Christ's Descent Research Articles

Фольклорная версия «библейской» истории о Соломоне в аду и ее русские сибирские записи

The main theme of folk stories about the biblical King Solomon is his wisdom, which allows him to solve difficult problems and find a way out of difficult situations. Such stories include stories about Solomon in hell: left in hell during the descent of Christ into hell, for the liberation of the souls of the Old Testament righteous languishing there, Solomon, thanks to his wisdom, finds a way to get out of there – he threatens the devils to build a church, for which he is expelled from hell and so freed; they are the subject of consideration in the article. Neither the Holy Scriptures nor the apocryphal narratives known in ancient Russian literature about the descent of Christ into hell contain an episode about Solomon being left in hell, therefore they could not be the only source of folk legends. But similar stories are noted in the indexes of plots of folklore prose: AaТh 804В The Church in Hill; SUS 804В=AA 804* Solomon (soldier, blacksmith) in hell. For analysis, along with records of the European territory of historical Russia, Russian Siberian texts containing the indicated plot were involved in the work. The identified Siberian variants of the stories about Solomon in Hell expand our knowledge about the plot “repertoire” of Russian folklore prose in Siberia, and against the background of the fact that the Siberian fixations of this plot are not taken into account in the SUS, they clarify ideas about the geography of the existence of plot type 804B. Along with this, they replenish the general East Slavic fund of records of narrative folklore with new materials, which expands the source base for research. The results of the examination of folklore narratives about Solomon in hell, including their Siberian records, allow us to assert that not only the wisdom of King Solomon, but also the book motif of the biblical Solomon the temple builder, which was considered not represented in oral legend, was reflected in folk narratives based on folklore plot fund.

Converting after Constantine: Firmicus Maternus and the Scriptures

Abstract: The two extant works by the senator Julius Firmicus Maternus, a manual of astrology ( Mathesis , ca. 337) and a ferocious attack on senatorial paganism ( De errore profanarum religionum , 343–50), offer exceptional insight into the transformation of a convert's beliefs in the era of Constantine. Study of Firmicus's Christianity has long been hampered by distaste for his desire to see pagan cult annihilated and by the belief that he took essentially all of his scriptural knowledge from Cyprian's Ad Quirinum and Ad Fortunatum . Recent scholarship has dealt with the first issue. This article focuses on the second. Surveying Firmicus's biblical quotations and allusions, it demonstrates that he had extensive knowledge of biblical passages that Cyprian does not cite, ranging far beyond the Psalms (which Firmicus is generally thought to have known independently). He interprets Cyprianic texts in light of non-Cyprianic parallels, cites surrounding context, weaves in references to liturgical custom, and deploys well-known exegetical motifs such as the interpretation of Psalm 23 (LXX) in reference to Christ's descent and ascension. Combined with his heavy reliance on Cyprian for quotations, Firmicus's use of biblical passages and extrabiblical theological ideas suggests that he was widely read in scripture, but that had to hand only Cyprian's collections, with whose explanatory headings his ideas about coercion and his Christology engage. Firmicus's engagement with scripture, in part through Cyprian's mediation, thus illustrates the processes by which an upper-class convert could assimilate Christian ideas. His integration of astral language into his description of Christianity, in turn, undercuts modern generalizations about the Christianity of the Constantinian era. Far from being at home with pagan conceptions of the universe, Firmicus reworks them to exalt Christ and the cross above the stars themselves.

