The Cosmic Christ: A Revival in Theology of the 21st Century

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We are only at the beginning of the twenty first theology and a growing number of Evangelicals and Christians are embracing the Cosmic Christ of Patristic theology as well as those who believed early on in Christian universalism. Augustinian theology of original sin, predestination, and eternal hell as well as joining church and state together has won the day for the past millennium but starting this new millennium, all those doctrines and views are falling apart. There is a secret shaking and revival of what I call Cosmic Christianity that joins the new physics and evolution with faith as well as seeing the whole universe and reality interconnected and new creation theology where salvation is no longer simply for certain individuals or the church but for the whole universe!

Who would have known twenty five years ago that Evangelicals would be debating in Four Views of Hell that one would be a Christian universalist like Robin Perry. This July, Five Views of the Atonement comes out with Tom Greggs representing Barthian universalism. Who would have known? New books are coming out almost every other month by people like Robin Perry, Richard Rohr, Ilaria Ramelli, and David Bentley Hart this year on patristic and modern Christian universalism. Robin Perry's book just came out this week, A Larger Hope? Universal Salvation from the Reformation to the Nineteenth Century (Cascade, 2019) Here is a brief summary of his introduction of what the early Christian patristic writers believed:

1.  Creation - All things were created good and had a destiny (telos) in union with God.

2. Fall - Angels rebelled and incited the fall of humanity. The fall was a fall away form goodness. The goodness of God, not the badness of man was the focus.

3.  Evil - Evil is not a thing nor substance, it is the absence or lack of good. God did not create evil for evil is rooted in the will of creatures.

4.  Free Will - Man chose to do evil and salvation involves the deliverance of our wills. The early Patristic writers read the creation story of the first humans or humanity as a problem of (spiritual) education and illumination.

5.  Jesus - Our nature is healed through the Word-made-flesh. Adam corrupted it and Christ is the one who healed it.

6.Incarnation - Christ has become the body of the whole of humanity (Hilary of Pointers). If Christ had not assumed flesh, he could not have healed it (Athanasius).

7. Crucifixion - He died for all to abolish death with his blood to gain the whole of humanity (Athanasius).

8. Resurrection - Resurrection came from one human being (Christ) which extends to the whole of humanity (Gregory of Nyssa). Jesus resurrection is the resurrection of the whole human race in his humanity.

9. Divine punishment as Corrective - Divine punishment was about education and correction. God's purifying fire burns that which is sick out of us (Clement of Alexandria).

10. Hell is Not Forever - The purifying fire of God burns away sin, not sinners (Didymus the Blind). Origen said hell is self-inflicted by the burning of our conscience. God permits us to wound ourselves in this way so we can learn. Ephrem of Syria and Gregory of Nyssa said that those condemned to Gehenna will eventually receive restoration and God's kingdom.

11.  Consummation - Origen and Gregory of Nyssa both taught there would be a final union and restoration of all of humanity called "Apokatastasis." God will become all in all and the end will be like the beginning again but better.

12. All Will Be Saved - "Every being that has its origin in God will return such as it was from the beginning . . . consequently, no being will remain outside the number of the saved" (Gregory of Nyssa) the last signer of the Nicean Creed which most Christians believe and follow to this day.

The Devil's Redemption 2 Vol.

Michael McClymond has done an amazing study in his new interpretation of universalism called "The Devil's Redemption." He cites over 3000 books and articles, he seems to have turned over every stone and related author who has written on this topic. As one who is a student of both history and patristics, I am therefore somewhat dismayed and shocked at McClymond's overall conclusions. He deduces a connection between Gnosticism and Jewish Kabbalism with universalism. He critiques major scholars like Barth and Balthasar without really giving them a fair hearing. He equates some people as universalists who resist the claim while giving others who have strong universalistic tendencies as not adhering to any kind of universalism.

It seems that McClymond is out of his field when it came to tackling this rich and deep subject. Maybe his bias against universalism simply could not look at this subject objectively and he is certainly dismissive of patristic scholars like Ilaria Ramelli who is a scholar supreme on this issue knowing the first hand sources intimately and reading them in the original languages which McClymond is unable to do. So I will simply let Dr. Ilaria Ramelli below give her own response to McClymond and leave it at that:

Ilaria Ramelli Response to Professor McClymond:

I am grateful for the interest in my monograph. I entitled it The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis to distinguish its focus from non-Christian theories of apokatastasis, which will be the subject of a future monograph about "pagan" philosophical doctrines of apokatastasis. This will be the second volume of a trilogy, the third volume of which will be, God willing, an investigation into the historical, theological, political, and pastoral causes for the rejection of apokatastasis in late antiquity by the "Church of the Empire." Thus the thematic division of my trilogy is this: Christian apokatastasis, "pagan" philosophical apokatastasis, and the rejection of apokatastasis. Also, in my monograph's subtitle, "critical assessment (of)" means "scholarly investigation (into)," not necessarily "denigration (of)."

