Appendix C

Glossary of Key Terms

A reader's reference to the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and theological vocabulary of the long hope

This glossary is a tool for the reader moving through The Long Hope who meets a word — Greek, Latin, Hebrew, theological, philosophical — that needs a quick anchor. The aim is clarity at the point of use, not exhaustive lexicography. Each entry gives the term in its original script where helpful, a transliteration and pronunciation guide for the less familiar words, and a definition in plain English. Where a term is developed at length in a particular chapter, I have pointed the way. The most contested terms — aiōnios, apokatastasis, Gehenna — carry centuries of dispute, and a glossary entry can only sketch the question, not settle it. For full treatment, consult the chapter.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · L · M · O · P · R · S · T · U · W

A

Aiōn (αἰών — pronounced "eye-OWN"; "age" or "epoch"). A Greek noun originally meaning "lifetime," then "age," then in some contexts "an indefinitely long period." In the Septuagint it commonly renders the Hebrew ʿolam. Whether aiōn in the New Testament ever means "eternity" in the strict philosophical sense is contested. See Chapter 8.

Aiōnios (αἰώνιος — pronounced "eye-OWN-ee-os"; the adjectival form of aiōn). The word in Matthew 25:46 for both "aiōnios punishment" and "aiōnios life." Whether the term demands endlessness in both clauses, and whether in patristic Greek it commonly means "of the age (to come)" rather than "everlasting," is a central lexical battleground. See Chapter 8.

Anabaptism. A diverse sixteenth-century Radical Reformation movement marked by believer's baptism, voluntary church membership, and (often) pacifism. Several Anabaptist groups also held psychopannychism (soul-sleep), linking the tradition historically to later conditionalism. See Chapter 16.

Annihilationism. See Conditional Immortality.

Anonymous Christian. Karl Rahner's term for non-Christians who respond positively to the grace of Christ implicitly present in their conscience and religious life, and so are saved through Christ without knowing him explicitly. Developed in his Theological Investigations; widely received and widely contested in modern Catholic theology. See Chapter 24.

Antiochene School. The fourth- and fifth-century exegetical tradition centered in Antioch — Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyrrhus — known for historical-grammatical exegesis (vs. Alexandrian allegory) and, in Diodore and Theodore, a universalist eschatology that survived in the East Syriac tradition. See Chapter 10.

Apokatastasis (ἀποκατάστασις — pronounced "ah-poh-kah-TAH-stah-sis"; "restoration"). A Greek noun for restoration to a former state. Used in Acts 3:21 of the "restoration of all things." In Origen, the eventual restoration of all rational creatures to union with God. Often rendered "universal restoration" (UR). See Chapter 8.

Apokatastasis Panton (ἀποκατάστασις πάντων; "the restoration of all things"). The full phrase used by Origen and patristic universalists. The Petersens made it the title of their three-volume Pietist universalist work, Mysterion Apokatastaseos Pantōn (1700–1710). See Chapter 8.

Apophatic Theology (from Greek apophanai, "to deny"). The way of knowing God by denying that finite categories adequately apply to him. Strong in Eastern Orthodoxy (Dionysius, Maximus, Palamas) and in mystical theology generally. Paired with cataphatic theology. See relevant chapters.

Apologists, the. Second-century Greek-speaking Christian writers who composed defenses (apologia) of Christianity addressed to pagan emperors and intellectuals: Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Tatian, Aristides. Justin holds something close to conditional immortality; Theophilus develops a conditionalist anthropology in To Autolycus. See Chapter 5.

Apostolic Fathers. A conventional grouping of post–New Testament writings (c. 90–150): 1 Clement, 2 Clement, Ignatius's letters, Polycarp, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Hermas, and the Papias fragments. The label is modern; the writings do not form a single school. See Chapter 4.

Augustinianism. The theological tradition descending from Augustine of Hippo (354–430): strong doctrines of original sin, the bondage of the will, predestination, and the massa damnata. Augustinian eschatology affirms eternal conscious torment and denies postmortem opportunity. The dominant strand of Western theology from the fifth century onward. See Chapter 12.

