Apokatastasis or Universal Restoration As A Theological Tradition in The Work of Ilaria Ramelli

CARLOS MIRAMONTES SEIJAS1
APOKATASTASIS OR UNIVERSAL RESTORATION

AS A THEOLOGICAL TRADITION IN THE WORK OF
ILARIA RAMELLI
OVERVIEW: In Ilaria Ramelli's work we find an unreleased approach to the

concept of apokatastasis by conducting extensive historical and linguistic research that
allows her to research its historical, biblical, linguistic, philosophical and theological
foundations. In this way, the author is able to present us coherently the apokatastasis not
as a mere theological theory confined to ancient origenism, which is as is generally
understood, but as an authentic theological tradition with biblical foundations that would
have spread throughout the history of Christianity and in its different confessions through
many authors.
KEY WORDS: Ilaria Ramelli; apokatastasis; universal restoration; salvation;

eternity; tradition; eon.
1 Degree in Fundamental Theology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca; Degree in Moral
Theology from the Accademia Alfonsiana of Rome: [email protected]; ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6011-2667
1
INTRODUCTION
The Greek term apokatastasis comes from the verb apokathistemi and would
mean restoring, reintegrating, or reconstituting something. As a philosophical-theological
doctrine or theory, it would refer to the idea that, at the last end of history, all beings or at
least all rational beings would return to Good/God, thus being "restored" at the end2. For
this reason, the theory of apokatastasis is known as the theory of "universal restoration",
a term that also appears exactly in Acts 3: 19-213.
The generalized conception to date conceived the doctrine of apokatastasis as a

theory framed within origenism, whether the emphasis was placed on the same Origen or
his disciples, and that it would have arrived, although more qualitative than
chronologically, until the Second Council of Constantinople of the year 553, where it
would supposedly have been condemned. However, Ilaria Ramelli's improbo research
work in The Christian Doctrine of apokatastasis: A critical assessment from the New
Testament to Eriugena, in Terms for eternity: aionios and aidios in classical and
Christian texts, where she focuses on the biblical and linguistic bases of this theory, and
on the recent work A larger hope? which has two volumes to date and where it takes a
wide historical journey of this theory throughout the various Christian confessions and
from the beginning of Christianity to the present day, shows us the theory of apokatastasis
as an authentic theological tradition, a stream of thought that would travel throughout the
history of Christianity from its most incipient beginnings to our day and also through the
different confessions, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant (referring, for example, among
the most current, to Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sergej Bulgakov, Nikolaj Berdjaev,
Hans Urs von Balthasar or Teilhard de Chardin4, although this said in general and with
2 Cf. I. RAMELLI, The christian doctrine of apokatastasis. A critical assesment from the New Testament
to Eriugena, Brill, Leiden 2013, 1.
3 "Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out. Then the Lord may grant you a time
of recovery and send you the Messiah he has already appointed, that is, Jesus. He must be received into
heaven until the time of universal restoration comes, of which God spoke by his holy prophets"
according to The new English Bible, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970 which will be the one we
use from now on for the texts of Scripture.
4 " The more men we become, thus aware of the hidden treasures in the smallest being, the more we feel
disoriented about the idea of hell " PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, L’ambiente divino, Queriniana,
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nuances, as each author reflects from different perspectives, and although this cast is
following not Ramelli, because she does not reach in her studies the most current authors
in the Catholic and Orthodox fields, but Vito Mancuso5). The second volume of A larger
hope? Universal salvation from the Reformation to the Nineteenth Century is also
noteworthy, since it focuses primarily on the development of soteriological universalism
in the sufficient and complex history of Christian groups emerging from the Protestant
Reformation, both in Europe and in the United States, wrote by Robin A. Parry with the
collaboration of Ilaria Ramelli.
This research also shows us how there would not be a single, monolithic thought
in the Old Church about the final destiny of men, even after the Council's supposed
condemnation of the origenist thesis. The interpretations of the biblical texts varied
according to the authors, and in this, as Ramelli shows us, it also had much to do probably
with the linguistic aspect, since, based on the differentiation shown by the author between
various Greek terms in the Bible, perhaps those authors of native Greek thought could
more finely profile the difference between the strictly eternal (which would correspond
to the term aidios) and that simply relating to the "other world" (which would correspond
to the term ainios), but which did not in itself mean "eternal", understood as timeless or
without beginning or end in itself.
Thus, Ilaria Ramelli has made what in my opinion would be the first great
historical-theological compendium about the Christian restorative or universalist
tradition, if I may say so. His profusion in examples of authors adhered to this current in
patristics and early Middle Ages, some of them canonized as Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory
Nacianceno, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Macrina, Jerome or Maximus the Confessor;
others generally regarded as Fathers of the Church or great ecclesiastical writers such as
Clement of Alexandria, Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian or Isaac of Nineveh; and other
renowned theologians such as Origen or John Escotus Eriugena as well as his rigor and
Brescia 1994, 115 in F. MANTOVANI, Teilhard of Chardin. L’orizzonte dell’uomo, Il Segno dei Gabrielli
Editori, Verona 2002, 124 [in the cited version appears in Italian, the translation is mine].
5 Cf. V. MANCUSO, L’anima e il suo destino, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milan 2007, 240-248; 270-271.
3
depth in showing internal coherence within the Christian thought of restorative posture,
and her extensive research between the theoretical and the practical of those societies of
the Late Antiquity that allows us a whole perspective, show us a novel image of a
multiform primitive Christianity, with different traditions developing within it, where the
restorative tradition would have been one of the most important, which in turn would
underpin the restorative posture from the sources of tradition.
On the other hand, and as it was said, Ramelli's historical journey would go all the
way to the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance with mystiques
such as Julian of Norwich, as far as the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox confessions were
made, and until the very beginning of the twentieth century in terms mainly of the
confessions that emerged from the Protestant Reformation with Hannah Whitall, in the
second volume of A larger hope? which has just been published this year 2019. I do not
know if the author would mind continuing A larger hope's? project in new volumes
reaching the present day deepening among the various Eastern Catholic and Orthodox
authors that others, such as Vito Mancuso, have already pointed out, as we saw, but the
truth is that I would personally find it very timely.
HELLENISTIC CONTEXT
First Ramelli begins by analyzing the use of the Greek term apokatastasis in
Greek philosophy and Hellenistic Judaism preceding the New Testament. With regard to
the Greek philosophical context, it seems that both neoplatonics such as Macrobio, and
the stoics, were no strangers to this idea of a possible "universal final restoration"6. It is
possible that this vision was transmitted through some neoplatonic authors to the middle
ground in authors such as Escotus Eriugena. On the other hand, the term itself appears to
to Eriugena... 1.
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be attributed for the first time by Eusebius to the stoics, who would use it to refer to the
supposed natural condition of cyclic returns of the natural universe. In addition, the use
of the term in medical scope, to refer to "restore" as "healing", would have been found in
a commentary by Apollonius on Hippocrates’s De articulis. Likewise, it seems that it was
also used in other areas such as politics, to refer to the "restoration of order", and
astrology/astronomy (at that time it would not be so easy to separate both), to refer to the
cycles of celestial stars7.
As far as Hellenistic Judaism is concerned, the term apokatastasis was used to

indicate the political restitution of an exile, for example in the Letter of Aristeas, as well
as to speak of the restitution of the land to its rightful owners by Philo of Alexandria, and
also to refer to the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land in Flavius Josephus. This
last meaning is also shared by Philoon, who also attributes to this hypothetical "final
restoration" the quality of restoration not only of the people but also of their souls. This
last meaning will of course be the most interesting for the development of the concept
later in Christianity, and the one that might have most influenced authors such as Clement
of Alexandria or Origen, both of Hellenistic atmosphere and connoisseurs of Philo of
Alexandria8. In fact, at least the Stoic posture would probably not have been a source of
inspiration for Christian authors, and the same Origen would give us to think that he
himself criticized the Stoic idea of this kind of "eternal return" because it would deny any
place to human freedom9.
Finally, the author acknowledges that little would have yet been investigated about
the presence of the term and concept of apokatastasis in pagan Greek contexts, especially
Stoic and Platonic, and declares that she would be currently preparing a new work on this
aspect10.
7 Cf. Ibid., 4-5.

8 Cf. Ibid., 6-7.
9 Cf. Ibid., 9.
10 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?, 2 voll., Cascade Books, Eugene 2019, vol. I, 6.
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BIBLICAL SOURCES
Before we begin this section, we must differentiate between the analysis of the
various passages of Scripture that would seem to suggest the idea of a hypothetical
apokatastasis and which for this reason have often been used in fact by the supporters of
it, and Ramelli's deeper linguistic analysis in Terms for eternity: aionios and aidios in
classical and Christian texts, about the two terms that appear in Scripture to refer to
"eternity".
Several passages from the Old Testament are mentioned that seem to suggest the
idea of apokatastasis. Many are from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: Is 42:1-4 (where
it is said that the Servant of Yahweh will implant justice throughout the earth), Is 49: 6
(where it is said that God's salvation will reach the ends of the earth), Is 49:15 (where
God says that He would not forget his own just like a mother of his young son), Is 51: 4-
5 (announcing justification to all peoples), Is 66: 18 (where it is read that all nations and
tongues will go to God and all will see his glory), Is 66: 23 (who insists on the same
idea), and Is 19:23-25 (where they would receive the blessing of God Israel together
with their enemies, Egypt and Assyria)11.
A particularly interesting passage would be that of Ez 16: 55 which speaks of the

restitution of Sodom, a biblical archetype throughout all the Christian traditions of sin or
sinners, and of which it is always remembered that it has been destroyed because of the
"divine fire" (cf. Mt 10: 34; 11: 24; 2 Pet 2: 6; Jude 7)12.
In addition, other more or less remarkable passages are also collected: Lam 3: 22
11 Cf. Ibid., 9-10.

