Balthasar: the dialogical God

“In the Christian drama God does not speak in monologues. He engages in conversation, shared speech (dia-logos). . . . In contrast to the world, which is closed in on itself, does not want to listen to him and distorts all his words even as he utters them, God is the One who allows himself to be most profoundly affected by this partner so unfit for speech. His willingness to be thus affected goes to the extreme of the ‘wondrous exchange’ (admirabile commercium) of standpoints and situations on the Cross. And only on the basis of the Cross is faith given to the disciples and all subsequent believers, rendering them capable of dialogue with God; thus they are given the childlike prayer to their Abba, Father, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who finds in the hearts of believers that unutterable word which they themselves are incapable of formulating.”

—Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama II, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990.