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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Comments

Little Gidding

Seems to me that His Holiness might well address his remarks to those within the Church who, following hints in von Balthasar, have liberated everyone from Hell and have imprisoned only one person there, Jesus Himself.

Teresa Polk

There is an unofficial translation of the homily on the website of Papa Ratzinger Forum (scroll down to it).  It is one of many unofficial translations posted there by Teresa Benedetta soon after the Italian transcript became available. Not surprisingly, the commentary you found does not appear to have considered the reference to hell in context.

Here is the reference to hell in context from that translation:

"Dear friends, concrete indications for our life emerge from the word of God that we heard today. Jesus did not get into a theoretical discussion with His interlocutors. He was not interested in winning a dispute over the interpretation of Mosaic law. His objective was to save a soul and to reveal that salvation is only found in God's love.

"That is why He came to earth, why he would die on the Cross, and why the Father would resurrect Him on the third day. Jesus came to tell us that He wants us all in Paradise, and that Hell - of which very little is spoken these days - exists, and is eternal for those who close off their hearts to His love.

"Even in this episode, we understand that the true
enemy is attachment to sin, which can lead us to the failure of our existence. Jesus sends off the adulterous woman with the advice, "Go, and sin no more." He grants forgiveness so that "from now on", she would no longer sin."
 

Carl Olson

Seems to me that His Holiness might well address his remarks to those within the Church who, following hints in von Balthasar, have liberated everyone from Hell and have imprisoned only one person there, Jesus Himself.

Well, sure. And this explains why, in poll after poll, when Catholics are asked why they doubt the existence of hell, they immediately refer to their vast von Balthasar libraries. Sigh...

Chris Burgwald

Everyone knows that von Balthasar argued that we don't *know* that any human beings are actually in hell, and that we should *hope* that no human beings ever are. But we also know that he didn't sin against hope by *presuming* that no human is or will be in hell. Anyone who claims that hell is definitively empty of human beings -- and says that they were only following von B's hints in so claiming -- didn't read the Swiss theologian very well.

Carl Olson

didn't read the Swiss theologian very well

But may have read New Oxford Review. It's rather tiresome hearing how von Balthasar supposedly denied hell, or said that nobody was in hell, for the same reason that it's tiresome to hear that Benedict is "rattled" or "fearful" or "won't engage with modernity." Because it's not true!

Rick

"Seems to me that His Holiness might well address his remarks to those within the Church who, following hints in von Balthasar, have liberated everyone from Hell and have imprisoned only one person there, Jesus Himself."

..On the other hand, my words were continually twisted with a view to claiming that he who hope for the salvation of all his brothers and sisters ‘hopes hell empty’ (what an expression!). Or that he who voices such a hope advocates the universal redemption (apokatastasis) condemned by the Church-SOMETHING THAT I HAVE UTTERLY REJECTED (caps are mine): we stand completely and utterly under judgment, and have no right, nor is it possible to peer in advance at the Judge’s cards….
-Dare We Hope (p. 166)

Well, it is better to read the good Cardinal than misconstrue what he actually said!

Adam Janke

"But may have read New Oxford Review. It's rather tiresome hearing how von Balthasar supposedly denied hell, or said that nobody was in hell, for the same reason that it's tiresome to hear that Benedict is "rattled" or "fearful" or "won't engage with modernity." Because it's not true!"

Seems like the appropriate question usually is, "Oh, so you've read 'Dare we Hope', etc?". The answer is of course almost always, "No". I'm finding Amazon.com to be a new mission ground with the recent discussion boards they've enabled on every product. Fundamentalists and Anti-Catholics are starting to write up tracts and fast rebuttals on nearly every Ratzinger text (see "What it Means to be Christian for example") on their site. The content of their comments though hardly reflects any knowledge of the text, and it is usually easily to silence them when you bring the fact up.

Joe

Tiresome? Not to impugne von Balthasar, but the NORs articles make solid arguments by credible priests, as does Pitstick's new book, and pieces by Cardinal Avery Dulles. Plenty of folks who have thorough knowledge of the Swiss theologian's text do see his views as more than a little problematic, and those who insinuate otherwise may be the ones who may be guilty of glossing over works. Sheesh.

Carl Olson

Plenty of folks who have thorough knowledge of the Swiss theologian's text do see his views as more than a little problematic,

"Problematic" is one thing. There are statements by Church Fathers and Doctors that are problematic. But saying that von Balthasar denied the existence of hell, or distorting his theological propositions about Christ's descent into hell is another thing. Thus Cardinal Dulles writes:

"The most sophisticated theological argument against the conviction that some human beings in fact go to hell has been proposed by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his book Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved?” He rejects the ideas that hell will be emptied at the end of time and that the damned souls and demons will be reconciled with God. He also avoids asserting as a fact that everyone will be saved. But he does say that we have a right and even a duty to hope for the salvation of all, because it is not impossible that even the worst sinners may be moved by God’s grace to repent before they die. He concedes, however, that the opposite is also possible. Since we are able to resist the grace of God, none of us is safe. We must therefore leave the question speculatively open, thinking primarily of the danger in which we ourselves stand.

"This position of Balthasar seems to me to be orthodox. It does not contradict any ecumenical councils or definitions of the faith. It can be reconciled with everything in Scripture, at least if the statements of Jesus on hell are taken as minatory rather than predictive. Balthasar’s position, moreover, does not undermine a healthy fear of being lost. But the position is at least adventurous. It runs against the obvious interpretation of the words of Jesus in the New Testament and against the dominant theological opinion down through the centuries, which maintains that some, and in fact very many, are lost."

Check out this recent post by Michael Joseph for more.

Rick

In reference to the pope's remarks, does anyone think that one reason we have lost sight of Hell's existence is that the existence of its main tenant, Satan, is either denied or neglected as well?

I think Lewis made a similar point in Screwtape!

Carl Olson

In reference to the pope's remarks, does anyone think that one reason we have lost sight of Hell's existence is that the existence of its main tenant, Satan, is either denied or neglected as well?


Absolutely! See my article, "Satan and the Saint".

kentuckyliz

Perhaps folks are misusing von Balthasar, which leads to complacency about the very things that would constitute ACTING on our HOPE that all men be saved: evangelization and intercessory prayer.

Private revelations show souls falling into Hell like snowflakes--St Teresa of Avila, who unlike von Balthasar, is a Doctor of the Church. The Fatima children also saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes.

So, let's ACT on our HOPE. We aren't fundamentalists who think an act of faith (no one's in Hell) makes it so. Faith requires action.

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