The apocatastasis, God's coming to be all in all, thus
resolves itself into the anacefaleosis, the gathering together of all
things in Christ, in Humanity--Humanity therefore being the end of
creation. And does not this apocatastasis, this humanization or
divinization of all things, do away with matter? But if matter, which is
the principle of individuation, the scholastic _principium
individuationis_, is once done away with, does not everything return to
pure consciousness, which, in its pure purity, neither knows itself nor
is it anything that can be conceived or felt? And if matter be
abolished, what support is there left for spirit?
Thus a different train of thought leads us to the same difficulties, the
same unthinkabilities.
It may be said, on the other hand, that the apocatastasis, God's coming
to be all in all, presupposes that there was a time when He was not all
in all. The supposition that all beings shall attain to the enjoyment of
God implies the supposition that God shall attain to the enjoyment of
all beings, for the beatific vision is mutual, and God is perfected in
being better known, and His being is nourished and enriched with souls.
Following up the track of these wild dreams, we might imagine an
unconscious God, slumbering in matter, and gradually wakening into
consciousness of everything, consciousness of His own divinity; we might
imagine the whole Universe becoming conscious of itself as a whole and
becoming conscious of each of its constituent consciousnesses, becoming
God.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350