La tradizione patristica e il mistero di Dio Padre in Hans Urs Von Balthasar

Abstract

It seems that Patristic today is captive of a paradox. On one side there wasn’t up to nox a so prosperous out-burst of the knowledge
about the Priests of the Church. Such outburst expresses oneself by the similar abundance of critical editions of the works, never a so rich harvest of new manuscripts just discovered, never so advanced techniques of research as in the course of the twentieth century; and however this knowledge never was confined to a restricted group in the Church and in the world of academic investigation. Hans Urs von Balthasar wasn’t simply a theologian gifted of an unequalled knowledge of Patristic, but he has exerted himself also in an ample and pioneer work, by taking care of the manuscript’s edition, either anteriorly not published or not translated, or with important textual studies of the other manuscripts. In effect, we can’t understand deeply the von Balthasar’s Theology if we don’t realize before how he had conditions of confronting with the view that has animated the Patristic period of the Church, and of comprising it critically in his project.