Fascinating stuff. One question I can foresee coming up for people upon finishing this article is, if God is also always all in all and non-aliud in the way you describe and cite others as describing, how is it this unfreedom, unchoosing, unbeing that characterizes our world and our lives now a possibility? How is it the Fall could have occurred?
Thanks for the question. I would say that the "possibility" of evil is due to reality of a creature as finite and developing, and so admitting of degrees of being as actualized or not during the course of its temporal development. However, there is no "potency" for evil within any being because potency is the power of being to be actualized, and evil is non-being and as such never an actuality. This being the case, it is impossible to ascribe cause or reason or intelligibility to evil, all we can do is recognize fallenness as a fact. It is only by having this view of evil that we take it fully seriously as something unacceptable, rather than inadvertently making it into a good (which just relativizes good and evil).
So I should have read this comment and your reply first …. Seems then what you are saying is that as our existence in this earth in our present fallen state is “ finite” as in we will die then yes, it is a fact that evil can be chosen and does have consequences YET in eternity there are no real consequences.
But again what about all the verses in Scripture that talk about eternal damnation as in where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and their worm shall never die and the lake of fire and the Great White Throne judgement? Why would a judgment even be necessary? Sorry but these questions did come to mind also
There are a great many reasons for this, but first I would implore you to investigate the history of English translations and how they obscure the semantic range inherent to the language of aeons and cosmic "time" (as much as it can even be thought of in that way).
I think you may be construing judgment legalistic terms, whereby some agent external to the person being judged weighs the evidence, assigns culpability, and renders a punishment with or without the remorse or understanding of the judged, rather than in moral, metaphysical terms. When we discuss judgment in the Christian orthodox context, we are talking not about determining what you've done wrong and how you're going to pay for it, but judgment *as an act of revelation* via an *absolute encounter with He Who is Truth (and Goodness and Beauty).* Such an encounter is inherently *judgmental* insofar as it comprehensively reveals to the subject the total and precise nature and situation of his/her life; every failure and sin, every instance of damage done, every moment of ignorance having masqueraded itself as worthy or satisfying, every virtue pursued and every first and final cause of that pursuit shall be revealed from behind the veil for us to behold. Indeed, the true teleological end of all of that which we have done and desired will be uncovered, and it is through that revelatory index that we shall be shown and *know* ourselves and our lives (and each other).
For the sinner, this is an inherently painful experience. Since to meet the gaze of the Risen Christ at the Eschaton is always *to be judged* against the index of Christ as the absolute source, end, and substance of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, there can be no greater encounter with Truth than an encounter with Christ. If the truths so revealed to us are ugly - like they would be if you'd broken someone's arm out of anger - then the experience of *coming to know* those truths (in the arm-break case, the immorality and consequences of your violence) *will be by necessity an equally ugly experience.*
Think about it like this: imagine I am an evil, insensitive man, and you are an innocent person. Without remorse or empathy and for no reason at all, I decide to strike your shin and snap it in half (graphic, I know, but bear with me). Now, if I asked you, "what did it feel like when I broke your bones," and you tried to answer, you could exhaust your descriptive faculties using all the words in the dictionary to try to make me understand - to *know* - how it felt when I snapped your leg in half, but you would only ever achieve causing me to know *about* how it felt to endure such pain. The type of knowledge you would be imparting (*espisteme*) would always fall short of the knowledge that *you alone* have of your broken leg (this type of "interior" or "experiential" knowledge is more like "gnosis"). However, If you could somehow transmit unto my nous your precise, lived experience of that injury and cause me therefore to experience it as you did (without transforming me into you), only then would I *understand* (rather than just know of or about) your pain! And not just your physical pain, but also the anguish and confusion I caused you, the dignity and innocence within you that I demeaned, the monstrous manner in which I manifested before your discerning eyes, and ofc the absolute injustice of it all. I would experience what I did to you and its consequences exactly as you experienced it without a reduction in my own identity or personhood (hence, "to be known as I am known to myself" / "to know you as you are known to yourself"), and that would obviously hurt a lot, haha, but it would nevertheless be *the whole truth absolutely revealed.*
This pain is what Christian orthodoxy refers to when it invokes "Hell," and the process of revelation through which we are enlightened to that pain is the judgment. You might find the experience of "Hell" in my example to be quite mild compared to the language of unceasing anguish that we as Christians of all stripes have grown accustomed to, but I would ask you to consider for a moment the experience of someone like Henry Kissinger or Adolf Hitler, for whom judgment will lead to enduring the lived experience of the thousands and really, millions upon millions of people whose deaths and torments they caused in this life. That is honestly a far more frightening (and plausible) picture of damnation than any lake of fire or river of ash could ever, ever be. Verily, it becomes accurate to say that all the Hell they have caused for many on Earth shall find a home in their hearts on judgment day.
