In theology, apokatastasis (Greek: ἀποκατάστασις, /æpoʊkəˈtæstəsɪs/, also spelled apocatastasis) is the restoration of creation to a condition of perfection.[1][2] In Christianity, the term refers to a form of Christian universalism, often associated with Origen, that includes the ultimate salvation of everyone—including the damned and the Devil.[3][4][5] The New Testament (Acts 3:21) speaks of the "apokatastasis of all things," although this passage is not usually understood to teach universal salvation.[6] The Second Council of Nicaea condemned as heresy any teaching, including certain forms of apokatastasis, that would deny eternal punishment for unforgiven sins (at definition 18),[7] although the interpretations of this and related anathemas are disputed,[8] since some orthodox fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa taught apokatastasis and were never condemned.[9]
While apokatastasis is derived from the Greek verb apokathistemi, which means "to restore", it first emerged as a doctrine in Zoroastrianism where it is the third time of creation.[10] This period was referred to as wizarishn or the end of history—the time of separation and resolution[11] when evil is destroyed and the world is restored to its original state.[10] The idea of apokatastasis may have been derived from the ancient concept of cosmic cycle, which involves the notion of celestial bodies returning to their original positions after a period of time.[12]
The entry in A Greek–English Lexicon (i.e. Liddell–Scott–Jones, with expansion of definitions and references), gives the following examples of usage:
ἀποκατάστᾰσις, εως, ἡ, restoration, re-establishment;
- "τοῦ ἐνδεοῦς" Aristotle MM, 1205a4; into its nature εἰς φύσιν id. 1204b 36, 1205b 11;
- return to a position, Epicurus, Epistolae, 1, p.8 U.;
- especially of military formations, reversal of a movement, Asclepiodotus, Tacticus, 10.1, 10:6, etc.; generally
- of all things『πάντων』Acts of the Apostles, 3.21;
- of souls, Proclus, Institutio Theologica, 199.
- of the body back into its old form『τῆς φύσιος ἐς τὸ ἀρχαῖον』Aretaeus of Cappadocia CD 1.5; recovery from sickness, SA 1.10;
- "τῶν ὁμήρων εἰς τὰς πατρίδας" Polybius 3.99.6; εἰς ἀ. ἐλθεῖν, into the restoration of the affairs of a city, 4.23.1;
Astrological uses:
- ἀ. ἄστρων return of the stars to the same place in the heavens as in the former year, Plutarch 2.937f, Diodorus Siculus 12.36, etc., particularly the restoration of the wandering Egyptian New Year to the heliacal risingofSirius at the completion of the Sothic cycle;[13]
- periodic return of the cosmic cycle, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta 2.184,190;
- of a planet, return to a place in the heavens occupied at a former epoch, Antiochus of Athens ap. Cat.Cod.Astr. 7.120,121; but, zodiacal revolution, Paulus Alexandrinus Paul.Al.T.1; opposite: antapocatastasis ἀνταπ. (q. v.), Dorotheus of Sidon Doroth. ap. Cat.Cod.Astr.2.196.9;
- restoration of sun and moon after eclipse, Plato Axiochus 370b.
The word is reasonably common in papyri.[14]
According to Edward Moore, apokatastasis was first properly conceptualized in early Stoic thought, particularly by Chrysippus. The return (apokatastasis) of the planets and stars to their proper celestial signs, namely their original positions, would spark a conflagration of the universe (ekpyrosis). The original position was believed to consist of an alignment of celestial bodies with Cancer. Thereafter, from fire, rebirth would commence, and this cycle of alternate destruction and recreation was correlated with a divine Logos. Antapokatastasis is a counter-recurrence when the stars and planets align with Capricorn, which would mark destruction by a universal flood.[15]
The Stoics identified Zeus with an alternately expanding and contracting fire constituting the universe. Its expansion was described as Zeus turning his thoughts outwards, resulting in the creation of the material cosmos, and its contraction, the apokatastasis, as Zeus returning to self-contemplation.[16][17] Leibniz explored both Stoic and his understanding of Origen's philosophy in two essays written shortly before his death, Apokatastasis and Apokatastasis panton (1715).[18]
The concept of "restore" or "return" in the Hebrew Bible is the common Hebrew verb שוב,[19] as used in Malachi 4:5,[20] the only use of the verb form of apokatastasis in the Septuagint. This is used in the "restoring" of the fortunes of Job, and is also used in the sense of rescue or return of captives, and in the restoration of Jerusalem.
