In ancient European
cosmologies inspired by
Aristotle, the Empyrean Heaven, Empyreal or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the
highest heaven, which was supposed to be occupied by the element of
fire (or
aether in
Aristotle's natural philosophy). The word derives from the
Medieval Latin ''empyreus'', an adaptation of the
Ancient Greek ''empyros'' (), meaning "in or on the fire (''pyr'')".
In Christian religious cosmologies, the Empyrean was "the source of light" and where God and saved souls resided, and in medieval Christianity, the Empyrean was the third heaven and beyond "the heaven of the air and the heaven of the stars."
The Empyrean was thus used as a name for the incorporeal "heaven of the first day",
and in
Christian literature for the dwelling-place of God, the blessed, celestial beings so divine they are made of pure light, and the source of light and creation. Notably, at the very end of
Dante's ''
Paradiso'', Dante visits God in the Empyrean.
The word is used both as a noun and as an adjective, but ''empyreal'' is an alternate adjective form. The scientific words ''empyreuma'' and ''empyreumatic'', applied to the characteristic smell of the burning or charring of vegetable or animal matter, have the same Greek origin.
Christianity
Early Christians
Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...
took inspiration from Aristotle's cosmology in their reckoning of heaven.
From the 7th century onwards, the idea of the Empyrean gained traction in the faith because of writers like
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
and
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
.
See also
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Atziluth
*
Central Fire
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Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
*
Hyperuranion
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Paradise
*
Pleroma
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Seven Heavens
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Third Heaven
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Firmament
Sources
; Attribution
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{{Authority control
Early scientific cosmologies
Religious cosmologies
Christian cosmology
Conceptions of heaven
Divine Comedy