A Trinitarian Anthropology: Adrienne von Speyr and Hans Urs von Balthasar in Dialogue with Thomas Aquinas by Michele M. Schumacher

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Trinitarian Anthropology: Adrienne von Speyr and Hans Urs von Balthasar in Dialogue with Thomas Aquinas by Michele M. Schumacher Matthew DuBroy A Trinitarian Anthropology: Adrienne von Speyr and Hans Urs von Balthasar in Dialogue with Thomas Aquinas by Michele M. Schumacher Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014), xii + 451 pp. There has long been appreciation of the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar, but lately there has been a growing criticism of his work, often by disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas. Adrienne von Speyr has received little attention in the discussion of Balthasar's work outside of the notes that critics have made that, at key, highly questionable points, Balthasar follows Adrienne. Adrienne von Speyr was a mystic whose works Balthasar, her spiritual director, editor, publisher, interpreter, and stenographer, considered more important than his own, and whose works he largely intended to translate into a more technical expression within his own oeuvre. In fact, Balthasar "maintained that 'her work and mine are neither psychologically nor philologically to be separated; two halves of a single whole'" (7). Schumacher's book is a welcome addition that brings together Balthasar, Adrienne, and St. Thomas. The goal of this book is to present the theological anthropology of Adrienne in systematic terms supplied by Balthasar's own theological anthropology. By doing this, Schumacher wants to accomplish at least three things. First, she wants to show that Adrienne's mystical insights have theological value. Since Balthasar and Adrienne thought a mystic should be judged based almost entirely on objective content, Schumacher also intends to provide a basis for theologians to judge the objective value and the inspiration of Adrienne's works. Schumacher herself is convinced of their worth and authenticity, finding in her the genius that many think originates in Balthasar's work. Second, Schumacher aims to help readers of Balthasar be more aware of Adrienne's profound influence [End Page 1009] on him and to show their unity. Third, and finally, Schumacher intends to initiate a dialogue between disciples of Balthasar and those of St. Thomas. She does this by responding to Balthasar's critics (mostly Thomists) and by showing the harmony between the work of Balthasar and Adrienne, on the one hand, and Aquinas, on the other. She chose St. Thomas as an interlocutor largely because she is concerned with reconciling the doctrine of Balthasar and Adrienne with the Catholic theological tradition. Schumacher is suited well for this work, since she is both sympathetic with Balthasar and Adrienne and a diligent reader of St. Thomas with the aid of important Dominican theologians (Bernhard Blankenhorn, Gilles Emery, Jean-Pierre Torrell, and Michael Sherwin). In the first chapter, Schumacher compares Aquinas's understanding of how analogy works in theology with Balthasar's and Adrienne's understanding, doing so by arguing for different but complimentary Trinitarian analogies: Aquinas using the psychological analogy and Balthasar/Adrienne using the analogy of freedom. In addition to using analogy, which is characteristic of Aquinas, Balthasar's perspective is often largely katalogical, "a perspective proceeding downward from the revealed archetype to the image" (15–16). Then, in chapters 2–6, Schumacher deals with a particular tension, a difference-in-unity that is found within the Balthasarian/Speyrian corpus. Tension (Spannung) is not meant to imply conflict, but rather "unity, communion and love," and it is ultimately resolved in the Trinitarian love of God (64). Seen from the perspective of Trinitarian love, the whole and, as a consequence, the inner coherence of the parts is made more manifest. It is not simply Trinitarian love, but "Trinitarian love in the form of the reciprocal surrender of the divine Persons" that sheds light on everything (375). "Surrender" renders the German Hingabe and means "an active letting go (or letting be) by way of a generous outpouring, as it were, or a passive but nonetheless willful letting be or letting go by way of availability, consent, and receptivity" (308). The Trinity itself, then, is a difference-in-unity and sheds light on the other differences-in-unities, and therefore the notion of surrender unites the various tensions, just as it does in the Trinity. Chapter 2 concerns the tension between...