A poem celebrating Christian Universalism

Explorations in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis

By Scott Cairns

Among obscurer heresies, this dearest rests within a special class of gross immoderation, the heart of which reveals what proves these days to be a refreshing degree of filial regard.

Specifically, the word is how we apprehend one giddy, largely Syriac belief that all and everyone will be redeemed -- or, more nearly, have been redeemed, always, have only to notice.

You may have marked by now how late Semitic habits are seldom quite so neighbourly, but this ancient one looks so downright cordial I shouldn t be surprised if it proved genesis for the numbing vision

Abba Isaac !uria glimpsed in his spinning permutations of "he #ord$ %amely, everything we know as well as everything we don t in all creation came to be in that brief, abysmal

vacuum "he &oly 'ne first opened in &imself. So it s not so far a stretch from that (ivine )*cess to advocate the sacred possibility that in some final, graceful metanoia &e

will mend that ancient wound completely, and for all.

Scott Cairns is an American Greek ortho ox poet originally !rom a "e!orme backgro#n $ The poem is written in a % i!!ic#lt style& an '&m still thinking it thro#gh (altho#gh ' really like it) *ere are some notes '&ve ma e on what ' think it means to ate + b#t !eel !ree to correct me ,

Apocatastasis is the Greek wor !or reconcillation , taken as rea $ An as a octrine re!ers to #nviersal reconcilliation$

Among obscurer heresies, this dearest rests within a special class of gross immoderation, the heart of which reveals what proves these days to be a refreshing degree of filial regard.

*e talks abo#t #niversalism as a % ear heresy& + so he&s act#ally in love with this heresy which is immo erate in its compassion

Specifically, the word is how we apprehend one giddy, largely Syriac belief that all and everyone will be redeemed -- or, more nearly, have been redeemed, always, have only to notice.

%Syriac& + #niversalism !lo#rishe anciently among Syrian Christians (---)$ ' think he may also be re!erring to .es#s& wor s beca#se Aramaic is a ialect o! Syriac an the Aramaic/Syriac Abba is #se in a later stan0a$

You may have marked by now how late Semitic habits are seldom quite so neighbourly, but this ancient one looks so downright cordial I shouldn t be surprised if it proved genesis for the numbing vision

' g#ess %late Semitic habits& might re!er to the hellish con!licts between the chil ren o! Abraham to ay which shows a complete lack o! !ilial regar /brotherly love$$

Abba Isaac !uria glimpsed in his spinning permutations of "he #ord$ %amely, everything we know as well as everything we don t in all creation came to be in that brief, abysmal

vacuum "he &oly 'ne first opened in &imself. So it s not so far a stretch from that (ivine )*cess to advocate the sacred possibility that in some final, graceful metanoia &e

will mend that ancient wound completely, and for all.

These !inal verses re!er to the mysticism o! 'saac 1#ria + who has in!l#ence the contemporary Universalist .#rgen

2oltmann + well 2oltmann #ses 1#ria&s i ea as a goo eno#gh poetic image to speak abo#t the #nspeakable rather than as a new octrine$

1#ria spec#late that in or er !or the #niverse to exist + Go ha to make a space/abyss/vac##m in which Go was not so that the #niverse co#l exist in !ree om$ The rama o! re emption is o! Go once again !illing his creation so that it t#rns back to him (metanoia) in !ree om so that Go will be %All an in All&$ 'saac 1#ria was a .ewish Cabbalist who became in!l#ential in Christian post,holoca#st theology + beca#se 1#ria&s mysticism ( gave hope to .ews #n er persec#tion$ Cabbalist "abbis me iate on perm#tations o! the names an attrib#tes o! 3*4* !or inspiration + o!ten organising the letters into circle !ormations mimicking the ivine wheels in E0ekiel&s vision$
'Glad, merry and sweet is the Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing; he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him' - Julian of Norwich 'We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds - Etty Hillesum

Sobornost

Posts: 2500 Joined: Tue Nov 08 20!! !2:"5 #m $ocation: %outh $ondon En&land T o # Print view this #ost

Re: Explorations in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis

'y Sobornost ( )ri *ar 22 20!+ 5:2, am

'! yo# are con!#se abo#t how to prono#nce apocatastasis yo# can !in o#t how at ,

http://www$prono#ncehow$com/english/apo $$$ n#nciation

'5 got it slightly wrong

An here&s some bl#rb abo#t the history o! the wor

Apocatastasis

A67CATASTAS'S$ The ol est known #sage o! the Greek wor apokatastasis (whence the English apocatastasis) ates !rom the !o#rth cent#ry BCE: it is !o#n in Aristotle (2agna 2oralia 8$9$:8;<b)= where it re!ers to the restoration o! a being to its nat#ral state$ >#ring the *ellenistic age it evelope a cosmological meaning= variations o! which can be etecte (b#t with a very i!!erent concept o! time) in Gnostic systems an even in Christian theology= whether ortho ox or hetero ox= especially in the theology o! 7rigen$ In Acts 3:21, it denotes "the restoration o all thin!s" "apocatastasis panton, in the #$l!ate restit$tio omni$m% on the &a' o the (ord)