B

Beatific Vision (Latin: visio Dei beatifica). The direct, unmediated vision of God's essence enjoyed by the blessed. Aquinas developed the classical doctrine in Summa Theologiae I, q. 12; the Council of Florence (1439) defined it. Talbott and other universalists argue that the beatific vision, once granted, would render continued rebellion psychologically impossible.¹ See Chapter 13 and Chapter 25.

Biblical Universalism. Universalism grounded primarily in biblical exegesis rather than philosophical argument; distinguished from Enlightenment universalism (which appealed to natural reason) and from religious pluralism. Christian biblical universalism is Christological: all are saved through Christ. See Chapter 25.

C

Cappadocian Fathers. Basil of Caesarea (c. 330–379), his brother Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–c. 395), and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390). Macrina the Younger, Basil's older sister and Gregory of Nyssa's teacher, is sometimes counted as a fourth. Gregory of Nyssa is the most explicit universalist. See Chapter 9.

Cataphatic Theology (from Greek kataphanai, "to affirm"). The way of knowing God by affirming that certain perfections — goodness, wisdom, love, being — can be truly though analogically predicated of him. Aquinas's analogia entis is the classical Western development. Always paired with apophatic theology. See relevant chapters.

Cathari (Cathars). A medieval dualist sect in Languedoc and northern Italy (twelfth–fourteenth centuries), holding to two principles (a good God of the spirit and an evil power responsible for matter) and metempsychosis. Condemned at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and suppressed by the Albigensian Crusade. Not orthodox universalists, but evidence of how far medieval dissent could go. See Chapter 14.

Christological Universalism. Universalism grounded in the universal scope of Christ's incarnation, atonement, and resurrection rather than in generic divine benevolence. Romans 5:18, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Colossians 1:20, Philippians 2:10–11, and Ephesians 1:10 are the central texts. See Chapter 25.

Conditional Immortality (CI). The view that human immortality is not natural but a gift conferred by Christ on the redeemed; the wicked, denied this gift, finally cease to exist. Also called annihilationism or conditionalism. Distinguished from eternal conscious torment and from universalism. The author of The Long Hope holds CI open to universal restoration, with the last opportunity to receive Christ extended through the moment of final judgment. See Chapter 20 and Chapter 28.

D

Decretum Horribile (Latin: "horrifying decree"). Calvin's phrase in Institutes 3.23.7 acknowledging that the doctrine of double predestination is dreadful to contemplate. Calvin does not retract the doctrine; he affirms it while owning its severity. See Chapter 15.

Descent of Christ (Latin descensus ad inferos). Christ's descent into the realm of the dead between his crucifixion and resurrection (1 Peter 3:18–20, 4:6; Ephesians 4:9; Apostles' Creed). Readings vary widely: a triumphal harrowing (Irenaeus, Eastern tradition), a preaching mission to the disobedient dead (some Alexandrians), a spiritualization into Christ's suffering on the cross (Calvin), and kenotic solidarity with the dead (Balthasar, Moltmann). See Chapter 6, Chapter 11, Chapter 15, Chapter 22, Chapter 23.

Divine Presence Model. R. Zachary Manis's proposal in Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God (Oxford, 2019). Hell is not a separate place of retributive punishment but the inescapable presence of the holy God, experienced by the unrepentant as torment — a non-universalist, non-conditionalist alternative to traditional retributivism.² See Chapter 25 and Chapter 28.

Double Predestination. The doctrine that God eternally decreed both the salvation of the elect and the damnation of the reprobate. Distinguished from single predestination (election only). Calvin affirmed it (Institutes 3.21–24); Beza systematized it; Dort (1618–1619) defended it. See Chapter 15.

Dualism (in anthropology). The view that the human person consists of two distinct constituents — body and soul (or matter and spirit) — and that the soul can survive the body in the intermediate state. The classical Christian position (Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Wesley). Contrasted with physicalism. The author's full treatment, including the case from veridical near-death experiences, appears in the companion volume Beyond the Grave. See relevant chapters.

