Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [362]
For Augustine, the harrowing of hell was a fact recorded in Scripture. He interpreted that to be the liberation of the righteous from the bosom of Abraham because that is where the righteous dead, like Lazarus, would go. He also admits that Christ must have rescued some in their sorrows from hell. But he is totally pessimistic about the possibility of posthumous salvation from hell after those events. In the Enchiridion, his handbook of theology, Augustine says:
Now in the time intervening between a man’s death and the final resurrection, the soul is held in a hidden retreat, enjoying rest or suffering hardship in accordance with what it merited during its life in the body. There is no gainsaying that the souls of the dead find solace from the piety of their friends who are alive, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for the dead or alms are given in the Church. But these means are of profit for those who, when they lived, earned merit whereby such things could be of profit to them … It is here, then, that is won all merit or demerit whereby a man’s state after this life can either be improved or worstened. But let no one hope to obtain, when he is dead, merit with God which he earlier neglected to acquire. (Enchir. 29)114
Even this does not stop entirely the practice of baptism for the dead. In the East, Orthodox bishops do not accept Augustine’s conclusions. They tend to leave the matter up to God’s mercy. In the West, there are some interesting intermediate cases. Gregory prayed for the soul of the Emperor Trajan and was able to get reassurance that his righteousness had been noted in heaven. Hadewijch of Brabant (fl. 1220-1240) may have claimed in her fifth vision that she saved four souls from hell. Catherine of Siena (1347-80) wished that she herself might be condemned to hell if it meant that all the sinners in it could be saved. Marguerite Porete (d. 1310) and Julian of Norwich (1343-ca.1416) each developed a theology that lead to universal salvation.
Trumbower relates a story from the conquest of Friseland by Charles the Hammer in 692 from the Rise of the Dutch Republic by J. L. Motley. The defeated Frisian chief Radbod was about to accept baptism when he stopped and pondered:
“Where are my dead forefathers at present?” he said, turning suddenly upon Bishop Wolfran.
“In hell, with all other unbelievers,” was the imprudent answer.
“Mighty well, replied Radbod, removing his leg [from the baptismal font], “Then will I rather feast with my ancestors in the halls of Woden than dwell with your little starving band of Christians in heaven.”115
He remained a pagan until his death. A more prudent answer would have saved another soul. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 1257, provides a way out of Bishop Wolfran’s dilemma when it states that: “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism, but He himself is not bound by His sacraments.” Furthermore, Article 1261 states:
As regards children who have died without baptism, the church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them” (Mark 10:14; cf. 1 Tim 2:4), allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.
Summary
WITH THIS SHORT survey we must leave the fascinating and complicated world of the Church Fathers. The resurrection of the body functioned in the Early Church as it had in Judaism before it-as a consolation and solace to martyrs and their survivors and as the hope of those who remained true to their faith. Christianity differs from other varieties of Hellenistic Judaism