Terminum figat : Remarks on a Difficult Phrase in the Eucharistic Prayer of the Traditio Apostolica

The former communis opinio, according to which the Traditio Apostolica (TA) was a church order written by Hippolytus of Rome and representing valuable insights into third-century Roman liturgy and church discipline, has been radically questioned in recent research. The similarities between the eucharistic liturgies in TA and oriental anaphoras no longer seem to support the theory of a transregional genre in the late antique Christian West and East, but probably indicate an eastern provenance of TA itself. In addition to many currently discussed problems regarding structure and literary unity, the famous eucharistic prayer in TA 4 also bears difficulties in textual understanding: e.g., it states that Jesus Christ terminum figat during his descent into the realm of death. The motif of Christ's descent, which fortunately is quite frequently attested in the early sources, emerged in the second century. Therefore, the diachronic development of the descensus Christi can be reconstructed in its different arrangements. This is helpful in defining the "border" that Christ "established" while he visited the underworld. Some accounts of Syrian provenance seem to be the closest parallels to TA 4: here, a dramatic version of this narrative predominates, in which Death quarrels with Christ because he fears losing his inhabitants (the souls of the dead). The story culminates in a ceasefire, the end of which will be the second coming of Christ.

Christ's Descent into Hell, Hadewijch, and the Fierceness of Love: A Spirituality of Holy Saturday

Christ's Descent into Hell, Hadewijch, and the Fierceness of Love: A Spirituality of Holy Saturday

The Death of the Soul: Christ’s Descent into Hell in the Thought of Calvin, Lefèvre, and Cusa

ABSTRACT A lacuna in scholarship currently exists on the place of Christ’s descent into hell in the theology of John Calvin. The impression given by this lacuna is that Calvin had little to say about the descensus. However, the reformer devoted more energy explaining the descensus than any other clause of the Apostles’ Creed, an explanation already developed in his first treatise the Psychopannychia. This article shows how the French humanist scholar Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples’ reliance on Nicholas of Cusa demonstrates an organic stream of teaching in the late medieval period within which Calvin’s theology of Christ's descent into hell is clearly situated. Calvin, Lefèvre, and Cusa all understood the descent into hell as Christ’s experience of the second death, or the death of the soul. Calvin’s descensus theology was far from novel and exceeds a mere metaphorical reference to the crucifixion despite suggestions to the contrary in popular scholarship.

‘The one who trampled Hades underfoot’: a comparative analysis of Christ's descent to the dead and trinitarian relations in second-century Christian texts and Hans Urs von Balthasar

AbstractIn both Theo-Drama IV and Mysterium Paschale, Balthasar suggests that the descensus existentially separates the divine hypostases of Father and Son. He also repeatedly argues that his position is faithful to the Great Tradition. While there has been much debate about Balthasar's view of the descensus, this debate has focused mostly on the issues of universalism and penal substitution, leaving the issue of trinitarian relations either to the side or without an analysis of its historical precedent. This article attempts to address this lacuna by asking whether Balthasar's view of the descensus is in fact supported by the Great Tradition, with a specific focus on second-century texts. After surveying the apostolic fathers, second-century Jewish and Christian traditions (e.g. the New Testament apocrypha), second-century apologists and Melito's Peri Pascha, the article concludes that Balthasar's position does not find historical support in the second century. His view may be in line with the Great Tradition elsewhere, but it is not grounded in this seminal century of Christian doctrinal reflection.

CHRIST's DESCENT INTO HELL: JOHN PAUL II, JOSEPH RATZINGER, AND HANS URS VON BALTHASAR ON THE THEOLOGY OF HOLY SATURDAY. By LyraPitstick. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. Pp. xiv + 135. $20.00.

CHRIST's DESCENT INTO HELL: JOHN PAUL II, JOSEPH RATZINGER, AND HANS URS VON BALTHASAR ON THE THEOLOGY OF HOLY SATURDAY. By LyraPitstick. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. Pp. xiv + 135. $20.00.