E

Ekpyrōsis (ἐκπύρωσις — pronounced "eck-PUE-roh-sis"; "conflagration"). The Stoic doctrine of a periodic cosmic fire that consumes and renews the world. Ilaria Ramelli argues that the Stoic concept influenced — and was theologically transformed by — Origen's apokatastasis; Michael McClymond argues the two views are meaningfully distinct. See Chapter 8.

Election (doctrine of). God's gracious choosing of persons to salvation. Calvin developed it within a framework of double predestination; Barth recast it in Church Dogmatics II/2 around Jesus Christ as both the Elect One and the Reprobate One who bears divine rejection in the place of all. Some read Barth's reformulation as implying "objective universalism"; Barth himself never affirmed apokatastasis. See Chapter 15 and Chapter 21.

Epektasis (ἐπέκτασις — pronounced "eh-PECK-tah-sis"; "straining forward"). Gregory of Nyssa's doctrine of endless joyful progress in the divine life, drawn from Philippians 3:13. The blessed grow eternally in the knowledge and love of the infinite God; even hell, for Gregory, is finally a school whose graduates go on to endless ascent. See Chapter 9.

Eschatology. From Greek eschatos, "last." The branch of theology that treats the last things: death, the intermediate state, resurrection, the return of Christ, judgment, the new heavens and new earth, and final destiny. The whole subject matter of The Long Hope. See throughout.

Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). The view that the unsaved suffer conscious, sensible torment in hell forever, without end or hope of release. The dominant Western Christian position from Augustine through the Reformation and into modern evangelicalism. Rejected by conditionalists, universalists, postmortem-opportunity advocates, and hopeful universalists. See throughout, especially Chapter 12, Chapter 13, and Chapter 15.

F

Final Decision Hypothesis. Ladislaus Boros's proposal in Mysterium Mortis (1962; ET The Mystery of Death, 1965): at the moment of death the soul, freed from the limitations of bodily life, makes a fully personal, fully knowing, fully free decision for or against God in face-to-face encounter with Christ. A moment-of-death encounter rather than extended postmortem opportunity, but a theological cousin of PO.³ See Chapter 24.

Free Will Defense. The argument that hell exists as the product of creaturely free choice, not divine retributive imposition. C. S. Lewis, Jerry Walls (Hell: The Logic of Damnation), and R. Zachary Manis defend versions of the argument. Universalists (Talbott, Reitan, Hart) and many PO advocates argue the contrary: a soul fully and finally informed of God's love could not freely refuse him. See Chapter 21, Chapter 25, Chapter 26.

G

Gehenna (γέεννα — pronounced "GHEH-en-na"; from Hebrew Gê Hinnōm, "Valley of Hinnom"). A ravine south of Jerusalem associated in the Hebrew Bible with infant sacrifice to Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31). By the first century AD it had become a symbol for the place of judgment. Jesus's preferred term for the fate of the wicked. To be distinguished from Hades (the intermediate state) and from the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14–15). See relevant chapters.

H

Hades (ᾅδης — pronounced "HAH-deys"; "the unseen"). The Greek term for the realm of the dead, in the Septuagint commonly rendering Hebrew Sheol. In the New Testament Hades names the temporary state of the dead between bodily death and final resurrection (Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27; Revelation 20:13–14). Christ's descent is to Hades, not to Gehenna. See relevant chapters.

Harrowing of Hell. The traditional English name for Christ's victorious descent to Hades to release the righteous dead. Vividly developed in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the Eastern Paschal liturgies, Anglo-Saxon poetry, and medieval mystery plays. In Eastern iconography the Anastasis (harrowing) — not the empty tomb — is the central image of the resurrection. See Chapter 6 and Chapter 15.

Hopeful Universalism. The view, most influentially articulated by Hans Urs von Balthasar in Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved? (1986), that while we cannot affirm with dogmatic certainty that all will be saved, we may legitimately hope and pray that all will be — a theological hope, grounded in 1 Timothy 2:4. Distinguished from confident or "dogmatic" universalism. See Chapter 22 and Chapter 27.