12 Cf. Ibid., 10.
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and Lam 3: 31-33 where it is said that God's love cannot be exhausted, and that He cannot
reject men forever therefore, Wis 11: 23. 26 where It is said that God always sympathizes,
Wis 12:2-19 where God's compassion for all his creatures is praised, Wis 15: 1 where it is
read that God rules the world with mercy, and Sir 17:19. 24 where it is said that God
grants power to return to those who repent13.
With regard to the New Testament, we find Mk 9: 12 where Elijah is said to come
first, and then (ἀποκαθιστάνει) all things will be restored14. Later in Mk 9: 43-49 it is said
that man must strive not to end up in the "fire that does not go out", but it is also said that
"everyone must be salted with fire", so, by logic, if this fire were not but purifying, in fact
any effort would be meaningless. Also, Mt 19: 25 where Jesus says that salvation is
impossible for men, but that anything is possible for God15. In Lk 16: 16 it is said that
the good news of the Kingdom of God is now proclaimed and that everyone strives to
enter it, although Ramelli herself refers16 to an article of hers17 in which she herself argues
that the correct translation would be that of a theological liability, so that it resulted in a
"the good news of the Kingdom of God is announced and everyone is (or are) forced into
it," which Ramelli says, would make sense because it was being talked about in the
context of the passage of those who resist believing, so it does not seem logical for them
to do violence to enter18; whatever it may be, the truth is that "all" are referred to in one
way or another. In 1 Jn 4, 8: 16 it is said that God is love itself. In Jn 1: 29 Jesus takes
upon Himself all the sins of the world. In the same sense, there are several passages where
John declares that God has sent his Son into the world out of love, to save the world (Jn
13 Cf. Ibid.
to Eriugena... 11.
15 Also in Mt 5: 25-26 we find a passage that, while not quoted by Ramelli, I will suggest it myself because
I have found it very curious: "If someone sues you, come to terms with him promptly while you are
both on your way to court; otherwise he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the constable,
and you will be put in jail. I tell you, once you are there you will not be let out till you have paid the last
farthing". As I said, I find this passage curious because, if it is read in an eschatological view, it is said
that it must be paid for the task, but an end to the penalty is also established: when you have paid
everything.
16 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... Vol. And, 11.
17 Cf. I. RAMELLI, “Luke 16:16: The Good News of God's Kingdom Is Proclaimed and Everyone Is Forced
into It”, Journal of Biblical Literature 127/4 (2008) 737–758.
18 Cf. I. RAMELLI, Terms for eternity: aiônios and aïdios in classical and christian texts, Gorgias Press,
New Jersey 2007, 64.
7
3:17; 12: 47; 1 Jn 4:14), and that He has atoned for all the sins of the world (1 Jn 2: 2; 4:
10). Within the Johannine tradition we also find Jn 12: 32 with Jesus saying: "And I shall
draw all men to myself, when I am lifted up from the earth"19.
In the rest of the New Testament we also have Acts 3: 21 which includes explicitly
the term "universal restoration" in reference to salvation, therefore important text, and
Acts 3:25 which recalls God's promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would
be because of him blessed20.
Within Corpus Paulinum we find very enlightening texts, often used by Origen or
Gregory of Nyssa when exposing their universalist eschatological posture. In Rom 3: 23-
24 it is declared that "everyone" has sinned, just as in Rom 5: 18-19 it is said that if by a
man, Adam, all have been condemned, also by a man, Christ, all are justified. Here the
parallelism as seen, in principle, is very suggestive. In Rom 11: 11-32 Paul says that all
nations (pléroma) will be introduced into the People of God, and then also all (pas) Israel,
adding that God locked all men in rebellion to have after and consequently mercy on all.
Origen, Ramelli tells us, also used the passage of Rom 8: 35-39 in which it is said that
nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of Christ to show, in his opinion,
the reasonableness of his posture. Both Origen and Gregory of Nyssa used the passage of
Rom 14: 11 which proclaims that every knee shall bend before God and every tongue will
bless him. In Rom 3: 3-4 it is said that even if man is unfaithful, God, who is not a man,
he will always remain faithful. In 1 Co 15: 22-23 the idea that if all died in Adam,
everyone will receive life in Christ again. In 1 Co 15: 24-28 we find another of the favorite
passages of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, according to Ilaria Ramelli, when exposing his
universalist theory, where it is said that: "Then comes the end, when he delivers up the
kingdom to God the Father, after abolishing every kind of domination, authority, and
power. For he is destined to reign until God has put all enemies under his feet; and the
last enemy to be abolished is death. Scripture says, 'He has put all things in subjection
19 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 11-12 [the quotes extracted from this book are all in English,
the translation is mine].
20 Cf. Ibid., 12-13.
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under his feet.' But in saying 'all things', it clearly means to exclude God who subordinates
them; and when all things are thus subject to him, then the Son himself will also be made
subordinate to God who made all things subject to him, and thus God will be all in all".
Similarly Phil 2: 10-11 is expressed when it says that every knee will bend before Christ
in heaven, on earth, and in the chasms. Interesting is also that Ramelli points out 1 Co 3:
14-15: "For that day dawns in fire, and the fire will test the worth of each man's work. If
a man's building stands, he will be rewarded; if it burns, he will have to bear the loss; and
yet he will escape with his life, as one might from a fire". The work to which the passage
refers is the life of each one of us, as understood by the context, which makes this passage
certainly suggestive, since it is clearly stated that he who had built his house "on the
foundation", which is Christ, according to verse 11 immediately preceding, will receive
the reward, but he who has not done so, ergo who would have built his life on the basis
of other foundations, apart from Christ I suppose that in his broadest sense, of belief or
practical life, he will suffer harm, will pass through fire, certainly, but he will be safe at
the end, it is said21.
Within the Pseudo-pauline Letters and the other Letters as well as the Book of
Revelation we find passages such as 1 Tim 2: 4-6 a famous text in which it is said that
God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. In 1 Tim 4: 10 it
is said that "If we are fatigued and fought it is because we have hope placed on the living
God, who is the Savior of all men, mainly of believers"; then one could understand that
he is the one who saves all men, and not only believers. In 1 Pet 3: 19-21 it is said that
Jesus would have come down into the chasms to preach also to the "imprisoned spirits"22.
According to Ramelli there are reason to believe that this point would come from the so-
called Petrine tradition to which Peter's Revelation, an apocryphal text, would also
belong. In Peter's Revelation chapters 3 and 4 Peter would be lamenting Jesus for the
condemned, but Jesus would tell him that God is more merciful than Peter, and that
nothing dies for Him, for nothing is impossible for Him. Our author also tells us that this
Peter's Revelation in his ethiopical version is embedded within the ethiopical translation
of the Pseudo-Clementines in a section in which Peter and Jesus appear talking about the
21 Cf. Ibid., 14-18.

22 Cf. Ibid., 18-19.
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eschatological destiny of sinners, who are said to eventually enter salvation after a period
of purification. Jesus tells Peter that he cannot be more merciful than Himself, who
wanted to be crucified for them. However, it would end up saying that this should be kept
secret, as the immature would not repent without the threat of endless condemnation. At
the end of the section, in the treatise on the Judgment of Sinners Peter would tell Clement
that Jesus would have said to him, "Now, after resurrecting him, will God destroy Adam
again with death and hell? After punishing him in a way that is proportional to his crime,
will the Lord destroy him again? Reflect and understand that God will not have Adam die
again"23. Interesting is also to note that according to Sozomeno the Revelation of Peter
was read in the churches of Palestine once a year still in the 5th century, the day of
Παρασκευή or Good Friday, probably as a reminder of the Lord's descent into hell after
the Passion and already facing Holy Saturday24. Today these texts could be considered as
apocryphals but in the 4th and 5th centuries there was still no closed canon stipulating
what would be inspired and what would be not inspired or apocryphal, and their use in
the liturgy would indicate that there was at that time a certain ecclesial recognition
regarding these texts, and that they would have quite likely influenced various authors.
On the other hand, as we said, although at the end Peter's Revelation was not included in
the biblical canon, the so-called Petrine tradition entered the canon in some way with the
two Letters of Peter in the New Testament and with the presence of this element therefore
so typical of this tradition that it would be the descent of Christ ad inferi, entering into
the Apostolic Creed itself25.
Turning now to another argument and as had been mentioned, there would also be
the linguistic analysis carried out by our author on the aionios and aidios terms that are
the two Greek terms used to refer to the concept of eternity. I must admit that in my
23 I. RAMELLI, The christian doctrine of apokatastasis. A critical assesment from the New Testament to
Eriugena... 71.
to Eriugena... 70-71.
25 The linkage therefore in the so-called Petrine tradition between the article of Christ that descends to the
underworld and the theory of apokatastasis seems pretty consistent. We should not be surprised,
therefore, perhaps that both notions are very present and related to some extent to each other also in
Hans Urs Von Balthasar’s theology, but this would be an issue to delve into further research.
10
opinion this point is one of the newest that Ramelli's research brings.
According to our author, the first of these two terms, aionios, would come from
the word aion as root, meaning eon, a very long but indeterminate period of time, while
the second, aidios, would come from the adverb aiei that would mean always. In Homer
and the early Greek poets, the term aion was used to refer to a long and indeterminate
period of time, a human life, or a generation at most. For his part, aidios already appears
in Homer's Hymn to Hestia, where it is said that the goddess had a permanent seat in the
abodes of gods and men; and in the Shield of Heracles by Hesiod, where it is said that the
image of struggle between two men that would have drawn upon himself the so-called
shield would be the same representing the image of endless effort26.
As the author shows us, it seems that from the beginning the term aidios was
increasingly associated with the idea of "eternity" as we conceived it, without beginning
or end, apart from time, our idea which in itself will be very later, the result of centuries
of reflection and a capacity for abstraction. In any case, it is curious that it showed already
at an early level of development a more explicit association with the concept more like
"always". Thus, among the Presocratics Anaximander said that a principle older than
water would be in the "perpetual movement" (aidion kinesin); Anaximenes also spoke
about the "perpetual movement". According to Aristotle, Anaxagoras would have also
spoken about a principle that would neither be generated nor finite but "eternal" (aidia).
In turn, Xenophanes would also use the term aidios not only as the idea of something
"endless", but also "without principle", in saying that either there was nothing before God
or the rest of things would be equally "eternal" (aidia). Heraclitus referred to the "eternal
movement" also as "eternal" with this term. By its meaning as something without
beginning or end aidios was increasingly related also to the realm of the divine, as we
saw on the other hand that already appeared in Homer. Thus, Empedocles spoke of an
"eternal need" (aidion) and the "One" that would be according to him spherical, "eternal"
26 Cf. I. RAMELLI, Terms for eternity: aiônios and aïdios in classical and christian texts... 5-7.
11
and motionless (aidion)27.
For his part, Plato seems to have used the two terms in a less differentiated way,
although it is true that it would seem to be appreciated in his texts the recognition of aidios
as the eternal itself, using aionios rather as a characteristic of the eternal, as a feeling of
very long duration28. Aristotle did differentiate these two terms clearly, using aidios for
the strictly eternal29.
Regarding the translation of the Old Testament into Greek, the so-called LXX
Bible will almost entirely use the term aionios to translate the Hebrew's olam (a long but
indeterminate period of time) which by the way our author finds quite appropriate since
there was also no abstract or philosophical idea of the eternal in ancient Israel, which will
be typical of Greek philosophical culture, and would therefore refer to a perhaps
enormous interval of time, but always in the sense of duration, not timeless. For its part,
it seems that aidios would appear only twice throughout the LXX Bible, and indeed in
late books originally written in Greek, specifically in Wis 7: 26 and 4 Mc 12: 12 (book the
latter which, by the way, is considered canonical by the Orthodox Church but not by the
Catholic Church or by any of the confessions from the Protestant Reformation)30.
About the use of these two terms around Christ’s time, Ramelli suggests three
examples. One would be that of the historian Diodorus Siculus, who would again use the
term aionios to refer to things of immense duration, such as history, human generations
or even stones’s age, but would reserve aidios to refer to the divine, therefore strictly
"eternal". In Dionysus of Halicarnassus the distinction would not be so explicit perhaps,
since he uses aionios to talk about things of great chronological duration and aidios to
talk about a very long and uninterrupted time that could perhaps be understood as endless.
Finally, in Philo of Alexandria in principle it seems that the two terms were also used
27 Cf. Ibid., 8-9.

