Too good to miss

Since I don't write for a living (Okay, go ahead, applaud), I have no reason to refrain from pointing my readers to interesting things going on elsewhere. To that end, over on the First Things blog, Observations & Contentions, there is a conversation taking place between one of my favorite theologians and commentators, Fr. Edward Oakes, S.J., the nothing short of brilliant Stephen Barr, and a theologian with a bright future, a newly minted doctor of theology from Rome's Angelicum, Alyssa Pitstick. This follows closely on the heels of the disputation between Oakes and Pitstick about the main contention of Dr. Pitstick's doctoral thesis on Hans Urs von Balthasar, in which she, in no uncertain terms, accuses Balthasar of being a material heretic for his treatment of Christ's descent into hell. Her thesis has generated so much interest that Eerdman's has published it under the title, Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ's Descent into Hell.

The recent dispute began with Fr. Oakes asking the question, Are Protestants Heretics?, which was followed by Barr's Reponse to Oakes on Protestants and Heresy, then by Pitstick's A Heretic Is as a Heretic Does and concluded, at least for now, with Fr. Oakes' On Heresy: A Final Word (Until the March Issue of First Things).

So, we eagerly await the mailman in the next week or two.