A Comparison of the Aesthetic Approach of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Hans-Urs von Balthasar

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1901-2002), the German philosopher of hermeneutics, has exercised a powerful influence on post-Vatican II Roman Catholic fundamental theology, especially regarding questions of the development of doctrine and the appropriation of tradition. There is a tension in interpreting Gadamer\u27s thought between his concept of fusion of horizons, in which the horizon of the past is fused with the horizon of the present to yield new interpretations of past texts, and his defense of prejudice, authority, classics, and tradition, in which Gadamer upholds the enduring truth-value of received wisdom from the past. … This article will broadly point out the remarkable similarities between Gadamer\u27s aesthetics and the theology of Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988)