Tradizione teologica orientale sulla dottrina della "discesa agli inferi"
From Diwygiad
1. Eastern theological tradition
We come across references to the descent of Christ into Hades and His raising the dead in the works of Eastern Christian authors of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, such as Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, Hermas, Justin, Melito of Sardes, Hyppolitus of Rome, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. In the 4th century, the descent to hell was discussed by Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, as well as such Syrian authors as Jacob Aphrahat and Ephrem the Syrian. Noteworthy among later authors who wrote on this theme are Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus the Confessor and John Damascene.
Let us look at the most vivid interpretations given to our theme in Eastern Christian theology.
L'insegnamento sulla discesa di Cristo nell'Ades è esposto con ampiezza da [Clemente di Alessandria nei suoi "Miscellanea". Egli sostiene che Cristo aveva predicato all'inferno non solo ai giusti dell'Antico Testamento, ma anche ai Gentili che avevano vissuto al di fuori della vera fede. Commentando 1 Pietro 3:18-21, Clemente esprime la convinzione che la predicazione di Cristo fosse rivolta a tutti coloro che nell'inferno erano in grado di credere in Cristo.
Clemente mette in rilievo come vi siano dei giusti sia fra coloro che hanno la vera fede che fra i Gentili e che è per loro fosse possibile nell'aldilà volgersi a Dio anche se non l'avevano fatto in vita. E' la loro vita virtuosa che li rende capaci di accettare la predicazione di Cristo e degli apostoli all'inferno. Secondo Clemente, la giustizia ha valore non solo per coloro che vivono nella vera fede, ma anche per coloro che si pongono al di fuori della fede. E' evidente dalle sue parole che Cristo predicò all'inferno a tutti, ma salvò solo coloro che erano giunti alla fede in Lui. Clemente, quindi, presuppone che questa predicazione si sia provata salvifica non per tutti quelli ai quali Cristo aveva predicato nell'inferno. Nelle opere di Clemente troviamo l'idea che il castigo inflitto da Dio ai peccatori era finalizzato alla loro riforma e non era una retribuzione e che le anime liberate dal loro guscio temporale possano comprendere meglio il significato di castigo.
Gregorio di Nissa intreccia il tema della discesa all'inferno con la teoria de "l'inganno divino", sul quale costruisce la sua teoria sulla redenzione. Secondo questa teoria, Cristo, essendo Dio incarnato, deliberatamente aveva nascosto la sua natura divina al diavolo tanto che questi, scambiandolo per un uomo ordinario, non sarebbe stato terrorizzato alla vista di tanto potere che si avvicinava a lui. Quando Cristo discende all'inferno, il diavolo crede che lui sia un essere umano, ma questo è solo un "amo" nascosto in un'"esca" che poi il diavolo inghiotte. Facendo entrare Dio incarnato nei suoi domini, il diavolo stesso segna la sua condanna a morte: incapace di sopportare la presenza divina, egli è sconfitto e l'inferno è distrutto.
Un approccio molto originale al tema della discesa agli inferi si trova in un libro dal titolo "Omelie spirituali" sopravvissuto sotto il nome di Macario d'Egitto. Là, la liberazione di Adamo da parte di Cristo, disceso nell'Ades, è vista come il prototipo della risurrezione spirituale di cui l'anima fa esperienza quando si incontra con il Signore. Non si tratta quindi di una dottrina irrilevante, ma di un mistero associato con la vita mistica del cristiano, un mistero che ciascuno dovrebbe fare esperienza nel profondo del suo cuore.
La dottrina della discesa di Cristo negli inferi occupa un posto essenziale nelle opere di Cirillo di Alessandria. Nelle sue "Omelie pasquali" egli menziona ripetutamente che come conseguenza della discesa di Cristo nell'Ades, il diavolo è stato lasciato completamente da solo, e l'inferno è stato devastato.
In his ‘Festive Letters’, Cyril of Alexandria elaborates on the theme of the preaching of Christ in Hades, popular in the Alexandrian tradition since Clement. He views the preaching of Christ in hell as the accomplishment of the ‘history of salvation’, which began with the Incarnation:
…He showed the way to salvation not only to us, but also to the spirits in hell; having descended, He preached to those once disobedient, as Peter says[20]. For it did not befit for love of man to be partial, but the manifestation of [this] gift should have been extended to all nature… Having preached to the spirits in hell and having said ‘go forth’ to the prisoners, and ‘show yourselves’[21] to those in prison on the third day, He resurrected His temple and again opens up to our nature the ascent to heaven, bringing Himself to the Father as the beginning of humanity, pledging to those on earth the grace of communion of the Spirit[22].