I am not interested in the categories of "orthodoxy" and "heresy" except from a historical perspective. I do not "appeal to" statements by Carlton Pearson, Hilarion Alfeyev, Kallistos Ware, Murphy O'Connor, or Pope John Paul II; I simply cite them in a footnote in the introduction as examples of the debate on soteriological universalism in the contemporary Christian panorama to show how universalistic ideas are lively and discussed in various confessions. I do not cite Pearson "favorably" or "unfavorably," nor do I subscribe to his views or condemn them; my critical enquiry focuses on patristic thinkers.

The dichotomy between Origen's exegesis (good) and his theology (bad) suggested by Comestor (and cited approvingly by Professor McClymond [hereafter McC]) comes from Jerome after his U-turn against Origen (Epistle 84.2). This dichotomy is the same as that which obtained in the reception of Evagrius. In both cases, the best recent scholarship is correcting the dichotomy. In the case of Origen, the alleged dichotomy does not take into account his heuristic method, well known and overtly defended by the likes of Athanasius--who regarded (and quoted) Origen as an authority in support of the Nicene faith--and Gregory Nyssen and Gregory Nazianzen, who deemed Origen's "zetetic" method (i.e., philosophical investigation or zetesis applied to Christian exegesis and theology) the only one admissible in matters left unclarified by Scripture and tradition. Origen in Peri Archon is much more zetetic/heuristic than (as Jerome and Comestor would have it) "dogmatizing."

Origen certainly knew "gnostic ideas"--far from my being ignorant of it, I referred to Strutwolf's book in a separate essay ten years ago (1)--and of course both Origen and most "gnostics" shared some (broadly conceived) Platonic ideas applied to Christianity. But Origen was professedly antignostic, as is evident in all his extant writings, even in the recently discovered Munich homilies (see below). Origen spent his life refuting what he deemed gnostic tenets such as predestinationism, different natures among rational creatures, the separation between a superior God and an inferior--if not evil-demiurge, the severing of divine justice from divine goodness, Docetism, the notion of aeons as divine and the whole "gnostic" mythology, the refusal to interpret the OT spiritually and the NT historically, and more. Origen regarded "gnostic" Platonism as a bad Platonism, while he intended to construct an "orthodox" Christian Platonism, not only against other, non-Platonic philosophical schools, and "pagan" Platonism, but also against what he regarded as the unorthodox Christian Platonism of "gnosticism." I argued for this seminally in the chapter on Origen in the book under review, and will support this interpretive line further in a forthcoming monograph. (2)

On "gnostic" theories of apokatastasis, after my preliminary work in the Journal of Coptic Studies--to which I referred in my monograph under review (this is why I devoted only a few pages there to apokatastasis in "gnosticism")--further investigation is underway. I copiously cited and discussed Michael Williams's Rethinking "Gnosticism An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category, not only in the above-mentioned essay in Journal of Coptic Studies, but also, for example, in a review of Karen King's What Is Gnosticism?, and in substantial articles on gnosticism for the Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity and the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, (3) The pattern of "fall and restoration of souls" is common not only to Origen and the "gnostics," as McC suggests, but to all patristic Platonists, including the anti-Manichaean Augustine (who speaks of creatures' deficere and their restoration by God). More broadly, it is common even to all Christians, who share the biblical story of the Fall and believe in the restoration brought about by Christ.

If one objects that the difference between Origen's and the gnostics' "fall and restoration of souls" on the one side, and the "orthodox" Christians on the other, lies the resurrection of the body, included in the "orthodox" account but excluded by the "gnostics" and Origen, it must be observed that Origen sided more with "orthodox" Christians than with the "gnostics" regarding the resurrection. That Origen denied the resurrection of the body is a misconstruction--probably originating in his twofold conception of the resurrection, of body and soul, later developed by Evagrius--that cannot stand careful investigation, just as the supposition that he admitted of disembodied souls. Much can be argued against this, and it can be shown that when Gregory Nyssen criticized the preexistence of disembodied souls, he was not targeting Origen, who did not believe this.