Hypostatic Union. The union of full divine and full human natures in the single divine hypostasis (person) of the Word made flesh, formally defined at Chalcedon (451): "one and the same Christ ... made known in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation." Grounds Christology and, by extension, the cosmic reach of Christ's saving work. See relevant chapters.

Hypothetical Universalism. A Reformed view associated with Moïse Amyraut (1596–1664) and the Saumur Academy: Christ died sufficiently for all and intentionally for the elect; the atonement is universal in scope but limited in application. A middle position between definite atonement (high Calvinism) and Arminianism. See Chapter 23.

I

Inclusivism. The view that salvation comes only through Christ but may be received by those who never explicitly hear of him through response to whatever truth and grace they have. Defended in evangelical theology by Clark Pinnock (A Wideness in God's Mercy, 1992) and John Sanders (No Other Name, 1992), and present in the Catholic tradition since Vatican II. See Chapter 26.

Inconsistent Triad. Thomas Talbott's central argument in The Inescapable Love of God (2nd ed. Cascade, 2014, ch. 4). The three propositions cannot all be true: (1) God's love includes every person and wills the salvation of all; (2) God's sovereign power suffices to accomplish what he wills; (3) Some persons will be lost forever. Calvinism denies (1); Arminianism and ECT deny (2); universalism alone denies (3).⁴ See Chapter 25.

Intermediate State. The condition of the dead between bodily death and the final resurrection. Most of the Christian tradition has affirmed a conscious intermediate state (Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Wesley, Eastern Orthodoxy). The minority psychopannychist tradition (Anabaptists, Edward White, Seventh-day Adventists, some contemporary evangelicals) holds soul-sleep. The author affirms a conscious intermediate state; the full case appears in Beyond the Grave. See relevant chapters.

L

Lapsarianism (supralapsarianism / infralapsarianism). The Reformed scholastic debate over the logical (not temporal) order of God's eternal decrees in relation to the Fall. Supralapsarianism: God's decree of election and reprobation logically precedes his decree to permit the Fall. Infralapsarianism (the majority Reformed position): the decree of election logically follows the decree to permit the Fall. See Chapter 15.

Last Judgment. The final judgment of all the dead, small and great, at the return of Christ (Matthew 25:31–46; Revelation 20:11–15). The author of The Long Hope holds that the last judgment marks the final terminus of postmortem opportunity — the moment beyond which the offer of life in Christ is no longer extended. See throughout, especially Chapter 26 and Chapter 28.

Limbus (Latin: "border"; limbus patrum, limbus infantium). A medieval Catholic state on the borders of hell. Limbus patrum: the place where the Old Testament righteous awaited Christ's descent. Limbus infantium: the place for unbaptized infants who, in standard Augustinian theology, could neither enter heaven (no baptism) nor properly be punished (no actual sin). Quietly retired by the International Theological Commission's 2007 report The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptised. See Chapter 13 and Chapter 14.

M

Magisterial Reformation. The mainstream Protestant Reformation of Luther, Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, and Cranmer, distinguished by its alliance with the civil magistrate, its retention of infant baptism, and its broadly Augustinian eschatology. Contrasted with the Radical Reformation. See Chapter 15.

Misericordes (Latin: "the merciful ones"). Augustine's term in Enchiridion 110–113 for fellow Christians of his day who held softer views than his on the fate of the damned. Augustine lists at least five distinct misericordes positions, ranging from prayers for the lost to expectation of eventual universal salvation. His catalogue is invaluable historical evidence that the long hope was widespread in the late-fourth-century church.⁵ See Chapter 12.

Missio Dei (Latin: "the mission of God"). A twentieth-century missiological concept: mission is not first the activity of the church but the activity of God himself, in which the church is invited to participate. James Beilby argues that the missio Dei framework supports postmortem opportunity: if the salvation of the lost is finally God's mission and not the church's achievement, then God's pursuit of the lost cannot be bounded by the church's evangelistic timetable.⁶ See Chapter 26.

