Current Courses
Following the standard academic calendar, the Accademia Balthasar offers a selection of weekly seminars available to university students and researchers upon request. The subject material of these courses can vary greatly, ranging from philosophy to theology to literature, and typically has roots in the works of our authors of reference or in the vast cultural milieu of Hans Urs von Balthasar.
For those interested, comprehensive catalogues of past course themes and
session details are available in the archives below.
The Divine Comedy according to Balthasar
MONDAY
8:30 - 12:20
In this the Year of Dante, which marks the 700th anniversary of the poet's death in 1321, this course aims to present an introduction to the poet's life and times before moving on to the close reading of selected cantos of The Divine Comedy. In particular, in looks to treat of those cantos which present the «other voyage» (Inferno 1,91) in which--leaving Hell, traversing Purgatory and arriving in Heaven--Dante's earthly love for Beatrice is purified, transfigured and finally brought before the very throne of God.
Catholicism, Henri de Lubac
WEDNESDAY
8:30 - 12:20
Published by de Lubac in 1938, Balthasar said that every page of Catholicism breaths unity: the unity of the human race existing in the unity of the divine act of Creation and Redemption, and of which the Church is the sign and servant in time. This seminar seeks to provide an introduction to de Lubac's text in its living relationship to the thought of the Church Fathers, who reveal to us a faith conceived and lived out in profoundest community and a hope engaged with the entirety of history.
Selected Readings, Friedrich Nietzsche
FRIDAY
8:30 - 12:20
This anthology, selected and published by Balthasar in 1942, aims to «draw from The Antichrist that which Christians should consider as their own, or else that which they should have themselves produced.» Whoever moves beyond the superficial level of «tragic nihilism» will find in its depths the soul of Nietzsche, searching for and battling with God, and grasp how much of his writing is still alive and explosive today.