Teachers at SFI Discuss Questions of Eschatological Ethics in the Works of Hans Urs von Balthasar

SFI has held a roundtable discussion on the eschatological aspects of Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar’s ethical thought. PhD Victor Granovskij presented on Balthasar’s works entitled Dante and Vladimir Solovyov.

“For us, the 5th chapter of von Balthasar’s Dante is the most important. Here, von Balthasar states his primary thesis directly: ‘What is Dante’s Divine Comedy? It’s a poem about hell.’ Both aspects of that designation are important: the work is about hell, and it is written in poetic form”, explained Granovskij.

In considering various aspects of this poem from the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic von Balthasar asks whether, as Nikolaj Berdyaev wrote, the Divine Comedy can be considered vengeful. He concludes that in an objective sense Dante’s Divine Comedy presents not only the triumph of divine justice, but the triumph of divine vendetta, i.e. divine vengeance.

In continuing to research Dante, von Balthasar poses new religious-philosophical questions, central among which is the question of empathy and compassion on the part of the poem’s protagonist vis-à-vis the poem’s other characters. Might we say that compassion, within this context, is a primary Christian virtue? And are empathy and compassion possible vis-à-vis God’s enemies?

The presenter underscored that “in striving to solve this dilemma, von Balthasar writes that Dante weakens the clutches of hell, echoing an utterance from the apocryphal  Apocalypse of Paul: ‘God, are you not more merciful?’”.

At the same time, Granovskij notes that in von Balthasar’s opinion, the primary difficulty in the Divine Comedy lies in the fact that Dante suffered from deficiencies in his Christology, perception of the Trinity, and understanding of hell.”

“This is not only a problem for Dante — it is a general soteriological shortcoming in western Christian thought, and it would be good to patch it with the ‘universalism of Eastern Christianity’, says the Jesuit von Balthasar, primarily having in mind the findings of Russian religious philosophy,” concluded Granovskij, reminding listeners of how the problem of hell is handled in the works of Nikolaj Berdyaev, Lev Karsavin, Fr Pavel Florenskij, and Sergej Fudel.

Participants also discussed the von Balthasar’s perceptions of the father of Russian religious philosophy Vladimir Solovyov, who von Balthasar considered a key figure in the history of Christian thought. Discussion centred on views expressed in von Balthasar’s essay Vladimir Solovyov, on which Granovskij also presented.