Skica kristološko-trinitarne hermeneutike pakla i dužnosti nade u spas svih ljudi u misli H. U. von Balthasara
A sketch of the Christological-Trinitarian hermeneutics of hell and the duty of hope for the salvation of all people in the thought of H. U. von Balthasar

Summary/Abstract: It seems that the last great truly theological discussion was conducted around the thesis of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar on the hope for salvation of all people. The aim of the article is primarily to remind of the basic tenets of this proposal. Thus, in the first chapter, we present the New Testament places and theological moments which this Swiss theologian takes as starting points and justifications for his conviction of the duty of Christian hope in the universal salvation. However, the underlying thesis of the article is that the ultimate backdrop of such hope is Balthasar’s Christological-Trinitarian hermeneutics of hell, in which hell becomes seized by Christ and is therefore a Christological place of grace. It is this final backdrop, whose sketch we bring in the second chapter, which most representations in the Croatian language fail to recognize as a fundamental premise of hope for the salvation of all people. The mentioned original hermeneutics brought Balthasar to the conviction that God’s mercy through the cross of Christ occupies the place of righteousness, which is the subject of the third and final chapter of the article. In the concluding remarks, we point to the important contributions of Balthasar’s reflections on universal hope, like the severity of the religious truth about hell, the personal character of the possibility of hell ('hell for me') and of God Who is always man’s last reality, even when he is eternally lost. We also reveal some questionable or problematic places of Balthasar’s thought which should be recognized as new perspectives for further critical research.

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