Gregory's statement that his argument against preexistent souls had to do with "those before us who have written about principles" (Horn. op. 28.1) is, for many reasons, (4) not a reference to Origen, as is often assumed and as McC believes (fn. 23); I mention here only three of those reasons: (1) Gregory, in the aforementioned passage and in De anima, is attacking the preexistence of disembodied souls together with metensomatosis, which Origen explicitly rejected; thus, Gregory's target could not have been Origen. (2) Among those who supported metensomatosis and the preexistence of disembodied souls were several Middle Platonists and Neoplatonists who wrote works Peri Archon, including Porphyry, whom Gregory knew very well. (3) Moreover, Gregory does not say "one of us" Christians, but "one of those before us" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), a formula that he regularly uses to designate non-Christians, such as Philo.

Thus, it is true that Nyssen "rejected the idea of souls existing outside of mortal bodies," or better, he rejected the idea of souls existing outside of bodies tout court', but it is not the case that he therefore "offered a teaching on apokatastasis no longer consonant with Origen's." In fact, Origen never affirmed the preexistence of disembodied souls, nor did Gregory ever state that the soul comes into existence together with the mortal body (Gregory was all too aware of the "perishability axiom"). Both Gregory's protology and eschatology are in continuity with those of Origen.

Indeed, as for the distinctions between Origen and Nyssen that I allegedly blurred, my extensive research (supported by a research fellowship from Oxford and expected to be published in a monograph) shows Nyssen's creative dependence on Origen's true thought in all fields. Misrepresentations of Origen's ideas clearly falsify the whole picture. The distinctions are between Origen's alleged thought--a misconstruction ultimately stemming from the Origenistic controversies--and Nyssen's, not between Origen's actual thought (as it emerges from his authentic texts) and Nyssen's. In fact, a painstaking critical assessment of Origen's genuine ideas allows for a reassessment of Origen's influence on many other patristic thinkers (from Nyssen to Augustine, Evagrius to Maximus, and Ps.-Dionysius to Eriugena). Indeed, this brings about--borrowing McC's words--"a new paradigm for understanding the church's first millennium" (p. 817).

That Origen envisaged a "static afterlife," for instance, is questionable; and therefore it is debatable that "Gregory [Nyssen], Maximus Confessor, and Eriugena all rejected Origen's static afterlife" (p. 820). I have extensively argued elsewhere that it is exactly in Origen that Gregory found inspiration for his doctrine of epektasis, which is the opposite of a static eschatology and is closely linked with apokatastasis. (5) Both Origen's and Gregory's eschatological ideas will make their way into Maximus's [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Mateo-Seco (referenced by McC, n. 32) clearly acknowledges in Gregory the doctrine of universal restoration; Giulio Maspero's objections on this specific point are thoroughly refuted already in the monograph under review (pp. 43336--but, apart from this, Maspero's work on Gregory is insightful and valuable), and a full response to Baghos's argument is included in the aforementioned research on Origen and Nyssen.

McC notes, "The vision of the eschaton in Evagrius's Great Letter ... involved a pantheistic or pantheizing dissolution of the Creator-creature distinction." However, in his Great Letter/Letter to Melania Evagrius makes clear that there will be no confusion of substance between creatures and creator, but a concord of will (see pp. 47475): "The one and the same nature and three Persons of God, and the one and the same nature and many persons of God's image, will remain eternally, as it was before the Inhumanation, and will be after the Inhumanation, thanks to the concord of wills." (6) Therefore, no pantheistic interpretation of Evagrius is tenable. While Guillaumont offered an invaluable edition of Evagrius's Kephalaia Gnostika (which, apart from some new readings from the manuscript and some emendations, I kept as a basis for my own commentary), (7) his view that Evagrius was a radical, "isochristic" Origenist whose ideas were the real target of the Second Council of Constantinople needs reconsideration. (8)

Regarding Augustine, I have argued in my monograph that he embraced apokatastasis during his long anti-Manichaean phase, and not until his death, notably not in his anti-Pelagian phase. Contrary to what McC argues ("a point Ramelli fails to mention," fn. 9), I do discuss Retractationes 1.6 (on p. 674, also mentioned in my ancient authors index on p. 830), showing that Augustine was later embarrassed by his earlier adhesion to the apokatastasis doctrine, especially in De moribus 2.7.9. McC observes that in the latter passage I translated ordinat as "orders and leads," which he deems incorrect: "The verb is ordinat, which translates as 'orders' and not as 'orders and leads.' There is no second verb alongside of ordinat. Moreover, Augustine's statement that creatures are ordered toward restoration did not imply that all will attain it" (p. 818). Now, that all fallen creatures are ordered and guided by God's goodness until they are restored ("Dei bonitas ... omnia deficientia sic ordinat ... donee ad id recurrant unde defecerunt") manifestly means that all are restored. Ordinare means both "to order, arrange" and "to marshal," "to manage, regulate, direct"; (9) hence the double translation of ordinat as "orders and leads," the subject being God, the object being rational creatures.

