Eschatology

THE term anagogia, or anagogy comes from the early Christian methodology of contemplative exegesis. Origen (c.185-254) employed it as a synonym for allegory (Com.John 1.26 [24] 32.12), the “mystical”. sense of the scriptures in which we perceive specifically Christian meanings, or even the presence of Christ Himself in the text. But for John Cassian (c.360-c.430), anagogy is more elevated than even christological allegory insofar as anagogy points towards heavenly or eschatological realities:

. . . the anagogical sense rises from spiritual mysteries even to still more sublime and sacred secrets of heaven (Anagoge uero de spiritalibus mysteriis ad sublimiora quaedam et sacratiora caelorum secreta).
(Conf. 14.8.3)

THUS from the time of Cassian and throughout the middle ages anagogy became that subdivision within the mystical sense of the scriptures through which our minds are elevated to a form of contemplation transcending time, pointing towards our ultimate destiny of eternal union with the Blessed Trinity and the People of God in Heaven.

The Greek oral poet Hesiod refers to the Isles of the Blessed in his didactic poem Works and Days. In his book Greek Religion, Walter Burkert notes the connection with the motif of far-off Dilmun: "Thus Achilles is transported to the White Isle, which may refer to Mount Teide on Tenerife, whose volcano is often snowcapped and as the island was sometimes called the white isle by explorers, and becomes the Ruler of the Black Sea, and Diomedes becomes the divine lord of an Adriatic island".[10]

And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep-swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them

Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment)
Visio Pauli
Perpetua__________________________
Cassian
Evagrius
MASTER/BENEDICT R.MAG / R.BEN
Gregory on Benedict's Vision
Bede
Tundale's Vision
Vision of the Monk of Evesham

Council of Viene: 2.28 (condemnation of Beguines 1311:) Fifthly, that any intellectual nature in itself is naturally blessed, and that the soul does not need the light of glory to elevate it to see God and enjoy him blissfully.

The definition of the beatific vision was dogmatized at the the Council of Vienne in 1311 2.28.5: Fifthly, that any intellectual nature in itself is naturally blessed, and that the soul does not need the light of glory to elevate it to see God and enjoy him blissfully.

Quarto quod homo potest ita finalem beatitudinem secundum omnem gradum perfectionis in praesenti assequi sicut eam in vita obtinebit beata.

The Council of Basle (Sess. XXII) condemned the proposition of a certain Augustinus de Roma: "Anima Christi videt Deum tam clare. Et intense quam clare et intense Deus videt seipsum" (The soul of Christ sees God as clearly and intimately as God perceives Himself).

The human nature assumed by the Word in a personal union is truly God, natural and proper. Christ according to his created will loves the human nature united to the person of the Word as much as he loves the divine nature. Just as two persons in God are equally lovable, so the two natures in Christ, the human and the divine, are equally lovable on account of the common person. The soul of Christ sees God as clearly and intensely as God sees himself. Anima christi videt deum tam clare et intense quantum clare et intense deus videt se ipsum.

PSALMODY as MYSTICAL ASCENT and RETURN to GARDEN ("return to this place" in Plato/Cicero)

Bibliography:
    1)Eschatology, Death and Eternal Life, Johann Auer, Joseph Ratzinger, ser. Dogmatic Theology, vol. 9, tr. M Waldstein, (Cath. Univ. Am. Press, 1988),
    3) Paradise Interpreted, Representations of Biblical Paradise in Judaism and Christianity, ed. Gerard Luttikhuizen, (Brill, 1999), esp. "Paradisiacal Life, the Story of Paradise in the Early Church, , H.S. Benjamins, pp. 153-167 (in early Church until Augustine Genesis was primarily story of Paradise, not of fall; note restoration of this in JPII Theol. of Body - "Look to the Beginning"); and "Paradise Now - but for the Wall Between: Some Remarks on Paradise in the Middle Ages, Chr. Auffarth, pp. 168-179 (Cistercian Monasticism not as penitent preparation but as living life of paradise NOW!)
    2) Visions of Heaven Before Dante, ed. Eileen Gardiner, (Italica Press, NY, 1989) ISBN 09349771413 (digitize texts);

FILMS
Stairway to Heaven;
Breakfast in Moonstruck
What Dreams May Come;
Lord of the Rings Gandalf's statement to Peregrin-and ship to Valinor at vey end

FILMS
Star Trek Generations heaven as fantasy - dangerous place to stay.
Field of Dreams: Heaven as reconciliation- playing ball with father

THEME: TRANSFIGURATION; note transfiguration as eschatological in Apocryph Rev. of Peter?

