Apocatastasis

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Also spelled "Apokatastasis."

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Definition

Apocatastasis is, in essence, the belief that hell as popularly defined does not exist. Rather, the "fires of hell" are not an eternal punishment, but a tool of divine teaching and correction, akin to purgatory.

History

Origen

St. Augustine wrote:

"I am aware that I now have to engage in a debate, devoid of rancour, those compassionate Christians who refuse to believe that the punishment of hell will be everlasting either in the case of all those men whom the completely just Judge accounts deserving of that chastisement, or at least in the case of some of them; they hold that they are to be set free after fixed limits of time have been passed, the periods being longer or shorter in proportion to the magnitude offences. On this subject the most compassionate of all was Origen who believed that the Devil himself and his angels will be rescued from their torments and brought into the company of the holy angels, after the more severe and more lasting chastisements appropriate to their deserts. But the Church has rejected Origen's teaching, and not without good reason, on account of this opinion and a number of other...

"Very different, however, is the error, promoted by tenderness of heart and human compassion, of those who suppose that the miseries of those condemned by that judgement will be temporal, whereas the felicity of all men, who are released after a shorter or longer period, will be everlasting. Now if this opinion is good and true, just because it is compassionate, then it will be the better and the truer the more compassionate it is. Then let the fountain of compassion be deepened and enlarged until it extends as far as the evil angels, who must be set free, although, of course, after many ages, and ages of any length that can be imagined! ...For all that, his error would manifestly surpass all errors in its perversity, its wrong-headed contradiction of the express words of God, by the same margin as, in his own estimation, his belief surpasses all other opinions in its clemency."

— St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God 21.17 (trans. Bettenson)

Maximus the Confessor

The decision of Constantinopoleus Counsil of 453 year, confirmed by V Ecumenical Counsil (=12 anathematism): "Who speaks or thinks, that punishment of demons and impious people temporarily and after some time it will have the end or after that will be restoration of demons and impious people, - anathema!"

Modern Advocates

Known proponenents of a qualified doctrine of apocatastasis within the Orthodox Church include:

• Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia
• Nicolas Berdyaev
• archpriest Sergij Bulgakov
• Pavel Evdokimov
• archpriest Alexander Men

Some prominent 20th c. non-Orthodox theologians who advocated this include:

• Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Richard John Neuhaus
• F. W. Farrar
• C. S. Lewis - as asserted in "All Will Be Well"

Other articles of interest

• The Population of Hell by Avery Cardinal Dulles, First Things133 (May 2003): 36-41
• Will all be saved? - Richard J. Neuhaus, First Things 115 (August/September 2001): 77-104.
• The Inflated Reputation of Hans Urs von Balthasar New Oxford Review, March 2000.
• Is Hell Closed Up & Boarded Over? - by David Watt, New Oxford Review, Feb. 1999.
• On Hope, Heaven and Hell - by Nick Jr. Healy, The University Concourse, Volume II, Issue 9. May 6, 1997.
• Von Balthasar and Salvation - by James T. O'Connor, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, July 1989.
• Adventures in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis - a poem by Scott Cairns, Philokalia: New and Selected Poems, Zoo Press, March 1, 2002.