This is similar to the concept of tikkun olaminHasidic Judaism.[21]
The word, apokatastasis, appears only once in the New Testament, in Acts 3:21.[22] Peter healed a beggar with a disability and then addressed the astonished onlookers. His sermon set Jesus in the Jewish context, the fulfiller of the Abrahamic Covenant, and says:
[19] Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; [20] And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: [21] Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
— Acts 3:19–21 KJV
Grammatically, the relative pronoun『ὧν』("of which", genitive plural), could refer either to『χρόνων』("of times") or to『πάντων』("of all" or "of all things"), which means that it is either the times of which God spoke or the all things of which God spoke.[23]
The usual view taken of Peter's use of the "apokatastasis of all the things about which God spoke" is that it refers to the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and/or the Garden of Eden and not "all things that ever existed".[24]
The verbal form of apokatastasis is found in the Septuagint: Malachi 3:23 (i.e. Malachi 4:6); a prophecy of Elijah turning back the hearts of the children to their fathers; in Matthew 17:11 ("he will restore all things"), echoing Malachi, and in Hebrews 13:19 ("that I may be restored to you the sooner").
Nineteenth-century German theologian Jakob Eckermann interpreted "the 'apokatastasis of all things' to mean the universal emendation of religion by the doctrine of Christ, and the 'times of refreshing' to be the day of renewal, the times of the Messiah."[25]
The significance of apokatastasis in early Christianity is currently somewhat of disputed question. In particular it is now questioned by some whether Origen, often listed as the most notable advocate of universal salvation, did in fact teach or believe in such a doctrine.[26][27][28]
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Frederick W. Norris argued that the positions that Origen took on the issue of universal salvation have often seemed to be contradictory."Apokatastasis", The Westminster Handbook to Origen, 2004 He then writes that Origen never decided to stress exclusive salvation or universal salvation, to the strict exclusion of either case, therefore concludes that Origen probably kept his view of salvation economically 'open' for a greater effectiveness.[29][30][31] On the other hand, Brian E. Daley in his handbook of patristic eschatology argued that Origen strongly believed in the final salvation of all humans and sometimes referred to it as apokatastasis.[32]
The Alexandrian school, the first Christian educational center,[33] seems to have generally affirmed apokatastasis and adapted some Platonic terminology and ideas to Christianity while explaining and differentiating the new faith from all the others.[34][35] A form of apokatastasis was also espoused by Gregory of Nyssa[36] and possibly the Ambrosiaster, attributed to Ambrose of Milan. Gregory of Nazianzus discussed it without reaching a decision. With an analysis of the whole work of Gregory of Nyssa, it becomes clear that he spoke solely of universal resurrection and not of universal salvation.[37]
Eventually, Origen started to be condemned throughout the early church in local councils, though not apokatastasis specifically.[38] This changed definitively in the sixth century. A local Synod of Constantinople (543) condemned a form of apokatastasis as being Anathema, and the Anathema was formally submitted to the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (553). The term apokatastasis is mentioned in the 14th of the 15 anathemas against Origen of 553: "If anyone shall say ... that in this pretended apokatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was in the feigned pre-existence: let him be anathema."[39]
The fifth ecumenical council in its sentence during the eighth session condemned "Origen" and his "impious writings"—likely a reference to the teachings ascribed to him by the 543 and 553 anathemas, because during the fifth session Origen's condemnation is described as "recent".[40]
Konstantinovsky (2009)[41] states that the uses of apokatastasis in Christian writings prior to the Synod of Constantinople (543) and the anathemas (553) pronounced against "Origenists" and Evagrius Ponticus were neutral and referred primarily to concepts similar to the general "restoration of all things spoken" (restitutio omnium quae locutus est Deus) of Peter in Acts 3:21 and not for example the universal reconciliation of all souls which had ever been.