28 Cf. Ibid. 13-14.
29 Cf. Ibid., 28-29.
30 Cf. Ibid., 41-50.
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more or less interchangeably, although, as Ramelli points out, some differentiation
continues to be maintained in the sense that aidios is never used to refer to temporal
cycles, chronological eras, or to the world before us or to the world that will come after
this life, so it would remain in a certain sense aidios as a sharper cutting term, always
closer to the strict concept of "eternity"31.
In the New Testament the term ainios refers practically always to the ζωὴν αἰώνιον
(Jn 3:16)32, which the Vulgate translated as vita aeterna and therefore it is deduced our
subsequent translations as "eternal life", without further ache. However, and this is the
interesting point, Ramelli argues that, after all that has been seen, and what she still argues
afterwards, this Latin translation could obviate certain differentiating nuances that
retained in Greek aionios and aidios and that nevertheless Greek-speaking authors with
extensive knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy could have perceived. Ramelli
says that, therefore, and again, the only term that would strictly mean "eternal" would be
aidios and is only used twice throughout the New Testament. Moreover, Ramelli also
points out some passages showing some lack of coherence in the translation from Greek
to Latin, precisely from what we are saying: so, in Tit 1: 1-2 for example, Paul presents
himself as the one who awaits the ζωῆς αἰωνίου which he says had been promised by God
πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων with which the Vulgate while translating the former as vitae
aeternae33 cannot however translate likewise the second and leaves it as ante tempora
saecularia, because let us remember that it means time and it would be absurd or
contradictory, stricto sensu, to speak of "eternal times", since the eternal is the timeless
and the absence of time. This also happens in other passages such as 2 Tim 1:9 where it
is said that God has called us to a holy vocation by grace through Jesus πρὸ χρόνων
αἰωνίων, translated into the Vulgate again as ante tempora saecularia. We can also see
other passages where this same term at all refers to eternity, as in Heb 13: 20-21 that ends
with a doxology saying ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων ἀμήν and that the Vulgate
translates as cui est gloria in saecula saeculorum Amen and where the dimension of
31 Cf. Ibid., 56-57.

32 For the Greek texts of the New Testament, we will use AND. NESTLE – K. ALAND, Novum Testamentum
Graece, German Bible society, Stuttgart 2012.
33 For the Latin texts of the Vulgata we will use M. TVVEEDALE et alii (eds.), Sacra Bible juxta Vulgatam
Clementinam. Editio electronics, Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Londini 2005.
13
aionios appears clearly as "eon" or period of long and indeterminate time, which is not
eternal. Especially interesting would perhaps be the passage of Rom 16: 25-27 since in
this passage that is Paul's farewell and the end of the Letter to the Romans we find three
different applications of the same term aionios and which have been interpreted
differently. The passage speaks of the Gospel as a Mystery now revealed after χρόνοις
αἰωνίοις which the Vulgate now translates as temporibus aeternis into, as we said, a
contradictio in terminis, but it is later said that this Mystery has been revealed by the
αἰωνίου θεοῦ which translates the Vulgate as aeterni Dei and finally closes the passage
again with a doxology ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν that the Vulgate translates as cui
honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum Amen, so the same term in the first case that by
logic could not mean "eternal times" because it would not make sense, however it is
translated so in the second case, in reference to God it is translated as eternal, which
makes perfect sense, and finally reference is made to a "for ever and ever" indicating a
perhaps immense duration of time, but certainly not "eternal" because it speaks of
centuries and therefore time34.
On the same idea would pivot other passages where the current time relates to the
"time to come". Specifically in Mk 10: 29-30 Jesus promises those who hear Him and
follow him a hundred times what they have left behind, although with persecutions, but,
he says, this now "in the present", which in Greek is νῦν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ (meaning
kairos as we know the present time but in a salvific sense, the now in which the Gospel
is presented and God's salvation acts), and then "in the world to come", ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ
ἐρχομένῳ (in saeculo futuro according to the Vulgate) "eternal life", ζωὴν αἰώνιον (vitam
aeternam according to the Vulgate). As seen, the same term is first translated as "century"
or "eon" or "future time" and then as "eternal" ("eternal life") 35. Ramelli offers more
examples, such as Heb 6: 2 where it comes to the resurrection of the dead and the "eternal
judgment", judicii aeterni according to the Vulgate, αἰωνίου in Greek, although the author
goes so far as to say that it would make more sense to speak of the "judgment of the future
world" in any case since an out-of-time or timeless judgment is not understandable how
34 Cf. I. RAMELLI, Terms for eternity: aiônios and aïdios in classical and christian texts... 58-61.
35 Cf. Ibid., 61.
14
it could happen or in what action, as action needs time36. We will add one last example,
although the author in her work offers more, but that we think is appropriate. Jude 7
speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah, which suffered from the penalty of an "eternal fire",
ignis aeterni says the Vulgate, δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωίου in Greek, although, Ramelli says, it
is not understandable how this fire that theoretically fell from the sky and destroyed the
two cities could be “eternal”. Certainly, no text implies that the cities were burning forever
or endlessly or anything like that. It should therefore refer to a quality of the fire in
question, but if it is not a "timeless fire" then it can only mean that it would be fire "from
the other world", not a common fire of this world37. This would fit Ramelli's idea that in
the New Testament the term ainios would refer to the concept of "the time to come" (after
this life, it is understood), "the next eon" or "the other world", but would never refer, she
says, to the concept of "eternity" stricto sensu.
On the other hand, with regard to the term aidios, as mentioned above, it only
appears twice throughout the New Testament, once in Rom 1: 20 where it is said: "His
invisible attributes, that is to say his everlasting power and deity [ἥ ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις
καὶ], have been visible, ever since the world began, to the eye of reason, in the things he
has made", which does not surprise us, for as we saw the strictly eternal could only be
attributable to God Himself. And another time in Jude 6 where it is said that the rebellious
angels God "has reserved them for judgement on the great Day, bound beneath the
darkness in everlasting chains [δεσμοῖς ἀΐδίοις]", which, Ramelli says, in any case what
would be "eternal" would be the chains itself, perhaps because its enclosing would go
beyond all eon, but in the end being a qualifier of the chains themselves and not
necessarily of the penalty, Ramelli emphasizes, because it is precisely in this section that
is said lockdown would have at least to some extent a limit, the judgment of the great
Day, beyond which nothing is said, says the author, but only something that has no limit
is eternal38.
36 Cf. Ibid., 66-67.

37 Cf. Ibid., 67.
38 Cf. Ibid., 68.
15
CONTEXT OF THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSALIST TRADITION
In this way the possibility of differentiation between the strictly eternal (aidios)
that would be only God, and the "time to come", or "next eon" (aionios) among the first
Christian thinkers of broad Greek culture, as well as the large number of biblical passages
suggesting a universalist soteriology and above all the most Christocentric of them (e.g.
1 Co 15: 24-28), would have been, according to Ramelli, the true foundations on which
the universalist tradition would develop.
Belonging to the classical universalist tradition would be those, in my view of

what I can sum up from Ramelli's texts, who believed in a general sense that salvation
will eventually reach everyone (there may be nuances, some spoke of salvation in some
way of all beings, others of the salvation of all rational beings, others of all human beings),
and generally admitting that after this life would begin "the life of time to come", where
some would already go to "eternal life" (as in communion with God, the only one who is
eternal) and others would have to go through some kind of purifying or healing process,
so that finally all things would be "restored" in Christ and that God would become
everything in all. This said always in a Christocentric context.
From this foundation, Ramelli begins to present his historical research by drawing
the progress, development and expansion of the universalist tradition. The cast of authors
exceeds the possibilities of this article, but I will put some of the examples she mentions.
Thus, for example, perhaps one of the first Christian writers to show a clear universalist
tendency would be Theophilus of Antioch in the second century, who in a text quoted by
our author says that when Humanity will return to the state according to its nature the
animals will also be "restored" (ἀποκατασταθήσεται) to their original meekness. As we
see Theophilus would already begin to use the word apokatastasis referring to the final
restoration of all beings39.
16
It would also be the case of Irenaeus of Lyon, who in Adversus Haereses 3, 20 on
the sign of Jonah says that God allowed man to be swallowed by sin as Jonah by the whale
only to glorify God more by being freed, and that he allows the death of man to see, in
the resurrection, what evil he has been delivered from, and glorify the Lord more. Also in
5, 28 Irenaeus says that even the righteous must go through tribulation, to mature, as bread
is to be kneaded and baked in order to serve at the Lord's table. Finally, at the end of all
of the work, in 5, 36, 3 Irenaeus says that just as there is only one Son like this there is
but one human nature that will be constituted in the image and likeness of God40.
Bardaisan of Edessa, famous for his defense of free will in the face of the
determinism of the stars at the time, in a text shown to us Ramelli says that all those who
have free will are allowed to be guided by it by God, although all would be influenced by
God’s higher plans; even those who seem to resist God do not actually resist him, but are
locked in evil and error, Bardaisan says. But although God is patient and waits for
everyone to act rightfulness, one day will come, Bardaisan says, in which the capacity to
harm will disappear through instruction, and every rebellion will cease, fools will be
convinced, and all deficiencies overcome, and there will be security and peace, as the gift
of the Lord of all natures. Here Bardaisan shows an ethical intellectualism that others
would follow later also41.
We could also say something about Pantaenus, master of Clement of Alexandria,

according to Clement himself. We don't know much about Pantaenus because he left
nothing written, and only fragments of other authors who mention him are preserved, but
in a text of Clement that our author collects Pantaenus says that all those of the same race
and of the same faith and justice will be one and the same body, and will be restored so
in the same unit [εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν ἑνσότητα ἀποκαταστησόμενοι]; so Pantaenus would have
already used the idea of a final restoration with the term apokatastasis42. However more
to Eriugena... 94; 98-99.
41 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... Vol. And, 21-23.
to Eriugena... 107-110.
17
interesting to us will be Clement of Alexandria, in whom we can find a broad, organized
and coherent thought, in a vision that is also capable of incorporating the Biblical world
and the Hellenistic world.
On the universalist belief of Clement of Alexandria, we must say that Ramelli is

rightly shown, for the position of the Alexandrian is not unequivocal in one sense or
another, and so our author says that Clement handled a notion of "universal restoration"
that seems to be open to the idea of final universal salvation43. It is true that the
Alexandrian held ethical intellectualism, linking virtue with knowledge44. One of his
perhaps most universalistic passages are the passages in Strómata 7:2:12:2-3 where we
read:
"Indeed, everything has been arranged by the God of the universe for
universal salvation, both in general and individually. It is therefore the task of the
Savior's righteousness to always direct towards what is best, depending on the
possibility of each one. Thus it governs for the sake of salvation and preservation of
what is best, according to its own characteristics, even to the smallest beings"
Another interesting aspect that Ramelli highlights is that quite clearly Clement
would seem to admit the possibility of conversion into "the other world", after death,
perhaps by influence of the Petrine tradition. In addition, Clement's vision of the
punishments of the other world is seen as medicinal or educational, to therefore cause the
conversion of those who would be there, which would seem to end up closing the
universalist vision that we are commenting on:

