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The Mystery of the 8th Day: Orthodox Christian Eschatology
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- Τό μυστήριο τῆς 8ης ἡμέρας: Ὀρθόδοξη Χριστιανική Ἐσχατολογία
- English
- Koutalis, Vangelis
- Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Eschatology - Complementarity - Orthodox Anthropology - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Orthodox gnosiology
- 21-5-2017
- Stylios, Euthymios K. [Author]. The Mystery of the 8th Day: Orthodox Christian Eschatology
- Τό μυστήριο τῆς 8ης ἡμέρας: Ὀρθόδοξη Χριστιανική Ἐσχατολογία - Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, 2015.
- eschatology - The 8th Day - Incarnation - Sabbatical space-time - The future Kingdom of God - The Second Coming of Christ on earth
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- <p>Stylios, Euthymios K. [Στύλιος, Ευθύμιος Κ.)] (2015). <em>Τό μυστήριο τῆς 8ης ἡμέρας: Ὀρθόδοξη Χριστιανική Ἐσχατολογία</em>. Σειρά Ὀγδόη, Ὀρθόδοξη Θεολογία 8. Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece.</p>
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In this book the doctrine of the eschata, the ‘final events’ or the ‘final realities’ is presented, with the specific aim of restoring its true meaning, by correcting the distortions caused by the misuse of, or the obsession with, the themes of the Antichrist and the Purgatory, and by shifting the center of gravity into the importance of faith and hope in Christ.
The author, in the introduction, provides a short overview of the perceptions of time and the world held by ancient people, as well as some pre-Christian eschatological views, drawing attention to the metaphysical pessimism of the Oriental people, the belief in the continuation of life after death, as propounded by the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians, and the absence of any notion of resurrection. By contrast, according to the Christian eschatological doctrine, which expands, goes beyond and completes the Jewish perception on the sabbatical arrangement and dimension of space-time, the human being was created to be the administrator of space-time, moving from the state of being ‘in the image’ to the state of being ‘in the likeness’ of God. This linear movement of history was turned into a circular movement owing to the Fall from Paradise, after which the human being was trapped into its own self. The event that interrupted the circularity of the created time, restoring space-time in its original function, as servant of the mystery of the eternal love of God, was the Incarnation of the Son of God. Christ, thus, is the founder of the apocalyptic eschatology, restoring the hope for the coming Kingdom of God, for the 8th Day. Orthodox theology retained the emphasis both on the corruption of the state of being ‘in the image’ of God, as a consequence of the Fall, and on the cooperation between God and the human person in salvation, a ‘synergy’ which becomes possible because the state of being ‘in the image’ was corrupted, but not entirely lost.
In the first part of the book, the author discusses the unfolding of the Sabbatical space-time, that is, the deliberate creation of the world as a process carried out on the basis of a divine plan and under the supervision of God. This process is divided into three stages: a) the first Six Days of the creation, b) the 7th Day of space-time, which started with the Incarnation of the Son of God, and c) the events leading to the end of this Day. After an hagiographical approach of the creation of space-time in the first Six Days, and a discussion concerning the significance of the alteration and corruption of the created beings, due to the Fall, the eschatological implications of the work, the death and the resurrection of Christ, as well as those of the inclusion into the life of the Church, which is defined as the Body of Christ, are also pored over. The Sabbatical condition of the soul of the human being, after its separation, through death, from the body, and the final events of the Sabbatical space-time, such as the imitation of the Incarnation by the Antichrist, the eschatological victory of Christ over the Antichrist, and the establishment of the millennial Kingdom of Christ on earth, are the topics with which this first part is concluded.
The second part deals with the 8th post-historical and post-spatiotemporal Day: the eternal and everlasting Day of existence for the created beings, inaugurated by the Second Advent of Christ. Here, an account of certain historical events which will herald the coming of the final times is followed by an account of the events signalizing the actual ending of the 7th Day. These events will be a) the completion (συντέλεια) of the Sabbatical space-time, where the definitive abolishment of the present structure of space-time will take place, a possibility that according to the author does not run counter to what the science of physics itself upholds as the possibility of a universal heat death, b) the renovation of the form of the natural world, and c) the resurrection of the dead and the existential change of those living (the Third Creation), in which the sex-gender biological distinction in the human nature will be abolished. After these events, the Second Advent of Christ on earth will mark the completion of the creative and soteriological work of the Triadic Divinity. The General and Final Judgment of the souls of the human beings, corresponding not to a trial process but to an exposition of the real state of existence achieved by each human being, will open the way to the post-historical condition of the created beings, namely, to the 8th Day. The human souls which will be judged to have been virtuous and pious will experience eternal life in the perfect human republic and society, where religion will be transcended, the unity of humanity will be accomplished, and a harmony between humanity and the natural world will be established. The human souls which will be judged to have been sinful and impious will inhabit Hell, which should be seen not as a condition of punishment but rather as a condition in which the rational beings will suffer the consequences of their erroneous choices.
The third, and concluding, part of the book focuses on the effect that the theological discussion on the future final events and realities might have on the beliefs and attitudes of those who live in the present. The author, here, underlines, among others, the importance of the collective, ecclesiastical handling of the eschata. At the end of the book, certain eschatological experiences and visions of ascetical writers, several Patristic excerpts regarding the concept of the soul, along with relevant testimonies provided by contemporary events and two short notes touching upon the Roman Catholic conception of Hell and the meaning of the hagiographical terms ‘rage’ (ὀργή) and ‘anger’ (θυμός), are appended.
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