2e ical= 2oral= an .#ri ical 2eaning

6lato employe the verb kathistanai in the sense o! to ?reestablish? to a normal state !ollowing a temporary physical alteration (6hileb#s <8 )$ The pre!ix apo, in apokathistanai seems to rein!orce the i ea o! an integral reestablishment to the original sit#ation$ S#ch is the ret#rn o! the sick person to health (*ippocrates= :8@A!$B Aretae#s= C$88)$ The *er+ has this meanin! in the Gospels in the context o the hand made +etter +' ,hrist "-t) 12:13. -k) 3:/, (k) 0:11%) There are *ellenistic re!erences to the apocatastasis= or ?resetting=? o! a Doint$ 'n a psychological sense= the same meaning is present (with n#ances that are har to speci!y) in the so,calle 2ithraic 1it#rgy$

2rain wa*e

3 the medical meanin! o 4apocatastasis4 is re erred to in the last line o the poem 3

will mend that ancient wound completely, and for all.

'Glad, merry and sweet is the Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing; he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him' - Julian of Norwich 'We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds - Etty Hillesum

Sobornost

Posts: 2500 Joined: Tue Nov 08 20!! !2:"5 #m $ocation: %outh $ondon En&land T o # Print view this #ost

Re: Explorations in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis

'y Sherman ( )ri *ar 22 20!+ 8:50 am

' enDoye the poem= thanks !or sharing it$ 2y son= .osh#a is writing a research paper on U" !or his #n ergra class in English at a Christian #niversity$ ' act#ally s#ggeste he #se this poem to start his paper= being it5s !or his English class$
Sherman Nobles author - -.od /s 0 1ivorce2 Too3 0 *essa&e of Ho#e Healin& 4 )or&ivenesshtt#:55www6tate#u'lishin&6com5'oo7store 666 ++!"8!-8-8

Sherman *oderator

Posts: !59! Joined: Thu Jul +0 2009 9:09 am $ocation: :hite House TN

T o # Print view this #ost

Re: Explorations in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis

'y Sobornost ( )ri *ar 22 20!+ 2:"8 #m

That&s great Sherman + an

o let #s know how .osh#a gets on an wish him l#ck !rom meE

Some !inal tho#ghts have occ#rre to me +

%Abba 'saac 1#ria& was act#ally %"abbi 'saac 1#ria&$ The poet gives him the title o! an 7rtho ox >esert Father$ Foremost o! the Universalist Fathers was %Abba 'saac o! Syria& whose most love wor s are ,

What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a persons heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. or this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. !nd in li"e manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the li"eness of #od.

This is too m#ch o! a coinci ence !or me + the !irst an Christian 'saac&s vision o! the healing o! all creation is !o#n again in the mystical !lights o! the secon an .ewish 'saac (hol ing o#t hope !or healing o! the stri!e an bitterness between the two sister religions thro#gh their #niversalist tra itions-)$ An 'saac o! Syria also explains %Syriac& (altho#gh '&m s#re it also all# es to .es#s& ialect o! Aramaic)$

*mmmmm
'Glad, merry and sweet is the Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing; he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him' - Julian of Norwich 'We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds - Etty Hillesum

Sobornost

Posts: 2500 Joined: Tue Nov 08 20!! !2:"5 #m $ocation: %outh $ondon En&land T o # Print view this #ost

Re: Explorations in New Testament Greek: Apocatastasis

'y Sobornost ( *on *ar 25 20!+ ":+8 am

'&ve !o#n a really goo article abo#t Scott Cairn&s + an here is the link (really enDoye itEEE)$ http://www$religion, online$org/showarti $$$ titleG8H8@

An here&s another poem !rom the series %A vent#res in NT Greek& which ' will not attempt to explain/r#in (!or obvio#s reasons)

!dventures in $ew %estament #ree"& 'ysterion by (cott )airns

What our habit has obtained for us appears a somewhat meager view of mystery. !nd *atinate e+uivalents have fared

no better tendering the palpable proximity of dense noetic pressure.

'ore familiar, glib, and gnostic bullshit aside, the loss the body suffers when sacrament is pared into a tidy picture postcard of absent circumstance starves the matter to a moot result, no?

'ysterion is of a piece, enormous enough to span the reach of what we see and what we don,t. %he problem at the heart of metaphor is how neatly it brea"s down to this and that. Imagine one that held

entirely across the play of image and its li"enesses. 'ysterion is never elsewhere, ever looms, indivisible and here, and compasses a journey one assumes as it is tendered on a spoon.

-eceiving it, you apprehend how near the .oly bides. /ou cannot "now how far.

An yay , '&m happy to say that an 'con o! St 'saac o! Syria a orns the cover o! his verse vol#me 6hilokalia
'Glad, merry and sweet is the Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing; he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him' - Julian of Norwich 'We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds - Etty Hillesum