44 "Sin comes from judging with ignorance about the necessary way of acting or not, as happens when one
falls into a well, either because he does not know it exists, or because he could not avoid it because of
physical incapacity" CLEMENTE DE ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata, 4 voll., Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid
1998, vol. II, 2:15:62:3 [this is the version that we used to quote Strómata, here translated]. This ethical
or moral intellectualism is interesting given that, from this point of view, man in sin would in a way be
a victim of himself, either because he was not able perhaps to glimpse the full consequences of his
actions and his way of life, or because he had lacked the necessary strength.
18
"The Savior acts, I think, for his task is to save. And that, then, is what He
did: he attracted to salvation those who wanted to believe in Him through preaching,
where ever they were. Therefore, if the Lord did not descend to Hades for any reason
other than to proclaim the gospel, he either evangelized all or only the Hebrews.
Certainly if [evangelized] all, then all who believed would be saved, even if they
came from the Gentiles, for they confessed the faith down there; moreover, God's
saving and educational punishments induce conversion and seek more repentance
from the sinner than death; and so, when souls are freed from bodies, they can see
more clearly, and even if they are obfuscated by passions, they are no longer blinded
by the flesh [...] Thus, it seems to me, it is shown that God is good and that the Lord
is able to save with justice and equity those who become here or elsewhere. For not
only here [on earth] is the power that acts, but it is everywhere and always acts"45
Finally we could say that according to Clement for St Paul the end of Christian
hope would certainly be the apokatastasis46, to which he refers as strictly "eternal", using
the term aidios47, while when he speaks of the sorrows of the other world or similar things
he always uses aionion48.
Disciple of Clement of Alexandria was Origen of Alexandria, surely the best

known among the members of the universalist tradition to the point that erroneously, as
we see, he is attributed his invention. Seen after all the journey that we have very briefly
condensed from Ramelli's works on this subject, we can now realize that the supposed
great originality of Origen was not really such, for he would only have adhered to this
45 Cf. CLEMENTE DE ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata, 4 voll., Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid 2005, vol. IV,
6:6:46:1-3; 47:4.
46 "The Apostle, referring briefly to our end, in the Letter to the Romans writes: ‘But now, free from sin
and servants of God, you have as your fruit sanctification and finally eternal life [aionion life]. Thus,
he knows that hope is twofold: one that is awaited, the other that has already been obtained; and teaches
that the end is the fulfillment of hope [τέλος διδάσκει τὴν τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀποκατάστασιν]" CLEMENTE DE
ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata... vol. II, 2:22:134:3-4.
47 "For this reason, [gnosis] moves man into the divine and holy kinship of the soul and through a
characteristic light of his crosses mystical progress until he is restored to the supreme place of the rest
[εἰς τὸν κορυφαῖον ἀποκαταστήσῃ τῆς ἀναπαύσεως τόπον], having taught the clean-hearted man to
contemplate God face to face scientifically [ἐπιστημονικῶς] and with the gift of understanding ... where
it will be, so to speak, a stable and lively light forever, absolute and totally immutable [φῶς ἑστὸς καὶ
μένον ἀιδίως, πάντῃ πάντως ἄτρεπτον]" CLEMENTE DE ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata... Flight. IV, 7:10:57:1-
5.
48 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 28-29.
19
universalist current and from it would have developed his own theories.
Thus, quotes Ramelli, Origen would have said for example that the destruction of
the sinner in the Last Judgment would actually be the destruction of his sin, and that the
sinner would no longer be a sinner but just a man, in addition to indicating that the "fire"
of the other world would destroy or harm not sinners, but their sins, to purify them49.
Also, for Origen it would have been important the notion that evil would not have in itself
entity because it would be absence of good, and therefore no evil could actually be
eternal50. It seems that he would have also said that for all this the demons would in the
end return to be angels, although always maintaining the freedom of the creatures, for
they would return to the Good of their own free will51. It would keep as logical according
to this thought the idea that the "fire of the other world" would therefore be
"therapeutic"52. Interesting that Ramelli made it clear that Origen did not open up either
the theory of "annihilation" according to which those who ultimately rejected God would
not be "condemned forever" but would simply cease to exist, which he already defended
at that time Arnobius of Sicca, it seems, but that for Origen it would be to admit a vision
of a Creator who would not have been able to bring his Creation to fruition53.
Curious that Saint Anthony Abbot was also mentioned, because in a text he would
have said that rational creatures would have lost unity with God by "death" but that the
Logos would take them back to their original state in a spiritual "restoration"
[apokatastasis]54. Methodius Bishop of Olympia, who was precisely a critic of Origen, is
also mentioned, but nevertheless seems to have shared his universalist stance, indicating
that the universalist tradition did not just survive in the disciples of Origen. Bishop
Methodius said that by Christ’s restoration death and stupidity would come to be
49 Cf. ORIGINS, Comm. In Matt. 5:10:2 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 43.
50 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 43.
51 Cf. Ibid., 44-47.
52 Cf. Ibid., 53.
53 Cf. Ibid., 59-63.
54 Cf. Ibid., 65-66.
20
eliminated, and that all Humanity would enter Paradise again55.
Ramelli also cites an exegetic text of Eusebius of Caesarea in which he says that
sinners will be punished, symbolized in the cities destroyed in Is 25 but that sinners, like
the inhabitants of those cities, would survive, for punishment would only destroy their
sins and mistakes56. Saint Athanasius spoke in turn of the restoration of total human
nature, which as we will see would be another of the aspects of the universalist tradition,
influenced perhaps by the theology of Paul's "New Adam" and by Platonism. Athanasius
would come to say that Christ has redeemed all mankind from hell and delivered all
mankind from hell57. In a comment to John of Didymus the Blind we could read one of
the most suggestive texts by the way: "Therefore, it is necessary that Christ reign over the
beings, as they progressively add themselves, up to the totality, until all those who are
enemies because of sin have submitted to him, and Christ has destroyed every tyrannical
power, after which the first evil itself, death, is destroyed, in that every soul, now subject
to death, which is joined with evil, will be joined to Christ"58. Among the Cappadocian
Fathers, for example and in short, Basil of Caesarea said that "When God will be all in
all, once those who created confusion with apostasies will be restored to peace, they will
sing praises to God in a symphony of peace"59, and their universalist stance is finally
unequivocal because he himself was criticized for it, for Paul Orosius said of Basil that
"They taught that the ‘eternal fire’, in which sinners will be punished, is neither true fire
nor eternal"60.
For his part, Saint Gregory of Nyssa was perhaps one of the last great exponents
of the universalist tradition in the Patristic era, and lived in a time when, as we saw, critical
voices were beginning to rise with this current of thought. In turn, in his work Dialogue
on the Soul and Resurrection where he appears having an animated conversation with
55 Cf. Ibid., 69-72.

56 Cf. Ibid., 75-76.
57 Cf. Ibid., 90.
58 DIDYMUS THE BLIND, Comm. in I Cor. 7-8 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 97.
59 BASIL OF CAESAREA, Comm. in Is 2, 85 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 102.
60 PABLO OROSIO, Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum 3, 160-162 in RAMELLI,
A larger hope?... vol. I, 105.
21
Macrina, the following is put in Macrina's mouth:
"It is not the case that God’s judgement has as its main purpose that of
bringing about punishment to those who have sinned. On the contrary, as the
argument has demonstrated, the divinity on its part does exclusively what is good,
separating it from evil, and attracting [the soul] to itself, with a view to its
participation in beatitude, but the violent separation of what was united and attached
to the soul [i.e., evil] is painful for the soul that is attracted and pulled [by the divinity
to itself]"61
The quotes of Gregory of Nyssa collected by Ramelli concerning his universalist

thinking are abundant, and I will only collect here some more of the most explicit. For
example: "that love may always increase and develop, until the One who ‘wants all to be
saved and to reach the knowledge of truth’ has realized his will"62, or: "by participating
in the purest Being, human weakness is transformed into what is better and more
powerful"63, and in a very indicative way: "Therefore, that free mastery over ourselves
could remain in our nature, but evil be removed from it, divine Wisdom excogitated the
following plan: allow the human being to do whatever it wanted and taste all the evils it
wished, and thus learn from experience what it has preferred to the Good, and then come
back, with its desire, to its original beatitude, voluntarily, banishing from its own nature
all that which is subject to passions and irrationality, by purifying itself in the present life
by means of meditation and philosophy, or by plunging, after death, into the purifying
fire"64. Interesting is to note how progressively critiques of this position were growing,
but also the simple misunderstanding due to ignorance and language barrier, thus Ramelli
comments that already then Germanus of Constantinople believed that Gregory's writings
had been manipulated because it did not make sense for him to sometimes speak of the
"universal restoration" and sometimes of "eternal punishments"(aionios), because, of
Latin culture, it is seen that he no longer understood the nuance of the differences between
61 GREGORY OF NYSSA, Dialogue on the soul and resurrection cabbage. 97B-100C in I. RAMELLI, A larger
hope?... vol. I, 111.
62 GREGORY OF NISA, Homilies on the Song of Songs 4 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 118.
63 GREGORY OF NISA, Against Eunomium 3:4 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 122.
64 GREGORY OF NISA, De mortuis 15, 64 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 123.
22
aionios and aidios65.
Ramelli comments and quotes more authors, but we will only quote one more,
John Cassian, a great spiritual man with broad resonances in the monastic world for many
centuries. Thus, he says: "God brings salvation to humanity in various and infinite ways
[...] compelling some to salvation even against their will [...] God drags those who do not
want and resist him, and compels them to want the Good [...] Human intellect and reason
cannot entirely grasp how God operates everything in us and yet, at the same time,
everything can be ascribed to our free will"66.
In the 6th century the supposed condemnation of origenism and the theory of
apokatastasis took place at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. The truth is that
it seems that on the part of modern scholars the real officiality of the condemnation of the
theory of apokatastasis or of the same origenism is rejected. On the other hand, Ramelli
acknowledges that there must have been a certain uncomfortable situation for some
because of the universalist tradition, for it was not properly understood by many, critics
or sympathizers alike. In this way, our author suggests that there would have been a
radicalization of some origenist monks in Palestine in the early 6th century, and this, the
issues of internal politics rather than spiritual scope, would have been what in any case
would have urged Emperor Justinian to try to end origenism (which is not exactly the
same as the universalist tradition, as we have seen, but they are linked, because you could
be universalist without being an origenist but you could hardly be an origenist without
being universalist). Justinian did not seem to care too much about orthopraxis when it
came to achieving their ends, and it could certainly be said that he forced the Council's
development to bring the Council's results into line with his own positions. We will
discuss this issue in detail at the end of the article. Be that as it may, the idea was that
universalist approaches would be heretical, and in both Catholic and Orthodox field in
general a subtle veil was spread on the issue, although many would continue to keep the

