Friday, April 20, 2012

Email Exchange Between Nathan Davis and Blogger


Nathan Davis to me





I thought you might like this:

Here is a choice quote from von Balthazar’s Razing the Bastions:

”To honor the tradition does not excuse one from the obligation of beginning everything from the beginning each time, not with Augustine or Thomas or Newman, but with Christ. And the greatest figures of Christian salvation history are honored only by the one who does today what they did then, or what they would have done if they had lived today. The cross-check is quickly done, and it shows the tremendous impoverishment, not only in spirit and life, but also quite existentially: in thoughts and points of view, themes and ideas, where people are content to understand tradition as the handing-on of ready made results. Boredom manifests itself at once, and the neatest systematics fails to convince, remains of little consequence. The little groups of those who have come to an understanding with one another and cultivate what they take to be the tradition become more and more esoteric, foreign to the world, and more and more misunderstood, although they do not condescend to take notice of their alienation. And one day the storm that blows the dried-up branch away can no longer be delayed, and this collapse will not be great, because what collapses had been a hollow shell for a very long time.” (p. 34-35)     

And here’s what Ratzinger thinks of this passage from Von Balthazar:

The task is not, therefore, to suppress the Council [Vatican II] but to discover the real Council and to deepen its true intention in the light of present experience. That means there can be no return to the Syllabus [Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors], which may have marked the first stage in the confrontation with liberalism and a newly conceived Marxism but cannot be the last stage…The fact is, as Hans Urs von Balthazar pointed out as early as 1952, that the ‘demolition of the bastions’ is a long-overdue task.

The Church cannot choose the times in which she will live….She must relinquish many of the things that have hitherto spelled security for her and that she has taken for granted. She must demolish longstanding bastions and trust solely to the shield of faith.” (Principles of Catholic Theology, p.391).

It’s interesting to consider this last statement in light of Pope Benedict’s call for a “Year of Faith.”  How many will rush around to prop up those exact same bastions, all in the name of the “year of faith”?

I totally agree with von Balthasar and Ratzinger on the need for something new, although I would favor the Joyces’ “deepening of the roots” to von Balthasar’s “razing the bastions.”

And here’s what Ratzinger thinks of this passage from von Balthasar:
The task is not, therefore, to suppress the Council [Vatican II] but to discover the real Council and to deepen its true intention in the light of present experience. That means there can be no return to the Syllabus [Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors], which may have marked the first stage in the confrontation with liberalism and a newly conceived Marxism but cannot be the last stage….The fact is, as Hans Urs von Balthasar pointed out as early as 1952, that the ‘demolition of the bastions’ is a long-overdue task.
The Church cannot choose the times in which she will live….She must relinquish many of the things that have hitherto spelled security for her and that she has taken for granted. She must demolish longstanding bastions and trust solely to the shield of faith.” (Principles of Catholic Theology, p.391).

It’s interesting to consider this last statement in light of Pope Benedict’s call for a “Year of Faith.”  How many will rush around to prop up those exact same bastions, all in the name of the “year of faith”?

I totally agree with von Balthasar and Ratzinger on the need for something new, although I would favor the Joyces’ “deepening of the roots” to von Balthasar’s “razing the bastions.”
From Blogger:

Nathan,
 
   I love it. The Von Balthazar evaluation and the Ratzinger comment. The fundamental point is to start over from the real start: the experience of the Person of the God-man. Only there can we know the meaning of what is real  (the Word of God) and the meaning of man. In both cases, the Person of Christ. And we must be receptive of Him, and take Him into ourselves and live Him out in the daily life of today. That is the root of all meaning.
   First order sensation and abstraction which is scholastic methodology and part of the Enlightenment - in a word: objectification - will not cut it in a world about to be become totally virtual with Project Google Glass which I just posted (by Ross Douthot). And this because a world that has been objectified is already reduced and partially unreal. Hence, what I respect, and apologized to you for, is to be true to faith and revelation experience. If you experience anything with the experience of self-transcendence, it is real. I salute it. Tight reasoning and Tradition as conceptual (and not experiential) is not necessarily real for the long haul historically. Therefore, raze the bastions and replant the Seed of the Word today in the soil of magnanimous hearts as Our Lady, and let's rebuild. Lots and lots of material of the last 2,000 years + and outside Christianity will fit in the organism of this new tree built on the footprint of Vatican II and the Magisterium of these last three popes. Fr. Bob

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