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==Definition==
'''Apocatastasis''' or apokatastasis (from Greek: ἀποκατάστασις; literally, "restoration" or "return") is the teaching that everyone will, in the end, be saved. It looks toward the ultimate reconciliation of good and evil; all creatures endowed with reason, angels and humans, will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom. It is based on, among other things, St Peter's speech in Acts 3.21 ("[Christ Jesus] who must remain in heaven until the time of the final restoration of all things [χρόνον χρόνων ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντονπάντων]") and St Paul's letter to Timothy in which he says that it is God's will that all men should be saved (1 Timothy 2.4).
For [[Origen]], this explicitly included the [[devil]]. In effect, apocatastasis denies the final reality of [[hell]], and interprets all Biblical references to the "fires of hell" not as an eternal punishment, but a tool of divine teaching and correction, akin to [[purgatory]]. The implication is that hell exists to separate good from evil in the soul.
===[[Clement of Alexandria]]===
===[[Gregory of Nyssa]]===
Saint [[Gregory of Nyssa]] accepted the idea of apocatastasis from [[Origen]]. However, this part of St. Gregory's writings has been unequivocally rejected by the subsequent [[Church Fathers]]:
* St. Varsanofios the Great, criticizing the doctrine of apocatastasis, when asked about St. Gregory's opinion, has answered: "do not think that people, though also saints, could completely understand all depths of God... Even if a saint speaks about such opinions, you will not find that he confirmed the words as though had the statement from above, but that they resulted from the doctrine of his former teachers, and he, trusting their knowledge of them, did not inquire of God whether it was true."{{citation}}