The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness, 2000
Von Balthasar’s Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology
Studies in Philosophy and Religion Series, Vol. 21

The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness begins by providing the first comprehensive account of the model of human holiness developed by the leading theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. In so doing, the book also provides the first detailed explication of his Christocentric philosophical anthropology.
Part 2 argues that von Balthasar anticipates some key developments in late twentieth-century Anglo-American analytical philosophy, and that certain of these developments - in particular, the `internal realism' of Hilary Putnam - provide powerful support for von Balthasar's theological philosophy.
The final part elucidates von Balthasar's core intuition that human holiness is of immense apologetic value for religious faith, and concludes with a new, `internalist' theory of religious pluralism.
The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness will be seen as an important and original contribution to both Philosophy of Religion and Theology, and is likely to prove essential reading in upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses in both subjects.

Acknowledgements.- 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Current Scholarship.- 1.2 A Brief Overview of von Balthasar’s Life and Thought.- 1.3 The Aims and Structure of this Study.- ONE: VON BALTHASAR’S CONCEPTION OF HUMAN HOLINESS.- 2 The Role of Prayer in von Balthasar’s Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology.- 3 On Being Holy.- TWO: AN INTERNALIST INTERPRETATION OF VON BALTHASAR’S PHILOSOPHY.- 4 Human Holiness, Theology and Science.- 5 An Internalist Epistemology.- THREE: HUMAN HOLINESS AS APOLOGIA.- 6 Human Holiness as Religious Proof.- 7 Knowledge, Freedom and Pluralism.- Appendix: Von Balthasar’s Ideal Theology.