FILMS
Star Trek - The Mothion(less)Picture [compare wih hell-like borg in First Contact]
2001 (both bone becoming ship and pilot becoming star child)
Starman;
Avatar
Mission to Mars

Salvation of the Unlikely:
Snape in Harry Potter films;
What Dreams May Come - descent into hell
Frodo and Sam - into hell of Mount Doom - failure and salvation by grace
[thus not just heroism, but simply doing the best you can]

Text missing on relevant webpage in Origen De Principis, ed. Redepenning, Leipzig, 1836

Latin from pp. 324-325 in need of checking Latin text MOVE LINK to Origen subdiur and remove version in apokat. subdur.

St. Thomas (II-II.83.11) denies that the souls in purgatory pray for the living, and states they are not in a position to pray for us, rather we must make intercession for them.

Saint Robert Bellarmine (De Purgatorio, lib. II, xv,) disagreed with Saint Thomas citing his arguments as unconvincing. Bellarmine taught that precisely because they are secure in their salvation, and permanently united to God, that they have a greater love for Him than the wayfarers, although he did not concede that they are aware of our particular circumstances. The Tridentine doctor, Francisco Suárez (De poenit., disp. xlvii, s. 2, n. 9), Bellarmine’s contemporary and fellow Jesuit, asserts more. He argues thus: “that the souls in purgatory are holy, are dear to God, love us with a true love and are mindful of our wants; that they know in a general way our necessities and our dangers, and how great is our need of divine help and divine grace”.

Saint Alphonsus in his work the “Great Means of Salvation”, chap. I, III, 2, after quoting many renowned theologians as favourable to his opinion, concludes: “so the souls in purgatory, being beloved by God and confirmed in grace, have absolutely no impediment to prevent them from praying for us. Still the Church does not invoke them or implore their intercession, because ordinarily they have no cognizance of our prayers. But we may piously believe that God makes our prayers known to them”. He also cites the authority of Saint Catherine of Bologna, a fifteenth century Poor Clare mystic, saying that “whenever she desired any favour [she] had recourse to the souls in purgatory, and was immediately heard”.

[[[cites Thomas: 2a2ae. 80-91 {=83 a 11} Non sunt in statu orandi , sed magis, ut oretur pro eis]]]

“Again, it is disputed whether there is any use in recommending one’s self to the souls in purgatory. Some say that the souls in that state cannot pray for us; and these rely on the authority of St. Thomas, who says that those souls, while they are being purified by pain, are inferior to us, and therefore ‘are not in a state to pray for us, but rather require cur prayers.’

“But many other Doctors, as Bellarmine, Sylvius, Cardinal Gotti, Lessius, Medina and others affirm with great probability, that we should piously believe that God manifests our prayer to those holy souls in order that they may pray for us; and that so the charitable interchange of mutual prayer may be kept up between them and us. Nor do St. Thomas’ words present much difficulty; for, as Sylvius and Gotti say, it is one thing not to be in a state to pray, another not to be able to pray.

“It is true that those souls are not in a state to pray, because, as St. Thomas says, while suffering they are inferior to us, and rather require our prayers; nevertheless, in this state they are well able to pray, as they are friends of God. If a father keeps a son whom he tenderly loves in confinement for some fault; if the son then is not in a state to pray for himself, is that any reason why he cannot pray for others? and may he not expect to obtain what he asks, knowing, as he does, his father's affection for him?

“So the souls in purgatory, being beloved by God, and confirmed in grace, have absolutely no impediment to prevent them from praying for us. Still the Church does not invoke them, or implore their intercession, because ordinarily they have no cognizance of our prayers. But we may piously believe that God makes our prayers known to them; and then they, full of charity as they are, most assuredly do not omit to pray for us. St. Catharine of Bologna, whenever she desired any favor, had recourse to the souls in purgatory, and was immediately heard. She even testified that by the intercession of the souls in purgatory she had obtained many graces which she had not been able to obtain by the intercession of the saints.”

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