Joseph M. Langmead

Experiencing the Call of Grace: a Comparison of the Theological Anthropologies of Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Karl Rahner - with Proposed Synthesis Joseph M. Langmead

This investigation explores the theological anthropologies of two of the most important theologians of the twentieth century: Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) and Karl Rahner (1904-1984). The focus on anthropology is intended both to locate a distinctive dimension important in the theological systems of both men as well as to provide a useful theological category in which consideration of similarities and differences between them might be facilitated. Such a comparison is important since it can be argued that these two figures represent in multiple ways the two principal streams of theological reflection - and inflection - flowing from the turbulent twentieth century to the twenty-first. While that assertion may be seen by some as an overstatement, no other pairing provides as much scholarly range, depth and broad cross-disciplinary literacy, deployed by them and their disciples in service of the great theological debates of the mid-to-late twentieth century, especially in the Roman Catholic Church. Those debates continue with increasing intensity today. The pairing of these brilliant theologians and the possibility of discerning a genuine synthesis has much to offer the world.