Hans Urs von Balthasar made detailed statements about his work on five occasions, mostly on the birthdays that marked the end of a decade of his life: as a young author in his "desire to lift out of the jumble of history the four or five figures which represent for me the constellation of my idea and my mission;" as publisher and writer, "out of concern for the reader" and in order to equip this reader with a guide to his own books. Then, in the midst of the transformations connected with the Council, he wrote an "Account" for himself and his readers, about what had been done, and what was still required. Finally, in a kind of pause, as one already looking toward the close of his life, he gave once again an account of what had been achieved and what could no longer be achieved, in a clear shift of emphasis away from his "authorship" in favor of the pastoral work in the communities which he had founded. This present volume is a helpful guide to his many-sided work.
This book describes the common task which Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr undertook, the founding of a secular institute: The Community of St. John. He also describes their common theological work and explains the theology and role of secular institutes.
This volume initiates von Balthasar's study of the biblical vision and understanding of God's glory. Starting with the theophanies of the Patriarchal period, it shows how such glory is most fully expressed in the graciousness of the Covenant relationship between and Israel. But the breaking of that relationship by Israel means that in the later books of the Old Testament, the divine glory is seen in God's willingness to bear with his people in the dark side of their history. There is no final version of God's glory in the Old Testament. In the 500 years before Christ the Covenant relation is mofe idea than reality. The vision of the transcendent glory of God which is developed in the later writings, is only fragmentary. It will find its strange and unexpected fulfillment in the new Covenant.
Balthasar provides illumination on the burning issues of our day. He brings his scholarship to bear on some of the major topics of our time: Women Priests, Humanae Vitae, the Laity, and the "Flight into Community", and much more.
The Zurich polymath Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) is known as the founder of zoology and plant geography, the father of bibliography, editor of ancient texts, and author of one of the most important paleontological works of the sixteenth century. While preparing his extensive work on plants, he died unexpectedly and early from the plague. Gessner's interest in the natural sciences was rooted, on the one hand, in the new conception of nature that emerged with the Renaissance, and, on the other hand, in the creation theology of the Reformation, which considered nature as a second book of God's revelation next to the Bible. This richly illustrated and erudite biography is the first biography of Gessner to appear in English. This biography is a translation of Conrad Gessner (1516-1565): Universalgelehrter und Naturforscher der Renaissance (Basel: NZZ Libro, 2016).
Schopenhauer was the first major Western philosopher with a deep interest in Asian philosophies and religions. His favorite book was a Latin version of the Indian Upanishads—the Oupnek'hat—that he used to call the consolation of his life and death. Urs App explains in this book for the first time why Schopenhauer regarded this work as the most excellent in the world, how it is connected with the birth of his philosophy, and what caused him to list it even ahead of Plato and Kant as his major inspiration. This groundbreaking new introduction to Schopenhauer's thought and its genesis explains the role of Indian, Persian (Sufi), Neoplatonic, and mystical ideas as well as meditative states ("better consciousness"). But its focus lies firmly on the central dynamic at the heart of Schopenhauer's entire work: the inner compass that gave it is overall direction.
This extraordinary story of a high-class Berlin brothel—taken over by the Nazi secret service—is one of the last untold tales of World War II. There is no book in English about the wartime Berlin ‘salon’ run by Kitty Schmidt under the secret control of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution. "Salon Kitty" was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic - the city of "Cabaret." But after the Nazis took power, it became something more dangerous: a spying center with every room wired for sound, staffed by female agents specially selected by the SS to coax secrets from their VIP clients. Masterminded by Reinhard Heydrich, the spymaster whom Hitler himself called "the man with the iron heart," the exclusive establishment turned listening post was patronized by the Nazi leaders themselves, not knowing that hidden ears were listening. The Madam and the Spymaster reveals the sensational true story of this forgotten part of espionage history. The deep research undertaken by Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Dr Julia Schrammel sheds new light on Nazi methods of control and coercion, and the way sex was abused for their own perverse purposes.
This monograph is nothing less than a bold attempt at solving the riddle of Gogol’s novel Dead Souls that even inspired a staging of Dead Souls at Schauspiel Stuttgart. Heftrich gives a comprehensive, coherent answer to the question of the novel’s meaning by meticulously laying bare its structure. The first part of the monograph is dedicated to one section of Gogol’s novel that has been neglected by virtually all critics - a clue that leads to a strictly ethical reading of Gogol’s epic. Gogol, as it emerges, constructed Dead Souls strictly according to a moral pattern. It is amazing to discover how flawlessly Dead Souls is built in this regard. The novel thus proves to be a true descendant of medieval romance with its inseparable interrelation between ethics and epics.
The book is dedicated to the role of visual representations in the history of early modern science. It brings together historical case studies from various fields and discusses epistemological questions such as the role of images as mediatory instances between practical and theoretical knowledge, the interaction between images and texts, and the potential of images to synthesize fragments of knowledge to a global picture.
