Retrieving the Spiritual Senses in the wake of Hans Urs von Balthasar

What is the human being who is called to perceive the glory of the Lord? The Swiss Roman Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) suggests retrieving the spiritual senses as a crucial theological-anthropological concept in view of an answer to this question. In this article we introduce von Balthasar's specific interpretation of the spiritual senses in an incarnational-kenotic mode, implying a transformational participation of our human perception in the senses of Christ. We conclude with questions about the relevance of von Balthasar's view in our current context of New Age spirituality and image culture and about the challenges for theologians today, with a particular focus on the field of liturgy.