Apocatas'tasis

Apocatas'tasis, in Theology, the final restitution of all things, when at the appearance of the Messiah the kingdom of God shall be extended over the whole earth (Acts, iii. 21). In a dogmatic sense, the name is applied to the future conversion of all men to the faith of Christ, and their consequent admission to everlasting blessedness. This idea was extended by Origen to imply the final conversion and salvation of all individuals, even the devil and his followers not excepted. Origen's belief was held also by Didymus of Alexandria, Gregory Nazianzen, Diodorus of Tarsus, and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, but was emphatically condemned as heretical by the orthodox. Yet it has often appeared since, as in Scotus Erigena in the 9th century, and in the 19th century in the so-called 'mediation theology' (Vermittelungstheologie).