Christ's descent into the underworld
The descent of Christ into the underworld (Latin Descensus Christi ad inferos ), popularly also Christ's descent into hell , describes the traditional Christian idea that Jesus Christ descended into the underworld on the night after his crucifixion and there freed the souls of the righteous since Adam . The background to this idea is, among other things, the question of where Jesus Christ's soul was between the crucifixion and the resurrection . One invokes the biblical statements in Ephesians 4,9 EU and 1 Peter 3,19 EU .
Doctrine of faith
The underworld is called in the original Greek text of the 1st letter of Peter ( κατελθόντα εἰς) τὰ κατώτατα , literally "the lowest", in the Latin translation inferos ("those below"). In other places in the translated Bible, the underworld is called Hades or Hell . Some theologians use the terms Sheol or Limbo to separate the part of the underworld entered by Christ from the hell of the damned. In the apostolic and athanasic creed it is expressed in the Latin words descendit ad inferos , which translates as "descended into the realm of death" or "descended to the underworld".
Writings of the Church Fathers
This idea of Christ's descent into the underworld was associated by the Church Fathers with various biblical statements, partly intentionally literal and partly allegorical . In the patristic "the article of faith of the descent of Jesus into the kingdom of the dead against Gnosis was emphasized as a doctrine of the faith."
In apocryphal literature, especially in the Pilate Acts (Evangelium Nicodemi) , the descent of Jesus into the underworld is embellished as a victory over the powers of the underworld with a variety of plot elements in a dramatic and vivid narrative.
The motif found its way into the liturgy and medieval literature on the afterlife, but also into the medieval passion plays , which sometimes use the quarrel with the devils for wide-ranging comic interludes (diableries).
Eastern Church
For the Eastern Church , the Easter interpreted descent into the realm of the dead is the central salvation event. (KEK I, p. 196). "The fact that Jesus' resurrection (anastasis) was preceded by a descent (katabasis) of Jesus into the kingdom of death (Hades) is [...] in the Eastern Church [...] the central motif of the Easter icon."
Catechisms of the Western Catholic Church
- In the Catholic Adult Catechism (CEC) it is stated that the descent of Jesus Christ into the kingdom of death is one of the largely forgotten truths of faith; he appears "incomprehensible and strange to most Christians". In the “language of the worldview at that time” it was expressed that Jesus not only shared the general fate of death, but also entered “into the whole desertion and loneliness of death, that he experienced the senselessness, the night and in this sense the The hell of being human ”. The church tradition linked the article of faith with the 1st letter of Peter: "So he also went to the spirits who were in prison and preached to them".
- In the world catechism (CCC 636 f.) It says in summary:
“636 With 'descended into the kingdom of death' the creed confesses that Jesus really died and through his death conquered death for us and the devil 'who has power over death' (Heb. 2:14).
637 The dead Christ descended in his soul, which remained united with his divine person, to the abode of the dead. He opened the gates of heaven to the righteous who lived before him. "
Modern theological interpretations
In modern times, the historically determined dependence on the worldview of the time is emphasized (cf. CEC, see above) and asked how the article of faith is to be understood today:
- Among the numerous theological reinterpretations, one should mention that of Hans Urs von Balthasar , according to which the underworld into which Jesus descended should be understood as the abandonment of God that Jesus took upon himself in order to be close to the people who oppose God decided. On this subject, wrote Wilhelm Maria Maas , whose mentor von Balthasar was the work of God and hell: studies on the descent of Christ , which is the credo in the Latin version is based. Von Balthasar's and Maasen's theological reinterpretation is based on the Holy Saturday theology of the mystic Adrienne von Speyr .
- At GL Müller it is said: “God himself descends into the depths of death and the godforsakenness of the sinner. By experiencing this power in himself, God also overcomes the law of negation, the devil and sin in the crucified and buried Jesus, the wages of which is eternal death. "
- Similar to Gisbert Greshake : "When God himself enters the sphere of power of death, death ceases to be the zone of distance from God, of disconnectedness and darkness."
iconography
The descent of Christ into the underworld became one of the most important themes in Christian iconography and still represents the central Easter image in the Eastern Church to this day. Most of the time, such icons show the Anastasis Christ (sometimes accompanied by Dismas , the good thief) on the broken one Gateway to the underworld, as he victorious over death leads Adam and Eve as the first of the redeemed out of the underworld. The subject of Christ in the Underworld can be found in Western art almost exclusively in detailed picture cycles of the life of Christ.
literature
- Marc-Oliver Loerke: Christ and Anastasis' Descent into Hell - an image motif in the West and in the Christian East , dissertation, University of Regensburg 2003 ( full text )
- Wilhelm Maas: God and Hell - Studies for the Descensus of Christ , Einsiedeln, 1979, 339 S., ISBN 978-3-265-10212-2 .
- Karl Wilhelm Christian Schmidt: The depiction of Christ's journey to hell in the German and their related games of the Middle Ages , H. Bauer, 1915, DNB 571204759 .
Web links
- Iconography of Easter: “Descent into Hell” or “Resurrection”? , Svetlana Ivanova
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Ludwig Müller : Catholic dogmatics: for study and practice of theology , 6th edition, Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-451-28652-1 , p. 306 with additional information
- ↑ German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Catholic adult catechism. Volume 1: The Church's Creed. 4th edition. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer, 1989, p. 196 [1]
- ↑ German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Catholic adult catechism. Volume 1: The Church's Creed , 4th Edition. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer, 1989, p. 194 [2]
- ↑ German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Catholic adult catechism. Volume 1: The Church's Creed , 4th Edition. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer, 1989, p. 195 [3]
- ↑ Catholic Church : Catechism of the Catholic Church. Oldenbourg [u. a.], Munich [u. a.] 1993, ISBN 3-486-55999-0 , No. 636 f. [4]
- ^ Gerhard Ludwig Müller : Catholic dogmatics: for study and practice of theology. , 6th edition, Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-451-28652-1 , p. 306.
- ↑ Gisbert Greshake : Resurrection. , Christian Schütz (Ed.): Practical Lexicon of Spirituality. Herder, Freiburg i.Br. u. a. 1992, ISBN 3-451-22614-6 , Sp. 78 (80)