Christ's Descent into Hell: John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Theology of Holy Saturday by Lyra Pitstick

Reviewed by: Christ's Descent into Hell: John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Theology of Holy Saturday by Lyra Pitstick Joshua R. Brotherton Christ's Descent into Hell: John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Theology of Holy Saturday by Lyra Pitstick ( Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), xiv + 135 pp. Lyra Pitstick, otherwise known as Alyssa L. Pitstick, the author of the provocative Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ's Descent into Hell, the fruit of her doctoral dissertation at the Angelicum, has produced another, slimmer volume critical of Balthasar's project as she sees it. The book opens with a quick review of Balthasar's theology of the descent, followed by two chapters on Joseph Ratzinger's own comments on the descent and on Balthasar's theology, one covering his statements prior to his pontifical elevation and one addressing those subsequent. The following chapter concerns the statements of John Paul II on the descent, which she contrasts with both Ratzinger and Balthasar, but mostly Balthasar. Next, she runs through the remarks of Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, a former student of Ratzinger and undersecretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith commissioned by Pope John Paul with the drafting of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. Although Schönborn is a theologian in his own right, she touches on him only insofar as his Introduction to the Catechism, together with Ratzinger, is sometimes invoked in defense of Balthasar's orthodoxy with regard to the descent. Finally, she consolidates and elaborates her own comments on the respective positions of Balthasar, Ratzinger, and John Paul in two chapters entitled "The Crux of the Problem" and "The Crux, Continued," the latter of which directly addresses an issue oftentimes brought to the fore by Balthasarians: the praise lavished upon Balthasar by both Pope John Paul II and then-Cardinal Ratzinger in the wake of his untimely death (i.e., just days prior to his awaited honorary elevation to the cardinalate). These seven chapters are bookended by a very brief introduction [End Page 665] in which she laments that the International Journal of Systematic Theology declined to publish criticisms she offered of an article there published by the late Fr. Edward T. Oakes, S.J., in which he defends Balthasar's doctrine of the descent against her earlier critique in Light in Darkness, and a conclusion that simply recaps the whole, as well as a number of appendices containing short magisterial documents, and lastly, a short supplementary text she wrote in response to an invitation from a student magazine at Gonzaga University. On the whole, the book is to be commended for its valiant work in both surveying the various occasions on which Ratzinger and John Paul address Christ's descent into hell and dealing with the misbegotten attempts of some to canonize Balthasar's thought on the basis of a few accolades from the two Pontiffs, who themselves tower above so many notable Catholic thinkers in the modern era. Although somewhat repetitive, her thoughts on the differences between these three theologians echo thoughts I have harbored on the matter for quite some time, albeit with a few key divergences. The ambition of such an undertaking is laudable, but—and this may not offend the casual reader—her recourse to secondary literature is minimal. I cannot help but think that she may have benefitted from consulting major works sympathetic to Balthasar's project by authors such as Nicholas J. Healy, David C. Schindler, Rodney A. Howsare, Cyril O'Regan, Gerard F. O'Hanlon, S.J., Aidan Nichols, O.P., and John Saward, author of the curt but illuminating book of reflections on Balthasar's triduum theology, The Mysteries of March. Her only interlocutor seems to be Edward Oakes, an esteemed Balthasarian indeed, but without much in the way of direct engagement. In any case, the primary downfall of the work is a lack of theological nuance, particularly with regard to the constitution of sacred tradition and the composition of what one might call a "charitable" interpretation of Balthasar. As one can turn...

Hell's Destruction: An Exploration of Christ's Descent to the Dead. By Catherine Ella Laufer. Pp. x, 230, Ashgate, 2013, £55.00.

Hell's Destruction: An Exploration of Christ's Descent to the Dead. By Catherine Ella Laufer. Pp. x, 230, Ashgate, 2013, £55.00.

Hell's Destruction: An Exploration of Christ's Descent to the Dead. By CatherineElla Laufer. Pp. x, 230, Ashgate, 2013, £55.00.

Hell's Destruction: An Exploration of Christ's Descent to the Dead. By CatherineElla Laufer. Pp. x, 230, Ashgate, 2013, £55.00.

