Jean Bastaire

This article by Jean and Hélène Bastaire examines the question of the eschatological destiny of the cosmos at the Parousia through a patristic study covering the second to fifth centuries. Proceeding by means of a comparative analysis of sources, the authors investigate the way in which the Church Fathers conceived of universal resurrection, beyond humanity alone. The central idea is that the patristic tradition is traversed by an unresolved tension between two inheritances: on one side, a biblical and Judeo-Christian vision affirming the concrete resurrection of the whole of creation — illustrated in particular by Irenaeus of Lyon and Ephrem of Nisibis —, on the other, a Neoplatonic dualism that leads authors such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, or Augustine to restrict the eschatological promise to humanity alone. The contribution of the article is to show that this restriction constitutes a theological incoherence with regard to the very principle of divine creative goodness and the solidarity between the human body and the cosmic body.

This article by Jean Bastaire, a recognized specialist in Péguy and French Catholic literature, takes the form of a collection of brief meditations organized around seven themes: the cross, joy, love, woman, childhood, time, and glory. The approach is aphoristic and contemplative, close to the tradition of spiritual maxims. The central idea is that created reality — suffering, human love, childhood, time — is called to transfiguration rather than renunciation: stripping away opens onto fullness, the cross onto resurrection, time onto eternity. The theological contribution lies in the convergence that the author, a Catholic close to Orthodoxy, establishes between this spirituality of joy and recovered innocence and the patristic doctrine of divine energies, making the transfiguration of the flesh and glory the ultimate end of all human existence.