Credo

In the 12 months before his death on June 26, 1988, Hans Urs von Balthasar had been writing a series of reflections on the 12 articles of the Apostles' Creed. They appeared, as they were being written, in the pastoral bulletins of a number of German dioceses. Although he himself may not have conceived of them as such, these texts, which are undoubtedly among the last things he wrote, take on the character of a spiritual testament. For they amount in their compactness and depth to a little "summa" of his theology. What he had set out in detail in numerous books over five decades, he summarises here in contemplative plainess and simplicity.