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Descensus and Development: A Response to Recent Rejoinders
Author(s) -
OAKES EDWARD T.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of systematic theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1468-2400
pISSN - 1463-1652
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2400.2010.00542.x
Subject(s) - assertion , soul , philosophy , theology , race (biology) , sociology , computer science , gender studies , programming language
Two articles were published in this journal in 2009 responding to and criticizing my 2007 article on Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of Holy Saturday. The article below responds to those critiques by establishing the following points: (1) Balthasar's theology of Christ's expiatory descent into hell (that is, one in which Christ's human soul suffered the pains of hell) is thoroughly traditional and can be found asserted throughout theological literature; (2) on the question of (the possibility of) universal salvation, the development from Augustine's consigning of the majority of the human race to hell to Vatican II's assertion that all human beings are connected to the paschal mystery took place independently of Balthasar's theology (a development which of course he accepts), and thus to criticize him on this point is implicitly to deny the very rules for authentic development as outlined by John Henry Newman that both my interlocutors claim to accept.