Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Universalism (universal reconciliation, apokatastasis)

The view that God will finally save every person — and, in some versions, even the fallen angels — so that no one is lost forever.

Greek apokatastasis, 'restoration' (Acts 3:21); 'universal' salvation.

1 Corinthians 15:22–28 ('that God may be all in all'); Colossians 1:20; Romans 5:18; 11:32; Philippians 2:10–11; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9 — read by the mainstream as the scope of the offer and the cosmic reconciliation of all things under Christ (which can include subjugation), and counter-balanced by the explicit two-outcome texts.

Taught by Origen and, in a form, Gregory of Nyssa and Isaac the Syrian. The Origenist system (pre-existent souls, cyclical restoration, the salvation of demons) was condemned in 543 and by Constantinople II (553). It recurs in Schleiermacher, is discussed in relation to Barth, and is advocated by a modern minority (Thomas Talbott; David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved, 2019). Von Balthasar's 'hope' (not assertion) that all are saved is a distinct, debated Catholic position.

The church has consistently rejected a dogmatic universalism as contrary to the two-destinies texts and the reality of the warnings; whether a non-dogmatic 'hope' falls under the condemnation is itself disputed.

Matthew 25:46; John 5:29; Revelation 20:15; 21:8; the condemnation of the Origenist apokatastasis; whether 'all' means every individual or the totality under Christ's rule.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.