Damnation and the Trinity in Ratzinger and Balthasar

Damnation and the Trinity in Ratzinger and Balthasar Joshua R. Brotherton (bio) Introduction: A Crucial Difference The formative influence of the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar on the theology of Joseph Ratzinger is common knowledge. Ratzinger pays tribute to him on more than one occasion.1 There are two theological novelties that rush to the mind of any student attempting to characterize Balthasar’s peculiar thought: (1) his doctrine of Holy Saturday, or the descent of Christ into the hell of the damned,2 and (2) his quasi-universalist argument in favor of a theological hope for the salvation of all men. There is a third dimension of Balthasar’s thought that takes up these two features into a higher plane, as it were: the infinite love of the Trinity itself is ur-kenotic. In other words, central to his theology is the dual claim that the descent of Christ into hell is the most perfect reflection of the self-surrender that constitutes the trinitarian life and that it is most fitting for the triune God to embrace (by first “undergirding”) hell in all its New Testament horror (i.e., the “second death” of Rev 20–21), freely surrendering impassibility in the economy of salvation, wherein the Second Person of the Trinity “becomes sin.”3 [End Page 123] Ratzinger also reflects on the painful descent of Christ and its impact upon the reality of damnation, but it remains to be seen to what extent he may agree with the most radical points of Balthasar’s theology and how much (or little) influence the trinitarian thought of the latter had upon him. I will assert that even if Ratzinger is likewise reticent to proclaim divine impassibility unqualifiedly, the descent for him, although understood in a very similar way to Balthasar, relates to damnation and the Trinity in a way that is fundamentally different from the way these three elements interact functionally in Balthasar’s theology. Rather than attempt to summarize Balthasar’s detailed treatment of each of the terms in this relation and then develop Ratzinger’s relationship to that treatment, I will briefly take up in chronological order what in each of their major works directly pertains to damnation and its relationship to the triune God.4 It will become clear that while Balthasar’s eschatological concerns cause his understanding of the triune God to center on the hellish passion of Christ and his “being-dead” on Holy Saturday, Ratzinger understands Christ’s vicarious descent on the Cross in terms of the Son’s economic “being-for,” which proceeds from his own “being-from” the Father (and the two are one in the unifying gift of “being-with” that is the Holy Spirit). Ratzinger’s trinitarian thought is therefore an ontology of relation, comprising at once a “negative theology” and a foundation for a more disciplined soteriology and eschatology than is exhibited in Balthasar. This contrast is a significant one that no one, to my knowledge, has exposed as of yet, given that many of Ratzinger’s admirers also, if not primarily, consider themselves disciples of Balthasar and therefore do not wish to drive a wedge between the two thinkers. While some may want to turn a blind eye to differences between the two thinkers, it is imperative to recognize Ratzinger’s theology for what it really is, namely, something entirely distinct from, even though very influenced by, the theology of his senior theological confrere and close friend, Hans Urs von Balthasar. [End Page 124] Ratzinger’s Nuanced Relation to Balthasar’s Controversial Theses Many may not realize that not only did Balthasar’s thought on these matters not receive definitive shape until the 1980s with the publication of the final volumes of the Theodramatik, but it is not at all clear that Balthasar’s earliest formulations of the significance of Christ’s descent preceded Ratzinger’s earliest comments on the same, as is commonly assumed by those who emphasize Balthasar’s influence on Ratzinger.5 Therefore, I will turn first to Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity before I compare its remarks to Balthasar’s Mysterium Paschale. Commenting on a thought presented by Jean Danielou,6 perhaps the...

The End of Satisfaction: Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare by Heather Hirschfeld (review)