The "official" nature of the anathemas was reiterated subsequently. The Second Council of Nicea explicitly affirmed in its sentence that the Second Council of Constantinople condemned Origen, as well as taught the existence of eternal damnation and explicitly rejected "the restoration of all things",[citation needed] which in Latin is a reference to apokatastasis.[42][43]
More recently leading Patristic scholar Ilaria Ramelli has concluded that not only did Origen embrace the doctrine of apokatastasis, but that it was central to all his theological and philosophical thought. She remarks, "In Origen's thought, the doctrine of apokatastasis is interwoven with his anthropology, eschatology, theology, philosophy of history, theodicy, and exegesis; for anyone who takes Origen's thought seriously and with a deep grasp of it, it is impossible to separate the apokatastasis theory from all the rest, so as to reject it but accept the rest."[44]
The gnostic Gospel of Philip 180–350c contains the term itself but does not teach universal reconciliation:
There is a rebirth and an image of rebirth. It is certainly necessary to be born again through the image. Which one? Resurrection. The image must rise again through the image. The bridal chamber and the image must enter through the image into the truth: this is the restoration (apokatastasis). Not only must those who produce the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, do so, but have produced them for you. If one does not acquire them, the name ("Christian") will also be taken from him.[45]
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215) generally uses the term apokatastasis to refer to the "restoration" of the "gnostic" Christians, rather than that of the universe or of all Christians, but with universal implications.[46] Origen's stance is disputed, with some works saying he taught apokatastasis would involve universal salvation.[47][48] Gregory of Nyssa's notion of apokatastasis is also claimed to have involved universal salvation though in other respects it differed from Origen's.[49]
In early Christian theological usage, apokatastasis was couched as God's eschatological victory over evil and believed to entail a purgatorial state.[50] The word was still very flexible at that time, but in the mid-6th century, it became virtually a technical term, as it usually means today, to refer to a specifically Origenistic doctrine of universal salvation.[51]
Maximus the Confessor outlined God's plan for "universal" salvation alongside warnings of final punishment for the wicked.[52] He divided apokatastasis into three restorations: of the virtuous individual, of nature, and of the sinful powers of the soul. While the last of these meant that even sinners will be restored to a clear knowledge of God, Maximus seems to have believed that they will not attain to the same communion with God as the righteous and thus will in a sense be eternally punished.[53]
The Vulgate translation of apokatastasis, "in tempora restitutionis omnium quae locutus est Deus" ("the restitution of all things of which God has spoken"), was taken up by Luther to mean the day of the restitution of the creation, but in Luther's theology the day of restitution was also the day of resurrection and judgment, not the restitution of the wicked.[54] In Luther's Bible he rendered the Greek apokatastasis with the German herwiedergebracht werde; "will be brought back".[55] This sense continued to be used in Lutheran sermons.[56]
Luther explicitly disowned belief that the devils would ultimately reach blessedness.[57][58]
During the 19th and early 20th centuries several histories published by Universalists, including Hosea Ballou (1829), Thomas Whittemore (1830), John Wesley Hanson (1899) and George T. Knight (1911), argued that belief in universal reconciliation was found in early Christianity and in the Reformation, and ascribed Universalist beliefs to Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and others.
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This section may contain excessiveorirrelevant examples. Please help improve the article by adding descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. (October 2014)
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In recent writing, apokatastasis is generally understood as involving some form of universal reconciliation, without necessarily attributing this understanding to Origen and other Fathers of the Church.
Apocatastasis. The Greek name (ἀποκατάστασις) for the doctrine that ultimately all free moral creatures—angels, men, and devils—will share in the grace of salvation; cf. article "Universalism".
