«The Incompleteness of the Concept of Apokatastasis in Hesychasm and the Theory of Divine Counterviolence»

Abstract

The theological and philosophical study of the topic of universal salvation raises controversial issues in the field of the relationship between eternity and time, ontology, anthropology, angelology, personalism, and Christology. It returns to the Christian theological field the discussion of the source and nature of evil, the complexity of interpreting eternal hell and the imperative of divine love, justice, omnipotence and providence of God, free will, personal responsibility, and memory and self-identity, which is quintessential for both theoretical science and spiritual experience. The purpose of the article is to study the acute and unresolved issues of the concept of universal salvation, an attempt to restore the scientific discourse of eschatology of the Hesychastian tradition. The aim is to show the Gospel basis of the New Testament imperative of God's love for the concept of apokatastasis. An absolute novelty is the author's explanation of how universal salvation can take place on the example of the conversion of the Apostle Paul, calling this phenomenon the Divine counter-violence of love, which is diametrically opposed to the violence of human anger or the desire for justice based on revenge. The first section of this article analyzes the source base of researchers on this topic. In the second section, the author shows the theological and philosophical incompleteness of the aspects of apocatastasis and reveals the shortcomings of the infernal concept from the perspective of historicism, modern theology, and the tradition of Hesychasm. The third section is devoted to the author's theory of divine counter-violence as one of the possible forms of the eschaton. The conclusion presents the results of this study and makes scientific intentions for the development of theological and philosophical discourse on the topic of universalism and exclusivism.