As we can see, Cyril emphasises the universality of the salvation given by Christ to humanity, perceiving the descent of Christ into Hades as salvific for the entire human race. He is not inclined to limit salvation to a particular part of humanity, such as the Old Testament righteous. Salvation is likened to rain sent by God on both the just and the unjust[23]. Putting emphasis on the universality of the saving feat of Christ, Cyril follows in the steps of other Alexandrian theologians, beginning with Clement, Origen, and Athanasius the Great[24]. The descent of Christ into Hades, according to Cyril’s teaching, signified victory over that which previously appeared unconquerable and ensured the salvation of all humanity:
Death unwilling to be defeated is defeated; corruption is transformed; unconquerable passion is destroyed. While hell, diseased with excessive insatiability and never satisfied with the dead, is taught, even if against its will, that which it could not learn previously. For it not only ceases to claim those who are still to fall [in the future], but also lets free those already captured, being subjected to splendid devastation by the power of our Saviour... Having preached to the spirits in hell, once disobedient, He came out as conqueror by resurrecting His temple like a beginning of our hope and by showing to [our] nature the manner of the raising from the dead, and giving us along with it other blessings as well[25].
Clearly, Cyril perceived the victory of Christ over hell and death as complete and definitive. According to Cyril, hell loses authority both over those who were in its power and those who are to become its prey in the future. Thus, the descent into Hades, a single and unique action, is perceived as a timeless event. The raised body of Christ becomes the guarantee of universal salvation, the beginning of way leading human nature to ultimate deification.
Un elaborato insegnamento lo troviamo in Massimo il Confessore.
An elaborate teaching of the descent of Christ into Hades is found in Maximus the Confessor. In his analysis, Maximus takes as a starting point the words of St. Peter: ‘For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit’[26]. In Maximus’s view, St. Peter does not speak about the Old Testament righteous, but about those sinners who, back in their lifetime, were punished for their evil deeds:
Some say that Scriptures call ‘dead’ those who died before the coming of Christ, for instance, those who were at the time of the flood, at Babel, in Sodom, in Egypt, as well as others who in various times and in various ways received various punishments and the terrible misfortune of divine damnation. These people were punished not so much for their ignorance of God as for the offences they imposed on one another. It was to them, according to [St Peter] that the great message of salvation was preached when they were already damned as men in the flesh, that is, when they received, through life in the flesh, punishment for crimes against one another, so that they could live according to God by the spirit, that is, being in hell, they accepted the preaching of the knowledge of God, believing in the Saviour who descended into hell to save the dead. So, in order to understand [this] passage in [Holy Scriptures] let us take it in this way: the dead, damned in the human flesh, were preached to precisely for the purpose that they may live according to God by the spirit[27].
Thus, according to Maximus’s teaching, punishments suffered by sinners ‘in the human flesh’ were necessary so that they may live ‘according to God by the spirit’. Therefore, these punishments, whether troubles and misfortunes in their lifetime or pains in hell, had pedagogical and reforming significance. Moreover, Maximus stresses that in damning them, God used not so much a religious as a moral criterion, for people were punished ‘not so much for their ignorance of God as for the offences they imposed on one another’. In other words, the religious or ideological convictions of a particular person were not decisive, but his actions with regard to his neighbours.
In Giovanni damasceno, troviamo le linee che riassumono lo sviluppo del tema della discesa di Cristo nell'Ades negli scritti patristici orientali del II-VIII secolo:
The soul [of Christ] when it is deified descended into Hades, in order that, just as the Sun of Righteousness rose for those upon the earth, so likewise He might bring light[28] to those who sit under the earth in darkness and the shadow of death: in order that just as he brought the message of peace to those upon the earth, and of release to the prisoners, and of sight to the blind[29], and became to those who believed the Author of everlasting salvation and to those who did not believe, a denunciation of their unbelief, so He might become the same to those in Hades: That every knee should bow to Him, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth[30]. And thus after He had freed those who has been bound for ages, straightway He rose again from the dead, showing us the way of resurrection[31].
According to John Damascene, Christ preached to all those who were in hell, but His preaching did not prove salutary for all, as not all were capable of responding to it. For some it could become only ‘a denunciation of their disbelief’, not the cause of salvation. In this judgement, Damascene actually repeats the teaching on salvation articulated not long before him by Maximus the Confessor. According to Maximus, human history will be accomplished when all without exception will unite with God and God will become ‘all in all’[32]. For some, however, this unity will mean eternal bliss, while for others it will become the source of suffering and torment, as each will be united with God ‘according to the quality of his disposition’ towards God[33]. In other words, all will be united with God, but each will have his own, subjective, feeling of this unity, according to the measure of the closeness to God he has achieved. Along a similar line, John Damascene understands also the teaching on the descent to Hades: Christ opens the way to paradise to all and calls all to salvation, but the response to Christ’s call may lie in either consent to follow Him or voluntary rejection of salvation. Ultimately it depends on a person, on his free choice. God does not save anybody by force, but calls everybody to salvation: ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him’[34]. God knocks at the door of the human heart rather than breaks into it.
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