Heather Hirschfeld. The End of Satisfaction: Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014. Pp. xi + 239. $55.00. In The End of Satisfaction: Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare, Heather Hirschfeld argues that the Reformation's rejection of the sacrament of penance problematized the meaning and availability of satisfaction, from satis facere--to do or to make enough. Early modern theater engages this crisis in in way that is (on Hirschfeld's view) largely critical of the Reformed theology of repentance whence it originated. What was the Reformed theology of repentance, and why should it have occasioned such crisis? In the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church specified that the sacrament of penance was composed of three parts: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. The penitents sorrow for her sins was expressed in her confession of them to the priest, and was completed in her punishment of these same sins through works of satisfaction--usually almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. Although the penitent was absolved of the guilt (culpa) of her sins immediately after her confession, the temporal punishment (poena) due to them was still owed; in carrying out her assigned penance, then, the penitent cooperated with the grace made available by the sacrament and satisfied God's justice. Reformation anthropology, however, rejected human cooperation with the divine in this capacity, and consequently denied satisfactory value to penitential acts. At the same time, the English Reformers continued the practice of penance well after 1553, when it was last recognized as sacrament, though limited the of satisfaction to Christ alone. Hirschfeld is interested in happens to when it is removed from the ambit of human agency and appropriated by the divine. Because (she argues) the meaning of originally involved a concrete principle of both exchange and contact between the individual and the divine, its consolidation in Christ would seem to open an experiential gap on the side of the believer that doctrine by itself could not fill (29; italics in original). The Reformers' strategy was to balance the attribution of objective to Christ with new emphasis upon the subjective felt by the believer: having degraded and eliminated as something do, Reformers replaced it as something feel (36). Yet the Reformers' avoidance of works-righteousness--of doing enough--could easily result in the problem of feeling enough, as in Daniel Dyke's 1616 Two Treatises: We must feede and nourish this sorrow, never satisfie our selves, but wish with the prophet, that our heads were continuad, unemptiable fountaines of teares (36; italics in original). If it is true that humans do not satisfy God, Hirschfeld astutely notes, it seems they also do not satisfy--are not satisfied--themselves (36). The End of Satisfaction tracks the paradoxes of Reformed repentance across several plays that work through pursuit of that arises precisely when and because it is declared 'impossible' (10). In chapter on Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Hirschfeld argues that the play engages sixteenth-century controversies over Christ's descent into hell. Did Christ descend to a real, localized hell, as the medieval tradition and Luther held, or was his descent a particularly internal form of ... torment, as Calvin taught (47)? Hirschfeld suggests that the latent preoccupation of the debate was the question of what counted as 'enough' for Christ to do to redeem mankind (43). This approach complicates the standard view of Doctor Faustus as (diabolical) imitation of the Harrowing of Hell pageants in earlier biblical drama. Hirschfeld helps us to see that, in Faustus's imitado Christi, Faustus himself seems uncertain of exactly he is imitating (56). …

Letters to the Editor: Was Jesus Christ's descent into hell a near-death experience?

Letter from Mahendra Perera to the editor discussing the deeds of Jesus Christ between his death and resurrection as near-death experiences.

Księga Hioba według Grzegorza z Nyssy

Gregory of Nyssa makes clear reference to Job and the Book of Job in his works. Sometimes Job is described as a great figure of the OT, full of virtues and imitable for his wisdom, his faith and his trust in God. In other instances, Gregory adduces the Book of Job when he deals with important theological issues like the origin of language or the descent of Christ into hell. This paper discusses Gregory’s exegesis of the Book of Job and points out both, his respect for the text and his high spiritual and theological comprehension of Scripture.

John Calvin’s Reception at the Westminster Assembly (1643–1649)

Of all the Reformation theologians, John Calvin exerted arguably the most influence on the English Puritans. That did not mean, however, that his theology was uncritically accepted. This chapter considers the reception of Calvin’s theology at the Westminster Assembly on two doctrines that were debated among the Westminster divines, namely, the eternal generation of the Son of God and the so-called descent of Christ into Hell. Calvin’s somewhat unique position on the Son’s aseity and his interpretation of Christ’s descent were considered by the Assembly, but ultimately rejected by the majority, though not all, of the Westminster divines. Nevertheless, the Westminster documents are not quite detailed enough to contradict Calvin’s position on the Son’s aseity, but the Larger Catechism definitely departs from Calvin’s teaching on Christ’s descent into Hell. Moreover, the relation of the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed to Reformed theology in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also comes under consideration in this chapter.

