From Protology to Eschatology: Competing Views on the Origin and the End of the Cosmos in Platonism and Christian Thought

This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference held in Leuven in June 2017 as a follow-up to a previous meeting that dealt with views on the origin of the cosmos in Greek philosophical and early Christian tradition (published in STAC 104, 2017). The second conference focused on how both traditions have reflected on the end or the goal towards which the cosmos is moving. The Judeo-Christian concept of a creation with temporal development and the philosophical notion of the eternity of the world evidently represent two very different positions. Yet there are also clear signs of convergence and of the latter influencing the former. The essays show there is common interest in reflecting not only on the principles that govern cosmology and on how the cosmos is reverting on its principles, but also on the answers provided in each tradition.