Tag Archives: Hans Urs von Balthasar

a solitary Christian…without earthly hope

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Gil Bailie

Rereading what Hans Urs von Balthasar (quoting in passing Dietrich Bonhoeffer) has written brings to mind the role that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is now performing for the Church and the world. “There are moments when a solitary Christian undergoes … Continue reading →

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Love your neighbor as yourself…

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Gil Bailie

“In vain we shall search the world before Christ for this kind of outlook of man on his fellow man; we shall find it neither in Plato, who speaks nobly of Eros, nor in the treatises of Aristotle and Cicero … Continue reading →

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Turning Ourselves into Gifts

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Gil Bailie

“The modern world insidiously brings back forms of self-enslavement from which Western society had largely escaped during the Christian centuries.” – René Girard         “Our gratitude for the gift of ourselves must tend toward fashioning our whole … Continue reading →

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Waning days of Summer Newsletter

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Randy Coleman-Riese

New to the Cornerstone Forum Store This is the last of Gil Bailie’s Reflections on the works of William Shakespeare – and appropriately The Tempest was the Bard’s final play. All those who have signed up for our episodic email … Continue reading →

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Civilization & Barbarism

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Hans Urs von Balthasar, quoting and commenting on observations of the French novelist George Bernanos: “The thing we still call ‘civilization’ has outstripped every form of barbarism in accomplishing works of destruction. It now threatens to destroy, not only the … Continue reading →

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The Longing…

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Gil Bailie

C. S. Lewis: The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country … the place where I ought to have … Continue reading →

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Suffering: A New Situation

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Gil Bailie

I gave a short talk at the Good Friday service at my parish on the question of vicarious suffering. I spoke from notes, but I began with this: In the David Mamet film Heist, the dubious character played by Danny DeVito … Continue reading →

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The Role of the Laity

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Gil Bailie recently gave a presentation at the Convocation of the College of Fellows of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. Following are some excerpts: My remarks take their point of departure and borrow their resolve from … Continue reading →

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The Public Atmospherics of Health

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Gil Bailie

Here is a very timely message from the pen of Hans Urs von Balthasar, written decades before the current crisis in the Catholic Church: “The bold venture of speaking openly concerns everything that must urgently be said in Church and … Continue reading →

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The Predicament

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Gil Bailie

“There are still countries today where, even in the Catholic Church, the individual is in a situation reminiscent of that in which Kierkegaard found himself, in a national church that had fallen into liberalism: however willing the individual is to … Continue reading →

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