How does Balthasar (and how can his advocates today) respond to these criticisms? His first move is to remind defenders of a crowded hell that the biblical witness in regard to this issue is, to say the least, complex. Alongside the many references to hell and those who will suffer therein, there are at least as many biblical evocations of universal salvation. To cite simply a few of the best known: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32); and “He has made