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==Definition==
'''Apocatastasis''' or apokatastasis (from Greek: ''apo'', fromἀποκατάστασις; ''kata'', down; ''histemi'', stand - 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 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.
