Philosophy and Theology in Hans Urs von Balthasar: Metaphysics and Kenosis

Abstract This essay highlights Balthasar's kenoticism as the key notion that allows him to relate intimately but also to distinguish clearly between (metaphysical) philosophy and (Trinitarian) theology. Through a careful study of Balthasar's metaphysics and kenoticism, this essay shows that Balthasar's Trilogy develops, in light of its kenotic reading of the immanent Trinity, a kenotically expressed metaphysics. The result is a reciprocal elucidation between theology and philosophy and a genuinely Trinitarian ontology, that is, a deeply Trinitarian account of the metaphysical constitution of finite being that still distinguishes between the philosophical and the theological disciplines.