The Ilaria Ramelli tapes

Ilaria Ramelli is a formidable pocket rocket of a thinker. She famously wrote the breakthrough defence of the doctrine of ‘apokatastasis’ or universal salvation in her massive 900 page tome ‘The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis’. Her book was a breakthrough because she exploded the myth that most of us grew up with - that the belief in universal salvation (I prefer ‘cosmic redemption’) was always a minority position, and a heretical one in the early church. Ilaria could do this largely because she is a scholar of vast erudition - and in particular in the expansive world of classical thinking not just biblical theology.

These tapes are short clips of Robin Parry interviewing her in 2019 before his visit to Australia. Robin intended to use them but we never got around to it. So I thought it was a good time to offer them up now. They are gold because they are short and punchy, and give you a good overview of some big ideas.

I introduce the talks with an overview that shows (graphically) how the six talks connect to each other - so you can view them as a coherent structure not just fragments. We attach the first talk at the end of my introduction and will publish the following talks in relatively quick succession.

PS - I am afraid I cannot resist adding a somewhat humorous note to this talk. As we all have found, it is difficult to pronounce the word ‘apokatastasis’. It is a multi-syllable tongue twister, and most of us stumble over it. Well, take heart - so does the voice recognition of Descript, the program we use to edit and upload all our talks. It made several vain attempts to get it, and finally gave up, but not before some noble efforts. My favourite one was ‘apple catastrophes’!

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