Lately I have been reading Origen’s On First Principles to learn more about apokatastasis (literally, “restoration”), the Christian doctrine of universal salvation wherein all of creation will be restored to the flourishing and union with God that he originally planned. In some versions of it, not only all rational souls will be reconciled with God (as in Origen), but all of nature as well—not only will all humans be in heaven, but all animals and plants will be as well, for it will be a restoration of the entirety of God’s creation. While it has been a minority position within Christian history, patristics scholar Ilaria Ramelli has written the first systematic account of the history of this doctrine, and she makes a compelling case for…

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