O

Origenism. The theological tradition developing from Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 253), often distinguished from Origen himself. Origenism, especially in its sixth-century Palestinian form, includes the pre-existence of souls, a near-Platonic cosmology of fall and return, and a doctrine of apokatastasis. The Second Council of Constantinople (553) anathematized either Origen himself or his Origenist disciples; the textual situation is contested. See Chapter 8 and Chapter 11.

P

Pelagianism. The theological tradition associated with Pelagius (c. 354–c. 420) and his disciples Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum, condemned at the Council of Carthage (418) and confirmed at the Council of Ephesus (431). Pelagians denied that Adam's sin corrupted human nature, denied that grace was strictly necessary for the initial movement toward God, and affirmed the natural ability of the will to choose the good. Augustine was Pelagianism's chief opponent. See Chapter 12.

Phaedo. Plato's dialogue (c. 360 BC) staging Socrates' last day, in which Socrates argues at length for the immortality of the soul. Gregory of Nyssa's On the Soul and the Resurrection is a deliberate Christian Phaedo: Macrina takes the role of Socrates, Gregory the role of the grieving disciples, and the dialogue moves from immortality through resurrection to the eventual restoration of all. See Chapter 9.

Pietism. A renewal movement within seventeenth- and eighteenth-century German Lutheranism, founded by Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705) and developed by August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). Pietism emphasized personal conversion, devotional Bible reading, and small-group discipleship. The Württemberg stream — Bengel, Oetinger, the Petersens — was unusually hospitable to the long hope. See Chapter 16.

Postmortem Opportunity (PO). The view that the opportunity to receive (or to refuse) salvation in Christ extends in some form beyond bodily death — at least for the unevangelized, and on some accounts more broadly. Distinguished from full universalism (which affirms all will be saved) and from inclusivism (which locates the saving response in this life). The major contemporary scholarly defense is James Beilby, Postmortem Opportunity (IVP Academic, 2021). See Chapter 26.

Predestination. The doctrine of God's eternal foreordaining of human beings to their eschatological destiny. Single predestination affirms only God's decree of election; double predestination affirms both election and reprobation. Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin each hold a version. Arminius's Remonstrance (1610) proposed conditional election based on foreseen faith. See Chapter 15.

Psychopannychia (Soul Sleep). The view that the soul, between bodily death and final resurrection, exists in an unconscious or "sleeping" state. Held by many sixteenth-century Anabaptists, by certain seventeenth-century English Independents, by Edward White and the modern conditionalist movement, by Seventh-day Adventists, and by some contemporary evangelical theologians. Calvin's first major theological work, Psychopannychia (composed 1534, published 1542), was an extended refutation. See Chapter 16.

Purgatory. A postmortem state of purification for the saved who die in friendship with God but not yet fully sanctified. Defined dogmatically at the Council of Florence (1439) and re-affirmed at Trent (1563). Universalists (Origen, Gregory of Nyssa) and some Protestants (C. S. Lewis; Jerry Walls, Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation, 2011) have argued for versions of purgatorial purification independent of the medieval Catholic system of indulgences. See Chapter 13 and Chapter 26.

R

Radical Reformation. The sixteenth-century reform movements that broke with the magisterial Reformation on the questions of baptism, church-state relations, and (often) eschatology. Includes Anabaptists (Hubmaier, Menno Simons), Spiritualists (Schwenckfeld, Sebastian Franck), and Antitrinitarians (the Socinians). Many in this stream held soul-sleep; some held wider-hope eschatologies. See Chapter 16.

Recapitulation (anakephalaiōsis, ἀνακεφαλαίωσις — pronounced "ah-nah-keh-fah-lai-OH-sis"; "summing up under one head"). Irenaeus of Lyons's master theological category, drawn from Ephesians 1:10. Christ "recapitulates" the human race in himself, retracing and reversing Adam's disobedience by his own obedience, summing up all things in himself, and so restoring the creation God always intended. See Chapter 6.