As to the (posthumous) condemnation of Eriugena's Periphyseon and its causes, I analyze them on the first page of my treatment of Eriugena. I deem him the last patristic thinker in the West, obviously not in the confessional sense as canonized Father, but because he relies so heavily on patristic authorities--from Origen to the Cappadocians, from Augustine to Pseudo-Dionysius--in all aspects of his philosophical theology. McC admits that Eriugena's notion of the eschaton involves a universal return of souls to God--and indeed Eriugena is unequivocal when he claims that, thanks to Christ's inhumanation, "every creature, in heaven and on earth, has been saved" (Periphyseon 5.24)--but he avers that "for Eriugena not all souls were happy in their final state with God." In fact, however, Eriugena is adamant that all rational creatures in their substances will be happy; no substantial nature can "be in unhappiness" (Praed. 16.1). All natures will enjoy "a wonderful joy" (Praed. 19.3). The evilness derived from sinners' perverted will perishes in the other world; only their substance will remain (substantia permansura, malitiaperitura, and this--their substance--will be happy (Periphyseon 5.931 A).

McC is correct that according to Eriugena "all ... shall return into Paradise, but not all shall enjoy the Tree of Life--or rather ... not all equally" (Periph 1015A), but this refers to the distinction between salvation and deification, and does not imply that not all will be saved. Sometimes Eriugena even suggests that deification itself will extend to all. For he postulates the return of all to God, and transformation of all into God, through their primordial causes; at that point all will enjoy peace and eternal splendor: "Quando omnis sensibilis creatura in intelligibilem et omnis intelligibilis in causas, et causae in causarum causa (quae Deus est) mutabuntur aetemaque requie gaudebunt ineffabilique claritate fulgebunt et sabbatizabunt" (Periph. 5.991C). At that point, it no longer even makes sense to speak of a beatific vision not shared by all.

Let us come to Basil's problematic question-and-answer passage against apokatastasis, where he (if the passage is authentic) stated that his own brother, whom he appointed bishop, and saintly sister are inspired by the devil. Here I hypothesize not only--as McC has it--an interpolation (common in Basil's question-and-answer works; moreover, anti-Origenian interpolations and glosses are abundantly attested in the case of Nyssen in the manuscripts themselves), but also pastoral concerns. If that text were Basil's, in contradiction to his own linguistic usage and his knowledge of Origen's argument against what is claimed in that passage, this could be explained in light of the intended monastic, not scholarly, audience of that oeuvre. For Basil shared Origen's own pastoral worries about the disclosure of the apokatastasis doctrine to simple or immature people. My hypothesis is furthermore supported by Orosius, who cannot be suspected of embracing apokatastasis, and who explicitly attributes this doctrine to Basil, as I argue in a separate article. (10) In Basil's commentary on Isaiah, then--whose authenticity finds more and more scholarly support--apokatastasis is simply obvious.

As for Rufinus, scholars are progressively exposing his deep understanding of the aims of Origen's thought--entirely grounded in the concern for theodicy--as well as his overall reliability as a translator, who never altered but only abridged, simplified, and glossed Origen's texts. This is also confirmed by the newly discovered Greek homilies in the Munich codex, (11) which allow for further, fairly extensive comparison between Origen's Greek and Rufinus's translation.

McC writes:

   One indication of Origen's reputation as a heretic during late
   antiquity and the early medieval period is found in the wholesale
   destruction of most of his writings. If, as Ramelli suggests, the
   anathematizing of Origen--in the last place in Anathema 11--was not
   original, then the interpolation must have been added so quickly to
   the original text that no one recognized it as an interpolation.
   But then how is Ramelli--almost 1,500 years later--able to identify
   an interpolation when no one before her seems to have done so? (p.
   818)

Even setting aside that the interpolation was certainly not discovered by me, Photius in the ninth century could still read all of Origen's Peri Archon in Greek: thus, even Origen's most "dangerous" work was not yet destroyed by that time, over three centuries after Justinian and the supposed anathemas against Origen. On McC's hypothesis, this should have been the first oeuvre of Origen to be burned, shortly after the Second Council of Constantinople. Moreover, the Latin translation of Rufinus--especially treacherous because it meant to present Origen as "orthodox"--should have been destroyed; yet it survived up to Eriugena and the mediaeval monasteries, and has reached us in numerous manuscripts. Paradoxically, what has perished is not Rufinus's version, but Jerome's (after his volte-face), aimed at uncovering the allegedly heretical nature of Origen's work.

