About the Book
2018 Book Award Winner, The Gospel Coalition (Academic Theology)
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2019
Will all evil finally turn to good, or does some evil remain stubbornly opposed to God and God's goodness? Will even the devil be redeemed? Addressing a theological issue of perennial interest, this comprehensive book (in two volumes) surveys the history of Christian universalism from the second to the twenty-first century and offers an interpretation of how and why universalist belief arose. The author explores what the church has taught about universal salvation and hell and critiques universalism from a biblical, philosophical, and theological standpoint. He shows that the effort to extend grace to everyone undermines the principle of grace for anyone.
Table of Contents:
Contents
Volume 1
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Prologue
Introduction
0.1. Uncovering a Gnostic-Kabbalist-Esoteric Tradition
0.2. Linking Esoteric Universalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
0.3. Two Christian Strands: Origenism and Böhmism
0.4. The Theme of Divine Self-Alienation and Self-Return
0.5. Contrasts between Esoteric and Exoteric Christian Theologies
0.6. Theological Issues: Preexistence, Wisdom, Punishment, and Rationalism
0.7. The Late Twentieth-Century Tilt toward Universalism
0.8. Divine Drama in Bulgakov, Barth, Balthasar, Tillich, and Moltmann
0.9. Scripture, Reason, and Experience in Universalist Argumentation
0.10. A Theological Irony: Universalism's Eclipse of Grace
1. Final Salvation: Church Teachings and Newer Views
1.1. Mainline Protestants: The Turn toward Universalism
1.2. Roman Catholics: Traditionalists versus "Hopeful Universalists"
1.3. Eastern Orthodoxy: Official Teachings and Private Opinions
1.4. Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics: Newcomers to Universalism
1.5. Should Everyone Be Told? Universalism as a Secret Gospel
1.6. Christ's Descent to the Dead and the Larger Hope
1.7. The Old Catholic Purgatory and the New
1.8. Protestants Debating Hell: From the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries
1.9. Recent Catholic Discussions of Death and Hell
1.10. British Evangelicals and the Debate over Conditionalism
1.11. Summary and Conclusions on Church Teachings
2. Ancient Afterlives: The Gnostic, Kabbalist, and Esoteric Roots of Christian Universalism
2.1. Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Cultures: From Shadows to Immortal Souls
2.2. Jewish Afterlives: Bodies, Souls, Resurrection, and Judgment
2.3. Evidence for Second- and Third-Century Gnostic Universalism
2.4. Medieval Gnosis: Catharist Universalism
2.5. Core Concepts of Kabbalah
2.6. Universalist Tendencies in Kabbalah
2.7. Early Christian Cabala: Guillaume Postel
2.8. Dutch Jews in the 1600s: The Morteira-Aboab Debate on Eternal Punishment
2.9. Multilevel Heavens in Swedenborgianism and Mormonism
2.10. The Universalism of Sadhu Sundar Singh
2.11. Gnostic and Esoteric Models for Reunion with the Divine
2.12. Summary and Conclusions on Gnostic, Kabbalistic, and Esoteric Universalisms
3. "The End Is Like the Beginning": Origen and Origenism, 200-410 CE
3.1. The Modern Rehabilitation of Origen and Origenism
3.2. The Question of Origen's Texts
3.3. Clement of Alexandria and the Question of Universalism
3.4. Origen's Intellectual Backdrop and Cosmic Vision
3.5. The Vexatious Issue of Preexistent Souls
3.6. Origen's Theology: God, Souls, Angels, Demons, Salvation, and the Eschaton
3.7. Origen's Biblical Interpretation and the Cleansing Fire of Conscience
3.8. Debated Issues on Origen and the Arguments of the Anti-Origenians
3.9. Gregory of Nyssa's Revised Origenism
3.10. Final Confluence in Evagrius of Pontus
3.11. The First Origenist Controversy, I: Beginnings under Epiphanius
3.12. The First Origenist Controversy, II: Conflict in Egypt under Theophilus
3.13. The First Origenist Controversy, III: The Jerome-Rufinus Debate
3.14. Summary and Conclusions on Origen and Origenism, 200-410 CE
