Raiul și Iadul

Despre îndoielnica unitate și dezbinarea identităților

Abstract

The traditional and eschatological Christian theory generally refers to an eternal separation between the righteous and the sinners after the Last Judgement. This final duality also known as the notions of Heaven and Hell stands for the ultimate word coming either from God or from man. In this context, each religious or confessional identity defines the world in terms of two big categories: “us” (the ones who belong to this identity who own the supreme truth and all the possible ways which lead to our salvation) and “the others” (who broke off the true faith – the missbelievers, the heathens and the atheists whose way of salvation can be at least doubtful and dangerous). From this perspective, any real discourse about unity touches a superficial level, and the dialogue between various identities would highlight the separation between them rather than their communion, as long as each identity considers that it has more chances of salvation. Moreover, in our eschatological discourse, we shall prove that both communion and unity within the same Christian confession are just apparent and ephemeral. The second part of our study highlights the way in which the contemporary theologians belonging to different Christian confessions have debated the problem of the everlasting separation between people, bringing into discussion the idea of the apocatastasis as everyone’s communion and unity into eternity.