Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved”?: With a Short Discourse on Hell
Overview
The Church’s teaching on hell has been generally neglected by theologians, with the notable exception of Hans Urs von Balthasar. However, what he has said has stirred controversy both in Europe and in the United States. Here he responds in a clear and concise way, grounding his reflections clearly in Scripture. Revelation gives us neither the assurance that all will be saved, nor the certitude that any are condemned. What it does require of us is the “hope that all men be saved” rooted in a love of Christ that reaches even into the depths of hell.
Top Highlights
“Furthermore, practically all the Fathers, both East and West, reject the view that hell—empty or not—is created by God. Rather, they hold that it is brought about by sinners themselves, whose resistance to the divine love produces suffering in them. In this context, Balthasar cites C. S. Lewis, who famously argued that the door to hell is locked from the inside by those who, from the bottom of their hearts, want to be left alone.” (Pages x–xi)
“Many passages could be added here, I do not at all deny that their force is weakened by the series of threatening ones; I only dispute that the series of threats invalidates the cited universalist statements. And I claim nothing more than this: that these statements give us a right to have hope for all men, which simultaneously implies that I see no need to take the step from the threats to the positing of a hell occupied by our brothers and sisters, through which our hopes would come to naught.” (Page 149)
“patristic consensus exists around the issue of a crowded” (Page x)
“In the present case, then, this consumption cannot imply continued existence through transformation into ‘victory’ or ‘life’ but rather implies an overcoming of such a kind that—to formulate it as positively as possible—everything negative inherent in death and infernum is taken up into the pure positivity of what is victorious over it.” (Page 106)
“Karl Barth, for his part, dealt this Calvinist doctrine a final blow when he declared that Jesus Christ died for us sinners, as the only one rejected by God, in order that we might all become chosen ones in him: a doctrine that, as I have shown elsewhere, comes too close to the doctrine of apokatastasis.” (Page 157)
- Title: Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved”?: With a Short Discourse on Hell
- Author: Hans Urs von Balthasar
- Edition: Second Edition
- Publisher: Ignatius
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Hope › Religious aspects--Catholic Church; Hell › Christianity--History of doctrines
- ISBNs: 9781586179427, 158617942X
- Resource ID: LLS:DAREWEHOPE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:33:04Z