What’s the best book for Eastern Orthodox Christians to discover the case for Christian Universalism?
Brad’s book does a great job introducing the discussion but from memory, he pulls up short of completely endorsing Christian Universalism.
Another one from an EO perspective that might be worth looking into is “Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective” by Archbishop Hilarion Alefyev, 2009: https://www.amazon.ca/Christ-Conqueror-Hell-Orthodox-Perspective/dp/0881410616
I don’t know if it advocates a hope or assurance of universalism, but i’ve heard the official church position is that it can be hoped for but not known, & can be held as a private opinion but not taught as a certainty. Though that doesn’t seem to have stopped EO scholar David Bentley Hart from taking a definite stand publicly, though he has not AFAIK written any book dedicated solely to this topic. His NT translation with extensive notes re aionion after the NT text may also be of interest to EO folks.
Other than that the first book by Gary Beauchemin, though not specifically written for EO, may be the best introduction for many people to the claim that universalism is Scriptural.
Funny that you should mention:
as I bought it a few months ago when I was preparing my sermon on the Descent to Hades:
I shared this thread on Facebook and another recommendation was this book:
Or this paper: