"In the descent of Holy Saturday into the underworld, in which von Speyr is given to participate mystically, Christ encountered and defeated sin, the reality hostile to God and man cast out of the world. Passing through this reality without life or breath of spirit in the extreme night of truly cadaverous obedience, Jesus carries the cross beyond sin, beyond the evil of the world. Hence von Speyr's conclusion, which reaches that of Barth and Origen: the ultimate reality cannot be man's no, but God's yes. And if Hell is so real as to cause pain and suffering (it is therefore absurd to speak of its non-existence), it is also true that, since Christ passed through it and defeated it with his obedient death, we can reasonably hope that it is empty."