Apokatastasis - Revisited

 

Apokatastasis - the eventual restoration of all things. A bit of a mouthful yet the idea is simple. Eventually all will participate in a redeemed Cosmos. All rational creatures will find their ultimate rest in God. 

Many in the Christian Churches resist the idea of the "all" bit. They insist that many - in fact, often the vast majority - will never know such restoration, no redemption, and instead of a eternity of joy will suffer perpetually, gnashing their teeth etc etc etc. 

Good News

Apokatastasis was taught and believed in widely in the early Christian Church. Many of the Early Church Fathers taught it explicitly, and such were fully conversant with the emerging Canon of Scripture. Sadly, with St Augustine leading the way - a man unable to read the Greek in which the original New Testament was written and instead relied upon a Latin translation of dubious reliability - the Protestant Churches (influenced by the   Augustinian tradition of scriptural interpretation) dispensed with such a glorious Good News and embraced various theologies pronouncing a double destination. 

Of no particular relevance, but I like it.

Lately I have delved rather deeply into the literature now readily available on the subject of Apokatastasis. I am convinced that such a teaching is Biblical and scriptual and actually represents the heart of the Christian Faith. 

For me, it is the mythic dimension of all this that I find supportive in my own search for peace and understanding. Personally I have no allegiance - or belief - in "Jesus" and any claimed historical incarnation. As I see it, every particular contains the universal and to pick out one particular particular (!) as in some sense uniquely unique (!), as some sort of pivot on which eternity rests, simply confuses and complicates. Confuses and sadly, historically, offers only the observed reality that "only way" dogmatics can step in, a "one true Church", claiming for itself the perogative of all meaning and explanation; becoming a "Good News" of exclusion and division, rather than one of total acceptance and reconciliation.

Here I must mention a book by David Bentley Hart, "That All Shall Be Saved", in which he argues - in great depth - the Universalist case. I was quite taken by his "Third Meditation: What is a Person? A Reflection on the Divine Image." Here he touches upon the question of how it could ever be "heaven" for anyone if anyone else at all was excluded, and was in fact in a state of perpetual torment. Mr Hart argues forcefully that in fact it could never be. His arguments as to the reality of a "person" are profound and well worth looking up and reading, and centre upon the insight that we can only ever be persons in relationship with all other persons. Whatever, he sums up in quite simple words:-

"And so......if we allow the possibility that even so much as a single soul might slip away unmourned into eternal misery, the ethos of heaven turns out to be "every soul for itself" - which is also, curiously enough, precisely the ethos of hell."

Just so. 

To continue. Mythically, I find that the "restoration of all things", Apokatastasis, can be assimilated at a personal level. As such it can prove demanding. No one can be cast aside, here, now, but must be seen and known as a fellow brother or sister. No other can be seen as a "stranger". The last thing it is is a simple "feel good" teaching - rather, to perceive its implications, is to know and hear deep in the mind/heart a call to action! 

I would also add that I do not see recognition and assimilation of Apokatastas at this mythic level as in any way eclectic, a mixing of Christianity and Buddhism. It simply provides a living background for so many pieces of the puzzle to find their place

Again, there is no need of the "final restoration of all things" being some sort of ultimate conclusion or finality. What would remain in "restoration" would be the love that "knows no why" (Meister Eckhart), infinite wisdom, infinite potential. Simply Reality-as-is widening infinitely to embrace ever more of that which has been revealed/created - a constant advance into novelty.

Whatever, it acts for me as the template in which I can affirm that "all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well" (Mother Julian of Norwich) which currently offers so much in terms of my mental health.

 Mental health wise I am truly blessed and called to recognise the comparisons between Apokatastasis and the very many other negative and divisive theologies, beliefs and faiths of our world. Between a Cosmos of positivity, where Love is ultimate and all embracing, as compared with beliefs and theologies of an ultimate Reality consisting of eternal suffering, exclusion, division and quite frankly, acting as a witness to the total failure of God's will "that all be saved" as pronounced unequivocally in so many verses of Christian scripture.