Even though ozone has been applied for a long time for disinfection and oxidation in water treatment, there is lack of critical information related to transformation of organic compounds. This has become more important in recent years, because there is considerable concern about the formation of potentially harmful degradation products as well as oxidation products from the reaction with the matrix components. In recent years, a wealth of information on the products that are formed has accumulated, and substantial progress in understanding mechanistic details of ozone reactions in aqueous solution has been made. Based on the latter, this may allow us to predict the products of as yet not studied systems and assist in evaluating toxic potentials in case certain classes are known to show such effects. Keeping this in mind, Chemistry of Ozone in Water and Wastewater Treatment: From Basic Principles to Applications discusses mechanistic details of ozone reactions as much as they are known to date and applies them to the large body of studies on micropollutant degradation (such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors) that is already available. Extensively quoting the literature and updating the available compilation of ozone rate constants gives the reader a text at hand on which his research can be based. Moreover, those that are responsible for planning or operation of ozonation steps in drinking water and wastewater treatment plants will find salient information in a compact form that otherwise is quite disperse. A critical compilation of rate constants for the various classes of compounds is given in each chapter, including all the recent publications. This is a very useful source of information for researchers and practitioners who need kinetic information on emerging contaminants. Furthermore, each chapter contains a large selection of examples of reaction mechanisms for the transformation of micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fuel additives, solvents, taste and odor compounds, cyanotoxins. Authors: Prof. Dr. Clemens von Sonntag, Max-Planck-Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie, Mülheim an der Ruhr, and Instrumentelle Analytische Chemie, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany and Prof. Dr. Urs von Gunten, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, and Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
I would like one day," Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote in 1952, "to write a book on Ignatius of Loyola, the saint of whom I will always consider myself the least of sons." The Jesuit-formed theologian from Switzerland—widely considered one of the greatest thinkers and spiritual writers of modern times—never got the chance to fulfill this dream. Instead, Balthasar's whole theology, from Theo-Drama to Dare We Hope "That All Men Be Saved", is imbued with the influence of Saint Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus and author of the Spiritual Exercises, a multi-week retreat guide that has rejuvenated Catholic spirituality since the sixteenth century. Throughout Balthasar's priestly life, he led countless retreatants in the Ignatian Exercises, accompanying them in their discernment of God's call. This anthology is an aid for those either giving or making an Ignatian retreat. Full of citations and equipped with four indexes, as well as many texts never before translated into English, it sifts Balthasar's writings for insights into almost every element of Ignatius' "libretto", sometimes diving into themes scarcely explored by others. Moreover, it maps out those hidden strains of Jesuit spirituality that run unnoticed through the theologian's oeuvre. Yet the book may help anyone at all who wants to engage more deeply with Jesus or come to grips with Church doctrine, for as Balthasar himself says, the Spiritual Exercises are both a "great school of Christocentric contemplation" and a "genuine interpretation of the deposit of the faith".
Von Balthasar explores the main streams of metaphysics which have developed since the "catastrophe" of Nominalism, with its denial of the divine light in creation. Three paths have been taken, each with its own dangers. In a series of studies of representative mystic theologians, philosophers and poets, glory is traced through such figures as Eckhart, Ignatius, de Sales; the attempt to relocate theology in a recovery of antiquity's sense of being and beauty through figures like Holderlin, Goethe, Heidegger; the metaphysics of spirit through Descartes, Spinoza and the Idealists. - Publisher.
The humanists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries took a passionate interest in Livy’s History of Rome. No one studied the text more intensively than the Swiss scholar Henricus Glareanus, who not only held lectures on different Roman historians at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, but also drew up chronological tables for ancient history, which were printed several times in Basle, sometimes together with Livy’s History. Glareanus annotated his personal copy of the chronological tables and invited his students to copy his marginal notes into their own copies of the book. Three of these copies survived, and give new insight into Glareanus’s practices as a scholar and teacher. The notes they contain—and the way in which Glareanus used them as a teacher—are distinctive, and neither has had much attention in the past from historians of reading. This volume presents facsimile reproductions of the tables from one of the surviving copies, now kept in Princeton University Library. The high-quality reproductions include transcriptions of the handwritten notes, unlocking Glareanus’s teachings for a new generation of students and researchers.
The sole purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive meditation on the foundations and background of St. Ignatius' contemplation on the 'call of Christ', on the answer we must give if we want 'to give great proof of our love' and on the choice explicitly demanded of us: either to follow Christ our Lord to the 'first state of life, which is that of observing the commandments', of which he has given us an example by his obedience to his parents; or to follow him to 'the second state, which is that of evangelical perfection', of which he has given us an example by leaving his family 'to devote himself exclusively to the service of his eternal Father'. And this so that we can 'arrive at perfection' -- which is, of course, the perfection of Christian love -- 'in whatever state or way of life God our Lord may grant us to choose...The goal of our meditation is to understand why this act of choosing a 'state or way of life' 'within our Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church' is possible and necessary in the first place, and why there should be any either-or since both ways are capable of leading us to the same 'perfection of love', just as the same act, viewed from different perspectives, can be either absolute or relative." [Preface].