66 JOHN CASSIAN, Conferences No. 17-18 on I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 160-161.
23
universalist tradition all over the centuries67.
THE UNIVERSALIST TRADITION AFTER THE SECOND COUNCIL OF

CONSTANTINOPLE
Opinions about whether Maximus the Confessor would have held universalist
positions are diverse among scholars. Von Balthasar himself believes that he would have
been universalist although he would have preferred not to comment about it too much68,
given that he lived just fifty years after the Second Council of Constantinople and the
matter would be still delicate predictably. Personally, I find one of his passages very close
to the typical language and themes of the universalist tradition: "The Godhead will really
be all in all, embracing all and giving substance to all in itself, in that no being will have
any movement separate from it and nobody will be deprived of its presence"69.
In the 7th century we find Isaac of Nineveh, another clear exponent of

universalism, which offers us a very interesting text:
"If we said or thought that what concerns gehenna is not in fact full of love
and mixed with compassion, it would be an opinion tainted with blasphemy and
abuse at our Lord God. If we even say that he will hand us to fire in order to have us
suffer, to torment us, and for every sort of evil, we ascribe to the divine nature
hostility toward the rational creatures that God has created through grace. The same
is the case if we state that God acts or thinks out of retribution, as though the Godhead
wanted to avenge itself. Among all of God's actions there is none that is not entirely
dictated by mercy, love and compassion: this is the beginning and the end of God's
67 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 170-171.

68 Cf. BALTHASAR, Kosmiche Liturgy, 355-358 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 177.
69 MAXIMUM CONFESSOR, Ambiguous 7:1092 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 184.
24
attitude toward us"70
There is also John of Dalyatha in the 8th century, but more important perhaps
because he was probably the greatest exponent of the universalist tradition in the Middle
Ages we must mention John Escotus Eriugena, who would also be the first great character
of the universalist tradition of Latin formation, already belonging to the Latin medieval
world. This can be said with certain nuances, for it is true that it would be precisely his
acquired great knowledge of Greek that would allow him to access the works of Origen,
Gregory of Nyssa and others, but this was due to his intelligent and curious character and
not firstly to his culture and context.
Escotus would sustain the universalist stance closest to Platonism and the theology
of Saint Paul's "New Adam," which we had already seen at least in Athanasius: "Thus, by
receiving human nature, he received every creature in himself. Christ has saved and
restored [salvavit et restauravit] human nature, which he received; therefore, Christ has
undoubtedly restored [restauravit] every creature, visible and invisible"71, in the same
way, he will also say that: "He has left no member of humanity – entirely adopted by it –
prey to the eternal punishments and the chains of evilness that cannot be broken, as
evilness is followed by the misery of torments"72. It is curious to note that, although
Eriugena must have known Greek very well, he no longer seems to be able to make the
distinction between the terms aionios and aidios and simply presents his theory of
apokatastasis without such subtleties, as we have seen. In addition, he would introduce
some nuances of his own reflection, such as the fact that for him everyone will finally
reach restitution, but to the "original state" prior to "the fall", while only some would
come to deification or union with God or in God73. Escotus Eriugena was not denounced
by anyone for his ideas in life, and died placidly as a faithful son of the Church, convinced
of his own orthodoxy, which is interesting considering the supposed condemnation
emanating in Constantinople, although it is possible that simply no one had news, in the
70 ISAAC OF NINEVEH, Second part 39:22 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 188.
71 JOHN ESCOTUS ERIUGENA. Periphiseon 5:25 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 193.
72 Ibid., 5:27 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 193.
25
upper Middle Ages, with the genre of communications of the time, of a simple scholarly
monk lost in the antipodes of the world, in the cold lands of Scotland. However, three
hundred years after his death his works would begin to have relevance and end up
condemned by Pope Honorius III, although curiously not for his universalist position but
for an alleged pantheism74.
Throughout the Middle Ages the examples would be greatly reduced but not
completely disappeared. Thus, Ramelli quotes the Carmelite William Hilderniss, for
example, who believed that everyone would finally come to salvation for Christ's
sufferings75. As we see we are moving away somewhat from the roots of the universalist
tradition, because its typical language and themes no longer appear, but it is logical given
that the distance both chronological and cultural was increasing, although the intuition in
the background will remain. Likewise, Meister Eckhart seems to contemplate hell as pain,
the greatest pain imaginable, but understanding pain as purification, and, in an unusual
way, asserting in the end that what "burns" there is "nothing"76. The just in turn, he seems
to sketch, must somehow pass through hell77. The thought of this great mystic in this
regard should be dealt with in greater depth, but this again exceeds the possibilities of this
article and therefore we will leave it for further research.
Between the 14th and 15th centuries we also found the English mystique Julian of
Norwich, who would maintain a universalist stance in a surprisingly explicit way. We
must understand that, while she may have had some kind of education, she was certainly
not in herself a theologist and she does not seem likely to be an "erudite" in books, but
nevertheless she came to some of the same conclusions that, for example, Origen: "I saw
not sin: for I believe it hath no manner of substance nor no part of being, nor could it be
known but by the pain it is cause of"78. In her writings we also read: "It behoved that there
should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be
74 Cf. R. VAN NIEUWENHOVE, An introduction to Medieval Theology, Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge 2012, 71.
76 MEISTER ECKHART, The Non. German Sermons 5b in Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 206.
78 JULIAN OF NORWICH, Revelations of Divine Love 13:27 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 209.
26
well79", or "The oneing of all mankind thar shall be saved unto the blessed Trinity"80. We
are not known that neither Julian of Norwich nor her writings have ever been convicted,
and not even investigated.
Guillaume Postel, a Catholic priest and scholar, connoisseur of Arabic, Hebrew,

Syriac, Greek and Latin, astronomer, cartographer and traveling diplomat who served for
years as France's ambassador to Istanbul, also lived in the 16th century. He wrote the De
orbis terrae concordia in which he argued that all religions would have a common
essential element, love for God and men, and that Christianity would best represent it. At
maturity and living in Venice he served as confessor to a poor woman named Johanna
who lived to serve the poor and sick, and who would turn out to be a mystique. She seems
to have convinced him of the truth and need for an evangelical message of universal
forgiveness and salvation, of a "universal baptism". He published two books based on her
alleged "visions", which would consist of an amalgam of Christian Theology, Jewish
Kabbalah, Islamic texts and references to Ms. Johanna's mystical visions. They would
end up in the index of forbidden books, and their author held by decree of the Inquisition
at the Monastery of St. Martin des Champes in Paris81.
Gradually the universalist tradition would also spread among the denominations
arising from the Protestant Reformation, and it would do so slowly but strongly. Thus, the
Anglican Bishop George Rust, disciple of the enlightened Cambridge platonic Henry
More, for example, would write Letter of Resolution Concerning Origen and the Chief of
His Opinions in 1661, where he would defend the ideas of Origen of Alexandria,
including the idea of universal restoration and medicinal and temporal punishment for
sinners. If a God who is only Love had foreseen that, if creating the world, some of his
creatures would somehow fall into eternal frustration, he would certainly have found it
more decorous not to create that world, Rust says82.
79 Ibid.
80 JULIAN OF NORWICH, Revelations of Divine Love 13:31 in I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 209.
81 Cf. R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?, 2 voll., Cascade Books, Eugene 2019, vol. II, 19-21.
82 Cf. Ibid., 38-40.
27
Among these 17th century thinkers who rediscovered the jewels of ancient
traditions is also Lady Anne Finch Viscountess of Conway, a cultured woman who
dominated Greek, Latin and Hebrew, connoisseur of theology and philosophy, and
disciple also, such as Bishop Rust, of Henry More. For Lady Anne her universalism would
be based, as for Gregory of Nyssa, on God's infinity in the face of the finitude of evil:
"But because there is no being, which is every way contrary to God (viz.
there is no being, which is infinitely and unchangeable evil, as God is infinitely and
unchangeably Good; nothing infinitely dark, as God is infinitely Light...) hence it is
manifest that... nothing can become infinitely more dark, though it may become
infinitely more light: By the same reason nothing can be evil ad infinitum, although
it may become more and more good ad infinitum. And so indeed, in the very nature
of things, there are limits or bounds to evil; but none unto good"83
Lady Anne also argued that suffering would be necessary to purify herself and for
salvation. Each level and type of sin would have associated a degree and type of pain of
a beneficial nature84.
Among the Puritans of the seventeenth century, we find Jeremiah White, who saw
our universal salvation only from God as a necessity of the simple nature of Love. For
White the equation was simple: God wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:3), for God is
Love (1 Jn 4:8), and God's will cannot be thwarted (Eph 1:11)85:
"God is an Eternal Act of Goodness, Love, and Sweetness, that carries his
effect and end eternally in himself, and tho’ there be a process in the discovery of
this Love to us, yet in its first and Eternal emanation and motion, (if we may so
speak) he is in the term of his motion. For he hath and possesseth the term eternally
in himself, and whom he loves, he loves to the end, loves fully, perfectly, furnishing
83 CONWAY, Principles 7:1 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 43.
84 Cf. R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 41-42.
85 Cf. Ibid., 52-53.
28
and supplying all things to the end of his love richly, freely, intirely, out of himself"86
Another interesting idea of White was to regard all beings as interconnected, parts
of a Whole, seeming to be even close, though surely unintentionally, to the Catholic
theology of the Mystical Body of Christ: "If so many millions of these intellectual
substances be never look’d upon, or visited with Redemption, not one saint is completely
saved, for if each spirit be an entire world, all spirits are in each spirit; as the soul is in
every part of the body"87.
Jane Lead was a 17th-century English mystique not to use. She said he had a vision
in which the "Virginal and Eternal Wisdom of God" would have appeared to him. She
was married and founded the English Society of Philadelphia, already then with
ecumenical aspirations, for it was not a church in itself, but a meeting society where each
of the members belonged to other churches88. She also maintained universalist ideas,
which she wanted to base biblically and for this she resorted to the passage of Christ's
descent into hell (1 Pet 3:19-21), establishing once again that sinners must go through the
"fire" for their pre-salvation purification89. She also declared that: "[All this is] a
forerunner of this blissful Jubilee, the Trumpet of the Everlasting Gospel, of love, peace,
and reconciliation to every creature capable thereof, in flesh, and out of flesh, that are not
yet fully redeemed"90.
Between the 17th and 18th centuries the Petersens (Johann Wilhelm Petersen and
Johanna Eleonora Petersen) stood out. Johann wrote, for example: "We came to
understand that God is essentially love, and that his unending mercy would pour itself out
on all his Creation"91. Among the Pietists at this time we would find William Law, one of
the most explicitly universalists of the time, and with gifts for expression, which made
86 J. WHITE, The Restoration of All Things 19 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 53.
87 J. WHITE, The Restoration of All Things 147 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 57.
89 Cf. Ibid., 63-64.
90 LEAD, Enochian Walks n.p. in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 67.
91 J. W. PETERSEN, Life, 297-307 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 77.
29
his texts especially appealing. In addition, he held the idea of a certain indivisible unity
among all that was created, for him there would be "Nature", which would be redeemed
by Christ. Thus, he said, "God’s Providence, from the Fall to the Restitution of all Things,
is doing the same Thing, as when he said to the dark Chaos of fallen Nature, ‘Let there
be light!’; he still says, and will continue saying the same Thing, till there is no evil of
darkness left in all that is Nature and Creature"92. He went so far as to condemn those
who blaspheme against God by talking about double predestination or eternal hell, for he
says: "[Christ] is the universal remedy of all evil broken forth in Nature and Creature...
He is the breathing forth of the heart, life, and Spirit of God, into all the race of Adam.
He is the seeker, the finder, the restorer, of all that was lost and dead to the life of God.
He is the love, that, from Cain to the end of time, prays for all its murderers"93. Beautiful
is the text in which Law says: "An infinity of mere love, an unbeginning, never-ceasing,
and forever overflowing ocean of meekness, sweetness, delight, blessing, goodness,
patience, and mercy, and all this as so many blessed streams breaking out of the abyss of
universal love, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, a Triune infinity of love and goodness, for
ever and ever giving forth nothing but the same gifts of light and love, of blessing and
joy, whether before or after the Fall, either of angels or men"94.
Within Calvinism in the eighteenth century James Relly would also defend
universalism, and he would do so simply from the Pauline theology of the "New Adam":
they all died for Adam, all have been saved by Christ by sheer grace. As a curiosity to
note that, given the important role of the doctrine of predestination in Calvinism, Relly
will interpret from universalism predestination so that while everyone is saved by Christ,
most will not be aware of it in this life, but some would be chosen by God to be aware of
it already in this life95. Relly was followed, among others, by the Murrays (John Murray
and Judith Sargent Murray); John said, "Our Savior, was not an unequivocal or
conditional Savior"96. For the Murrays, since we are already saved, life would be to grow
92 LAW, Address to the Clergy, 64 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 101.
93 LAW, Spirit of prayer 108 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 100.
94 Law, Serious Call 423 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 96.
96 J. MURRAY, Letters and Sketches 1:191 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 134.
30
in awareness of it97.
There even have been a universalist church in the United States, based in the
Articles of Faith signed, among others, by Benjamin Rush, one of the signatories also of
the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America 98. It seems that over the
centuries the universalist church became so open to religious pluralism that it blurred its
Christian being and fell into irrelevance. He officially joined the unitary church in 1961
forming the Unitary-Universalist Association that still exists today99.
Interesting to us is the case of Andrew Michael Ramsey, a Scot convert to