Just to add that this particular blog has not "flowed" as easily as some. It has been forced and I have struggled with the correct words - all part of my current mental health struggle, but I shall leave it as is, however stilted and even, maybe, incoherent; perhaps the consequence of the mixing of a Christian conception with so many years of Buddhist understanding. Buddhism has no eschatological dimension as such, or, at least, as D.T.Suzuki has it, it involves more the "eschatology of the present moment." Anyway, I'll leave it to sit for a while then reread it - maybe take it down or rewrite it. 

Comments would be appreciated. Thank you. 

Related quotes:-

(All from the Christian Scriptures)

So then, just as through one transgression came condemnation for all human beings, so also through one act of righteousness came a rectification of life for all human beings; for, just as by the heedlessness of the one man the many were rendered sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be rendered righteous

(Romans)

For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be given life

(Corinthians)

For God shut up everyone in obstinacy so that he might show mercy to everyone

(Romans)

.....our savior God, who intends all human beings to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of truth. For there is one God, and also one mediator of God and human beings: a human being, the Anointed One Jesus, who gave himself as a liberation fee for all

(Timothy)

For the grace of God has appeared, giving salvation to all human beings.…..

(Titus)

There are many other verses. Try 2 Corinthians 5:19. Look up Ephesians 1:9-10. Again, Colossians 1:27–28, John 12:32, Hebrews 2:9, John 17:2, John 4:32, John 12:47, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 4:14, Philippians 2:9-11, Colossians 1:9-10, 1 John 2:2, John 3:17, Luke 16:16, 1 Timothy 4:10. 

Sadly, such positive verses that proclaim/imply the eventual restoration of all things, of all human beings, are passed over, even dismissed, by those whose allegiance has already been given to doctrines of division, which are in fact supported by far fewer verses - all of which can be negated/explained by greater knowledge of context and of the original Greek in which the New Testament was written. But I know from personal experience that such "vulture evangelists" are deaf to any such entreaties to look again at the actual words of the book they call "God's Word". 

Just recently one such spoke of salvation not being 99.9999999% the work of God, but was in fact 100% God's work. Alas, his "Bible Study", centred upon the Protestant Reform Tradition, blinds him to the logical implications of this. i.e Universal Salvation. Apokatastasis.  Thus he in fact trusts in a non-existent .00000001% for his own Salvation, trusts his own "works" of "belief", and as yet, is blind to Grace and the full 100% workings of God, Reality-as-is.

As a final related quote, an excerpt from one of the very many fine books now readily available on this whole subject, written by Christians whose fidelity to Christ - and to scripture - is unquestionable. This from "Destined For Joy: The Gospel of Universal Salvation" by Alvin F Kimel:-

"Why do we not hear this message (i.e. of Universal Salvation) of the astonishing love of God every Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, in our Churches? This is the gospel. There is no other gospel worth preaching, no other gospel worth hearing. In a world filled with wickedness, suffering, despair, and death, we desperately need to hear the proclamation of the omnipotent power of God’s love and mercy. We need to know that he treasures us, that he has a plan for us, that his saving will for the world will triumph. Only thus does it become possible for us to cooperate with him in prayer and good works. In the words of the great Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar: 

'Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the ‘work’ of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it; to believe against all the evidence of experience . . . against every ‘rational’ concept of God, which thinks of him in terms of impassibility or, at best, totally pure goodness, but not in terms of this inconceivable and senseless act of love.'

Without the preaching of the boundless love of God enfleshed in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the Church has no reason to exist; indeed, it is this word of love that creates the new life that is the Church. Without love, there is no theosis, no repentance, no sanctification, only Pharisaic zeal and deadly dogmatism."

Postscript:-

I can understand how many reading of such things will simply dismiss it entirely. Of the "when you are dead you are dead" school of much modern atheism, they will return to the entirely secular. I'm almost with them. But I do not understand those of "belief" who reject it in favour of other theologies of judgement and division. Yet, having said I do not understand, maybe I do. Such are the indoctrinated, those fed a theology from childhood, who have come to identify their very own beliefs and reading of scripture with salvation itself. Thus to question any of it is to question their own assurance of salvation - this they dare not do, out of fear of the God of their imagination and conditioning. At heart, they only know of, and rely upon, their own "works" of allegiance to a set of words and beliefs, and sadly - as yet - know nothing of Grace.