Response to Alyssa Lyra Pitstick,Light in Darkness

In her remarkably forceful and learned book,Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ's Descent into Hell, Alyssa Lyra Pitstick offers a comprehensive critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of the descent into hell. Pitstick contributes to a sharpening of readings of Balthasar and forces one to make precise interpretative judgements. Clearly, she has produced a work with which anyone interested in Balthasar must engage, and the conversation and debate the book has started will, to be sure, continue for many years ahead. This said, I am afraid that Dr Pitstick's unrelenting and totalising prosecution of Balthasar's theology leads her to disallow any charitable reading and critical appropriation of Balthasar's creative and, at times, sublime theology. Although not necessarily the final evaluative word on Balthasar, or on the doctrine of the descent into hell, Pitstick's book provides a tremendous spark for those interested in Balthasar's theology and for much needed reflection on the significance of the church's confession that Jesus Christ descended into hell.

Development of Doctrine, or Denial? Balthasar's Holy Saturday and Newman's Essay

AbstractEdward Oakes generalized Newman's seven tests for doctrinal development as ‘internal logic’ and ‘developmental consistency’. Using this reduction, he claimed Newman's support for Balthasar's theology of Christ's descent into hell. In fairness to Newman and for a more adequate evaluation of Balthasar, I let Newman speak for himself. His norms are applied to both the traditional doctrine and Balthasar's. Since Balthasar's lacks all seven, it follows it is not a development of doctrine, but a corruption. Oakes' other arguments insufficiently counterbalance this deduction, while the traditional doctrine offers insights into the questions of pluralism and the salvation of the non‐baptized.

The Descent into Hell as a Solution for the Problem of the Fate of Unevangelized Non‐Christians: Balthasar's Hell, the Limbo of the Fathers and Purgatory

AbstractI critically examine Edward Oakes' claim that Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of the descent into hell provides the best answer regarding the possible salvation of the unevangelized non‐Christian. First, I contest Oakes' claim based on christological and trinitarian difficulties in Balthasar's descent theology. Second, I utilize the early Christian tradition's understanding of Christ's descent into the limbo of the just to address the problem of the salvation of the unevangelized. Third, I draw on Joseph DiNoia's use of purgatory to further elaborate upon the ‘descent’ tradition as a resource to address the question of the salvation of the unevangelized. My overall claim is that the descent into hell is indeed an important theological resource for addressing the question of the possible salvation for the unevangelized, but not in the way that Balthasar and Oakes construe it.

Christ’s Descent into Hell in Reformation Controversy

By far the shortest of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England is the third, ‘Of the going down of Christ into Hell’. In its entirety it reads: ‘As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell’. One might be forgiven for thinking that the brevity of the article, together with the notable absence of polemic, indicates the doctrine’s relative unimportance amid the other great debates of the day. In fact, the descent of Christ into hell was one of the most controverted of all the creedal articles in the Reformation era. Article III is so short, not because it was a routine recital of the Apostles’ Creed, but because no further elaboration or explanation of the doctrine could command consent in the febrile climate of early Elizabethan England: disagreement over what was meant by ‘hell’, what was meant by Christ’s ‘descent’, and over the doctrine’s fundamental significance, was rife. This particular manifestation of the afterlife – be it only Christ’s afterlife, and only a temporary destination at that – is not the most obvious candidate as a theological cause célèbre of the Reformation era. But the intensity and the longevity of trie debates it fuelled make it at least an intriguing footnote to the study of the period.

"Blessed Is He Who Has Brought Adam From Sheol": Christ's Descent to the Dead in the Theology of Saint Ephrem the Syrian; Healing in the Theology of Saint Ephrem

"Blessed Is He Who Has Brought Adam From Sheol": Christ's Descent to the Dead in the Theology of Saint Ephrem the Syrian; Healing in the Theology of Saint Ephrem