Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) was one of the most prominent Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century. He was made a cardinal by Pope John-Paul II but died two days before getting the red hat. In Mysterium Paschale he discusses what is meant by Jesus' "descent into hell" between his death and resurrection. A good summary can be found here in an article by John Webster of St John's College, Durham.

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The fundamental category in von Balthasar's conception of the atonement is that of solidarity. In this he moves significantly beyond some of the more familiar classical models--Anselm's "satisfaction" theory, the "penal substitution" of the later Calvinist divines--although the roots of his thinking are arguably deep in the patristic writings. For him, the mystery of redemption is the demonstration in the death of Christ of God's solidarity with the sinner who seeks to estrange himself from God.

To expand this theme, von Balthasar focuses not only on the events of Good Friday and Easter Day, but also on Christ's descent into hell on Holy Saturday. One of the strangest impulses to develop along this direction came from his close collaboration with Adrienne von Speyr, a doctor who was converted under him and who was the subject of mystical experiences of participation in the paschal sufferings of Christ. Von Balthasar later wrote of her that she "possessed in a special way a charism of theological insight. To the central insights bestowed on her belong the mysteries of Holy Saturday and hence of hell and universal redemption as well"...From von Speyr's experiences and writings, von Balthasar has taken the motif of the descent into hell as expressing God's refusal to abandon those who abandon him. Because he shares hell with the sinner, the sinner's willful attempt to live and die without God is forestalled. Even in hell, God himself is present in the Son. "On Holy Saturday there is the descent of the dead Jesus to hell, that is...his solidarity...with those who have lost their way from God...In this finality (of death) the dead Son descends...He is...dead together with them. And exactly in that way he disturbs the absolute loneliness striven for by the sinner: the sinner who wants to be 'damned" apart from God, finds God again in his loneliness, but God in the absolute weakness of love who...enters into solidarity with those damning themselves". However much the sinner may seek to put himself beyond God in "the complete loneliness of being-only-for-oneself, God himself enters into this very loneliness as someone who is ever more lonely...even what we call 'hell is, although it is the place of desolation, always still a christological place".

Perhaps the best introduction in English to theosis--the Eastern Christian doctrine of how we attain union with God--is Norman Russell's Fellow Workers with God: Orthodox Thinking on Theosis (St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2009). In straightforward, accessible prose, Russell outlines how the question has been addressed by the Fathers and contemporary Orthodox theologians; he also refers to the steadily increasing interest in deification by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant thinkers. Pages 169 and 170 contain a good summary of his argument. Theosis is not just for a monastic spiritual elite, and it furthermore underpins the liturgy.

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...as Metropolitan John Zizioulas has said, mystical experience is not to be identified solely with the extraordinary and unusual. The fact that theosis encompasses the whole of the economy of salvation means that it is intended for all believers without exception. To live theosis, then, means to lead our life in an eschatological perspective within the ecclesial community, striving through prayer, participation in the Eucharist, and the practice of the moral life to attain the divine likeness, being conformed spiritually and corporeally to the body of Christ until we are brought into Christ's identity and arrive ultimately at union with the Father. In simpler terms, it means for an Orthodox Christian to live as a faithful member of the Church, attending the Liturgy, receiving the sacraments and keeping the commandments. Nothing more--or less-than that.

The spirituality of the Orthodox Church is both liturgical and monastic. Liturgical spirituality takes full account of our corporeal nature. For the body is part of our identity. It is not something to be ignored or despised. The annual cycle of Great Feasts, particularly the Nativity, the Theophany [Epiphany], the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Transfiguration of Christ celebrate the transformation of humanity, body and soul, and its exaltation to heaven. On Holy Cross Day "the whole creation is set free from corruption". On Christmas Day "has God come upon earth, and man gone up to heaven". On the Forefeast of the Theophany Christ "opens the heavens, brings down the divine Spirit, and grants man a share of incorruption". On the Feast of the Transfiguration Christ "has changed the darkened nature of Adam, and filling it with brightness He has made it godlike". These feasts do not simply commemorate past events. With their eschatological dimension, frequently reinforced by the present tense of the verbs, they turn the worshiper "towards the future--towards the 'splendor of the Resurrection' at the Last Day, towards the 'beauty of the divine Kingdom' which all Christians hope eventually to enjoy."

Matt Gunter of Into the Expectation has put together an excellent statement of what differentiates Anglicanism from other Christian traditions. Read the whole thing for full effect.

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Anglicanism is:

Biblically Focused: "The Holy Ghost rides most triumphantly in his own chariot" [ie Scripture]--Thomas Manton (1620-1677).

Rooted in Tradition: "One canon reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries, and the series of Fathers in that period--the centuries, that is, before Constantine, and two after, determine the boundary of our faith."--Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)

Reasonable: "Faith is not a bird of prey sent by God to peck out the eyes of [humans]"--Nathaniel Culverwel (1619-1651)

Centered in Worship and Prayer: Anglicans do theology "to the sound of church bells, for that is what Christian theology is really all about--worshipping God the Savior through Jesus Christ in the theology of the apostolic age".--Michael Ramsey (1904-1988)

Sacramental [especially Eucharistic]

Catholic and Protestant/Evangelical: "Our special character and, as we believe, our peculiar contribution to the Universal Church, arises from the fact that owing to historic circumstances, we have been enabled to combine in our one fellowship the traditional Faith and Order of the Catholic Church with that immediacy of approach to God through Christ to which the Evangelical Churches especially bear witness, and freedom of intellectual inquiry, whereby the correlation of the Christian revelation and advancing knowledge is constantly effected"--William Temple (1881-1944)