Catholicism who lived between the 17th and 18th centuries and who studied in France
with the famed Francois Fénelon. In addition, he related to Madame Jeanne Guyon, in
turn famous mystique who would also appear to have shown certain universalist
tendencies 100. Ramsey said that "God will at last pardon and re-establish in happiness all
lapsed beings"101. On a deeper level Ramsey wondered: what if someone wanted to reject
God forever? He could simply not, Ramsey will say, for in the end we are made in a
certain way, we have a nature that unfailingly seeks happiness, and if we can only find it
in God, sooner or later we will go to Him to seek it102. Within the Catholic sphere the
author also rescues for us a very suggestive text by St Teresa of Lisieux, although it is
true that I do not know the extent to which it could be taken seriously since it is a
Christmas theatre-play written by Teresa for her sisters of habit, Les anges à la crèche de
Jésus. In the work a fictional dialogue is recreated between the Jesus and the angel of the
Last Judgment, and in the end the Jesus would say that he loves all souls so deeply that
in the end every soul will be forgiven103.
97 Cf. R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 134.

99 Cf. Ibid., 172-173.
100 Cf. Ibid., 148-149.
101 A. M. RAMSEY, Philosophical Principles 1,430 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II,
149.
102 Cf. R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 150.
103 Cf. Ibid., 151.
31
Within the nineteenth century we could quickly mention Thomas Erskine, an
English theologian who expressed a rather original view of God's righteousness: "In God
mercy and justice are one and the same thing, – that his justice never demands punishment
for its own sake, and can be satisfied with nothing but righteousness and that his mercy
seeks the highest good of man which certainly is righteousness, and will therefore use any
means, however painful, to produce it in him"104. For his part, Edward Plumptre wrote
the book The spirits in prison and other studies on life after death in 1884, returning to
the subject of Christ's descent into hell in 1 Pet 3: 19105. George MacDonald was a
theologian and writer who lived at the end of the 18th century and who wrote a fictional
literary work where he imagines what this post-mortem purification process might look
like even among the worst sinners, heeding Lilith, Adam's mythical first wife106. Samuel
Cox among baptists also held a universalist stance based on the passage of Christ's descent
into hell107. Finally, we could quote Hannah Whitall Smith who claimed to have had a
certain "revelation" (an awareness, and not an apparition) recalling the passage of Is 53:
11 ("He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied" [be satisfied in Hannah Whitall's
text]): "Christ is to be satisfied! [...] If I were Christ, nothing could satisfy me but that
every human being should in the end be saved, and therefore I am sure that nothing less
will satisfy Him"108.
So far comes the research of the work and, although only a few chosen passages
have been presented here, as was said at the beginning the extension of the work to the
great modern Catholic and Orthodox authors is lacking. On the other hand, it must be
acknowledged that what has been presented seems to be quite well founded the idea that,
in fact, when we refer to apokatastasis we are not talking about a theory but of an
authentic theological tradition that has survived over the centuries and which has
expanded throughout Christian confessions, with foundations in Sacred Scripture and
Tradition. We will now go on to analyze what is still to this day, at least in Catholicism
104 T. ERSKINE, Purpose of God 72-73 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 199.
106 Cf. Ibid., 237-239.
107 Cf. Ibid., 248-251.
108 H. W. SMITH, The Christian's secret of a happy life 204-205 in R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger
hope?... vol. II, 261.
32
and Orthodoxy, the greatest broom that is presented to us when it comes to assuming it as
yet another theological tradition: the supposed condemnation against the apokatastasis of
the Second Council of Constantinople.
ABOUT THE SUPPOSED CONDEMNATION OF APOKATASTASIS AT THE

SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The supposed condemnation of the theory of apokatastasis in the Second Council

of Constantinople is a matter of some complexity due to a large number of factors. Firstly,
we are facing a historical period, the 6th century, very convulsive in terms of political,
social and religious life. We will try to figure out the problem as clearly as possible.
When Emperor Justinian I ascended to the throne of Constantinople in 527 the

Roman Empire of the West no longer existed, and the only valid interlocutor left in the
West was the Pope of Rome. In turn, the Eastern Roman Empire (later called Byzantine)
saw its borders continually besieged. As if that were not enough, a schism had just been
resolved just eight years ago between the Pope in the West and Constantinople and the
East on Christological grounds, giving reason in the end to Rome and condemning
Nestorius, Eutyches and Acacius, although unity was fragile. As a basic hermeneutic
criterion we must understand that from the existential point of view of Justinian he was
not the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire, but the emperor
of the Romans, the emperor of Rome, of this "second Rome" who had become
Constantinople after the fall into barbaric hands of the original on the banks of the Tiber.
Thus, he set out with all his might to recover the lost, to restore Rome to its first glory, it
was not yet too late, he would think, and having as leitmotiv "unity is strength", so to
speak, the young emperor would spend the rest of his life fighting to reunify everything
under an Empire, a Church and an emperor. From here we could understand everything
33
that came next109.
The union with Rome behind the Monophysite schism seems to have been the
business of Justinian himself, still heir to the throne at the time110, and while the sentence
was in some ways against many of his own, Eastern bishops, he was already clear: it was
a necessary step to recover the West. That is why the western military campaigns with
which Italy would be reconquered, and Rome therefore Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, the
North African coast and the east-south of Hispania, succeeded111. Certainly the Roman
Empire, under his command, really seemed to be returning, it seemed possible. We must
try to imagine how they would see it and live it then.
In the midst of all this, and as Ramelli tells us, a movement of radical origenist
monks began to take strength in Palestine112. At this point we should re-emphasize the
differentiation between the theory of apokatastasis as a universalist tradition and
"origenism", which are not exactly the same, as we have seen, although they are linked.
In turn, we should make one more differentiation between true Origen and "origenism",
which in the end became a very vague and diffuse concept that grouped from the opinions
of some of his followers to simply things that others had said and which were attributed
to him. We will try to address the issue by maintaining these differentiations. Thus in 543
Emperor Justinian together with Patriarch Menas, at the request appears to be of
Palestinian monks opposed to the origenist monks of that place113, in a local Synod114
convened in Constantinople, promulgated nine anathematisms against Origen in the so-
called Edict to Patriarch Menas, the ninth and last of which did condemn the theory of
109 Cf. J. SHEPARD (ed.), The byzantine empire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, 99-114.
110 Cf. Ibid., 105.
111 Cf. Ibid., 109-111.
113 Cf. H. CROUZEL, "Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene", Augustinianum 26 (1986) 300.
114 Denominated in Greek as σύνοδος ἐνδημοῦσα, it was a "Permanent Synod" where legislative, legal or
administrative issues of local ecclesial life were managed [Cf. F. DIEKAMP Die origenistischen
Streitigkeiten im sechsten Jahrhundert und das fünfte allgemeine Concil, Aschendorff, Münster 1899,
129 and J. HAJJAR, " Le synode permanent (σύνοδος ἐνδημοῦσα) dans l'Église byzantine des origines
au XI siècle," Revue des études byzantines 23 (1965) 302-303].
34
apokatastasis115. However, it was, in the end, only a local Synod116. On the other hand,
as we mentioned earlier, here it was a question of condemning "origenism" as a diffuse
cluster of theories often erroneously attributed to Origen; Henri Crouzel himself points
out that Origen is credited in this document with the idea that the image of God in man
would be in the body, an idea that Origen had explicitly fought against his
anthropomorphist adversaries117.
However, where the real binding condemnation of the theory of apokatastasis