I am pleased that McC agrees that "aionios in ancient sources need not mean 'eternal' in the absolute, unqualified sense" (p. 824). (12) More precisely, it does not mean "eternal" beyond the strictly philosophical Platonic tradition (and certainly not in the Bible, where it has a number of other meanings, e.g., "remote," "ancient," "mundane," "future," "otherworldly"). (13) Contrary to what McC claims, I comment on Jude 6 as the only biblical occurrence of aidios as describing punishment--but of fallen angels, not of fallen humans (Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis 33). Aidios in Scripture never refers to punishment/death/fire in the other world for humans.

I cited Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Coptic, the original often being necessary for the language of restoration, but I always translated Syriac and Coptic, and Greek when the passages were long or difficult, for example in Pseudo-Dionysius. McC wonders why I reject the New Testament Greek text in favor of a Syriac translation of it. My use of the Vetus Syra (anterior to the Peshitta) in NT criticism is amply justified, because it reflects a Greek Vorlage that is more ancient than all extant Greek manuscripts, apart from perhaps a couple of fragmentary papyri. (14) 151 referred to my previous works when necessary, to document what I was saying in my monograph. Otherwise my assertions would have seemed mere opinions unsupported by arguments; or else I would have needed to repeat the whole arguments, but this would have made the book (impossibly) longer.

Mine is a work of historical theology and patristic philosophy. As such, it does not aim at defending or refuting apokatastasis. I have rather argued--I hope forcefully and extremely carefully, for the first time in a comprehensive monograph, how the apokatastasis doctrine is biblically, philosophically, and especially christologically grounded in its patristic supporters. This refutes views such as De Faye's, cited by McC, that "Origen made Christ all but irrelevant to the process of salvation" (p. 815). I have painstakingly traced and disentangled the various strands of this doctrine, and dismantled widespread assumptions about its opposition to the doctrine of free will and its dependence on "pagan" philosophy more than on Scripture in the patristic era. I have also demonstrated that this theory was present in more thinkers than is commonly assumed--even in Augustine for a while--and was in fact prominent in patristic thought, down to the last great Western Patristic philosopher, Eriugena. Augustine himself, after rejecting apokatastasis, and Basil attest that still late in the fourth and fifth centuries this doctrine was upheld by the vast majority of Christians (immo quam plurimi).

Of course there were antiuniversalists also in the ancient church, but scholars must be careful not to list among them--as is the case with the list of "the 68" antiuniversalists repeatedly cited by McC on the basis of Brian Daley's The Hope of the Early Church--an author just because he uses [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], or the like, since these biblical expressions do not necessarily refer to eternal damnation. Indeed all universalists, from Origen to Gregory Nyssen to Evagrius, used these phrases without problems, (15) for universalists understood these expressions as "otherworldly," or "long-lasting," fire, educative punishment, and death. Thus, the mere presence of such phrases is not enough to conclude that a patristic thinker "affirmed the idea of everlasting punishment" (p. 822). Didache mentions the ways of life and death, but not eternal death or torment; Ignatius, as others among "the 68," never mentions eternal punishment. Ephrem does not speak of eternal damnation, but has many hints of healing and restoration. For Theodore of Mopsuestia, another of "the 68," if one takes into account also the Syriac and Latin evidence, given that the Greek is mostly lost, it becomes impossible to list him among the antiuniversalists. He explicitly ruled out unending retributive punishment, sine fine et sine correctione. (16)

I have shown, indeed, that a few of "the 68" were not antiuniversalist, and that the uncertain were in fact universalists, for example, Clement of Alexandria, Apocalypse of Peter, Sibylline Oracles (in one passage), Eusebius, Nazianzen, perhaps even Basil and Athanasius, Ambrose, Jerome before his change of mind, and Augustine in his anti-Manichaean years. Maximus too, another of "the 68," speaks only of punishment aionios, not aidios and talks about restoration with circumspection after Justinian, also using a persona to express it. Torstein Tollefsen, Panayiotis Tzamalikos, and Maria Luisa Gatti, for instance, agree that he affirmed apokatastasis.