This pocket atlas is an excellent reference work that presents pathologic findings in all clinically relevant fields, using high-quality photographs and concise, well-structured explanatory texts. Images include color photos and micrographs. Electron microscopic images are included where necessary. Clear schematic drawings illustrate procedures such as the course of infections, etc. Text boxes on clinical and morphological aspects, on complications, and with easy-to-remember mnemonic summaries are set off in color.
Von Balthasar discusses the development of secular institutes--groups of lay people who live the life of the counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience, in the world--as a response to the problems of our time. In the process, he sketches the outlines of a theology of states of life in the Church, presents an account of the development of vows and the religious life in the history of the Church, and compares the new secular institutes with other lay movements in today's Church.
In Tragedy Under Grace, Hans Urs von Balthasar presents a magisterial portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the European Catholic renaissance, the historian and man of letters, Reinhold Schneider, whose response to the spiritual collapse of the West led him to Christ and to an interpretation of history in the light of the cross. Balthasar's painstaking reconstruction of Schneider's spiritual and intellectual itinerary, which traces the author's discovery of the presence of grace in the tragic conflicts of history, will be valuable for those desiring to understand the historical experience of the West, the relationship between faith and culture, or the role of the Catholic layman in the world. Anyone looking for a profound - and costly - response to the cultural crisis of our own day will also find in this book a source of understanding and inspiration.
In this third book, Balthasar presents various ways in which something of the Creator Spirit should be experienced through his manifestations: in the way in which he leads human persons to the living God ("Faith"), in the way in which he distinguishes the spirits of this time ("Crisis"), in the way in which he initiates into the mystery of the Incarnate One ("Night"), in the way in which he breathes through the finite structures of human life as that which is incomprehensibly open ("Breath"), and in the way in which he reveals himself as love ("Spirit").
The fourth volume in von Balthasar's essays is built around the theme of Spirit and Institution, the two central features of the Church which Balthasar approaches from different angles. The third volume is built around the theme of the Holy Spirit as the Creator Spirit. The first volume was constructed around the mid-point of the Word become man, and the second volume around the Church which becomes configured to him. The first part of the book looks at who man is, and then examines the distinctively Christian experience of God. Part two is a whole section on the Church which includes topics like celibacy and the priesthood today, how we should love the Church, and understanding Christian mysticism. The third and final part is an eschatology in which Balthasar gives a brilliant summary of heaven, hell and purgatory.
This book is about lifelong ageing of humans. The basic biochemical and genetic mechanisms remain ill known, and differ among individuals. The book starts out to explore the plant and animal kingdoms to answer questions human ageing needs for understanding. First, we come to scrutinize time running out and what ‘normal’ means with impacts on the genome and on protein half- lives and function. Ageing goes beyond biochemical skid treated by geroprotector drugs, including biosimilars; albeit early diagnosis with standard medical laboratory assays, here addressed, sheds light with focus on basic research. Modern tools, including machine learning, and DNA technology, e.g. genomics, have already provided for unanticipated insights. The chapters then turn around senescence of the entire organism based on variable ageing of single organs embedded in neuronal networks . Psychological stress factors, dementia opposed to vigilance, and distinction of ageing from overt disease are contrasting in humans and are opposed in the book. Senescence, seen as a one way track may be reverted into rejuvenation, made possible by insights into immunosenescence and genomic approaches. Risk management in health insurance finds important clues in this book. The topics addressed between the book covers help to understand the trend to the ever- prolonging life expectancy beyond the centenarian age group; nursing care takers and pharmaceutical industry are invited to understand what’ is going on in senior people to make their geriatric population remain fit or become frail.
Written in 1951 (with a second edition in 1961), this book takes its place within an impressive array of attempts to wrestle with Karl Barth's theology from a Catholic point of view. The book adopts the twofold strategy of presenting an exposition of "the whole of Barth's thought," while doing so for the purpose of a confessional dialogue among theologians. Not to be construed as an "Introduction to the Theology of Karl Barth," Balthasar's effort is to provide a Catholic response which, though not "official", nonetheless seeks to express a common direction and movement within Catholicism. The Theology of Karl Barth shows how a rethinking of basic issues in fundamental theology-concerning the relation of nature and grace, philosophy and theology, the "analogy of being" and the "analogy of faith"-might lead to a rapprochement between the two great rivers of Christianity, without compromising the center of gravity of either. In the process the book makes a major contribution to renewed understanding of Christianity in a secularized modern world. Co-published with Communio Books. "This reflection by one of the century's great Catholic theologians on the theology of one of the century's great Protestant theologians is an example of ecumenical dialogue at its best. One finds here a sympathetic and at the same time faithfully Catholic discussion of the major issues surrounding Barth's christocentricity. The appearance of an unabridged English translation of this book could hardly be more timely for the current religious situation in North America." - David L. Schindler, Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, John Paul II Institute "No one should think he can quickly dispose of questions posed here offhandedly. It was precisely because writers were in the habit during the time of the Reformation of theologizing with a hammer that the split in the Church became irreparable. And to work at overcoming this split means much effort. Only the patient need apply." - Hans Urs von Balthasar
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