Eschatology & Ontology

There has been a lot of interesting discussion recently about Eschatological Ontology.  Loudovikos’ book A Eucharistic Ontology is a great read and one that I think should be on the shelf of anyone and everyone who is interested in Saint Maximos (who happens to be the patron of this study group).  Douglas Knight from England also has a very interesting book that talks about the relationship between Eschatology and Ontology called The Eschatological Economy.  Finally, it is with as much excitement as I have had for the release of just about any book I await Metropolitan Zizioulas’ book Remembering the Future. Though most of the scholarship regarding Eschatological Ontology seems to primarily focus on St. Maximos I think it would behoove us all to undergo a study of our Lord’s Parables (profoundly eschatological), the Epistle to the Hebrews, and St. Methodios.  I believe that the Parables, the Letter, and this Holy Father all must be taken account of when discussing Eschatological Ontology.  They will provide many insights and I believe are more accessible than St. Maximos (I say this not because I feel that any of the above persons neglected these topics but I think there is a great deal here that awaits our awe and discovery!). - micah

If the law, according to the apostle, is spiritual, containing the images “of future good things,” come then, let us strip off the veil of the letter which is spread over it, and consider its naked and true meaning. The Hebrews were commanded to ornament the Tabernacle as a type of the Church, that they might be able, by means of sensible things, to announce beforehand the image of divine things. For the pattern which was shown to Moses in the mount, to which he was to have regard in fashioning the Tabernacle, was a kind of accurate representation of the heavenly dwelling, which we now perceive more clearly than through types, yet more darkly than if we saw the reality. For not yet, in our present condition, has the truth come unmingled to men, who are here unable to bear the sight of pure immortality, just as we cannot bear to look upon the rays of the sun. And the Jews declared that the shadow of the image (of the heavenly things which was afforded to them), was the third from the reality; but we clearly behold the image of the heavenly order; for the truth will be accurately made manifest after the resurrection, when we shall see the heavenly tabernacle (the city in heaven “whose builder and maker is God”) “face to face,” and not “darkly” and “in part.”

-Saint Methodios