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Summary
The well known affirmation of Balthasar: hope for all – otherwise called the hope for an empty hell – is neither anecdotal nor does it come late in his thought. This article seeks to demonstrate that it belongs to the living heart of Balthasar’s theology, which is the gift of love. After reviewing the precise meaning of this thesis (1), the article deploys four orders of arguments that militate in favor of the universalitst position: anthropological (2); ethical (3); Christological (4); trinitarian (5). These orders are harmonised in a theo-logy of envelopment. Furthermore, love is diffracted into three rays: kenosis, fecundity and envelopment. The enduring effort of the Swiss theologian to defend an empty or impossible hell is in continuity with an intimate and deep, but sometimes hidden relationship with the burning core of his thought: Deus caritas est.
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