The Kingdom of Heaven
As taught in the Eastern Orthodox tradition
The eternal life in the New Jerusalem where God is all in all.
What is the destiny of the human person and the cosmos according to the mind of the Orthodox Church? This is the fundamental question that the doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven seeks to answer. In the Orthodox tradition, the Kingdom of Heaven is not merely a "place" one goes after death, nor is it a distant, abstract reward for moral behaviour. Rather, it is the "life of the age to come," a state of being in which the entire created order is transfigured by the uncreated light of God. To understand the Kingdom of Heaven is to understand the purpose of creation itself: theosis, or deification. The Orthodox Church teaches that God became man so that man might become god (by grace), and the Kingdom is the final, eternal realization of this union between the Creator and the creature.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the distinctively Orthodox understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven as *theosis* (deification) and cosmic transfiguration.
- **Distinguish** between a "linear" view of heaven as a future destination and the "liturgical" view of the Kingdom as an ever-present reality.
- **Explain** the theological significance of the "New Heaven and New Earth" as a physical and spiritual renewal of the cosmos.
- **Articulate** the role of the Divine Liturgy as an icon and actual participation in the Heavenly Banquet.
- **Trace** the development of eschatological thought from the Nicene Creed through the Russian Catechetical tradition.
- **Defend** the Orthodox rejection of "soul-only" salvation in favour of the resurrection of the body and the renewal of matter.
- **Apply** the teaching of the Kingdom to daily ascetic practice and the pursuit of holiness.
- **Compare** the Orthodox "Realized Eschatology" with mainstream Western views like Purgatory or the "Rapture."
Scripture
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