In this episode Charlotte Elia and Chad Rhodes discuss apokatastasis, a form of Christian universalism prevalent in the early centuries of the faith. What are some primary features of apokatastasis? Why was it championed by so many leading figures in the early church? Charlotte and Chad consider these questions and others as they exam a more hopeful and loving account of Christian faith.
Chad: They don’t jettison the whole notion of hell, (well, hell of course isn’t actually in the Bible), the notion of an age of punishment. The thing is the punishment is cathartic, versus purely retributive, because God is always trying to separate good from evil. And so what happens is, if you enter the next age and you’re still, as Gregory of Nyssa would put it, welded to evil, you’re going to be separated from that, partly because you will be drawn to the good, which you’ll have a clearer apprehension of, but that will be painful because you’ve welded your nature to evil… It’s a process of purification. I think the caricature of universalism is that I walk into heaven and there’s my grandmother, who was a saint, and Hitler playing checkers together. It’s like everybody dies and goes to heaven. If you’re welded to evil, you’re going to be separated from that, and that’s going to be painful. It’s going to cause suffering.
Charlotte: So there’s still real incentive for me to do as much of that work as possible now in this life, as well as incentive for me to help others do as much of that work, so it’s not an antinomianism.
Chad: Right. Exactly. Yeah.