4. "That God May Be All in All": Origen and Origenism, 410-1700 CE
4.1. Fifth-Century Coptic Anti-Origenism: Shenoute of Atripe
4.2. Non-Universalist Syriac Authors: Aphrahat, Ephrem, Isaac of Antioch, and Narsai
4.3. Augustine's Conceptual Analysis and Critique of Origen
4.4. Hierarchical Neoplatonism: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
4.5. Stephen bar Sudaili and the Book of the Holy Hierotheos
4.6. Bar Sudaili and Thirteenth-Century Mesopotamia: Bar Hebraeus, George Washnaya, and Simon the Persecuted
4.7. Sixth-Century Origenism in the Letters of Severus of Antioch and Barsanuphius
4.8. Maximus the Confessor's Critique of Origenism
4.9. The Universalist Theology of Isaac the Syrian
4.10. The Speculative System of John Scotus Eriugena
4.11. Thomas Aquinas as a Critic of Origen
4.12. Soundings in European Origenism, 1200-1650 CE
4.13. Origenism in Seventeenth-Century England: Rust, Parker, and Conway
4.14. Origenism's "Swan Song": The Bayle-Le Clerc Exchange
4.15. Toward Universalist Rationalism: Andrew Michael Ramsay and David Hartley
4.16. Summary and Conclusions on Origen and Origenism, 410-1700 CE
5. "In Yes and No All Things Consist": The Theosophic World of Jakob Böhme and the Böhmists of Germany, England, America, France, and Russia
5.1. Jakob Böhme: Life and Legend
5.2. Divergent Interpretations of Böhme's Thought
5.3. An Outline and Summary of Böhme's Theology
5.4. The Böhmist Shift to Universalism
5.5. Böhmist Receptions: Sectarian, Churchly, Esoteric, Literary, and Philosophical
5.6. Johann Georg Gichtel and the Early German Böhmists
5.7. Gerrard Winstanley, Jane Lead, and the Philadelphian Movement in England
5.8. Johann and Johanna Petersen and German and German-American Pietistic Universalism
5.9. British Böhmism: William Law, George MacDonald, Andrew Jukes, and Thomas Erskine
5.10. Universalism against a Backdrop of French Illuminism, Esotericism, and Occultism
5.11. Martines de Pasqually and the Emergence of French Martinism
5.12. Martinism under Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
5.13. The Rise of Russian Böhmism prior to Solovyov
5.14. Summary and Conclusions on Böhme and Böhmist Universalism
6. A House Divided: The Rise and Fall of the Anglo-American Universalists
6.1. Sectarians and Pietists: German Roots of American Universalism
6.2. George de Benneville and Paul Siegvolck's Everlasting Gospel
6.3. Caleb Rich and Body-Soul Dualism
6.4. James Relly and Calvinistic Universalism
6.5. John Murray and Rellyan Universalism in America
6.6. Elhanan Winchester and Transatlantic Restorationist Universalism
6.7. From Calvinism to Universalism to Unitarianism in Britain
6.8. Hosea Ballou and the Restorationist Controversy
6.9. Internal Tensions and Contradictions in Anglo-American Universalism
6.10. Summary and Conclusions on Anglo-American Universalism
Volume 2
7. German Thinkers: Kant and Müller, Schleiermacher and Hegel, Schelling and Tillich
7.1. The Kantian Legacy of Transcendental Selfhood
7.2. Müller's Quasi-Origenist Non-universalism
7.3. Schleiermacher on Universal Election and Human Solidarity
7.4. Hegel as Rationalist and Esotericist
7.5. Hegel and the Consummation of Absolute Spirit
7.6. A Theological Critique of Hegel's Thought
7.7. Schelling's Speculative Reinterpretation of Creation, Fall, and Redemption
7.8. Tillich's "Half-Way Demythologization" of the Fall and Restoration of Souls
7.9. Summary and Conclusions on German Thinkers
8. Russian Thinkers: Solovyov, Berdyaev, Florovsky, and Bulgakov
8.1. The Russian Background, I: Orthodoxy, Idealism, and Böhmism
8.2. The Russian Background, II: Freemasonry and Esotericism
8.3. Vladimir Solovyov and the Roots of Russian Sophiology
8.4. Solovyov's Universalist Vision of "All-Unity"
8.5. Nicolas Berdyaev and Hell's Irresolvable Paradoxes
8.6. The Metaphysical Foundations of Sergius Bulgakov's Dogmatics
8.7. Bulgakov and Florovsky in the Sophiological Debate
8.8. Bulgakov's The Bride of the Lamb and the Arguments for Universalism
8.9. Summary and Conclusions on Russian Thinkers
