All Shall be Well Quotes

“Gregory makes a sustained case for the same interpretation of Christ’s subjection to the Father in 1 Corinthians 15: 28 in a homily on that text. 30 His argument may be summarized in the following manner: Christ’s body is humanity as a whole; humanity as a whole will eventually become subject to God; therefore it is not the divine Word but rather the whole of human nature joined to the divine Word in the incarnation that is said to be subject to God. 31 The relation of the apokatastasis to the linking of the Eastern trajectory of incarnational soteriology with Gregory’s own distinctive corporate anthropology is clear in this sentence from the homily: “And on the basis of the whole human nature with which the divinity was mixed, which is a certain sort of first-fruits of the common dough, humanity exists according to Christ, through whom all humanity is joined to the divinity.”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann

“The reference to “the whole human” highlights the connection of the apokatastasis and the divinization of humanity through the incarnation with another feature of Gregory’s thought—his distinctive theological anthropology. The passage from Catechetical Oration 32 cited above continues: For since the God-bearing human was from no other source than our common mass, which through the resurrection was raised by union with the divinity, just as in the case of our body the working of one of the organs of sense extends to the whole consciousness—the unity in the member—so also the resurrection of the member goes completely through the whole, as if the whole nature were a single living being, being imparted alike from the member to the whole in accordance with both the continuity and the unity of the nature. 26 For Gregory, the image of God in human beings is located not in individual human beings but rather in humanity as a whole. 27 Human nature is then essentially corporate rather than individual, although Gregory’s anthropology does not negate individuality. Through the corporate solidarity of humanity all share in the death introduced into it by the choice of evil of one of its members. Through the union of the Word with this corporate human nature, all of humanity shares in the life of the resurrection when one of its members is raised from the dead.”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann

“For Gregory, then, in the incarnation the divine Word is united not only with the nature of the individual human being Jesus but also with human nature as a whole. Since all that is common to human nature is in need of redemption, it is necessary that the incarnate Word share in everything common to that nature—from birth to death—with the result that not only human nature as a whole but also the one who introduced human nature to evil in the first place is restored to the original state.”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann

“The Western Christian tradition has tended to focus on the death of Christ as the primary event that secures the salvation of humanity. But in the Eastern Christian tradition, it is the incarnation as a whole, rather than one event within it, that makes it possible for human nature to be saved through participation in the divine nature.”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann

“This passage sets forth three major themes in Gregory’s doctrine of apokatastasis and reveals the manner in which they are intertwined: first, every free will ultimately will rest in God; second, this means that evil will ultimately cease to exist, for evil “exists” only through the exercise of the will, and when every will chooses God, evil can no longer be chosen; and third, the means by which this will come about is a process of purifying punishment which will consume the accretions of evil on the soul until only the good is left. This reflects the grounding of Gregory’s view of the nature of evil in neo-Platonic thought. 15 Evil is the “deprivation of the good.” 16 Only good, the fullness of which is the nature of God in which humanity participates via the imago dei, 17 has real, infinite existence; evil as a parasitic corruption of the good has no independent existence and is therefore finite. 18 Consequently there will ultimately be a time when there will be “no evil remaining in anyone.”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann

“Then,” I said, “the divine judgment, as it seems to me, does not bring punishment upon sinners according to the foregoing discussion, but rather, as the discourse demonstrated, it only effects the separation of good from evil and direction toward the fellowship of blessedness, but the tearing in pieces of what has grown together brings about pain for the one being torn apart.” “So,” said the Teacher, “that is also my reasoned opinion, and that the measure of suffering is the quantity of evil in each person; for it is not likely that the one who has become involved to such an extent in forbidden evils and the one who has fallen into moderate evils will be distressed on an equal basis in the purification of bad habits, but rather that painful flame will be kindled either to a greater or lesser degree according to the amount of matter, as long as its source of nourishment exists. Accordingly if one has a great load of the material, then the consuming flame of necessity will be great and longer-lasting for that one, but if the consumption of the fire is introduced to a lesser degree, then the punishment diminishes in degree its actions of greater violence and ferocity, in proportion to the lesser measure of evil which exists in that one. For it is necessary that at some time evil be wholly and completely removed out of existence, and as was said previously, that what does not really exist should not exist at all. For since it does not belong to its nature that evil have existence outside of the will, when every will rests in God evil will depart into utter destruction, since there is no receptacle remaining for”
― Gregory MacDonald, "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann