Hans Urs von Balthasar's interest for Origen can be placed within the movement of
Ressourcement: until the very end of his life the Swiss theologian declares his preference for
the Alexandrian among the Church Fathers. This book offers the first in-depth study of the
Alexandrian's presence in the life of Balthasar. This is achieved not only considering his two
specific books on Origen Spirit and Fire and Le Mysterion d'Origène but also analyzing
specific Origenian ideas that played a decisive role in shaping Balthasar's own theological
building. The book starts from a reconstruction of the context that brought Balthasar to study
the Fathers and of the main polemical references in his interpretation specifically facing the
challenges posed by such movements as Neo-Scholasticism and the Idealistic interpretation of
Neoplatonism. Balthasar's study of Origen emerges not as a disinterested ahistorical reading
but rather as connected to the main issues facing 20th-century Catholic theology. The task of a
historical reconstruction is accomplished also through to the analysis of theologians who
played a fundamental role in Balthasar's interpretation of Origen: Henri de Lubac Karl Rahner
and Karl Barth. The book moves then to analyzing the main theological elements traceable in the
relationship between Origen and Balthasar: Eros spiritual senses freedom and universal
salvation. Throughout these ideas Balthasar's attitude towards Origen emerges as dynamic and
multifaceted. Against the charge of uncritical retrieval his approach can be schematically
understood with the help of five categories: silence critique enthusiasm appreciation and
inspiration. Each category is approached and explained in correspondence with certain works
within Balthasar's corpus. This dynamic approach to Origen united to a familiarity with the
Fathers that Lubac called connaturality makes Balthasar an example of the possibility of
rethinking the role of the Church Fathers today.
