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 ESCHATOLOGY

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ESCHATOLOGY

is no critical discussion of N.-T. eschatology nor any at- tempt t(i trace the historical developments of Catholic teaihiiin linin Scriptural and traditional data; only a liricf conspectus is given of the developed Catholic system. For critical and historical details and for the refutation of opposing views the reader is referred to the special articles dealing with the various doctrines. The eschatological summary which speaks of the "four last tilings" (death, judgment, heaven, and hell) is popular rather than scientific. For system- atic treatment it is best to distinguish between (A) in- dividual and (B) universal and cosmic eschatology, including under (A): (1) death; (2) the particular judg- ment; (.'5) heaven, or eternal happiness; (4) purgatory, or the intermediate state; (5) hell, or eternal punish- ment; and under (B): (6) the approach of the end of the world ; (7) the resurrection of the body ; (8) the gen- eral judgment; and (9) the final consummation of all things. The superiority of Catholic eschatology con- sists in the fact that, without professing to answer every question that idle curiosity may suggest, it gives a clear, consistent, .satisfying statement of all that need at present be known, or can profitably be under- stood, regarding the eternal issues of life and death for each of us personally, and the final consummation of the cosmos of which we are a part.

(A) Individual Eschatology. — (1) Death, which con- sists in the separation of soul and body, is presented under many aspects in Catholic teaching, but chiefly (a) as being actually and historically, in the present order of supernatural Providence, the consequence and penalty of Adam's sin (Gen., ii, 17; Rom., v, 12, etc.); (b) as being the end of man's period of proba- tion, the event which decides his eternal destiny (II Cor., V, 10; John, ix, 4; Luke, xii, 40; xvi, 19 sqq.; etc.), though it does not exclude an intermediate state of purification for the imperfect who die in God's grace; and (c) as being universal, though as to its ab- solute universality (for those living at the end of the world) there is some room for doubt because of I Thess., iv, 14 sqq.; I Cor., xv, 51 ; II Tim., iv, 1.

(2) 'That a particular judgment of each soul takes place at death is implied in many passages of the N. T. (Luke, xvi, 22 sqq.; xxiii, 4.3; Acts, i, 25; etc.), and in the teaching of the Council of Florence (Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 588) regarding the speedy entry of each soul into heaven, purgatory, or hell. (See Judgment, Paiiticular.)

(3) Heaven is the abode of the bles.sed, where (after the resurrection with glorified bodies) they enjoy, in the company of Christ and the angels, the im- mediate vision of God face to face, being supernatur- ally elevated by the light of glory so as to be capable of such a vision. There are infinite degrees of glory cor- responding to degrees of merit, but all are unspeak- ably happy in the eternal po.ssession of God. Only the perfectly pure and holy can enter heaven ; but for those who have attained that state, either at death or after a course of purification in purgatory, entry into heaven is not deferred, as has sometimes been erro- neously held, till after the General Judgment.

(4) Purgatory is the intermediate state of unknown duration in which those who die imperfect, but not in un- repentcd inurtal sin, undergo a course of penal purifica- tion, toualify foradmission into heaven. Theyshare in the communion of saints (q. v.) and are benefited by our prayers and good works (.see Dead, Prayers FOR the). The denial of purgatory by the Re- formers introduced a dismal blank in their eschatol- ogy and, after the manner of extremes, has led to e.\- treme reactions. (See Purgatory.)

(5) Hell, in Catholic teaching, designates the place or state of men (and angels) who, liecause of sin, are excluded for ever from the Beatific Vision. In this wide sen.se it applies to the state of tho.se who die with only original sin on their souls (Council of Florence, Denzinger, no. HHH), although this is not a state of

misery or of subjective punishment of any kind, but merely implies the objective privation of supernat- ural bliss, which is compatible with a condition of perfect natural liappiness. But in the narrower sense in which the name is ordinarily used, hell is the state of those who are punished eternally for unrepented personal mortal sin. Beyond affirmii.g the existence of such a state, with varying degrees of punishment corresponding to degrees of guilt and its eternal or unending duration. Catholic doctrine does not go. It is a terrible and mysterious truth, but it is clearly and emphatically taught by Christ and the Apostles. Rationalists may deny the eternity of hell in spite of the authority of Christ, and professing Christians, who are unwilling to admit it, may try to explain away Christ's words; but it remains as the Divinely revealed solution of the problem of moral evil. (See Hell.) Rival solutions have been sought for in some form of the theory of restitution or, less commonly, in the theory of annihilation or conditional immortality. The restitutionist view, which in its Origenist form was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 543, and later at the Fifth General Council (.see Apoca- tastasis), is the cardinal dogma of modern LTniversal- ism (q. v.), and is favoured more or less by liberal Protestants and Anglicans. Based on an exagger- ated optimism for which present experience offers no guarantee, this view assumes the all-conquering effi- cacy of the ministry of grace in a life of probation after death, and looks forward to the ultimate conversion of all sinners and the voluntary disappearance of moral evil from the univer-se. Annihilationists, on the other hand, failing to find either in reason or Rev- elation any grounds for such optimism, and consider- ing immortality itself to be a grace and not the natural attribute of the soul, believe that the finally impeni- tent will be annihilated or cease to exist — that God will thus ultimately be compelled to confess the failure of His purpo.se and power.

(B) tlniversaland Cosmic Eschatology. — (6) Notwith- standing Christ's express refusal to specify the time of the end (Mark, xiii, 32 ; Acts, i, 6 sq.),it was a common be- lief amongearly Christians that the end of the world was near. This seemed to have .some support in certain say- ings of Christ in reference to the destruction of Jeru- salem, which are set down in the Gospels side by side with prophecies relating to the end (Matt., xxiv ; Luke, xxi), and in certain passages of the Apostolic writings, which might, not unnaturally, have been so uniler- stood (but see II Thess., ii, 2 sqq., where St. Paul cor- rects this impression). On the other hand, ChrLst had clearly stated that the Gospel was to be preached to all nations before the end (Matt., xxiv, 14), and St. Paul looked forward to the ultimate conversion of the Jewish people as a remote event to be preceded by the conversion of the Gentiles (Rom., xi, 25 sqq.). Vari- ous other signs are spoken of as preceding or ushering in the end, as a great apostasy (II Thess., ii, 3 sqq.), or falling away from faith or charity (Luke, xviii, 8; xvii, 20; Matt., xxiv, 12), the reign of Antichrist (q. v.), and great social calamities and terrifying phy- sical convulsions. Yet the end will come unexpect- edly and take the living by surprise.

(7) The visible coming (parousia) of Christ in power and glory will be the signal for the rising of the dead (.see Resurrection). It is Catholic teaching that all the dead who are to be judged will rise, the wicked as well as the just, and that they will rise with the bodies they had in this life. But nothing is defined as to what is required to constitute this identity of the risen and transformed with the present body. Though not formally defined, it is sufficiently certain that tlicrc is to be only one general resurrection, simultaneous for the good and the bad. (See Millennium.) Regard- ing the qualities of the risen bodies in the case of the just we have St. Paul's description in I Cor., xv (cf. Matt., xiii, 43; Phil., iii, 21) as a basis for theological