Christ and Analogy: The Christocentric Metaphysics of Hans Urs von Balthasar

4. Analogy: A Theological and Philosophical via Media

4 Analogy A Theological and Philosophical via Media We turn now to the Analogy Thesis, which has survived as the only possible option for cognizing the relationship between God and the world. However, our explication to this point has shown that it is not von Balthasar’s position by mere process of elimination: its logic has been invoked to deny both the other competing theses. Therefore some examination of the historical arguments for accepting this thesis is in order, along with a consideration of the ideal reasons for accepting it. Unlike in the previous two chapters, however, the examination of the ideal reasons will be less about the underlying commitments (which have in fact already been cited in our discussion of the previous two theses) and more about specifying the form this doctrine of analogy takes. I. Historical Form of the Analogy Thesis To detail the historical arguments in favor of the Analogy Thesis, we return to GL II, in fact resuming the argument as von Balthasar develops it there. Our study of this text in chapter 2 concluded with the assertion of exemplarity as the most advanced form of the explication of creaturely participation in the divine. We will now turn to the discussion of Denys the Areopagite to further complete that picture before returning to Bonaventure to fill in the final contours of von Balthasar’s historical understanding of analogy. A. THE ONTOLOGY OF PARTICIPATION It falls upon Denys, the great synthesizer of Christianity and Neo-Platonism, to give a robust account of the ontological implications of participation. In the 91 Dionysian vision, in which God’s self-impartation plays such a decisive role, von Balthasar sees both a development in the articulation of the participatory character of the God-world relationship and an anticipation of the kenotic theme that will be so integral to von Balthasar’s own theology.1 Although the logic of participation to be found here is consonant with that of Augustine, it will nevertheless be of benefit to examine it in some detail because the strategies von Balthasar sees Denys employ to avoid the adverse cosmology of Plotinus parallel those von Balthasar himself will employ. The articulation of participation in what has become a Neo-Platonic context (as opposed to the more purely Platonic context of Augustine’s thinking) will therefore serve to underscore the narrow path von Balthasar himself is trying to follow with his emphasis on analogy. Von Balthasar sees in the Dionysian theology of creation a fundamental act of sharing, a first action which originates and constitutes creaturely being. This act of sharing is also God’s very self; therefore every creature, by virtue of having been called into existence by means of an act of sharing, participates in God. To unpack this, von Balthasar presents two analogies: a radius and the center of a circle, and a stamp and the imprint that makes it, adding that the act of sharing that grounds creation is identical with Godself.2 What does this really amount to? 1) creation:God’s act of sharing::a radius:the center of a circle 2) creation:God’s act of sharing::an imprint:the stamp that makes it The problem with these analogies is that on the one side, the second term is an activity (God’s act of sharing), but on the other side, the second terms are existents (a mathematical point or a material object). This is not enough to invalidate the analogies, but it does make them more difficult to understand. For this reason, the claim that the act of sharing is identical with God (which is the main point of the sentence quoted) does significant work. This identity of God with God’s act of sharing, easily motivated from a doctrine of divine simplicity, allows one to substitute the problematic “God’s act of sharing” in the above analogies with “God,” yielding: 1a) creation:God::a radius:the center of a circleand 2a) creation:God::an imprint:the stamp that makes it The consequence is that a distinction is made between the agent and the product (an imprint is not the stamp that makes it), but the very existence of the 92 | Christ and Analogy product is grounded in an act of the agent which can only be to some extent the surrender of part of itself, a surrender which implies no diminution or giving away of what is...