would supposedly appear would be at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople
in 553, just ten years later. Again, it would be within the framework of condemnation of
Origen and origenism, as it was never treated as an isolated issue. However, modern
critical research in the twentieth century has shown that such condemnation against
Origen and against origenism, and therefore against the theory of apokatastasis in the
midst of it, never actually occurred118. This is why the figure of Origen was rehabilitated
in the twentieth century and why he could be cited as an authority in the Second Vatican
Council, on the other hand119.
The truth is that if we read the research that has led the various scholars to this
conclusion the first thing, we realize is that the Second Council of Constantinople was
115 Cf. H. DENZINGER - P. HÜNERMANN, El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum

et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, Shepherd, Barcelona 2000, nn. 403-411.
116 It appears that according to Casiodorus this document would have been ratified by the Pope Vigilius a
posteriori [Ibid.], but we must remember the various degrees of authority concerning ecclesiastical
documents, and that this would be only a particular or local Synod of much less entity, certainly never
definitive in itself; we could recall in this regard, for example, the Provincial Council of Cologne of
1860, which had condemned the theory of evolution with the approval of Pope Pius IX [S. J. E. DOMO,
Acta et Decreta Sacrorum Conciliorum Recentiorum. Collectio Lacensis, 7 Full., Friburgi Brisgoviae,
Sumtibus Herder 1879, vol. V, 268; 292] and would nevertheless later be accepted as admissible [Cf.
PIUS XII, Errores modernos. Encíclica Humani Generis, Sígueme, Salamanca 1962, 29].
117 Cf. H. CROUZEL, "Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene"... 300.
118 The most modern critical editions of masterful collections of the Ecumenical Councils no longer
already collect in fact the 15 anathema against Origen by not considering them part of the Council [Cf.
G. ALBERIGO – A. M. RITTER – L. ABRAMOVICH et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Generaliumque Decreta, 5 Full., Brepols, Turnhout 2006, vol. I, 155-161 y G. ALBERIGO G. L. DOSSETTI
et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, Bologna 2013, 105-
106].
119 Cf. H. DENZINGER, 19 – P. HÜNERMANN, El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion symbolorum
definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum... n. 4110.
35
solved amid great irregularities and coercions. The resulting impression is that Emperor
Justinian and his close friends would have tried to manipulate the Council.
First, and surprisingly, we discover that the original minutes of the Council have
been lost. We don't know why. This is certainly not commonplace. The only thing that is
preserved are the "Three Chapters" against Nestorianism120, a Greek version and two
others in Latin, one long and one brief; the introduction to the Council, only in Greek;
and another document with the 15 anathema against origenism, only in Greek121, and
which was discovered in 1679 by P. Lambeck122. In addition, as adjacent documents, we
could mention the emperor's Homonoia or draft what would later be the text of the "Three
Chapters"123, and the letter of approval from the Council of Pope Vigilius124.
Apparently, the emperor decides to convene a Council in Constantinople to

approach the monophysites and condemn the Nestorians and thus seek political-religious
unity in the Empire, but Pope Vigilius, old and sick, and without the support of the African
bishops, didn’t want to. Still, it appears that the Pope would have offered various
possibilities to carry out the Council in Italy or Sicily in January 553, but Justinian had
already summoned a year earlier various bishops of the five patriarchies, securing a
majority of like-minded bishops. Finally, the Council took place between 5 May and 2
June 553, and was attended by 152 bishops (although 166 bishops signed the final
minutes), being presided over by the Patriarch of Constantinople Eutyches, successor of
Menas125.
Pope Vigilius on 14 May agrees to sign, together with 16 bishops and the two
deacons who had accompanied him from Rome, a document (Constitutum) condemning
120 Cf. Ibid., nn. 421-438.

121 Cf. G. ALBERIGO – A. M. RITTER – L. ABRAMOVICH et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Generaliumque Decreta... 159.
122 Cf. H. CROUZEL, "Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene"... 301.
123 Cf. Ibid.
124 Cf. G. ALBERIGO FOR G. L. DOSSETTI et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta... 105.
125 Cf. G. ALBERIGO – A. M. RITTER – L. ABRAMOWSKI et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Generaliumque Decreta... 155-156.
36
various theories of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Ibas, but refusing to condemn them
totally. For this reason, Justinian sets a machiavellian trap for the Pope and publicly
proclaimed in the room three secret letters previously sent to him by the Pope with his
intention to condemn the "Three Chapters", then deciding to take out the name of Pope
Vigilius from the diptychs as a sign of condemnation against his person126. After this trap,
the humiliation suffered and also the pressure by force that the emperor exerted against
the Roman priests, Pope Vigilius approved the condemnations contained in the "Three
Chapters" and finally condemned Theodore of Mopsuestia and Ibas with a letter
addressed to Patriarch Eutyches on 8 December 553127. The Pope's three secret letters to
the emperor made public by the emperor himself in the Council, as well as the document
of the condemnation of Vigilius, an order for the expulsion of the Roman deacons who
had accompanied Vigilius and an edict proclaiming non-compliance with the promises of
Vigilius is what the long Latin version of the "Three Chapters" contains and does not
contain the brief128. This forced humiliation with violence would lead some Western
episcopates not to recognize this Council, such as the Visigothic church, to rebellions
against it in regions of Gaul, Ilyria, Sicily, Sardinia and Rome, and to a schism that would
last almost a hundred years with Milan and Aquileia129. On the other hand the following
year Pope Vigilius would publish an epistle, Adversus tria capitula in which he would try
to reconcile his forced condemnation with the decrees approved in the Council of
Chalcedon130.
However, with regard to what we are dealing with, apokatastasis is mentioned

only at one of the points in the loose document with the 15 anathematisms against
origenism found only in Greek131. On Origen himself, he only appears in this loose
document and only in the 11th point of the "Three Chapters" in the middle of a list of
126 Cf. Ibid., 156-157.

127 Cf. G. ALBERIGO FOR G. L. DOSSETTI et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta... 105.
128 Cf. G. ALBERIGO – A. M. RITTER – L. ABRAMOWSKI et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Generaliumque Decreta... 160.
129 Cf. Ibid., 158.
130 Cf. Ibid., 157.
131 J. STRAUB (ed.), Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum IV/1, De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, 248-249.
37
alleged heretics that were condemned132.
So, and this already makes us put on notice, nothing is mentioned at any time
regarding the theory of apokatastasis or Origen in the document of introduction to the
Council, neither in the Homonoia or draft of the "Three Chapters", nor in the letter of
approval of the Council of Pope Vigilius, nor in the Pope's epistle of partial retraction
regarding his previous forced sentence or Adversus tria capitula, which leaves us the
feeling that the Pope seems to have had no news of the question concerning origenism133.
In addition, the Pope showed his refusal to completely condemn Theodore of Mopsuestia
and Ibas, which he accesses in the end only through coercion, but nothing is said about
qualms or not when it comes to allegedly condemning Origen. All this leaves us only,
again, the Greek document of the 15 points of condemnation, and a mention of Origen in
the "Three Chapters".
The solution was offered by Franz Diekamp in his extensive and in-depth study
by verifying that, in fact, the condemnation document with the 15 points against Origen
or origenism was drawn up before the official opening of the Council, and is therefore a
text that does not belong to the Second Council of Constantinople. It seems that Justinian
had already gathered in Constantinople the bishops for the Council, of overwhelming
Eastern majority, and they would be waiting for the arrival of Pope Vigilius, which was
far behind because as we saw the Pope did not really want to attend a Council that he
considered manipulated. According to Diekamp's studies, the object of the Council was
never anything other than to treat the "Three Chapters", however, precisely in that time
interval of a couple of months awaiting the Pope's arrival it seems that in Palestine the
isocristic origenist monks would have succeed in putting as Patriarch of Jerusalem, on the
death of Patriarch Petros, Macarius, an origenist monk like them. This would have caused
a great political shock and in December 552 Macarius would come deposed and
Eustochius would be put instead as Patriarch of Jerusalem. This called on Theodore of

definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum... n. 433.
133 Cf. H. CROUZEL, "Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene"... 300-301.
38
Schytopolis to send a Libel or letter to the emperor in the same month asking him to
condemn the isocristic origenists. Between March 553 and May 5 of that same year, which
is when the Council is officially opened, the emperor convened a σύνοδος ἐνδημοῦσα or
"Local Synod" to condemn the doctrines of the isocristic origenist party of Palestine, and
that is what would really be the 15 points of supposed condemnation of Origen that
Lambeck found134. On the other hand, this would explain, again, why some of the
doctrinal points condemned were never said by Origen, since what was sought here was
a specific branch of origenism operating in a very specific area, in Palestine, which would
in any case correspond better to the functionality of a local Synod 135. Be that as it may,
the minutes of this Local Synod would end up associating with the Council.
The other question would be that of point 11th of the "Three Chapters", a
document this time proper to the Council, in which a list of names of alleged heretics to
be condemned appears and at the end of which Origen is mentioned. The thing is, it looks
like it would be an addition. All names are listed in chronological order except Origen,
and it is precisely the last name written, always easier logically to add at the end. In
addition, it was also not included in the Homonoia document or draft of the "Three
Chapters", where in that point number 11th all the names of the final document appear
except that of Origen136. As if that were not enough, just one hundred years later at the
Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople between the years 680 and 681 various
conciliar fathers raised their voices claiming, already then, that the original Greek minutes
of the II Council of Constantinople of the year 553 had been manipulated137.
Finally, this would be the vision that would best be consistent with the subsequent
documents, where in the East gradually the idea that Origen would have been supposedly
condemned in the Council would have been imposed, while in the West it seems that this
134 Cf. F. DIEKAMP, Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten im sechsten Jahrhundert und das fünfte allgemeine
Concil... 129-141.
135 Isocristic origenists thought that in the final universal restoration all rational beings would be equal to
Christ [Cf. A. GUILLAUMONT, Les 'képhalaia gnostica' d'Évagre le Pontique et l'Histoire de l'origénisme
chez les grecs et chez les syriens, Editions du Seuil, Paris 1962, 143-151].
136 Cf. H. CROUZEL, "Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene"... 301-302.
Concil... 136 and I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 174.
39
idea would not have been known at first and would be introduced slowly. Just as Pope
Vigilius never mentions Origen, none of the later Popes do so, nor Pelagio I, neither John
III (who does collect various condemnations against other characters), neither Benedict I
nor Pelagio II138, nor even Gregory the Great, who precisely in his letter Consideranti
mihi to the Patriarchs praise the last Ecumenical Councils and how they defended faith
against the various heresies, saying about the fifth that it condemned Ibas, Theodore of
Mopsuestia and Theodoret. Origen is, again, not mentioned139. It is true that, however,
several subsequent Councils and Synods mention as an alleged accession to the Second
Council of Constantinople their rejection of Origen (the Lateran Synod of 649, the III
Council of Constantinople, or the II Council of Nicaea), but let us note that all of them
took place in the East, or were carried out mostly by Orientals140 (the Lateran Synod of
649 was fully guided by Eastern theologians141), which again coincides with the vision
we have been developing. On the other hand, it is true that, as Diekamp says, these
statements in various Councils and Synods were not the result of a conscious and
deliberate intention to value, judge and condemn Origen or their theories, but were only
the repetition of something that they then considered true, and therefore could not be
taken as convictions themselves142.
THE QUESTION OF PURGATORY AND THE POSITION OF HANS URS

