ABSTRACT
This essay traces the ways in which Hans Urs von Balthasar, a leading twentieth-century theologian, read and incorporated the doctrine of theosis. In three movements, Ciraulo traces Balthasar’s retrieval of the doctrine of deification, beginning with Gregory of Nyssa and Plotinus in antiquity, through John of Ruusbroec and Meister Eckhart in the Middle Ages, and finally in the thought of John of the Cross and Ignatius of Loyola. Ciraulo concludes his survey of this history with a commentary on Balthasar’s own contribution to the theology of theosis, especially as he articulated it in his Theo-Drama. Divinization for Balthasar is at once Christic, Marian, and Pneumatic, all placed within the primary framework of the relationship between Infinite and finite freedoms.