Liberally Catholic and Generously Orthodox: Anglican Christianity...is..."conspicuously orthodox on the great fundamentals of the Trinity and the Incarnation"...It avoids the extremes "represented by a dogmatism that crushes instead of quickening the reason of the individual, making it purely passive and acquiescent, and on the other hand by an unrestrained development of the individual judgement which becomes eccentric and lawless just because it is unrestricted"--Charles Gore (1852-1932)

Passionate but Patient: ..."There is in the Anglican identity a strong element of awareness of the tragic, of the dark night and the frustration of theory and order by the strangeness of God's work"..."The result is a mixture of poetry, reticence, humility before mystery, local loyalties and painful self-scrutinies"--Rowan Williams.

St John Climacus (7th century) was abbot of St Catherine's monastery in the Sinai. He is most famous for his Ladder of Divine Ascent which I have talked about in an earlier post. During Lent the Ladder is read by all Orthodox monks and many Orthodox laypeople. It is not what you would call marshmallow spirituality. He pulls few punches and can be quite off-putting, if the truth be told. However, he grows on one with repeated readings.

I recently came across a tool for the better appreciation of the Ladder in A Spoken Silence, an interesting new blog of Jon Mark Hogg, an Orthodox layman from San Angelo, Texas. Jon has summarized each of the 30 chapters of Climacus' work in a short phrase expressing the chapter's focus. The complete post is dated March 1; I reproduce the list below for your ongoing Lenten edification.

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1. Renounce the world.

2. Live a life of detachment.

3. Live like an exile and a pilgrim.

4. Live a life of obedience.

5. Live a life of repentance.

6. Live with the remembrance of death.

7. Live in joy-making mourning.

8. Live meekly and free from anger.

9. Do not remember wrongs.

10. Do not slander.

11. Remain silent.

12. Do not lie.

13. Do not dwell in despondency.

14. Conquer your stomach.

15. Live chaste and pure.

16. Do not love money and resist avarice.

17. Give up possessions.

18. Avoid insensibility.

19. Deprive yourself of sleep.

20. Use your body in the spiritual struggle.

21. Flee cowardice.

22. Flee vainglory.

23. Flee pride and unclean thoughts.

24. Live meekly and simply.

25. Destroy the passions.

26. Grow in discernment.

27. Be still.

28. Pray with mind, soul, and body.

29. Attain to dispassion and perfection.

30. Unite in love with the Holy Trinity.

We honor George Herbert (1593-1633) on his feastday with the collect from Lesser Feasts and Fasts and with "The Altar", one of the poems from his posthumous work The Temple.












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Our God and King, who didst call thy servant George Herbert from the pursuit of worldly honors to be a pastor of souls, a poet, and a priest in thy temple: Give unto us the grace, we beseech thee, joyfully to perform the tasks thou givest us to do, knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for thy sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


A broken altar, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart, and cemented with tears,
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.
A heart alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy power doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise Thy name:
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise Thee may not cease.
O let Thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be Thine.

Over at Glory to God for All Things, Fr Stephen has a terrific post on our society's schizoid attitude to the body and to physical existence in general. Read the whole thing and see if it fits into your Lenten observances.

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An entertainment personality, fresh from various surgeries (augmentations, alterations, etc) recently opined in an interview, "But in the end, this is just a shell". It was a very revealing cultural moment. The body is "just a shell" but worthy of tens of thousands of dollars to alter its appearance. It has been observed that modern man lives his life as a hedonist and dies like a Platonist.

The hedonist believes that life is defined by pleasure (particularly physical pleasure). The Platonist believes that the body and the material world are but passing moments--only the non-physical is real and of value. Among modern Christians this same cultural attitude is too frequently common...

There has long been a bifurcation within some forms of Christianity between "spiritual" and "physical". The use of physical actions, incense, etc (any form of ritual) is immediately dubbed "empty ritual" by some. It's as though the word "ritual" only comes with the modifier "empty". Faith is considered something that has no physical content...

The body is not "just the shell". Properly understood, the human person is both body and soul--neither are the fullness of the person alone. It is in this sense that the Church teaches the necessity of the resurrection of the body. That at death the soul departs from the body is the understanding of the Church. But it also understands that though the soul "is in the hands of God" it enjoys an anticipation of the life to come--rather than the fullness of the life to come. The fullness awaits our fullness--the resurrection of the body.

Here are some stray thoughts about Lent that have occurred to me over the last month or so. I wish all of you a holy and (yes, why not) happy Lent.



1. Saying "my bad" will not get your sins forgiven.

2. Our culture conspires to make us want to slash our wrists rather than admit to wrongdoing.

3. If you're embarrassed to be seen in public with ashes on your forehead, imagine that everyone can see what you're really thinking for five minutes.

4. The world would be a much better place if all the Christians who give up candy for Lent gave up anger instead.

5. When Eastern Christians fast, they don't give up food altogether but eat certain kinds of food in moderation. If it's 2 PM on Good Friday and you're obsessing about the gourmet vegetarian meal you'll have after the liturgy, there's probably something wrong.

6. We ridicule third-world Christians who whip themselves on Good Friday, but we do a good job of whipping ourselves emotionally because we're "just not good enough". So did Jesus make a mistake when he died for us?

7. I don't deny the Atonement. Still and all, the high point of the Christian year is not Good Friday, but Easter Sunday.