L’apocalisse della predestinazione. Il mistero dell’elezione gratuita in Agostino tra Paolo e Giovanni

Abstract

This study puts forward the thesis that John’s Revelation should be interpreted as a violently anti-Pauline text. While for Paul revelation is the gift of universal salvation, and it seems that God wants to save everyone apocatastatically, John interprets merciful election in a radically dualistic and divisive perspective, as a gift separating the pure community of the elect from the darkness of the damned. Augustine’s doctrine of predestination depends, creatively, on both perspectives. On the one hand, Augustine bases his thesis of the absolute gratuitousness of grace – an undue gift that saves through pure mercy – on Pauline texts. On the other hand, he deduces the idea of non-universal, but divisive election from Johannine texts, making predestination a Revelation of the unconditional.

English title: The Apocalypse of Predestination. The Mystery of Augustine’s Divine Election between Paul and John