Eschatology

WENDY PAULA NICHOLSON

Eschatology (from the Greek, “doctrine of the last things”) is concerned with mysteries which will be revealed at the Judgment. However, in the Orthodox faith, eschato­logy is a reality now as well as in times to come. The uncreated energies of God trans­form the created order at any point in time, fulfilling the promise of the kingdom even before the end of our age. It is, above all, in the church and its sacraments, particularly in the divine liturgy, that this fulfillment is realized, when uncreated grace breaks through the limits of our fallen temporal existence, offering healing and a foretaste of Eternity. As Vladimir Lossky put it: “Eschatology becomes present at the moment when man becomes capable of cooperating in the divine plan” (Lossky 1989: 224). The extent to which this cooper­ation is reached in the created realm is believed to determine the experience of entry into the uncreated realm of God after death: what will become an individual’s judg­ment of paradise or hell.

Orthodoxy practices a notable level of caution in interpreting the biblical apoca­lyptic narratives. It is generally accepted that apocalyptic literature uses coded expressions equal to the mystery of the age to come, something beyond our experience. The practice of Nipsis (watchfulness) and the “remembrance of death” are ways in which the majority of the faithful will more profi­tably heed Christ’s instruction: “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Mt. 24.42)

After the time of St. Augustine (5th century), the church came to regard “chili- asm” or “millenarianism” (the idea that before the Last Judgment Christ will return for a thousand year earthly reign), as an error in the interpretation of Revelation 20.4. Augustine rejects the idea as “carnal” and interprets the thousand year reign as the current age of the church, over which Christ already reigns with the saints (Augustine 1993: 426–31). There is scant evidence that chiliasm has ever been condemned by an ecumenical council (pace Pomazansky 1983: 344) and the idea is present in the writings of early Latin fathers, as well as in St. Justin Martyr, St. Irenaeus, and St. Hippolytus. However, by reducing the kingdom to a finite duration analogous to an earthly regime, chiliasm runs counter to the Orthodox belief and experience that we are already invited to enjoy uninterrupted and unend­ing participation in God’s uncreated grace.

The extreme opposite of chiliasm, Origen’s doctrine of universal Apokatastasis (restoration) was condemned by the Sec­ond Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553 (Schaff and Wace 1983: 318–20). In rejecting biblical literalism, Origen taught that all souls, even the Devil, would eventu­ally return to an original preembodied state contemplating the divine Nous (mind).

He thus reduced creation and redemption to a protology which Orthodoxy definitively rejected.

SEE ALSO: Council of Constantinople II (553); Deification; Divine Liturgy, Orthodox; Grace; Judgment

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Augustine, St. (1993) The City of God. Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos (2000) Life after Death, trans. E. Williams. Levadia-Hellas, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos Mon-astery. Lossky, V. (1989) Orthodox Theology. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Pomazansky, Protopresbyter Michael (1983) Dogmatic Theology, trans. S. Rose. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.

Schaff, P. and Wace, H. (eds.) (1983) The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd-mans.