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7 Participation, Love, and Kenosis We saw in the previous chapter that the highest moment in the explication of the metaphysics was at the same time the beginning of the ability to speak in a properly theological mode. The point where the highest principle of created reality, as both its source and goal, comes into view is simultaneously the point at which a doorway is opened into the eternal life of the uncreated, and to as much as can be known about the grounding of creation in the uncreated being of God. The seamless transition we find at this point in von Balthasar’s thought is the desired and natural result of focusing the discourse on Christ, on the one who is himself at once the meaning of creation and the exposition of the Trinity. The ontological problem of existence (why is there anything at all, and why is it of this sort?) and the epistemological problem of the divine (how can we know that it exists, and what it is like?) are alike solved in Christ as the revelation of the divine life and the blueprint of creaturely reality. The explanatory power of this privileged midpoint is only heightened by the divinization of creaturely reality, a divinization that, although it fails to absolutize creaturely being (which must always remain relative and subordinate to uncreated being), nevertheless valorizes it in the most lofty and final way. In Christ a common space is made in which creation and Creator can meet; but it is a commonality secured not by being a point higher than both or outside of both in which they can meet as equals, but rather it is the space of the divine interiority making room within itself for the reality of created being. In this way the intersection and ultimately the union of theology and metaphysics may be seen to be a reflection of the encounter and union of God and creation. Metaphysics remains controlled by theology, for the true measure of Christ remains the measure of trinitarian love, and every worldly interval is to be correlated to this. Creation remains subordinate to God, for it can only come to exist, come to understand itself, and come to fruition in the person of the one who expresses fully and uniquely (as Word and therefore expressio) the trinitarian dynamic of love. 171 Love, as inner dynamic of the being of God and therefore the transcendental transcendental, is the logical point at which metaphysics expands into theology. It is with this theme that we will bring this study to a close—at precisely that point where one will be most capable of seeing the ramifications and payoff of the choices von Balthasar has been making from the beginning. Much secondary literature has focused on the idea that Being and love are co-extensive.1 This is a fundamental statement for von Balthasar, theologically as well as philosophically. Many of these writers correctly identify kenosis as key to von Balthasar’s treatment of love; this insight must be expanded if it is to cover the entire field of metaphysics and theology treated here. The analogy of being is the kenotic love of God in creation, the “second kenosis” which is preceded by the self-giving of the Trinity and followed by the emptying unto death on a cross in the Incarnation.2 Therefore, before we can turn to speak of the divine love, we must examine these three important kenotic moments in the life of God and cause them to appear in their proper light. Only once that has been accomplished will it be possible and profitable to look at the movement of unifying grace; for kenosis is the divine exitus, a movement that finds its fulfillment in the return (redditus) of unifying grace. These two taken together describe the dynamics of love, which would be incomplete were either theme to be neglected. In the process, both kenosis and grace will appear as having primary reference to the donation of the being of God in such a way as to make them nearly synonymous. It will also become clear that what we see in this dynamic is no mere addition to the philosophical system examined so far, but rather the very life and energy implicit at every moment in the theoretical metaphysical deductions on the one hand and the practical encounter between persons (divine-divine as well as divine-human) on the other. I. The Concept of Kenosis In the Introduction...

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