Economy of Life

Charismatic dynamics and relational goods

Abstract

The paper ties Balthasar’s essentially Christological argument for "charismatic personalism" to Pope Benedict XVI’s strongly Trinitarian account of relationality and the concomitant accentuation of relational goods that bridge the gap between the charism embodied by the Church and the social reality of secular societies. In an article the then Cardinal Ratzinger links the sacramental nature of church office to what he calls the “charism or event of the Holy Spirit” whose interruption in the world mediates between divine creativity and human agency. Just as the Church cannot be reduced to a rival society which consists of purely formal institutions governed by abstract rules, so society is not cut off from the operation of charismatic principles and practices within the living tradition of the Church.