And still we wait: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and Its Implications for Christian suffering and discipleship
dc.contributor.advisor
Adams, Nick
en
dc.contributor.advisor
Fergusson, David
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dc.contributor.author
Hikota, Riyako
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dc.date.accessioned
2017-11-09T11:47:46Z
dc.date.available
2017-11-09T11:47:46Z
dc.date.issued
2016-06-25
dc.description.abstract
The significance of Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter
Sunday, is often ignored in Christian life. The most influential modern theologian who
has taken its importance seriously is the Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von
Balthasar. He has presented a very innovative but also controversial interpretation that
on Holy Saturday Jesus Christ suffered in utter solidarity with the dead in Hell and
took to himself our self-damnation. However, this interpretation and several other
aspects of his theology related to it seem to depart from the traditional teaching in an
idiosyncratic way and have invited various critiques.
What this thesis aims to do is to critically examine Balthasar’s theology of Holy
Saturday and present its implications for Christian suffering and discipleship, while
doing full justice to the genre within which he is working (a combination of theology
and spirituality) and at the same time taking into consideration the main critiques made
against him. First of all, we will argue that Balthasar does not try to present a radical
reinterpretation of the doctrine of the Descent into Hell in contrast to the traditional
teachings but rather tries to fully appreciate the in-betweenness of Holy Saturday as
the day of transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, in other words, from the old
aeon to the new. Balthasar says that Christ Himself descended into Hell as victor over
sin and death objectively, but He still had to wait for the victory to arrive subjectively.
Further, we will claim that this silent waiting on Holy Saturday, which marks the
transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, helps us to deepen our understanding of
the meaning of suffering in Christian discipleship. The waiting on Holy Saturday
represents the fundamentally ‘tragic’ state of the Christian (understood as “tragedy
under grace”) torn between the law of this world and the truth of Christ. As a
paradoxical being in transition, the Christian believes that their victory is both already
there and not there yet. In this sense, the Christian still lives in Holy Saturday. This
notion deepens our understanding of suffering in the Christian life, because now we
could translate the meaning of suffering into ‘tragic waiting,’ while fully facing the
subjective reality of suffering and at the same time maintaining the hope of finding its
salvific meaning by relating it to the paschal mystery. Our conclusion will be that this
‘tragic waiting,’ which itself is our lives, now can be seen in a Christological light. In
short, we can patiently endure our Holy Saturday because of Christ’s Holy Saturday
in Hell.
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dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/25479
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
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dc.subject
theology
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dc.subject
Catholic
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dc.subject
suffering
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dc.subject
Christian
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dc.subject
Hans Urs von Balthasar
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dc.subject
in-betweenness
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dc.subject
silent waiting
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dc.subject
Holy Saturday
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dc.title
And still we wait: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and Its Implications for Christian suffering and discipleship
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
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dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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