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An Analogy of Grace proposes a deeply grounded investigation of grace and a robustly balanced impetus for advancing the gospel in the twenty-first century.
Amid the present decline in religious affiliation, a pervasive question for many is “why bother” with faith and its practices. An Analogy of Grace engages this question in the context of grace, or our participation in the life and love of God, and investigates the difference made by the diverse ways in which the self-communication of God is received and participated. Shea begins with the contrasting models provided by twentieth-century theologians Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Rahner focused on how grace is universally accessible within the heart, while Balthasar envisioned grace as found principally through an encounter with the incarnate Word. Henry Shea charts a course within and beyond this difference, bolstered by fresh and insightful analysis of the work of Erich Przywara, Henri de Lubac, and other major theologians.
An Analogy of Grace posits that grace is best understood as a moving Trinitarian analogy that begins in the heart and advances through the incarnate Word in the Spirit toward the whole Christ. This new analogy of grace is radically universal and inclusive while also wholly informed by the distinct form of Jesus Christ.
"This rich text offers much more than what has been surveyed here. What every reader will see is a searching and creative mind trying to describe the contours of what is ultimately admitted to be a great mystery." —The Heythrop Journal
"If one is committed to a Catholic metaphysic of analogy and grace, then Shea's book stands as a success. . . . He also manages to critically summarise 20th century Catholic theology on this specific subject, and for that reason, I highly recommend this book to theologians unfamiliar with key conversations in modern and contemporary Catholic theology." —Reviews in Religion & Theology
"This book is a scholarly examination of the concept of grace in the writings of three of the most influential Jesuit theologians of the 20th century: Karl Rahner (1904-1984), Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) and their senior Jesuit, Erich Przywara (1889-1972). . . . Shea’s basic argument is that limitations in the understanding of grace in the works of Rahner and Balthasar can be overcome by returning to Przywara." —Church Times
“Readers will find in this book a penetrating analysis of Rahner and Balthasar, as well as a creative retrieval of Przywara. I can think of no other book that brings together such a deep knowledge of all three authors and places it in the service of a theological vision irreducible to any of them.” —Aaron Pidel, S.J., author of Church of the Ever Greater God
“An Analogy of Grace is deep, balanced, and insightful. The questions it looks at are perennially important, and all the more so in a multi-religious world.” —Andrew Davison, author of Participation in God
Henry Shea, S.J., is assistant professor of theology at Boston College.
1. Grace upon Grace: The Historical Emergence of an Analogy
2. The Gift Within: Rahner and the Always Already Self-Communication of God
3. The Gracing Gestalt: Balthasar and the Reciprocity of the Interior and Incarnate Word
4. Concurring Analogies: Przywara and the Rhythmic Structure of a Christomorphic Movement
5. Toward the Totus Christus: The Recirculating Advance of Grace in Time
6. Epilogue: A Parallax Framework for Participation in Divine Life
Notes
Bibliography
Index