The Knowledge of the Damned

    At the end of Dare We Hope "That All Men Be Saved"? von Balthasar reviews some of the most notable theologies of apokatastasis – the universal restoration of creation to its Creator. He quotes Maximus the Confessor in a lengthy footnote:

"The third meaning [of apokatastasis] is used by Gregory especially in reference to the qualities of the soul that had been corrupted by sin and then are restored to their original state. Just as all nature will regain, at the expected time, its completeness in the flesh [at the resurrection], so also will the powers of the soul, by necessity, shed all imprints of evil clinging to them; and this after aeons have elapsed, after a long time of being driven about without rest [stasis]. And so in the end they reach God, who is without limitations [peras]. Thus they are restored to their original state [apokatastenai] through their knowledge [of God], but do not participate in [his] gifts. It also will appear that the Creator cannot be blamed for any sinfulness."

    Without knowing the original context for Maximus's assertion, I would like to suggest a biblical context of which his theory helps to make sense. Phillippians 2:10-11 (RSV) tells us that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." If one may read the "should" here as "will" – that is, as describing the ultimate and final consequences of God's exaltation of Christ (2:9) – the end of this hymn leaves us with an interesting picture of hell. In the end, all of creation will "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" and bend the knee before him, even those who are "under the earth."

Whatever the rebellion of the damned consists in, they are here seen to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ at least intellectually. If Maximus is right, this acknowledgement is rooted in the restored knowledge of God ultimately returned to everyone. That such a restoration of knowledge is simultaneously a "restor[ation] to their original state" means that even in damnation there is something of divine blessing. This gratuitous blessing may explain the worshipful posture of the kneeling reprobate.