Part 5: Apokatastasis

Gregory uses a word related to apokatastasis, which is anakephalaiosis ("recapitulation", "summary"), to describe the final reintegration of all things in Christ at the end of time. The implicit consequence is that individual beings will not return to God isolated from each other, but all together, as one. Just as we all fell as one in Adam, we will return as one in Christ — it is worth noting that the same idea is a major theme of Martines de Pasqually’s Treatise on the reintegration of beings. Gregory refers to the following passage of he Scriptures as the proper definition of apokatastasis:

“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be made alive.” (1Cor 15:21-22)

As we have seen with Origen, Gregory considers that evil has no existence of its own, and that even hell’s fires are purifying and educational, and not eternal. Interestingly, the Byzantine position up until the end of the Renaissance was that nothing evil can come from God, not even punishment. Hell and all suffering, are the result of our own actions, and are inflicted on us by ourselves. Materiality and hell are quite simply varying degrees of severity in our education resulting from an essentially benevolent energy of God: divine judgement “operates by separating good from evil and pulling the soul towards the fellowship of blessedness.” (On the soul and the resurrection, 7). Therefore, no spiritual being will be denied the possibility of redemption:

"When, over long periods of time, evil has been removed and those now lying in sin have been restored to their original state, all creation will join in united thanksgiving, both those whose purification has involved punishment and those who never needed purification at all." (Catechetical Oration 26).

Important points are to be made here about how difficult it is to rejoin our original state: it will only happen “over long periods of time”; note the future tense used in 1Cor 15:22. Indeed, according to Gregory, there is no blanket forgiveness of all our sins, contrary to what universalism is sometimes accused of; although everyone can recognise the path to salvation, that walk has to be walked. Nobody will be saved without going through repentance, cleansing and forgiveness, although everyone is given the possibility of doing it, specifically since Jesus-Christ. Moreover, as one may understand from the infinite desire and migration expected of us, there is no such thing as a saved / damned duality, or at least not until the end of times, given the permanent possibility of yet another prevarication. Indeed, recognising Christ as our saviour is only the first step towards salvation, which is our reintegration. For Gregory, the process leading to our restoration is far more progressive. As detailed earlier, every stage reached on the way is part of an ongoing journey:

“The final goal of our journey is restoration [apokatastasis] to our original state or likeness to God. Just as the corn grows and puts forth green shoots which include the husk, grain, stem and the plant’s various segments without our assistance, the edible fruit attains maturity through all these stages. In a similar fashion we await the goal of blessedness.” (Concerning Those Who Have Died, J.51).

The same principles apply on a more cosmological level:

“Creation consists of a spatial extension; the succession of phenomena which constitutes time is contained in the aeons, but the anterior nature to these aeons escapes any opposition composed of a before or after… One might say that creation in its entirety is produced according to a regular succession is measured by the extension of aeons. If anyone elevates his spirit through the succession of aeons all the way to the principle of engendered things, his search will be circumscribed by the condition of these same aeons.” (Against Eunomius, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers).

Gregory acknowledges no real existence to either evil or matter, in a position misleadingly reminiscent of modern day mereological nihilism. Matter will therefore cease to be a reality, albeit subjective, at the final reintegration. The resurrected body is thus one made “from the same elements, but not with its present coarse and heavy texture, but subtler and lighter.” One may paraphrase his wording by saying that matter as we experience it is only the temporary manifestation of “subtler and lighter” essences. At the end of time, the physical – and animal – generation of humans will simply end with time:

“Now seeing that the full number of men pre-conceived by the operation of foreknowledge will come into life by means of this animal generation, God, Who governs all things in a certain order and sequence, since the inclination of our nature to what was beneath it (which He Who beholds the future equally with the present saw before it existed) made some such form of generation absolutely necessary for mankind, therefore also foreknew the time co-extensive with the creation of men, so that the extent of time should be adapted for the entrances of the pre-determined souls, and that the flux and motion of time should halt at the moment when humanity is no longer produced by means of it; and that when the generation of men is completed, time should cease together with its completion, and then should take place the restitution of all things, and with the World-Reformation humanity also should be changed from the corruptible and earthly to the impassible and eternal.” (On the Making of Man, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p.412).

The theory of generation of souls that Gregory presents here in which all souls are emanated once and for all, and then the passage of time slowly ticks by like a count-down must be taken for nothing more than for illustrative purposes, since in Gregory’s mind, as we have seen, the concept of time is specific to diastema:

“And He Who made all these things is the Only-begotten God Who made the ages. For if the interval of the ages has preceded existing things, it is proper to employ the temporal adverb, and to say “He then willed” and “He then made”: but since the age was not, since no conception of interval is present to our minds in regard to that Divine Nature which is not measured by quantity and by interval is present to our minds in regard that Divine Nature which is not measured by quantity or by interval, the force of temporal expressions must surely be void.” (Against Eunomius, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p.211).

Nonetheless, the final restoration is ineluctable. It is only due to our exile and prevarications that the end of times may seem overdue or highly remote. In God’s eye, however, the end is nigh:

“So keep on watching, because you don't know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42);

“The end of everything is near; so be sensible and clear-headed for the sake of your prayers.” (1Peter 4:7)

Tags: Gregory of Nyssa, Reintegration, Soul, Orthodox Church