VON BALTHASAR
An interesting topic on which Ramelli does not go deeper but does point out would
be that of the relationship between this universalist tradition and the subject of purgatory.

definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum... nn. 441-470.
139 Cf. Ibid., 472.
140 Cf. A. GUILLAUMONT, Les 'képhalaia gnostica' d'Évagre le Pontique et l'Histoire de l'origénisme chez
les grecs et chez les syriens... 136-137.
141 Cf. J. SHEPARD (ed.), The byzantine empire... 231-232.
Concil... 136-137.
40
Indeed, at the time of the Patristic era, in which classical universalist tradition would be
forged, there was not in general this idea of purgatory, but only that of salvation or
condemnation143. The idea of an intermediate state of purification seems closer to the
ideas of classical universalists than anything else. In fact, Ramelli says, medieval
theologians used the texts of Gregory of Nyssa that spoke of the purifying nature of the
punishments of the other world to see in it a confirmation of the idea of purgatory, when
in reality what Gregory was holding was the classical universalist posture144. Certainly,
seeing in the full acceptance of the notion of purgatory at least an implicit acceptance of
partly of the universalist tradition is suggestive, but it is an issue that would need to be
deepened.
Another issue that I think I could not fail to address, even if it were nothing more
than from my humble opinion, would be the question of why the universalist tradition
would have been dispersing throughout history, and, although we have already seen that
it never disappeared, the truth is that it has long passed into a discreet background. On
this, from my poor opinion it seems to me that we should simply refer to hermeneutics.
There is a certain percentage that depends on the subject you interpret, in this case the
Holy Scriptures or the Tradition itself. I am not saying by this that it is anything relative,
dependent on the subject, of course not, but different peoples with different sensitivities
and problems throughout history would have accentuated some aspects more than others.
For example, against the idea of possible universal salvation, the same question has
always been raised: then why do nothing? But it is a question arising from a concrete way
of conceiving things, for one could also understand it perhaps as the exponents of classical
universalist tradition did, understanding that man actually lives in darkness, and that he
will continue in them with suffering as long as he does not open himself to God.
One last aspect that I would consider necessary to deal with, even if it were briefly,
would be to know where it is or what remains of the universalist tradition today in the
Catholic sphere, which is its own. I consider that perhaps the last great Catholic
143 Theologoumenons like “the limbo” would later appear among medieval speculations.
41
theologian who entered or at least approached universalism was Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Like classical universalists, Balthasar would base any approach to such postures on deep
Christocentrism. On the other hand, and interestingly, Balthasar’s position on possible
universalism would be based above all perhaps on the rediscovery of the article of the
Creed regarding the "descension into hell", which, as we saw, has always been a very
present aspect in the universalist tradition if not born in its bosom, or vice versa, in the
midst of the Petrine tradition.
However, Balthasar, as a 20th-century Catholic, must always think, in principle,

of a tripartite categorization: Heaven, Purgatory, Hell. His most famous hypothesis about
this would be that called the "empty hell" (although he himself did not like this
expression145). Now, whatever this expression means would be a more complex matter.
Personally, I believe that knowledge of this universalist tradition has allowed me to
understand it better and more clearly. Balthasar himself claims to know some classical
universalist authors such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor146,
and we can even assume with relative certainty that he would know many others he does
not cite, being such a theologian.
Be aware of it or not, or at least partially, I believe that he developed a deeply

anchored and continuous vision of classical universalist tradition. Christocentric, centered
on the Paschal Mystery, on Christ's descent into hell, which eliminates neither the hope
nor the dramatism of human life. And, in turn, I think he also gave a possible solution to
the question of how the mystery of hell could be understood from the universalist tradition
(wither he himself aware of it or not):
"The fact that Christ enters ‘hell’ (or ‘the hells’, Hades, Sheol) is his ultimate
obedience to the Father. In fact, hell is (already in the Old Testament) the place where
God is not, in which there is no longer the light of faith, of hope, of love, of
participation in God's life; hell is that which God in his judgment has cast out of his
145 Cf. H. U. VON BALTHASAR, Tratado sobre el infierno. Compendio, Edicep, Valencia 2000, 133.
146 Cf. Ibid., 134.
42
Creation, that which is filled with what cannot be compatible with God, that from
which He walks away eternally: it is filled with the reality of every absence of God
in the world, from the sum of the sin of the world. And it is precisely that from which
the crucified God has liberated the world"147
As we can see, we wouldn't be talking about any kind of "empty stay," but a
Redemption that invades everything. I think it would be a vision that would be consistent
with the thought of the briefly seen authors belonging to the universalist tradition.
147 H. U. VON BALTHASAR, Erster Blick auf Adrienne von Speyr, Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 1975, 50 in
W. MAAS, “Il mistero del Sabato Santo”, in La missione ecclesiale di Adrienne von Speyr. Atti del II
Colloquio Internazionale del pensiero cristiano, Jaca Book, Milano 1986 [in the cited version it appears
in Italian, the translation is mine].
43
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Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta, 5 voll., Brepols, Turnhout 2006, vol. I.I.
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2000.
CLEMENTE DE ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata, 4 voll., Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid

2005, voll. II-IV.
CROUZEL,H., “Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene”, Augustinianum

26 (1986) 295-303.
DENZINGER, H., – HÜNERMANN, P., El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion

symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, Herder, Barcelona
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DIEKAMP, F., Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten im sechsten Jahrhundert und das

fünfte allgemeine Concil, Aschendorff, Münster 1899.
44
DOMO, S. J. E., Acta et Decreta Sacrorum Conciliorum Recentiorum. Collectio
Lacensis, 7 voll., Friburgi Brisgoviae, Sumtibus Herder 1879, vol. V.
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l'origénisme chez les grecs et chez les syriens, Editions du Seuil, Paris 1962.
HAJJAR, J., "Le synode permanent (σύνοδος ἐνδημοῦσα) dans l'Église byzantine
des origines au XI siècle," Revue des études byzantines 23 (1965) 302-303.
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del pensiero cristiano, Jaca Book, Milan 1986.
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Editori, Verona 2002.
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Stuttgart 2012.
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University Press, Cambridge 2012.
PARRY, R. A., – RAMELLI, I., A larger hope?, 2 voll., Cascade Books, Eugene 2019,
vol. II.
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1962.
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Everyone Is Forced into It”, Journal of Biblical Literature 127/4 (2008) 737–758.
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Gorgias Press, New Jersey 2007.
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46

Apokatastasis or Universal Restoration As A Theological Tradition in The Work of Ilaria Ramelli

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CARLOS MIRAMONTES SEIJAS1

APOKATASTASIS OR UNIVERSAL RESTORATION

OVERVIEW: In Ilaria Ramelli's work we find an unreleased approach to the

KEY WORDS: Ilaria Ramelli; apokatastasis; universal restoration; salvation;

The generalized conception to date conceived the doctrine of apokatastasis as a

As far as Hellenistic Judaism is concerned, the term apokatastasis was used to

7 Cf. Ibid., 4-5.

A particularly interesting passage would be that of Ez 16: 55 which speaks of the

11 Cf. Ibid., 9-10.

21 Cf. Ibid., 14-18.

27 Cf. Ibid., 8-9.

31 Cf. Ibid., 56-57.

36 Cf. Ibid., 66-67.

Belonging to the classical universalist tradition would be those, in my view of

39 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... Vol. And, 21.

We could also say something about Pantaenus, master of Clement of Alexandria,

On the universalist belief of Clement of Alexandria, we must say that Ramelli is

43 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... Vol. And, 24.

Disciple of Clement of Alexandria was Origen of Alexandria, surely the best

55 Cf. Ibid., 69-72.

The quotes of Gregory of Nyssa collected by Ramelli concerning his universalist

65 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 119.

THE UNIVERSALIST TRADITION AFTER THE SECOND COUNCIL OF

In the 7th century we find Isaac of Nineveh, another clear exponent of

67 Cf. I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. I, 170-171.

74 Cf. R. VAN NIEUWENHOVE, An introduction to Medieval Theology, Cambridge University Press,

Guillaume Postel, a Catholic priest and scholar, connoisseur of Arabic, Hebrew,

Interesting to us is the case of Andrew Michael Ramsey, a Scot convert to

97 Cf. R. A. PARRY – I. RAMELLI, A larger hope?... vol. II, 134.

ABOUT THE SUPPOSED CONDEMNATION OF APOKATASTASIS AT THE

The supposed condemnation of the theory of apokatastasis in the Second Council

When Emperor Justinian I ascended to the throne of Constantinople in 527 the

However, where the real binding condemnation of the theory of apokatastasis

115 Cf. H. DENZINGER - P. HÜNERMANN, El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum

Apparently, the emperor decides to convene a Council in Constantinople to

120 Cf. Ibid., nn. 421-438.

However, with regard to what we are dealing with, apokatastasis is mentioned

126 Cf. Ibid., 156-157.

132 Cf. H. DENZINGER, 19 – P. HÜNERMANN, El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion symbolorum

THE QUESTION OF PURGATORY AND THE POSITION OF HANS URS

138 Cf. H. DENZINGER, 19 – P. HÜNERMANN, El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion symbolorum

However, Balthasar, as a 20th-century Catholic, must always think, in principle,

Be aware of it or not, or at least partially, I believe that he developed a deeply

ALBERIGO, G., – DOSSETTI, G. L., et alii (eds.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum

BALTHASAR, H. U. V., Tratado sobre el infierno. Compendio, Edicep, Valencia

CLEMENTE DE ALEJANDRÍA, Strómata, 4 voll., Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid

CROUZEL,H., “Origene e l'origenismo: le condanne di Origene”, Augustinianum

DENZINGER, H., – HÜNERMANN, P., El Magisterio de la Iglesia. Enchiridion

DIEKAMP, F., Die origenistischen Streitigkeiten im sechsten Jahrhundert und das

GUILLAUMONT, A, Les 'képhalaia gnostica' d'Évagre le Pontique et l'Histoire de

La missione ecclesiale di Adrienne von Speyr. Atti del II Colloquio Internazionale

MANTOVANI, F., Teilhard de Chardin. L'orizzonte dell'uomo, Il Segno dei Gabrielli

NIEUWENHOVE, R. V, An introduction to Medieval Theology, Cambridge

PIUS XII, Errores modernos. Encíclica Humani Generis, Sígueme, Salamanca

STRAUB, J., (ed.), Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum IV/1, De Gruyter, Berlin

The new English Bible, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970.

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