424 REVIEWS

mining disaster. The four sermons on 1 Corinthians 13 consti-

tute the best exegesis of that passage I know. In the prison
correspondence BonhoeVer notes that he has moved some
distance from the Cost of Discipleship. There is something in that
great meditation which misses out on the dimension of human
wholeness. There are echoes of that in these sermons but there
are also extremely profound reflections on love, and in partic-
ular on love and self-deception. If one wanted to give a few
pages to students on eros and agape, one could start here. It is
for these sermons, and for the letters to Erwin Sutz and to his
brother, that the non-specialist reader is going to turn to this
volume to learn, not just about a crucial episode in the history of
the church, but about the continuing validity of the claim that
Christianity has a gospel.

doi:10.1093/jts/fln006 TIM GORRINGE

Advance Access publication 6 February 2008 Exeter
T.J.Gorringe@exeter.ac.uk

Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic

Doctrine of Christs Descent into Hell. By ALYSSA LYRA
PITSTICK. Pp. xvi 458. 9 colour plates. Grand Rapids,
MI and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2007. ISBN 978 0
8028 0755 7 and 4039 4. Hardback $55/31.99; paper
$36/21.99.

BALTHASARS theology of Holy Saturday, denying that Christs

sojourn among the dead was a triumphal and glorious liberation
of the Old Testaments righteous, and positing instead a passive,
suVering descent into the very depths of Gehenna, has long caused
disquiet within certain Catholic circles. On the one hand, Balthasar
is widely regarded as one of the most orthodox and traditionally
minded of twentieth-century theologians; on quite the other, his
notion of a suVering descent appears consciously to disregard
centuries of tradition, replacing it with a modern construct of
his own innovation. Pitsticks doctoral thesis thus seeks to consider
whether a triumphal descent by Christ or a descent to suVering
is the true expression of the Catholic Faith (p. 2). She reveals
her conclusions early on, stating in the introduction: Balthasar
both clearly knew the traditional Catholic doctrine . . . and firmly
proposed something diVerent (p. 3).
The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
 REVIEWS 425
Light in Darkness is, however, no hatchet job. Pitstick begins
with a painstaking survey of the Churchs traditional position,
drawing on creeds, catechisms, Scripture, magisterial pronounce-
ments, the testimonies of saint-theologians, liturgy, and works of
religious art (colour plates of nine of which are usefully included
as an appendix). Despite acknowledging, although not giving
references to, Isolated statements . . . in the works of individual
saints that do not coincide perfectly or in the most explicit way
with the Tradition (p. 32), she nevertheless aYrms that all the
above sources speak with one voice and testify that the mystery
of Christs descent was glorious in the first and proper sense
of the word (p. 85). Arguing on the strength of this that
interpretations of the Descent that contradict this conclusion
are excluded, Pitstick turns her critical attention to Balthasar.
Chapter 5 focuses on Balthasars envisaging of the descent
itself. Pitsticks statement of his position is circumspect and fair,
concentrating especially on three main points: that the descent
is a continuation of the Cross; that the expiatory suVering of the
descent surpasses that of the Cross; and that Christ was radically
made sin for mans redemption. Since Balthasar developed
his theology in several diVerent works, over many years, and
often expressed it in equivocal terms, Pitsticks clear delineation
of its main features is especially valuable. Balthasars theology is
then contrasted with her foregoing portrayal of the traditional
Catholic doctrine and is found incommensurate on two import-
ant issues: whither Christ descended (tradition says Sheol,
i.e. the limbo of the Fathers; Balthasar says Gehenna, i.e. hell
proper); and the manner of the Descent (tradition says it was
glorious in the full sense of the word, and that Christ suVered no
pain; Balthasar that it was a veiled glory, and that Christ suVered
horrifically). With this in mind, three chapters then elaborate
Balthasars theology from a trinitarian perspective, explaining
and criticizing its implications for his understandings of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Pitstick finds much to fault here, as she
also does in the concluding chapter of the books central section.
There, she persuasively argues that Balthasars conception of
Holy Saturday is at the very heart of his entire theological
corpus. After briefly sketching its influence on almost all the key
elements of his thoughtcreation, sacramentology, ecclesiology,
eschatology, soteriology, and Mariologyshe finally likens the
determining influence of the Descent on [his] theological
reflections to a rock dropped into a calm pool: although its
eVects are most obvious at the centre, its ripples carry even to
the farthest shore (p. 277).
426 REVIEWS
It may well be, as Pitstick forcefully argues throughout, that
Balthasars doctrine of a suVering descent is poorly conceived,
sometimes inconsistent, and yields problematic implications for
the rest of his theology. It is not these conclusions that are
already attracting lively interest in her work, however. Rather,
it is the fact that Pitstick charges Balthasar with a de facto
rejection of the Catholic tradition and its authority (p. 346).
This indictment, tantamount to calling him a heretic, cannot
go unanswered. Certainly, it is arguable that Pitsticks narrow
conception of the tradition is at fault here, rather than
Balthasars wilful disregard of it. Balthasar himself appealed to
the Christian mystical tradition (e.g. in A Short Discourse on
Hell) in support of a suVering descent. Beginning in the
medieval period, the Catholic mystics experiences of suVering
with Christ are often expressed in terms of being subjected
to death, God-forsakenness, and indeed all the sorrows of hell
(e.g. St John of the Cross, Bl. Angela of Foligno)precisely
those qualities which Balthasar ascribes to Christ in his descent.
Pitstick is of course correct that these are private revelations,
and hence are neither binding nor authoritative (pp. 1778).
Nevertheless, from a properly Catholic point of view, the fact
that several of those reporting such experiences have been
beatified or canonized (and in some cases even declared Doctors
of the Church) implies there to be nothing contrary to faith
and morals in their writings. If so, then to speak in terms of
a suVering descent, even if this is not the majority report of the
tradition, is perfectly orthodox. Furthermore, the unreserved
endorsements of Balthasar by both John Paul II and Benedict
XVI could also be adduced. If Pitstick is right that the descent
influences (or, rather, taints) almost every aspect of Balthasars
output, and if the Church is indeed infallibilis in credendo
et docendo (p. 326), then the popes recent acclamation of him as
a most authoritative guide to the Catholic faith also implies that
talk of a suVering descent, even if not correct in all its details,
is not heretical.
Dubious inquisitorial agenda aside, Light in Darkness is none-
theless a strong and closely reasoned debut. Its rigorous and
analytic nature, not to mention its controversial thesis, makes it
an important contribution both to Balthasar studies and, more
generally, to an oft-neglected field of Catholic systematics.

doi:10.1093/jts/flm161 STEPHEN BULLIVANT

Advance Access publication 10 December 2007 Christ Church, Oxford
stephen.bullivant@chch.ox.ac.uk