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An Analogy of Grace. By Henry Shea, SJ. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2025. Pp. 325. $65.00.

Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: 325. $65.00.The great Germanic Catholic theologians of the twentieth century have taken their turns presiding over the minds of the theological academy, and this is particularly true in the English-speaking world.Judging simply by the number of dissertations, books, and articles written on these various figures, Karl Rahner's many decadeslong reign may have been supplanted in the last decade or so by that of Hans Urs von Balthasar.Their common mentor, Erich Przywara, as his work has been translated and made more accessible in recent years, is the subject of much contemporary interest, although it is too early to say whether he will exercise the kind of direct influence that he has always exercised indirectly through his students and admirers.Owing to the complexity of each of these thinkers, the magnitude of their respective oeuvres, and the ever-growing field of secondary literature regarding each one, it is rare to find an author capable of handling more than one of these figures in a sophisticated manner.Quite remarkably, considering the gravity of the task, Henry Shea has produced here a text that variously summarises, exposits, and expands upon all three of these theologians, putting them into a dialogue with one another on the theology of grace.Although not the stated purpose of the book, such a coordinated discussion provides the opportunity for reflection regarding the reasons each has exercised such influence upon theological discourse in Europe and abroad, and the pitfalls or shortcomings that have rendered each of their contributions in need of supplementation or correction.Yet, far more than a commentary on these principal figures, An Analogy of Grace is itself an energetic theological proposal regarding the expanse of grace, its eschatological orientation, and its necessarily ecclesial shape.The first and the fifth chapters, along with the short epilogue, are where Shea sets the groundwork for and then ultimately completes his own proposal for what is needful regarding a theology of grace.He does this with no pretension towards supplanting previous theologies or even as setting forth an entirely novel theory (the indefinite article in the title was chosen deliberately, it seems).Instead, the service Shea provides is to remind us of the broad implications of Christian thinking about grace, from the universality of its aims, the particularities of its instantiations, and its simultaneously ecclesial and cosmic scope.Thus, if Shea does not ultimately deliver a verdict on the many divisive issues that attend theologies of grace, this is not because he considers these as irrelevant, but as perhaps too granular for his chief aim, which is to sketch and hold in balance (or analogous polarity) the broadest commitments regarding God's gracious action towards creation.To understand his proposals, it is essential to see how he frames them in dialogue with Rahner, Balthasar, and Przywara, the subjects of chapters 2, 3, and 4, respectively.The chapter on Rahner is exemplary scholarship: sensitive to diachronic developments in Rahner's thought, aware of the many debates in the secondary literature, clear in its exposition and use of technical vocabulary, and ever generous to Rahner even as he critiques him.Although the ultimate judgement on Rahner (at least on this question of grace) is that his thought is unbalanced, or more precisely that his emphasis on transcendentality is never able to account adequately for the novelty of the categorical Christ, Shea is neither stingy in his praise nor ungrateful for the many gifts that Rahner in some way uniquely provides.Indeed, 'the Rahnerian vision remains an essential frame of reference' (p.73), and the influence of Rahner is felt throughout the text, especially as Shea's own proposal relies explicitly on key Rahnerian terminology, particularly the Realsymbol.The chapter on Rahner shows the real cleft in Rahner's theology, which Rahner himself repeatedly and consciously tried to overcome, whether he was successful or not.The chapter on Balthasar, on the other hand, creates a cleft that Balthasar seemed not to be aware of and that many readers of Balthasar (or at least this one) will be surprised to find.Whereas we leave Rahner with the sense that his conception of grace is too undifferentiated, too uniformly spread out, and thus 'always already' (immer schon) received before encountering Christ, what we find in Balthasar is that grace is too narrowly confined to the Gestalt Christi, the form of the incarnate
DOI: 10.1111/heyj.70012
Language: English
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4415616836
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