The Shape of Orthodox Eschatology

The frame that governs everything else in this collection: Orthodox eschatology is not primarily a timetable of last events but a mode of Christian existence oriented by the Kingdom that has already come in Christ and is already present in the Church and the Eucharist. Its key is Pascha, and its dominant note is hope rather than terror.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

This section sets the interpretive frame for the whole compendium. Before any question of death, judgment, heaven, or hell can be rightly weighed, one must see how the Orthodox tradition holds eschatology as a whole: as inaugurated — the age to come already breaking into the present — and as Paschal — read from the empty tomb, so that the last things are approached as fulfillment and not as dread. Unlike the toll-houses (Section 03) or the apokatastasis (Section 08), the material of this section is not a both-sides question: that the Kingdom is present in the Church and that Christ is risen are dogma confessed by the whole Church (METHODOLOGY §4.1), and they are presented here as such.

Files

• inaugurated-eschatology-and-the-kingdom.md — the Kingdom already present; “realized” and “future” eschatology held together; the Eucharist as the age to come.
• the-paschal-frame-hope-not-terror.md — Pascha as the hermeneutical key; eschatology as hope; death defeated; sobriety without dread.

See Also

• Death and the Particular Judgment — what the Paschal frame means for the individual soul at death
• Eschatology Lived — the same frame carried into the liturgical and ascetic life
• Eschatology (hub essay) — the foundational article