Mysterium Paschale by H. U. von Balthasar

Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The book Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter is historical research aimed to unveil a mystery of the Christ resurrection and origins of Easter. The value of the research is that it is based on deep historical analysis of documents and the Bible, and proposes readers a unique interpretation of this sacred event and its background. The book discusses many hypotheses and controversial questions related to the resurrection and Easter. von Balthasar underlines that this liturgical, hymnic language of exaltation, cited from the pre-Pauline tradition, indicates that the first Christians thought of Christs resurrection as being his glorious, final transformation. So far from being a mere reanimation, his resurrection was understood to have anticipated the general, glorious resurrection expected by apocalyptic literature. Paul and other New Testament writers followed this early tradition in both ways. They presented Jesus resurrection as his glorious, definitive transformation. Second, they knew his resurrection to be the beginning of the final, general resurrection.

Main body

The main value of the research is that its analysis the Bible and all its parts related to resurrection. To express Jesus glorious transformation Paul strains language by speaking of a spiritual body that is a bodily human existence which has been radically transfigured by the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke and John present the transformation involved in Jesus resurrection by the details of his appearing and disappearing at will. Special attention is devoted to the issue describing how did the first Christians know that this event had taken place. To answer that question, the author goes back to the ministry of Jesus. What did Peter, Mary Magdalene, and the others among the first group of disciples see Jesus doing and hear him saying? This hypothesis argues that the disciples thought and prayed their way through the crisis of Calvary and reached the conclusion not only that Jesus had been right about God but also that he must now be alive with his Father.

According to this continuity hypothesis, in moving to their resurrection faith, the disciples were substantially helped by Jewish beliefs about the divine vindication of martyred, eschatological. prophets. In this way some have argued that the appearances of the risen Lord and the discovery of his empty tomb were simply not necessary to call forth the disciples Easter faith. Perhaps the appearances were no more than a way of expressing the psychological breakthrough when the disciples finally saw the real truth about Jesus and drew the conclusion that he had to be alive and with God. All this traditional material taken over by St. Paul shows that claims about Jesus resurrection from the dead go back to the very origins of the Christian movement. How then should we sum up the primary content of those claims coming from A.D. 30-50 that is to say, from the crucial two decades before Paul and then other New Testament authors began writing their works? In essence the first Christians announced that through the divine power Jesus himself had been raised to new life. The primary claim was not that Jesus cause continued, or that the disciples themselves had been raised to a new consciousness and a life of faith by coming to see that Jesus had been right about God.

Conclusion

The primary claim was that the crucified Jesus had been personally brought from the state of death to that a new and everlasting life. I suppose this research does not have limitations proposing readers a vivid and interesting narrative about the most important event in modern history. The only possible limitation is subjectivity and the authors view thus it is typical for every monograph.