Let us return to the hypothetical me causing you hypothetical harm in order to understand where exactly in this picture Universalism fits: In the event of such a revelation (being given the experience of the suffering I caused you), it would be *impossible* for me to remain apathetic to your pain, and I would instantly, by a necessity of my nature as a rational creature, overflow with remorse and seek your forgiveness and reconciliation. This an inevitable outcome: if I have encountered Absolute Truth, which in encountering Christ, I would have, then I have come to know ever aspect of the suffering I caused you as it truly is, including your pain, in an *interior* way. This is not merely being told, "you are wrong," but being *shown in my heart* that I am wrong. If I remain apathetic, then I have not truly encountered Truth, and I have not then truly encountered Christ and have not been judged. If I have encountered Truth, then it will be impossible for me to do anything other than seek repentance and reconciliation.
Your comment here is an extremely well-articulated expression both of the reality of hell but also its limits and its eventual defeat. In particlar, I liked the way you characterize damnation as the revelation and experiencing of the suffering we caused to others. I've long thought this is the best way to understand the way in which God's grace is both salvation and judgment, all at once.
I see that you don't have any posts of yiur own on substack--but if you wrote more, I would read it!
Thank you!!! that is awfully kind of you, and I am actually planning to begin writing more this month (potentially involving the author of this substack as he is a friend), esp as I continue my education (I am at present a college dropout).
Thanks Noah for this article I appreciate how you tried to make metaphysics and ontology plainer for those of us who are not Theologians!! lol! I thought I was following along pretty well and especially liked how you completely wrapped it up with the verse from was it Jeremiah about how My Word will not return to me void …..” I also am glad that you addressed the problem of evil but I do want to sort of clarify again for myself on how people then from Eve and Adam and Cain on down to people today who have used their free will to choose that which is not good that which is harmful and murderous and evil. Are you saying that although their actions cause real consequences in the world here and now those same actions have no consequences in eternal reality? As Paul and I were talking about in our emails how does that relate to “ moral culpability “ ( his term) are those people morally to blame and will also be effected by their actions here and now , yet not in eternity?
Fascinating stuff. One question I can foresee coming up for people upon finishing this article is, if God is also always all in all and non-aliud in the way you describe and cite others as describing, how is it this unfreedom, unchoosing, unbeing that characterizes our world and our lives now a possibility? How is it the Fall could have occurred?
Thanks for the question. I would say that the "possibility" of evil is due to reality of a creature as finite and developing, and so admitting of degrees of being as actualized or not during the course of its temporal development. However, there is no "potency" for evil within any being because potency is the power of being to be actualized, and evil is non-being and as such never an actuality. This being the case, it is impossible to ascribe cause or reason or intelligibility to evil, all we can do is recognize fallenness as a fact. It is only by having this view of evil that we take it fully seriously as something unacceptable, rather than inadvertently making it into a good (which just relativizes good and evil).
So I should have read this comment and your reply first …. Seems then what you are saying is that as our existence in this earth in our present fallen state is “ finite” as in we will die then yes, it is a fact that evil can be chosen and does have consequences YET in eternity there are no real consequences.
But again what about all the verses in Scripture that talk about eternal damnation as in where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and their worm shall never die and the lake of fire and the Great White Throne judgement? Why would a judgment even be necessary? Sorry but these questions did come to mind also
There are a great many reasons for this, but first I would implore you to investigate the history of English translations and how they obscure the semantic range inherent to the language of aeons and cosmic "time" (as much as it can even be thought of in that way).
I think you may be construing judgment legalistic terms, whereby some agent external to the person being judged weighs the evidence, assigns culpability, and renders a punishment with or without the remorse or understanding of the judged, rather than in moral, metaphysical terms. When we discuss judgment in the Christian orthodox context, we are talking not about determining what you've done wrong and how you're going to pay for it, but judgment *as an act of revelation* via an *absolute encounter with He Who is Truth (and Goodness and Beauty).* Such an encounter is inherently *judgmental* insofar as it comprehensively reveals to the subject the total and precise nature and situation of his/her life; every failure and sin, every instance of damage done, every moment of ignorance having masqueraded itself as worthy or satisfying, every virtue pursued and every first and final cause of that pursuit shall be revealed from behind the veil for us to behold. Indeed, the true teleological end of all of that which we have done and desired will be uncovered, and it is through that revelatory index that we shall be shown and *know* ourselves and our lives (and each other).
