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Four. Von Balthasar’s Theological Dramatic Theory
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120 FOUR Von Balthasar’s Theological Dramatic Theory There can be something quite dramatic about a theology of alterity; it can seem like a commentary on the tragic state of human beingin -the-world. To forget the face of the Other’s needs, fears, feelings, and desires portrays a self-interested ego bent on being for-itself. Naturally, people are “allergic” to one another. The Other’s face of suffering and loneliness, or even fear of death, can be readily objectified in ego-consciousness as something not so important. This may explain why our ordinary consciousness seems to register a problem with suffering. We do not want it, and we do not like how consciousness excessively causes confusion among our experiences and thoughts of the world and of others. However, on the hither side of consciousness, a nonphenomenal drama is awaiting to rupture consciousness with an overwhelming and utmost surprise—an unheardof encounter that has never been present to experience. This is the surprise of the drama and theology of alterity. On the hither side of consciousness, in the innermost depths of the human soul, there is the moral conscience. Levinas works hard to describe the non-phenomenology and transcendence of the conscience. Where the self awakes enigmatically to encounter the word of God in the face of the Other and in the inner depth of the soul (transdescendence), it is ordered into a state of responsibility for others (transascendence)—a responsibility that exponentially seems to grow. Such a hyperbolic state of responsibility endures as a difficult freedom of radical otherness. So we witness the Von Balthasar’s Theological Dramatic Theory 121 drama or liturgy or work of responsibility for the other. Somewhere between the gravity of agapic love and the eros of being-in-theother ’s-skin, a touch of ethical melancholy may begin to simmer until it boils over as compassion, prayer, vigilance, and expiation for the Other. The melancholy is no depression, but a feeling associated with radical alterity to help the self envisage something otherwise, namely, a compassion or substitution for the Other to the point of expiation. Levinasian ethics signifies a kenotic drama and passion, provoking an unthematizable realm of hope and promise in the dramatic revelation of the Other. Von Balthasar also presents God’s self-revealing role in dramatic terms, but in a far more overt and obvious way. A theological drama unfolds: God is the author, the director, and an actor in the drama of the world’s salvation.1 The action always unfolds in a Trinitarian framework. Believers are at once the audience and the actors, as they are represented by Christ and share in his mission (TD 3:527–35). Theo-drama is a first theology for von Balthasar, in which theological conceptions can be developed in different theological forms such as soteriology, eschatology, christology, pneumatology, and Trinitarian theology.2 These themes gain depth through a phenomenal and ontological conception of analogy (triads). Von Balthasar treats God’s action in the world drama by way of two triads: “the triad of dramatic creativity (author, actor, director); and the triad of dramatic realization (presentation, audience, horizon )” (TD 3:532).3 The triad of dramatic creativity employs metaphor to suggest that the author, actor, and director together resemble the economic Trinity. As the author, the Father is most profoundly involved in the play. His creative action arises from his responsibility to illuminate the meaning of existence. His action guides and accompanies the actor, Jesus Christ, to act out his role and thus to fulfill his mission. The directional role is assigned to the Holy Spirit. The divine director has the task of bringing together the author’s creative vision and the actor’s abilities to realize it perfectly. But in a sense, both the author and actor are prior to the director in that their freedom and creativity are in no ways limited. The director is more like a [54.147.110.47] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:42 GMT) 122 A Theology of Alterity veiled phenomenon, present only as the play’s atmosphere. He is the one prompting the actor to perfectly realize the original meaning and words of the author.4 Thus, in the first triad, dramatic creativity depends on the interplay of the author, actor, and director. But given that the play must move from rehearsal to live performance, von Balthasar conceives of a second triad related to dramatic realization: presentation, audience, and horizon. In the task of...