"The One, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, these are what we call the transcendental attributes of Being, because they surpass all the limits of essences and are coextensive with Being"
About this Quote
The subtext is polemical. Written in a 20th-century Europe marred by total war and ideological reductionism, Balthasar is pushing back against modern habits of severing truth from goodness, goodness from beauty, and all three from “what is.” When truth becomes merely procedural, goodness becomes private preference; when beauty is dismissed as ornament, the world loses its ability to “show” meaning rather than just assert it. Balthasar’s wager is that theology can’t survive that disintegration, because Christian revelation claims not only that God is true and good, but that God’s glory has form - a beauty that persuades without coercion.
That’s why the sentence is built like a ladder. It starts with a quartet that sounds almost like a slogan, then snaps into metaphysical rigor: “coextensive with Being.” He’s not offering comfort; he’s drawing battle lines over whether reality itself can still be trusted to mean something.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. (2026, January 14). The One, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, these are what we call the transcendental attributes of Being, because they surpass all the limits of essences and are coextensive with Being. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-one-the-good-the-true-and-the-beautiful-these-53921/
Chicago Style
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. "The One, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, these are what we call the transcendental attributes of Being, because they surpass all the limits of essences and are coextensive with Being." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-one-the-good-the-true-and-the-beautiful-these-53921/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The One, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, these are what we call the transcendental attributes of Being, because they surpass all the limits of essences and are coextensive with Being." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-one-the-good-the-true-and-the-beautiful-these-53921/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