[T]heories of the apocatastasis usually involve the expectation that in the end all, including the devil, will be saved.
[Apocatastasis is] the idea that all things will be ultimately reconciled to God through Christ—including the damned in hell and even Satan and his demons.
The usual view taken of Peter's use of the apokatastasis of "all things" is that it refers to the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and/or the Garden of Eden and not "all things that ever existed."
1Friedrich Preisigke, Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten;
7 P.Oxy., The Oxyrhynchus Papyri;
7Polybius, Histories;
2Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews;
2Diodorus Siculus, Library;
3 Stud.Pal., Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde;
1 Acts 3:21 New Testament;
1 PSI, Papiri greci e latini;
1Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers;
2 P.Cair.Masp., Papyrus grecs d'époque byzantine, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire;
3 P.Ryl, Rylands Papyri;
1 P.Col., Columbia Papyri;
2 P.Flor., Papiri greco-egizii, Papiri Fiorentini;
3Aretaeus of Cappadocia, The Extant Works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian;
1 UPZ, Urkunden der Ptolemäerzeit (ältere Funde);
1 P.Ross.Georg., Papyri russischer und georgischer Sammlungen;
1 P.Cair.Isid., The Archive of Aurelius Isidorus in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and the University of Michigan;
1 P.Abinn., The Abinnaeus Archive: Papers of a Roman Officer in the Reign of Constantius II;
1 Pap.Choix, Choix de papyrus grecs: Essai de traitement automatique;
1 P.Athen.Xyla, P.Sta.Xyla: The Byzantine Papyri of the Greek Papyrological Society,;
1 O.Joach., Die Prinz-Joachim-Ostraka
Having initially accepted the idea of apocatastasis in the pre-Origen and primarily Stoic sense that this world and everything in it was bound to return again and again in endless cycles of repetition, Leibniz came to embrace Origen's wholly…
The relative pronoun ὧν (hon, of which) could refer back to "the seasons" of which God spoke (Bauernfeind 1980: 69) or to "all things" of which God spoke (so Conzelmann 1987: 29; Barrett 1994: 206, nearest referent).
Methodius, who wrote A.D. 300; Pamphilus and Eusebius, A.D. 310; Eustathius, A.D. 380; Epiphanius, A.D. 376 and 394; Theophilus, A.D. 400–404, and Jerome, A.D. 400; all give lists of Origen's errors, but none name his Universalism among them (Ibid., p. 78).
"At the fifth holy General Council held at Constantinople, Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia, together with the speculations of Evagrius and Didymus concerning the pre-existence and restitution of all things, were all subjected to one common and Catholic anathema all the four Patriarchs being present and consistent thereto" (Ibid., p. 36).
Clement uses the term apokatastasis and its cognates generally to refer to the gnostic elect rather than to an eschatological restoration of the universe, or to a restoration of the faithful as a whole. Where he does mention or imply a restoration of the whole it is through the medium of the restoration of the gnostic. …Hence, while some uses of apokatastasis appear to refer simply to the gnostic elect, by extension, they have universal implications.
Si autem Pater est futurus perpetuo, ergo semper manet pater, semper generat filios usque ad diem illum restitutionis omnium…
welcher mus den Himel einnemen bis auff die zeit da er wider bracht werde alles was Gott geredt hat durch den mund aller seiner heiligen Propheten von der Welt anmodernized as: "welcher muss den Himmel einnehmen bis auf die Zeit, da herwiedergebracht werde alles, was Gott geredet hat durch den Mund aller seiner heiligen Propheten von der Welt an".
Der Herr Matthesius hat drei Stunden vor seinem seligen Abschiede eine ganze Predigt von diesem Wort gethan. Gottlob, der jüngste Tag ist dies restitutionis omnium. Da wird uns der Herr Jesus Alles wieder an die Seite setzen,…
Denn ichs (=ich es) nicht halte mit denen, so da lehren, daß die Teufel auch werden endlich zur Seligkeit kommen
[Luther in a letter to Rechenberg] held out the hope of universal salvation.
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