Paul over at “Disoriented. Reoriented” has started a blog series on universalism, based on the book All Shall Be Well. It promises to be an interesting series.
Akimel and all,
I was reading the blog entry you referenced: disorientedtheology.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/all-shall-be-well-universal-salvation-through-history-part-1/ and it quotes Robin Parry as saying:
This is one thing I have a question about.
The Athanasian Creed ends with:
Now I don’t put much stock in the absolute necessity of adopting every aspect of the catholic creeds, but can a universalist claim to hold the Athanasian creed when it condemns those who do not believe faithfully that “they that have done evil [shall go] into everlasting fire” ? Does this clause of the creed condemn universal reconciliation?
The AthCreed in its total formulation isn’t an ecumenical creed, largely thanks to the introductory, middle and final statements (plus the filioque).
The central two “lobes” of the AthCreed, the catholic faith statements, are taken directly from the Chalcedonian formulation (via some Augustinian phraseology), which is ecumenical. The wrapping statements are not even the AthCreed per se, because grammatically they’re talking about the two central lobes: unless someone believes ‘this’ and ‘that’. The ‘this’ and the ‘that’ are the actual creedal statements “I/we believe this” and “…that”.
FIRST PART
I worship one God in Trinity,
and Trinity in Unity,
neither confounding the Persons,
nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father,
another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead
of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
is all one,
the Glory equal,
the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is,
such is the Son,
and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated,
the Son uncreated,
and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
(i.e. all three Persons are omniscient, unlike any creature which must be less in knowledge; and a little more literally, no not-God system or entity ‘naturally’ contains or encloses any Person.)
The Father eternal,
the Son eternal,
and the Holy Spirit eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated,
but One uncreated, and One incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty,
the Son Almighty,
and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God,
the Son is God,
and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord,
the Son Lord,
and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.
For as I am compelled by verity (and validity!)
to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord,
so I am likewise forbidden to say: There be three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father [and the Son], neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
("…and the Son" is the filioque clause that prevents this formulation from being ecumenical even without the wrapping statements, but I do accept it.)
So there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons;
one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after the other;
none is greater, or less than another;
but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid,
the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.
I spent just under 800 pages working out all that from scratch, and setting up a preliminary expectation for the second part, when writing SttH – and that was exactly when I first came to believe Christian universalism is true!
SECOND PART
I believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;
and Man, of the substance of His mother, born in the world;
altogether God and altogether Man,
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;
equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead;
and inferior to the Father, as touching His humanity.
Who although He be God and Man,
yet He is not two, but one Christ;
one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh,
but by taking of the Manhood into God:
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man,
so God and Man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation,
descended into Hell,
and rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into Heaven,
and He sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty,
from which He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
At His coming all men shall rise again with their bodies
and shall give account for their own works.
And they who have done good shall go into life eonian;
and they who have done evil shall go into the eonian fire.
What “eonian” means in relation to “eonian life” and “eonian fire” can be disputed, but I do believe that those who do evil are not raised to eonian life but instead to eonian fire.