I am concerned that the new Hans Urs Von Balthasar Collection Pre-Pub information does a disservice to him by misleadingly labelling the controversial doctrine he is known for.
The information reads, "Known for his idea of universal salvation, that all will be saved, Balthasar was nothing but controversial." That "all will be saved" as a certain doctrine was condemned in the Early Church, and Von Balthasar accepted this. His seminal book on the topic (sadly not in the collection) is entitled Dare We HOPE That All Men Be Saved? In this book Von Balthasar argues that while we cannot hold with certainty that all will be saved, since this doctrine was condemned in the Early Church (and might do harm in the Church by tempting some Christians to not seek to evangelize the whole world), we can indeed dare to HOPE that all men be saved,
since the Bible refers to Jesus as "the savior of ALL men" (among other universal salvation passages);
since the Church throughout history canonized many as "certainly in heaven" but consigned none at all "certainly in hell;"
and since the Church throughout history in its official liturgical prayers in fact prayed for the salvation of all men - why would the Church consistently pray for something it knew to be absolutely impossible?
This subtle doctrine of Von Balthasar's keeps a fruitful tension between the extremes of :
1) being certain that all will be saved in the end (a proposition condemned in the Early Church) and
2) being certain that only a few will be saved
-- both of which extremes in fact tempt many Christians to NOT pray for souls and to NOT try very hard to be God's "co-workers" and instruments evangelizing the whole world. If all men will certainly be saved anyway, why pray and make great effort for this result? If only a few will be saved anyway, why pray and make great effort to be God's co-workers and instruments evangelizing the ENTIRE world of men? But if we accept Von Balthasar's subtly but thoroughly argued proposition, we do indeed dare to HOPE that all men be saved, without being absolutely certain of this outcome. Therefore, we are motivated to confidently pray big prayers for the salvation of all as the Church has prayed in its long liturgical history; therefore we are motivated to confidently labor for souls to come to know Christ with real HOPE such that we do not lose heart and cease our evangelistic efforts; and therefore we are motivated to labor for souls with a final, "fruitful uncertainty" about the end result so that we do not lose our motivation for evangelism due to a erroneously certain PRESUMPTION that all will be saved with or WITHOUT our cooperative efforts with the empowering Holy Spirit within us.
You can see how it grossly oversimplifies and misrepresents Von Balthsar's position to write that "Known for his idea of universal salvation, that all will be saved, Balthasar was nothing but controversial." Thus, I hope that this write-up for the Hans Urs Von Balthasar Collection will be corrected. Also, I dare to hope that Dare We Hope All Men Be Saved? and Razing the Bastions be added to the collection.
I even dare to hope that this might be offered as a Community Pricing collection!
May the LORD bless and keep you all
