Book Review: Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology

Abstract

O. rightly stresses that Balthasar wants to avoid collapsing the meaning of divine immutability to a merely philosophical code word for the Bible's notion of God's fidelity to his covenant. There is, in other words, something valuable in the term "immutability" as applied to God that Balthasar wishes to retain. But in his struggle to understand the value of that term, coupled with the necessity of understanding God's act of creation and the totality of his revelation in the historical being of Christ, Balthasar is continually forced to concede an intratrinitarian "eventfulness," a liveliness and vitality in God which the traditional term "immutability" cannot convey.O. has correctly limned the basics of this position and explained their effect on Balthasar's doctrine of creation, incarnation and eternity. He has also seen the inner principle that generates and governs Balthasar's treatment of this theme: the priority of theological categories over philosophical ones. "Ultimately truth is mystery, the mystery of love with its creative freedom and originality which enjoys a primacy over knowledge[Balthasar] wishes to suggest that akin to the reserve and discretion which preserve the creativity and freedom of love within the trinitarian relationship of the omniscient Father and Son, there is a divine 'latency' with respect to the creation which allows us also to share in the Son's surprising of the omniscient Father" (160). In other words, the eternal and ceaseless trinitarian acts of interpersonal disclosure ground the possibility for the disclosure of God to his temporal creation. The eternal God has disclosed himself in a universe of his own creation, where each new event somehow constitutes a surprise, something new, and this gives hope that change is not merely a degradation from being to becoming but a grounding in the very newness of God.This study of a subtle and difficult theme is one of the most important secondary works on Balthasar's thought to have appeared in any language. New York UniversityEDWARD T. OAKES, S.J. WHY NARRATIVE? READINGS IN NARRATIVE THEOLOGY. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989. Pp. viii + 367. $29.95; $19.95.The readings in this volume document the increasing attention being given to narrative by theologians and ethicists, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. The editors declare that the collection may "illumine the significance of narrative for theology and ethics," while its diversity may raise questions about the usefulness of the category of narrative in future discussions (2).