Christ's Descent into Hell: John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Theology of Holy Saturday

Lyra Pitstick holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. Her book Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ’s Descent into Hell won a John Templeton Award for Theological Promise.

Richard Conrad, OP
— Aquinas Institute, Blackfriars, Oxford
"The truth that Christ ’descended into hell’ to crush the powers of evil and to lead into heaven those who had died longing for Him is weak in the consciousness of many modern Western Christians, and into this vacuum have come theologies of the descent such as Balthasar’s. . . . Lyra Pitstick’s work is extraordinarily timely, since she firmly lays to rest any claims that, on this issue, Balthasar had the agreement of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Her work is both accurate and supportive of authentic devotion."

 
Manfred Hauke
— University of Lugano, Switzerland
"This is a very fine piece of scholarship, evincing an authentic quest for truth. It treats one of the topics mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed, the serious study of which has been compromised by the influence of a certain pseudo-mysticism on the part of the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. . . . Pitstick’s work is an excellent exercise of theological method, faithful to Christian revelation as transmitted by the Magisterium and elaborated in a clear, critical, systematic way. It is accessible not only to theologians but to all those wanting to deepen their understanding of the Apostles’ Creed."