As I mentioned, The Oak Tree is my main webpage where I post articles I’ve published as well as final copies of some things that appear on this blog. To those who are new to this blog, especially my Adventist readers, let me draw your attention to a few articles that may interest you.
- Casta Meretrix: The Church as Harlot. Reflection on an essay by Hans Urs von Balthasar. Adventists aren’t unique in seeing the Catholic Church as a harlot–and it didn’t start with Luther, either.
- Von Balthasar’s Occultism. A leading “conservative” Catholic theologian, friend and colleague of John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger, endorsed a book of Meditations on the Tarot.
- Catholic Sources: Ferraris’ Bibliotheca. An examination of an old source often cited by Adventist apologists.
- Differing Catholic Visions of Purgatory.
- St. Gregory’s Ghost Stories. One source of Catholic teaching on purgatory: occultic communication with the dead.
- F. X. Schouppe on Purgatory.
- Plato’s Purgatory. The other source of Catholic teaching on purgatory: the speculations of a pagan philosopher.
- Some things on Jewish-Christian Relations
- Attempts from ten years ago to look anew at Adventism.
Advent Hope 
Bill, in case you didn’t see it, Stratford Caldecott wrote an essay on von B’s afterward.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/scaldecott_hubtarot_apr07.asp
If we do what we ought and presume good will (and I know that you already do so, given your experience in ecumenical dialogue), it seems that this is a case of deceiving appearances.
I personally don’t see that that really helps his case any.
The core of his defense of von Balthasar is this:
More could be said about Balthasar’s Foreword or Introduction to the French edition, which was reproduced in slightly truncated form as an Afterword to the English paperback edition. That Foreword originally began: “Having been asked to write an introduction to this book, which for most readers enters into unknown terrain, and yet is so richly rewarding to read, I must first of all acknowledge my lack of competence concerning the subject matter. I am not in a position to follow up and approve of each line of thought developed by the author, and still less to submit everything to a critical examination. However, such an abundance of noteworthy material is offered here, that one may not pass it by with indifference.”
Also omitted at the end of the piece from the English edition were the following comments of Balthasar’s: “[The author] may from time to time make a step from the middle too far to the left (in presenting, for example, the teaching of reincarnation), or too far to the right (in occasionally approaching in a somewhat ‘fundamentalist’ manner Catholic religious opinions and practices, thereby coming too close to Church dogma, sometimes arriving quite unexpectedly as evangelical counsel or the rosary prayer, for example).” He continues then, as in the published text, “However, the superabundance–almost too much–of genuine, fruitful insights which he conveys, certainly justifies bringing these Meditations to a wider circle of readers.”
In other words, “Oh, it’s just a little error thrown in. Reincarnation is just a little step to the left. It doesn’t really invalidate anything else.”
Sorry, but if someone is wrong on such a fundamental matter of Christian theology as reincarnation, they’ve swallowed an error (and adopted a methodology) that must affect many other things. And for a Christian theologian to say, “Oh, it’s just a little thing,” merely underscores questions about his reliability.