structures and gifts, with horizons that are proper to it and known intimately within it. In other words, poets have full command of their poetry as artists. At the same time,\u00a0poets do not command the meaning of their poems \u2013 not entirely \u2013 which is what allows theology to ask theological questions of<\/em> poetry and through<\/em> poetry. In other words, poets are not theologians, and vice versa. For Balthasar \u2013 and for me \u2013 this is good: it allows poets freedom. It allows poetry to be its own \u201cthing.\u201d And it allows the same for theology.<\/p>\n

So, Balthasar\u2019s theology is often (though not always) poetic<\/em>. Poetry-like. But he\u2019s not a poet \u2013 God, no, have you read Heart of the World<\/em>? I itch to hone\u00a0that monstrous thing down into lean muscle, because it\u2019s pudgy and extravagant\u00a0\u2013 and at the same time\u00a0poetry ought not be confused with theology. It\u2019s theological<\/em>. Theology-like.<\/p>\n

Notice the centrality of analogy here, and how it allows for delicate navigation between ideas and perspectives. It takes keen attention to analogy to understand Balthasar. He is incredibly demanding as a thinker and an author.\u00a0My book, then, basically attends to this demand. It outlines the demand itself and it describes the fundamental themes of his theology through it.<\/p>\n

Well, the book covers one<\/em> of his demanding demands. There are others (like my favorite<\/a> lately).<\/p>\n

I think that, sometimes, my direction\u00a0has disappointed some readers of my book. They perhaps wanted poetry \u2013 which I do partially provide \u2013 or they wanted an exploration of the concept of poesis<\/em>. And so on.\u00a0But Balthasar does not work out of poetry itself, however amenable it is to him, and so neither do I.\u00a0Despite being something of a poet myself, I do not ask literary questions of poems. Or again, despite the complex history of poesis<\/em>, I do not explore it. \u201cTheological poetics\u201d is, instead, a kind of short-hand for what is\u00a0ultimately a rather sweeping set of\u00a0insights about the nature of theology and theological speculation. These are Balthasar\u2019s insights, which I do the work of offering.<\/p>\n

It would be unfair to critique my book for being something that it is not. Essentially for not being a book someone else could write. My book isn\u2019t that book. Just as it would be unfair to take Balthasar literally, whatever that would mean, and then critique him for it. Or to assume\u00a0that he is not writing with metaphysical seriousness, and then complain that he is not metaphysically serious. I lament that my book title seems to lead\u00a0readers astray so horribly, or maybe annoyingly (?). Still, I suppose\u00a0the hybridic\u00a0nature of Balthasar\u2019s work already invites such confusions \u2013 the very ones\u00a0I attempt to correct, as I explained here and in the book.<\/p>\n

These days, I\u2019d gladly surrender the title or the term \u201ctheo-poetics\u201d if asked. I\u2019d be happy to do so. I don\u2019t particularly care, after all: it\u2019s the theory, not the term, that matters. So I\u2019d readily give up the words if that were, ultimately, what it would take to be clearer.<\/p>\n

But of course\u2026that would be an irony.<\/p>\n

Do<\/strong> words mean what they say?<\/em> Yes, and so much more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I wrote this book called\u00a0Theo-Poetics: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Risk of Art and Being. It is essentially a scholarly exploration of Balthasar\u2019s theological \u201cstyle\u201d or method, and I proceed\u00a0through his oeuvre\u00a0in order to indicate\u00a0a relatively basic thesis, though one quite difficult to perform: Balthasar conducts theology under the strictures of philosophy and\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2641,"featured_media":191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,107,10,19,13,21,3],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-philosophy","tag-catholic-theology","tag-hans-urs-von-balthasar","tag-metaphysics","tag-poetry","tag-theo-poetics","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nTheology. Poetry. 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