MetaCatholic

(See the Introduction to this series, Article I, update, Article II)

The third of the 39 articles, in one sense simply a restatement of the similar article of the Apostles’ Creed, is perhaps in many respects one of the most problematic.

III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell.

It would be more accurately rendered in contemporary English, “went down to the place of the dead” (the Latin is ad inferos) but any distinction between Hell and a place of the dead that we might make would not necessarily be one readily made in the mediaeval or Reformation mind.

So what should we make of what was a major theme of mediaeval faith and literature – the harrowing of hell (this Wikipedia entry is actually rather good), which was more clearly in view in Cranmer’s original article which was longer and pruned drastically by the Elizabethan revisers:

III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell. For the body laid in the Sepulchre, until the resurrection: but his Ghost departing from him, was with the Ghosts that were in prison, or in Hell, and did preach to the same, as the place of S. Peter doth testify. (I’ve modernised spelling, but not language)

I must here confess my liking for the drama of this mythology, no doubt partly influenced by Piers Plowman of which this an excerpt (B text, Passus 18):

“1 here and see bothe
A spirit speketh to helle and biddeth unspere the yates:
“”Attolite portas.”
A vois loude in that light to Lucifer crieth,
“”Prynees of this place, unpynneth and unlouketh!
For here cometh with crowne that kyng is of glorie.’”
Thanne sikede Sathan, and seide to helle,
“Swich a light, ayeins oure leve, Lazar it fette;
Care and combraunce is comen to us alle!
If this kyng come in, mankynde wole he fecche,
And lede it ther Lazar is, and lightliche me bynde.
Patriarkes and prophetes han parled herof longe –
That swich a lord and a light shal lede hem alle hennes.’

I both see and hear it.
A spirit bids hell unbar its gates.
“Lift up your heads, O you gates”
A loud voice from this shining light calls out to Lucifer
“Prince of this place, unbolt and unlock,
For he comes the crowned king of glory”
Then Satan sighed, and said to hell,
“A light like this came once before, and fetched Lazarus out:
Grief and trouble has come to us all!
If this king comes in, he will fetch out mankind,
and lead them where Lazarus is, and swiftly bind me.
Patriarchs and prophets have long spoken of this –
that such a lord, such a light, would lead them all hence.”

The mediaeval myth owes more to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus than it does to canonical scripture, and is dramatically compelling, even if (like many apocryphal writings) it goes into detail where scripture is reticent. Yet the sense that the release of those who were in death’s dark prison belongs to the victory of the cross, and that that victory stretches back in time as well as forwards, is profoundly important. Victory over death, celebrated in this poetic dramatisation, and affirmed by this article, is a significant outworking of the Christus Victor model of atonement.

Cranmer’s original text tries to locate the idea in scripture. The relevant verses are:

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. (1 Peter 3:18-20 NRSV)
and
For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does. (1 Peter 4:6 NRSV)

The other place where he could have sought a basis for this doctrine (and where others have found it) is this:

Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:8-10 NRSV)

The problem is that most exegetes today don’t believe that the descent of Christ to the dead is the original meaning of these passages: even if they can’t agree on what that meaning was (and they can’t) they do tend to agree in ruling out the descent to hell. I am in agreement with that majority, and think that:

1. the spirits in prison belong to apocalyptic mythology and refer to disobedient angels
2. he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison means a proclamation of the defeat of evil powers while on Christ’s triumphal resurrection procession to his heavenly home
3. the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead means that it was preached to those who have died (in the flesh) since they heard it, but because of it, are now alive in the spirit.
4. and that in Ephesians he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is the same one who ascended is possibly about the incarnation, but more likely about the identity of the gifts of the descended Spirit with the gifts of the ascended Christ.

I’m not sure whether I shall need to post a fuller argument on those exegeses, but they would all find significant scholarly support, so I shall simply assert them here (before this post gets as long as one of John Hobbins’!). In short, we have a powerful tradition, based on previous readings of scripture, that affirms a profound Christian insight, and we have little basis for it in contemporary readings of scripture. What are we to do with handling this mythology, the article, and credal statement that affirm Christ’s being with the dead?

I am, first, inclined to think that these are areas where we must be reticent in our propositional and theological affirmations, however much we draw on the poetry and drama of our inheritance in celebration and liturgy. Trying to say anything about this article brings us up sharply against the paradoxical mystery of the incarnation, and difficulties in speaking about temporality and eternity. How can we speak of Christ doing anything when he is dead (in his human nature)? How can we speak of Christ being dead, when he is eternally living (in his divine nature)?

We need some sort of theology of Holy Saturday as well as Good Friday and Easter Day. Christ’s being dead in his human nature needs to be affirmed, as sabbath at the end of accomplishing his Father’s work, as the void from which new creation will begin on the first day of the week, and as the means of turning the rest of death into the Eternal Sabbath of resting in life with God. (Memo to self, must read von Balthasar)

In that sense, I would take my scriptural bearings from Rom 4:17: the God … who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. There is a parallel between the works of creation and resurrection, which is worked out dramatically in John’s Gospel, and is important to affirm. The formless void at the start of Genesis, represents a space where God is not active, or perhaps even not present, a space from which he has, as it were, withdrawn himself, so that creation – what is not God – may be brought into being. Similarly, death is as far from God as one may be, and still in some sense be spoken of as being, however shadowy that existence might be conceived of as being. Christ (which is why he is both agent of creation as well as agent of resurrection) is the God who goes where God is not, so that what is not God may be drawn into the eternal love, which is the life of the Trinity.

To say “he went down into hell” is a fundamental affirmation that God’s love reaches the very depths not only of creation’s being, but of its non-being. The universe, as far as we know it, tends to dissolution with the increase of entropy as order slowly tends towards formless chaos. Our lives are bounded by the non-being of death. The word of God brings order out of chaos, not only in the founding myths of creation, but in the eschatological hope of a new creation, drawing even the most disordered aspects of this existence, epitomized by the dissolution of death, into a new and renewed order of love.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39 NRSV)

That, in St Paul’s words, is the essential expression of “he went down into hell.”