apocatastasis

English

Alternative forms

• apokatastasis

Etymology

From Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀποκατάστασις (apokatástasis, “restoration, reëstablishment”), from ἀποκαθίστημι (apokathístēmi, “to stand up again”), from ἀπό- (apó-, “back again”) + καθίστημι (kathístēmi, “I set, place, constitute, appoint”), from κατά- (katá-, “down, for”) + ἵστημι (hístēmi, “I set, stand, establish”).

Noun

apocatastasis (plural apocatastases)

1. (rare) Restoration, renovation, reestablishment, particularly:
   1. (especially religion, rare) An apocalypse leading to the remaking of the world rather than a Final Judgment, (Christianity) an Origenist doctrine condemned by the 543 C.E. Synod of Constantinople.
      • 1678, Julius Firmicus, translated by Ralph Cudworth, The true intellectual system of the universe, I iv 328:

        The Egyptians were the first assertors of the soul's immortality, and of its transmigration, after the death and corruption of this body, into the bodies of other animals successively, viz. until it have run round through the whole circuit of terrestrial, marine, and volatile animals, after which, they say, it is to return again into a human body; they supposing this revolution or apocatastasis of souls to be made in no less space than that of three thousand years.

      • 1885, Philip Schaff translating the anathemas confirmed by the 553 C.E. Second Ecumenical Council in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers:

        If anyone shall say that all reasonable beings will one day be united in one, when the hypostases as well as the numbers and the bodies shall have disappeared,... moreover, that in this pretended apocatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist... let him be anathema.

        A Tradition...concerning the Apocatastasis of the World...partly by Inundation and partly by Conflagration.

      • 2003 January, Edward Moore, Origen of Alexandria and apokatastasis: Some Notes on the Development of a Noble Notion:

        The Stoic idea was based upon an astronomical doctrine according to which the return (apokatastasis) of the planets to their proper "celestial signs" initiates the conflagration (ekpurôsis), which is the reduction of the entire cosmos to its primal element (fire), after which follows the rebirth of all existing things.

   2. (religion) The doctrine that all souls will enter heaven or paradise, (Christianity) an Origenist doctrine condemned by the 543 C.E. Synod of Constantinople.
      • 1867, R.E. Wallis translating F.J. Delitzsch, A system of Biblical psychology, VII 552:

        No doctrine...contradicts the Holy Scripture in a more unwarrantable manner than that of the so-called Apokatastasis.

      • 1907, Pierre Batiffol, The Catholic Encyclopedia:

        Apocatastasis, A name given in the history of theology to the doctrine which teaches that a time will come when all free creatures will share in the grace of salvation.

   3. (medicine, rare) Return to an earlier condition.
      • 1753, A supplement to Mr. Chambers's Cyclopædia:

        We read of Apocatastasis or urine...of tumours, and other diseases.

      • 1880, The New Sydenham Society's lexicon of medicine and the allied sciences:

        Apocatastasis, The subsidence of a tumour, or the re-establishment of an exudation or secretion.

   4. (astronomy) Return to the same apparent position, as after a revolution.
      • 1822, Apuleius, translated by Thomas Taylor, Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, I 33:

        The accurate apocatastasis (i.e. regression to the same sign) of the moon, and in a similar manner of the sun.

Synonyms

• Origenism

Translations

the doctrine that an apocalypse will lead to the remaking of the world rather than a Final Judgment

• Arabic: اِسْتِعَادَة كُلِّيَّة f (istiʕāda kulliyya)
• Greek: αποκατάσταση (el) f (apokatástasi)
• Irish: apacatastáis f
• Polish: apokatastaza (pl) f
• Portuguese: apocatástase f
• Russian: апоката́стасис m or impf (apokatástasis)