Restorationism. A nineteenth-century position within American Universalism, defended by Adin Ballou, Hosea Ballou the Second, and others against the "Ultra-Universalism" of Hosea Ballou the elder. The Restorationists affirmed temporary postmortem punishment followed by restoration of all to God; the Ultra-Universalists denied any postmortem punishment whatever. See Chapter 18 and Chapter 19.

Restrictivism. The view that explicit conscious faith in Christ in this life is necessary for salvation, and that those who die without such faith — including the unevangelized — are finally lost. The modern evangelical default. James Beilby uses "restrictivism" as the label for the position he is contesting in Postmortem Opportunity; the term is now standard in the inclusivism-PO conversation. See Chapter 26.

S

Sheol (Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל). The Hebrew Bible's term for the realm of the dead. The Septuagint typically renders it as Hades; the Latin Vulgate as infernus. In older Hebrew thought, Sheol is a shadowy underworld common to all the dead (Psalm 88; Ecclesiastes 9:10). Later Hebrew and intertestamental literature develop more differentiated pictures of the intermediate state. See relevant chapters.

Sophiology. The Russian Orthodox theological tradition of Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944), Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900), and Pavel Florensky (1882–1937), emphasizing Sophia (Wisdom) as the divine link between God and creation. Bulgakov's Bride of the Lamb (posthumous) develops a sophiological universalism. Sophiology has been controversial within Orthodoxy and is not officially received. See Chapter 24.

Spermatikos Logos (σπερματικὸς λόγος — pronounced "sper-mah-tee-KOS LOH-gos"; "seminal Word" or "Word like a seed"). Justin Martyr's concept, drawn from Stoic philosophy and theologically transformed: fragments of the divine Word are scattered like seeds throughout humanity, so that Socrates, Heraclitus, and others who "lived according to the Logos" can be counted Christians in some sense. The doctrine grounds an early patristic openness to truth outside the visible church. See Chapter 5 and Chapter 7.

Substance Dualism. The philosophical view that the human person is composed of two distinct kinds of substance: a material body and an immaterial soul. Defended by Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, and most of the Christian tradition. Contrasted with physicalism, idealism, and various non-reductive monisms. The author of The Long Hope holds substance dualism; the full case, including the case from veridical near-death experiences, appears in Beyond the Grave. See relevant chapters.

T

Theosis (θέωσις — pronounced "THEH-oh-sis"; "deification" or "divinization"). The Eastern Orthodox doctrine that the goal of salvation is participation in the divine life: humans are made by grace what God is by nature. Athanasius's classical formulation: "He became human that we might become god" (On the Incarnation §54). Sustained by the Cappadocians, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, and contemporary Orthodox theology. The doctrine sits in deep affinity with the long hope. See Chapter 24.

Three Chapters Controversy. A sixth-century dispute over the orthodoxy of three Antiochene-leaning items: the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, certain writings of Theodoret of Cyrrhus against Cyril of Alexandria, and a letter of Ibas of Edessa to Mari. Emperor Justinian condemned the "Three Chapters" in an edict around 543–544, and the Second Council of Constantinople (553) ratified the condemnation. The condemnation also targeted Origenist propositions; whether Origen himself was anathematized in the conciliar acts proper remains historically contested. See Chapter 11.

U

Universalism (universal restoration; UR). The view that all rational creatures will ultimately be reconciled to God in Christ. Christian universalism is distinguished from religious pluralism (multiple religions equally salvific) and from indifferentism (all souls saved regardless of Christ). Christian universalism is Christological: all are saved through Christ. Held in the patristic period by Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Didymus the Blind, Evagrius Ponticus, and Isaac of Nineveh; in modernity by MacDonald, Talbott, Parry, Hart, Ramelli, and many others. See throughout.

W

Wider Hope. A nineteenth- and twentieth-century term, especially in English-speaking theology, for the family of positions that hold out hope for the salvation of some (or many, or all) who do not explicitly profess Christ in this life. Includes inclusivism, postmortem opportunity, hopeful universalism, and conditional immortality combined with PO. F. W. Farrar's Eternal Hope (1877) and the subsequent controversy in the Church of England gave the phrase wide currency. See Chapter 17 and Chapter 18.