Monthly Archives: January 2020

Apprehending Apokatastasis: The Damned Are Suffering For Your Bliss

Posted on 31 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The transcendent, omnipotent and omniscient Deity has freely created a cosmos whose eschatological consummation will be heaven and hell—so traditional theology tells us. He might have created a different cosmos, one in which all rational beings enjoy eternal beati­tude (no … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, David B. Hart, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , | 78 Comments

God is Different Because of the World

Posted on 29 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Norris Clarke is clear—he does not seek a repristination of the metaphysics of St Thomas Aquinas. He speaks, rather, of a “creative retrieval”; and some of his views can be pretty creative, at least by Thomist standards. Consider Clarke’s position … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | 26 Comments

Apprehending Apokatastasis: Revealing the God Behind the Curtain

Posted on 26 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“In my end is my beginning”—so concludes T. S. Eliot’s poem “East Coker.” The line may also be taken as a succinct expression of David Bentley Hart’s understanding of God’s free creation of the cosmos and its eschatological consummation in … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, David B. Hart, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

“In himself Christ brought us light which would enable us to see our sins, and hate our darkness”

Posted on 25 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Everyone knows that we were all born in darkness, and once lived in darkness. But now that the Sun of Righteousness has risen for us, let us see that we no longer remain in darkness. Christ came to enlighten those … Continue reading →

Posted in Citations | Comments Off on “In himself Christ brought us light which would enable us to see our sins, and hate our darkness”

Apprehending Apokatastasis: The Incoherence of Everlasting Perdition

Posted on 22 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

I’m a bit surprised to find myself beginning a series of reflections on That All Shall Be Saved by David Bentley Hart. The book has already generated a copiosity of reviews from theolo­gians and internet cognoscenti. Eclectic Orthodoxy has hosted … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, David B. Hart, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Analogy of Being: Knowing God in Similarity within Dissimilarity

Posted on 22 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

How is it possible to speak meaningfully of the infinite and transcendent God? By definition he is not an object of our sensible, perhaps not even of our intellectual, experience; yet human language is grounded in our experience of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | 2 Comments

Existence, Essence, and the One and the Many

Posted on 20 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The problem of the one and the many, writes Norris Clarke, “is the ultimate paradox of being and the deepest and the most fundamental problem of all metaphysics, of every intellectual effort to achieve a total, unified vision of all … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | 8 Comments

“Death swallowed the Lamb who was sacrificed for all, and then disgorging him disgorged all of us in him and with him”

Posted on 18 January 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“When he saw Jesus coming toward him John said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (Jn 1:29). No longer does he say: Prepare. That would be out of place now that at last … Continue reading →

Posted in Cyril of Alexandria | 2 Comments