It is not the case that "the support for universalism is paltry compared with opposition to it" (p. 823). Not only were "the 68" in fact fewer than 68, and not only did many "uncertain" in fact support apokatastasis, but the theologians who remain in the list of antiuniversalists tend to be much less important. Look at the theological weight of Origen, the Cappadocians, Athanasius, or Maximus, for instance, on all of whom much of Christian doctrine and dogmas depends. Or think of the cultural significance of Eusebius, the spiritual impact of Evagrius or Isaac of Nineveh, or the philosophicotheological importance of Eriugena, the only author of a comprehensive treatise of systematic theology and theoretical philosophy between Origen's Peri Archon and Aquinas's Summa theologiae. Then compare, for instance, Barsanuphius, Victorinus of Pettau, Gaudentius of Brescia, Maximus of Turin, Tyconius, Evodius of Uzala, or Orientius, listed among "the 68" (and mostly ignorant of Greek). McC's statement, "there are no unambiguous cases of universalist teaching prior to Origen" (p. 823), should also be at least nuanced, in light of Bardaisan, Clement, the Apocalypse of Peter's Rainer Fragment, parts of the Sibylline Oracles, and arguably of the NT, especially Paul's letters.

Certainly, "there was a diversity of views in the early church on the scope of final salvation." Tertullian, for instance, did not embrace apokatastasis. But my monograph is not on patristic eschatology or soteriology in general, but specifically on the doctrine of apokatastasis. Thus, I treated the theologians who supported it, and not others. It is illogical to criticize a monograph on patristic apokatastasis for not being a book on the diversity of early Christian eschatological teachings; the latter already existed-for example, works by Brian Daley and Henryk Pietras, as I explain in my introduction. My monograph has a clearly different scope, methodology, focus, new research, and, inevitably, different conclusions. A review of a patristic book should be informed by fresh, direct reading (in the original languages) of the patristic theologians involved and of recent research into, and reassessment of, their thought. It should reflect a thorough study of the interactions of patristic philosophy and theology with ancient philosophy. It should not, in other words, limit itself to restating in 2015 the conclusions of another scholar's 1991 book.

DOI: 10.1177/0040563915605265

Ilaria L. E. RameMi

Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Ml; Catholic University, Milan; Oxford University

Author biography

Maria Ramelli, FRHistS, is Professor of Theology and Bishop K. Britt Chair in Dogmatics/ Christology at the Graduate School of Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (affiliated with Thomas Aquinas University "Angelicum"); the director of international research projects; Senior Visiting Professor of Greek Thought (Harvard) as well as of Church History; Senior Fellow in Religion (Erfurt University) and in Ancient Philosophy (Catholic University, Milan, since 2003); and Visiting Research Fellow (Oxford University). She has taught courses and seminars and delivered invited lectures and conferences in numerous leading universities in Europe, North America, and Israel. She has authored numerous books, articles, and reviews in foremost scholarly journals and series, on ancient philosophy, patristic theology and philosophy, ancient Christianity, and the relationship between Christianity and classical culture.

(1.) "Origen and the Stoic Allegorical Tradition: Continuity and Innovation," Invigilata Lucernis 28 (2006) 195-226.

(2.) Origen of Alexandria as Philosopher and Theologian: A Chapter in the History of Platonism.

(3.) Review of Karen King, What Is Gnosticism? (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2003), Invigilata Lucernis 25 (2003) 331-34; "Gnosis-Gnosticism," in Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, 3 vols., ed. Angelo DiBerardino (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity, 2014) 2:139-47; "Gnosis/Knowledge," in Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

(4.) Some of these I expounded in "Preexistence of Souls? The [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], of Rational Creatures in Origen and Some Origenians," in Studia Patristica 56, ed. Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013) 167-226; I give further reasons in "Gregory of Nyssa's Purported Criticism of Origen's Purported Doctrine of the Preexistence of Souls," forthcoming from Harvard University Press; and in "Gregory of Nyssa," in A History of Mind and Body in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University, forthcoming).

(5.) "Apokatastasis and Epektasis in Horn, in Cant.: The Relation between Two Core Doctrines in Gregory and Roots in Origen," in Proceedings of the XIII International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

(6.) Evagrius, Letter to Melania 23-25.

(7.) Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Evagrius's Kephalaia Gnostika (Atlanta: SBL, 2015).

(8.) Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, "Evagrius Ponticus, the Origenian Ascetic (and not the Origenistic 'Heretic')," in Orthodox Monasticism, Past and Present, ed. John McGuckin (New York: Theotokos, 2014) 147-205.

(9.) S.v. "ordino, -are" Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968) 1266.