For the sinner, this is an inherently painful experience. Since to meet the gaze of the Risen Christ at the Eschaton is always *to be judged* against the index of Christ as the absolute source, end, and substance of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, there can be no greater encounter with Truth than an encounter with Christ. If the truths so revealed to us are ugly - like they would be if you'd broken someone's arm out of anger - then the experience of *coming to know* those truths (in the arm-break case, the immorality and consequences of your violence) *will be by necessity an equally ugly experience.*
Think about it like this: imagine I am an evil, insensitive man, and you are an innocent person. Without remorse or empathy and for no reason at all, I decide to strike your shin and snap it in half (graphic, I know, but bear with me). Now, if I asked you, "what did it feel like when I broke your bones," and you tried to answer, you could exhaust your descriptive faculties using all the words in the dictionary to try to make me understand - to *know* - how it felt when I snapped your leg in half, but you would only ever achieve causing me to know *about* how it felt to endure such pain. The type of knowledge you would be imparting (*espisteme*) would always fall short of the knowledge that *you alone* have of your broken leg (this type of "interior" or "experiential" knowledge is more like "gnosis"). However, If you could somehow transmit unto my nous your precise, lived experience of that injury and cause me therefore to experience it as you did (without transforming me into you), only then would I *understand* (rather than just know of or about) your pain! And not just your physical pain, but also the anguish and confusion I caused you, the dignity and innocence within you that I demeaned, the monstrous manner in which I manifested before your discerning eyes, and ofc the absolute injustice of it all. I would experience what I did to you and its consequences exactly as you experienced it without a reduction in my own identity or personhood (hence, "to be known as I am known to myself" / "to know you as you are known to yourself"), and that would obviously hurt a lot, haha, but it would nevertheless be *the whole truth absolutely revealed.*
This pain is what Christian orthodoxy refers to when it invokes "Hell," and the process of revelation through which we are enlightened to that pain is the judgment. You might find the experience of "Hell" in my example to be quite mild compared to the language of unceasing anguish that we as Christians of all stripes have grown accustomed to, but I would ask you to consider for a moment the experience of someone like Henry Kissinger or Adolf Hitler, for whom judgment will lead to enduring the lived experience of the thousands and really, millions upon millions of people whose deaths and torments they caused in this life. That is honestly a far more frightening (and plausible) picture of damnation than any lake of fire or river of ash could ever, ever be. Verily, it becomes accurate to say that all the Hell they have caused for many on Earth shall find a home in their hearts on judgment day.
Let us return to the hypothetical me causing you hypothetical harm in order to understand where exactly in this picture Universalism fits: In the event of such a revelation (being given the experience of the suffering I caused you), it would be *impossible* for me to remain apathetic to your pain, and I would instantly, by a necessity of my nature as a rational creature, overflow with remorse and seek your forgiveness and reconciliation. This an inevitable outcome: if I have encountered Absolute Truth, which in encountering Christ, I would have, then I have come to know ever aspect of the suffering I caused you as it truly is, including your pain, in an *interior* way. This is not merely being told, "you are wrong," but being *shown in my heart* that I am wrong. If I remain apathetic, then I have not truly encountered Truth, and I have not then truly encountered Christ and have not been judged. If I have encountered Truth, then it will be impossible for me to do anything other than seek repentance and reconciliation.
Hopefully that helps clear some things up.
Your comment here is an extremely well-articulated expression both of the reality of hell but also its limits and its eventual defeat. In particlar, I liked the way you characterize damnation as the revelation and experiencing of the suffering we caused to others. I've long thought this is the best way to understand the way in which God's grace is both salvation and judgment, all at once.
I see that you don't have any posts of yiur own on substack--but if you wrote more, I would read it!
Thank you!!! that is awfully kind of you, and I am actually planning to begin writing more this month (potentially involving the author of this substack as he is a friend), esp as I continue my education (I am at present a college dropout).
Stay tuned, and thank you :)
Thanks Noah for this article I appreciate how you tried to make metaphysics and ontology plainer for those of us who are not Theologians!! lol! I thought I was following along pretty well and especially liked how you completely wrapped it up with the verse from was it Jeremiah about how My Word will not return to me void …..” I also am glad that you addressed the problem of evil but I do want to sort of clarify again for myself on how people then from Eve and Adam and Cain on down to people today who have used their free will to choose that which is not good that which is harmful and murderous and evil. Are you saying that although their actions cause real consequences in the world here and now those same actions have no consequences in eternal reality? As Paul and I were talking about in our emails how does that relate to “ moral culpability “ ( his term) are those people morally to blame and will also be effected by their actions here and now , yet not in eternity?
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, pray for us!
SAINT Isaac of Ninevah, pray for us!