Apokatastasis: An Alternative Doctrine to Hell by Justin Coutts

Celtic cosmology has often been cyclical rather than linear. The pre-Christian myths of the Celtic people do not have an account of the origins of the universe or the end of time. That changed when Christianity came on the scene as there was a clear beginning and clear end to the Biblical narrative. Yet, there has always been a stream of teaching in the Christian tradition, undoubtedly at least as far back as Origen of Alexandria, which teaches a cyclical cosmology. The word used for this in Greek is apokatastasis which literally translates to “restoration.” It appears only once in the New Testament in the following verse from Acts, but it became a very important word and concept for the early Church.