(10.) Ilaria L. E. Ramelli "Basil and Apokatastasis: New Findings," Journal of Early Christian History 4(2014) 116-36.

(11.) Lorenzo Perrone, ed., Origenes: Die neuen Psalmenhomilien: Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 (Berlin: deGruyter, 2015) GCS NF 19.

(12.) For full analysis see Ilaria L. E. Ramelli and David Konstan, Terms for Eternity: Aionios and Aidios in Classical and Christian Texts (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2007; new editions 2011, 2013); and Ilaria Ramelli, Tempo ed eternita in eta antica epatristica: Grecita, ebraismo e cristianesimo (Assisi: Cittadella, 2015).

(13.) Full analysis in Ramelli and Konstan, Terms for Eternity 37-70.

(14.) See, e.g., Sebastian P. Brock, The Bible in the Syriac Tradition (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2006) 17, 19,33-34, 111-14.

(15.) For Origen, full analysis in my "Origene ed il lessico dell'etemita," Adamantius 14 (2008) 100-29.

(16.) From Marius Mercator, PL 48.232. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

To better understand the implications of Jesus statement, “Today the Scriptures are fulfilled,” we need to consider some of the diversity within the Scriptures and view them canonically from the perspective of all of Scripture. We have already looked at Matthew’s Gospel chapter 19 where Jesus says divorce is off limits except for the one exception clause he state in verse 9 of sexual unfaithfulness.

          Mark’s gospel on the other hand simply says divorce and remarriage are forbidden with no exceptions listed (10:1-11). If the Gospels were all that we had to go by, there would be only one ground for divorce listed. But later progressive revelation with new circumstances has Paul adding another exception and that was desertion (1 Cor.7:15). What about new circumstances so many fragile families find themselves in today like physical abuse, destructive addictions, ongoing mental abuse and sheer disrespect and belittling of their marital partner? Certainly new situations demands new listening to the voice of Jesus and what the Holy Spirit may be speaking to God’s community today.

          If Jesus is the last Adam to free and liberate all people into God’s kingdom, what are we to do with the Scriptures that speak of death, destruction, torment, and universal restoration (Rom.5:18; 11:32; 1 Cor.15:22; Phil.2:11). Certainly there is judgment and hell to come but no one knows exactly what that entails when it comes to the afterlife. There is a coming and certain judgment that Scriptures speaks about but there is also this universal restoration Jesus tells us about.

          Jesus speaks about “the year of the Lord’s favor” in Luke 4:19, this is a reference to the year of Jubilee where all slaves are to be set free. Notice that Jubilee was not about setting a few slaves or some slaves free, but all slaves were to be set free. Take a moment to let that one sink in! Luke 3:6 says ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ Jesus famous parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son is where all are restored back to God (Luke 15).

          Listen and see with new eyes what the gospel of John says about salvation in Jesus. John 6:37-40 says,

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

What does the Father give Jesus? Everything! What is God’s will? All people would not perish but have everlasting life. I love the way 2 Peter 3:8-9 says it,

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Jesus will lose nothing given him by God the Father and God will raise it all up on the last day. Can we even imagine or picture what this might even look like?

          If you still don’t know what all things given to Jesus is, look at John 17:2.  Jesus prays to his heavenly father and then he says these words, “since you have given him (Jesus) all authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

Are you starting to get a grander cosmic picture of what God is doing in reconciling the world (cosmos) through his Son?

          Can we imagine with Isaiah that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts? When people stumble over the doctrine of hell seeming unfair, some who support this doctrine resort to this verse in Isaiah 55:8-9. But if people would read the broader context of Isaiah 55:6-7, it is not a picture of a vengeful punishing God but a God of abundant mercy who abundantly pardons people (v.7).

          A God of love does care about divine judgment. God is always putting things right and making all things new! If we actually read Jesus words more carefully, we might even see that heaven and hell for Jesus is not just about the afterlife but about present realities right here on planet earth. Jesus did not talk about outside sinners but inside religious leaders when it came to hell. In other words, Jesus was turning the Pharisees own critical judgments about the judgment of God back upon themselves. The sad truth is too many Christians have preached about hell more like some of the religious leaders of Jesus day and not like Jesus did.

          Well, what about the eternal language of judgment in Jesus’ parables? I’m always bewildered when people want to talk about the clearest examples of biblical teaching comes from parables which are highly figurative and often use hyperbole to make a point. Jesus wants his hearers to take the hell language seriously but not necessarily literally.

