Ilaria Ramelli on Patristic support for “apokatastasis”

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This is an excerpt from the first chapter of I. L. E. Ramelli’s work The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena.

The main Patristic supporters of the apokatastasis theory, such as Bardaisan, Clement, Origen, Didymus, St. Anthony, St. Pamphilus Martyr, Methodius, St. Macrina, St. Gregory of Nyssa (and probably the two other Cappadocians), St. Evagrius Ponticus, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, St. John of Jerusalem, Rufinus, St. Jerome and St. Augustine (at least initially), Cassian, St. Isaac of Nineveh, St. John of Dalyatha, Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, probably St. Maximus the Confessor, up to John the Scot Eriugena,
28 and many others, grounded their Christian doctrine of apokatastasis first of all in the Bible.

I. L. E. Ramelli, The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis, p. 11

Outside of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, I am not familiar with the other church fathers’ writings on the subject, something that I hope the remainder of Ramelli’s book will cover.

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