9. Debating Universal Election: Karl Barth, Barth's Interpreters, Jürgen Moltmann, and the Post-1970s Kenotic-Relational Theologies
9.1. Interpretive Prologue: Post-1960s Interpretations of Barth's Theology
9.2. Biographical Prologue: Barth and the Hellfire Preacher in 1916
9.3. Barth on Election: An Overview
9.4. Barth on Israel's Election and the Jewish People
9.5. Barth on Election in the New Testament and Christian Tradition
9.6. Barth on the Logos Asarkos and Eternal Godmanhood
9.7. Barth on Nothingness (das Nichtige) and the "Impossibility" of Sin
9.8. Barth's Interpreters on the Question of Universalism
9.9. Barth's Ambiguous Legacy: From the 1950s to the 1980s
9.10. Jürgen Moltmann and the God-with-Us in Suffering
9.11. Evaluating Moltmann's Universalist Theology
9.12. The Rise of Kenotic-Relational Theologies since the 1990s
9.13. Apocalypse Now: Congdon's Neo-Bultmannian Universalism
9.14. Summary and Conclusions on Barth, Moltmann, and Post-1970s Theologies
10. Embracing Universal Hope: Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and the Inclusivist, Plurocentrist, and Universalist Turns in Roman Catholicism
10.1. Henri de Lubac and Catholic Debates on Nature and Grace
10.2. Karl Rahner's "Anonymous Christians" and Post-Vatican II Theology
10.3. The Ambitious and Ambiguous Cosmology of Teilhard de Chardin
10.4. The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar: A General Sketch
10.5. Balthasar's Roots: Church Fathers, Russian Thinkers, and Karl Barth
10.6. Balthasar's Theological Relation to Adrienne von Speyr
10.7. Balthasar's Theo-drama and the Idea of Urkenosis
10.8. Balthasar on Eschatology Generally
10.9. Balthasar's Dare We Hope? and Universal Salvation
10.10. Summary and Conclusions on Roman Catholicism and Universalism
11. New Theologies in the New Millennium: The Variety of Contemporary Universalisms
11.1. Character of the New Millennium Universalist Literature
11.2. Liberal and Esoteric Universalism: Gulley, Mulholland, and Pearson
11.3. The Philosophical Universalism of Thomas Talbott
11.4. The Evangelical Universalism of Robin Parry
11.5. Evangelical Revisionism in Frank, Bell, and Kruger
11.6. Pentecostal Preachers of Grace: Dunn, du Toit, Rabe, and Crowder
11.7. Summary and Conclusions on Contemporary Universalisms
12. The Eclipse of Grace: An Appraisal of Christian Universalism
12.1. The Cumulative Argument: A Survey of Preceding Chapters
12.2. The Problem of God in Christian Universalism
12.3. The Problem of Grace in Christian Universalism
12.4. The Problem of Belief in Christian Universalism
12.5. Christian Universalism and the Challenge of Evil
12.6. Christian Particularism and the Call to Hope
Appendix A: Gnosis and Western Esotericism: Definitions and Lineages
Appendix B: Zoroastrian Eschatology
Appendix C: Anti-Origenist Declarations in the Early Church: From Alexandria, Jerusalem, Rome, and Constantinople
Appendix D: Ramelli's The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (2013)
Appendix E: The Sefiroth: A Kabbalistic Diagram
Appendix F: Universal Salvation in Islamic Teaching
Islamic Eschatology and Qur'anic Teaching
Philosophical Foundations in Ibn al-'Arabi
Hell's Cooling and Final Salvation in Ibn al-'Arabi
The Universalistic Theology of Jalal al-Din Rumi
The Jurist Ibn Taymiyya and His Pupil Ibn Qayyim
Appendix G: Types of Christian Universalism
Appendix H: The Cosmic Saga: An Esoteric View
Appendix I: Ultra-Dispensational Universalism
Appendix J: Words and Concepts for Time and Eternity
Appendix K: Mormon Teachings on God, Cosmos, and Salvation
Appendix L: Barth and Bultmann on Romans 5
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Subjects
About the Author :
Michael J. McClymond (PhD, University of Chicago) is professor of modern Christianity at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the award-winning author of Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth and Encounters with God: An Approach to the Theology of Jonathan Edwards, and coauthor of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards.
