Definition

A technical term used by Origen to indicate a hope that all creatures including sinners, the damned and the devil would be restored to their original state of unity with God through salvation in Christ. This theology is based in Scripture and influenced by Neoplatonic and Stoic cosmologies.

Significance

Though this has not been a dominant doctrine, it is an early “hope” from Origen about God’s universal saving will. Thought to contain the salvation of demons, it was condemned by the Provincial Council of Constantinople in 543 because it did not contain a requirement of reason by the saved. The “nature, purpose, and duration of eschatological punishment of human sinners” was the cause of controversy with this doctrine. Origen maintained rejection of God was the only way to “eternal fire.” Clement of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa argued for forms of the doctrine that were not explicitly condemned. But salvation for all fell to the wayside when faced with Tertullian and Augustine, who argued that humanity was on the road to perdition. Hans Urs von Balthzar developed the idea the farthest, saying that although we cannot be certain, it is compatible with Christian love and hope to believe that by God’s grace all might be restored to unity with God. Paul Tillich and Friedrich Schleiermacher are also modern supporters of the doctrine.

Recent Articles and Books

1. Sachs, John R., “Current Eschatology: Universal Salvation and the Problem of Hell,” Theological Studies 52 (1991), p. 227-54. This article attempts to revisit apocatastasis in the context of an alarming increase in language about heaven and hell based in fundamentalism and sectarianism. Written from a Catholic perspective by a professor at Weston School of Theology, the article particularly examines the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Sachs demonstrates that this frequently misunderstood concept of universal salvation is actually consistent with several strands of Christian and particularly Catholic belief.
2. Sachs, John R., “Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology,” Theological Studies 54 (1993), p. 617-40. John Sachs continues his treatment of universal salvation in this journal with a comment to his fellow Catholic theologians to consider that the hope of apocastasis is consistent with orthodox Catholic teachings, despite the fact that many fear it is inconsistent with questions of human free will. He makes his case exploring the concept in the works of Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa.

Related Terms

Universal salvation, universalism, grace, judgment, eschatology.