We get ourselves into all kinds of interpretive problems if we press various points in Jesus’ parables too literally. God in some of Jesus parables appears unjust and Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats if pressed too far, one can say it also teaches a works righteousness doctrine which totally goes against the nature and teachings of the rest of Scripture. Jesus parables are more often about this life rather than what some people think about the after life. If we don’t start understanding how these stories work, we will end up straining at gnats while we swallow camels.

          Heath Bradley in his book Flames of Love says so provocatively,

Hell is not used by Jesus as a threat for outsiders, but as a challenge for insiders . . . Can we believe as Peter did in the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). Or as Paul did in the reconciliation of all things (Col.1:20). And as John did in the renewal of all things (Rev.21:5) this does not hamper our motivation for evangelism but just the opposite . . . it inspires us to preach fearlessly, love limitlessly, and obey unconditionally (p.70, 140)

Robert Wild once said, “What a burst of new life would penetrate the human race if everyone believed God is love and that they were already safe in the arms of love.” One of the greatest theologians of the last century was a Catholic scholar whose name was Hans Von Balthasar. He was an incredibly compassionate person and had a remarkable intellect he used for God in his writings. If we are to really believe in grace, not cheap grace or hyper-grace but biblical free unearned grace, here is what Balthasar wrote:

If we think of Hell as a place of punishment, the logical contrast would seem to indicate that heaven is a place of reward. Yet, the Christian conception denies that heaven is fundamentally a reward for faithful service; it is rather, the free gracious gift of a loving God, unmerited by anything we have done

Why? Because Jesus has done it all! He has completed what he started and on the cross, he said, “It is finished.” He accomplished all that he sought out to do for his mission was complete. Some of my friends answer the question, ‘when were you saved?’, with the response, “I was saved two thousand years ago when Jesus died on the cross!” Even death is not the end, it’s only a new beginning!

A Catholic Reading of Universalism

I have been reading several interesting books in regards to the historical story of universalism from the early church to the present.  One such book is Robert Wild's A Catholic Reading Guide to Universalism.  This is only a brief guide and I was hoping for more but there are some excellent quotes and features to this book.  Wild powerfully remarks that "hoping" universalism is true is not heresy.  Hope is hope and not a dogma or contradicts any major tenet of the early Christian creeds.  I love these words, "What a burst of new life would penetrate the human race if everyone believed that God is love and that they were already eternally safe in the arms of love."  I remember one youth minister getting chastised from a leader in his church for reading Rob Bell's book Love Wins and the young minister replied, "Which part do you have a problem with - love wins in the end or God is love?"

He describes the three possibilities that the early church fathers taught.  The majority view since Augustine became eternal conscious torment view while the minority and very early views were annihilationist view and universalism (Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodore of Mopsuetia, etc.). There was the universal salvation of "Apokastasis" of 1 John 2:2 & Phil.2:10 taught and that evil is finite and will eventually end.  The universal restoration of all things has been a Christian doctrine taught throughout the whole history of the church by various leading Christian theologians and writers. Punishment by many of the earliest Christian writers viewed punishment as remedial and restorative and not punitive.  These early Christians focus was on Christ and not on Adam.  These are some of the first chapters in this provocative book.

Putting Hell in its Place

Zondervan published a second edition of their four views of hell book and added universalism for evangelicals to consider.  Denny Burk holds the eternal conscious torment view, John Stackhouse the terminal punishment view, Robin Perry a universalist view, and Jerry Walls a hell and purgatory view.  Robin Perry's new voice to the conversation is unique because he raises a host of issues like the Bible supports various texts on everlasting punishment, annihilation, and universal restoration.  How one deals with this diversity and the divergent imagery of hell in Scripture will tell where people end up in their conclusions.

Perry tries to do justice to the full scope of the biblical witness which means he acknowledges both hell as conscious and punishment and as purification and restorative.  He understands the destruction imagery as part of God's purging process and not just as punishment.  One could say for Perry that there are three main views, the tormenters (traditional), the terminators (annihilationists) and transformers (universalists).  Where Perry tries to harmonize the biblical witness, it seems many others either proof-text, or silence or ignore various texts.   One may disagree with Perry conclusions but he does a wonderful job showing the depth and richness of Scripture.

The only way to reconcile divine love with divine victory is universalism for Perry.  One wonders if this has to be a dogmatic conclusion or deductive logic from scripture or maybe simply a blessed hope for the future since Perry freely acknowledges that Scripture does not directly teach full blown universalism.  "So if universalism is not true, it seems to me that the pressure is on to surrender either the claim that God is love or the claim that God completely wins" (p.90, Four Views on Hell).