The Systematic Thought of Hans Urs Von Balthasar: An Irenaean Retrieval

Rating:
Summary: Good but flawed
Review: A mostly competent but flawed study of von Balthasar. It's deformed by it's origin as a Ph.D. dissertation. He watches his ass a little too much, limiting the range of the study to manageable academic scope, claiming to show not that Balthasar's theology is "Irenaean" (because Mongrain would then be required to show us all of Irenaus), but that von Balthasar "thinks" it is. On the other hand -- presumably because mystic-stigmatics don't go over well in the academe -- we are told to dismiss von Balthasar's own "odd claim" that his greatest influence is Adrianne von Speyr. In other words, von Balhasar "only thinks" she is an influence.

How grand of this gentleman to rescue von Balhasar from his massive self-deception.

He isolates one influence in Balthasar and shows it permeating the whole. Fine. The same exercise, isolating De Lubac or Pryzwara or John the Evangelist or von Speyr would also be useful. Unfortunately, like Mongrain's study, it wouldn't make for a particularly illuminating general introduction to his thought.
Retitle it "The Influence of Irenaus on von Balthasar" and you have what it truly is, a good specialized study of one part of von Balthasar's work.