Date of Award

Summer 7-21-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA Theology

Department

Theology

Advisor

Rev. Joseph Laracy

Advisor

Rev. Thomas Guarino

Keywords

Analogy, Barth, Balthasar, Przywara

Abstract

In response to Karl Barth’s rejection of the analogia entis as “the invention of the Antichrist,” Erich Przywara insists that the great Protestant theologian’s criticisms are essentially of no avail, “because for him this biblical Christianity came, in fact, to assume the shape of a system of ‘ever greater dissimilarity,’ which is to say it fell under the spell of the very analogy he sought to flee.”[1] Przywara further stresses that “it is precisely in the analogy, understood as the ‘analogy of ever greater dissimilarity,’ that God is mighty and declares himself – the God who, ‘if you comprehend him, is not God,’ and the God whom we ‘encounter’ solely in the ‘free hanging’ of the ‘free suspendedness’ of ‘analogy,’ which for both metaphysics and religion is what is ‘ultimate.’”[2]

In recognizing and responding to Barth’s reservations, Przywara demonstrates a significant degree of compatibility between the traditional, Thomistic understanding of the analogical relationship between created and uncreated being, and the worldview of Karl Barth, who wishes to emphasize the unrestricted majesty of the Creator, and the “infinite qualitative difference” between God and the world, even if Barth himself was highly reluctant to accept this possibility. Further, by taking both Barth’s critiques and Przywara’s insights seriously, Catholic theologians, in particular Hans Urs von Balthasar, have demonstrated the powerful renewal which such a theological orientation, firmly grounded in Scripture, and above all in the person of Jesus Christ, can bring about in the realm of Catholic theology. Building on the inspiration which Barth provides, Catholic theology is able to reengage with a classic doctrine such as the analogia entis, and draw from it new insights about beauty, ethics, and truth which enable the development of both a philosophically sound and theologically robust doctrine that keeps Christ at its center. While it would be pretentious to say that there is no ultimate contradiction between Barth’s theology of analogy, and the historic doctrine of the Catholic Church, Barth’s insights nevertheless enable the Church to act as the wise householder described by Christ, “who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Mt 13:52), from the classic doctrine of the analogia entis.

[1] Erich Przywara, Analogia Entis: Original Structure and Universal Rhythm, trans. John R. Betz and David Bentley Hart (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2014), 428.

[2] Ibid., 429.

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