How is Christ unique? in what consists the absoluteness of his claim? Von Balthasar answers that and in so doing cuts a swathe of intelligibility through much current theologising and the preoccupation with structures. Any late twentieth century apologetic must start here. So wrote the enthusiastic publisher's reader on completing his second reading of Balthasar's essay. Of the two essays he says; 'They tackle the questions which are in the mind of so many, often in an unspoken way. They constitute a challenge to anyone who disagrees to do better'. The decrees of Vatican II took a lot for granted. The authors are concerned with the necessary datum, the fundamental matter of faith, of faith in what? They have each produced a kind of testament, a heart searching statement as to why they are Christians.