The Meaning of the World is Love

Selected Texts from Hans Urs von Balthasar with Commentary

by Richard Clements

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988), a prolific Catholic theologian from Switzerland, has been called a "new Father of the Church". His work—shaped not only by traditional theology and philosophy, but by literature, art, and music—made an impact on both Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Aidan Nichols, O.P., describes Balthasar's fifteen-volume masterwork, the Trilogy, as "perhaps the high-point of twentieth-century Catholic theology".

Yet for all Balthasar's brilliance, the core of his theology is extraordinarily simple: love—for God is love. Love lies at the center of life, indeed, at the center of being itself. For Balthasar, the answers to all of man's big, existential questions revolve around love.

The Meaning of the World Is Love, compiled by psychologist Richard Clements, brings Balthasar's meditations to a wider audience, using brief excerpts from the theologian to walk readers through the landscape of divine love, which is our home. The path of love is the path of self-gift—as well as of truth, goodness, and beauty—and it is the only way to genuine fulfillment. Balthasar, as Clements shows, can point us to the very heart of reality: God, who gives himself to us without reserve.