The Church’s Eucharistic Poverty in the Theologies of Jon Sobrino and Hans Urs von Balthasar

Abstract

The article puts Jon Sobrino and Hans Urs von Balthasar into a mutually corrective dialogue regarding poverty and the church. Sobrino’s goals and outlook are laudable, but his proposal lacks an adequate metaphysical basis, which is seen most clearly in his account of God’s suffering. Balthasar’s theology gives an account of a church characterized by a eucharistic poverty, one of self-dispossession for the sake of others, but also upholds the divine immutability. At the same time, Sobrino’s attentiveness to concrete history serves to correct Balthasar’s problematic and romanticized views of poverty.