medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
ACCORDING TO THE BELIEFS OF BOGOMILS, CATHARS AND LOLLARDS, CHRIST WILL
DESCEND INTO HELL AND SAVE ALL SOULS
Dear colleagues, can we enlarge a little bit “The Christ Descent” subject
when answering the question “Could the saved be Adam and Eve?”
The motif of the delivery of all souls from Hell is borrowed from the
uncanonical Gospel of Nicodemus (IV-V century) and Homily of Epiphanius (IV
century). Even though both apocryphal texts were already old at that time,
the Bogomils used and circulated the scene with a new significance stemming
from their own theology. According to which, if this world was made by
Satan, then it was hell and the coming of Christ to Earth meant the
shattering of this hell.
This Bogomil-Cathar interpretation addresses another issue that has not
been explicitly answered by the Christian religion: how just is it that the
souls of all unbaptised people that had lived before the birth of Christ
should be in hell only because they have not had the opportunity of meeting
Him. Christ’s descent into hell presents this opportunity, it is the
communication of His benevolent word, the spread of his love to the very
bottom of creation, the salvation of mankind. This view represents one of
the summits of Christian humanism. It undermines the dictatorship and the
rampant institutionalisation of the official church, which throughout the
Middle Ages uses hell to scare the disobedient and the freethinking with
eternal damnation. The belief in Christ’s descent into hell, thus, sets
human soul free from medieval fears.
So, according to the beliefs of Bogomils, Cathars and Lollards Christ will
desend into hell and save all souls.
The beauty of this scene was so overwhelming that even the official
churches were compelled to comment on it. The Eastern Orthodox Church
concedes the salvation only of Adam, Eve, and the Patriarchs, while the
Catholic Church presents a more austere view: In his seminal work Summa
Theologica (Pars Tertia. Quaestio LII. Articulus VIII) Thomas Aquinas
practically denies such salvation, answering with “No” to the
question “Will Christ save any man from hell”.
Please visit these very beautiful pictures: the miniature from the
St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) and the painting from the Boyana
Church, 13th century, Bulgaria.
http://www.geocities.com/bogomil1bg/Christ-descent.html
Georgi Vasilev Ph.D., D.Litt.
Professor of European and Medieval Studies
State University of Library studies and Information Technologies
Sofia 1784
119 Tsarigradsko shose bd
Mob. 00359 885 969087
E-mail: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Web: www.geocities.com/bogomil1bg
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