The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Who should be next discussed in "All Shall Be Well" sequel?

Studies Books
#1

Have we had a thread already for this?

I just thought we should have a thread for suggestions for any second volume of ASBW that Robin/Gregory may be considering.

Philip Schaff was recently mentioned on a thread; he sounds like someone worth researching as being at least on par with the Big Three Bs (Barth, Bulgakov and Balthasar). He’s still reffed in books today, and for a long time was the go-to early Church historian for Protestant scholars.

William Law: of whom C. S. Lewis was a bit of a fan.

William Barclay: super-influential early 20th century scriptural commentator.

#2

William Barclay would definitely draw some attention.

His commentaries were always recommended at all the fundamental churches i attended. They always had their own shelf at the local christian bookstore.

Being new to EU I don’t have any recomendations but am currently reading ASBW and found the chapter on Winchester, Macdonald and Origen to be excellent! have been skipping around the chapters.

#3

Benjamin Rush, Founding Father of America
-other influential colonists and preachers
Charles Schulz, though there perhaps might not be enough material about him
Madeleine L’Engle
Hannah Hurnard, influential Christian author

#4

And I don’t know if Madame Guyon was one, but it was at least her earnest desire, as quoted in my signature.

#5

Were any of the Anabaptists mentioned in the book? I know it’s tough to pin down any leaders in their group, so maybe they could simply be mentioned as a whole. Don’t know much about the Moravians, but there may have been some among them as well.

Also, the Quaker George Fox, I believe.

#6

He’s doubtless too modest to put himself forward, but for me the greatest Universalist thinker of our age - of the ages, even - is our very own Dr Thomas Talbott.

Tom Talbott is up there with Jesus Christ, George MacDonald and Bob Dylan (if I may be so presumptuous as to yoke those three extraordinary personalities together) as my all time heroes. :smiley:

Shalom

Johnny

#7

Yeah … that Parry character should definitely be in there. :slight_smile:

#8

I think they’ll only concentrate on posthumous theologians (which may leave out L’Engle, by the way, as unlike her hero Lewis I’m not sure how much she worked as a theologian or metaphysician or exegete or per se.)

The idea there is that once they’re dead, their history in this life can be assessed insofar as possible without concern that they’ll change their minds (again, perhaps) and invalidate the study!

#9

Wait a second… how much of a possibility is this?

#10

Robin has indicated before that he’s interested in doing another one. I haven’t heard anything new since then; I just thought we should have a thread for providing him with ideas. :slight_smile:

They did do Moltmann, who was still alive at the time of writing (and I guess still is…?) So living Christian universalists wouldn’t be out of the question. (John Hick was done, too, but I largely skipped over his chapter. :mrgreen: )

#11

Hi Jason,

I’m not sure whether this thread is still “open”. I re-discovered this in my drafts and thought I may as well post it. I was wondering whether the universalists have to be Trinitarian (though I don’t think John Hick was a trinitarian)?

I would love to read more about Hosea Ballou (his historical influence was noted in Christian Universalism: The Current Debate, but his theology seemed to be absent.)

And I’d like to nominate Adin Ballou, though I doubt he is of big enough influence (or robust or orthodox enough — he was essentially a simultaneous-modalist). Though he did lead the Restorationist-UR movement from within and without the Universalist Church of the nineteenth century (even if he wasn’t its pioneer). He was also an exemplary abolitionist, pacifist and socialist (greatly influencing the Christian anarchist thought of Tolstoy, who regarded him as the greatest American writer. This is a pretty impressive compliment coming from Tolstoy who many regard to be the greatest novelist). Ballou ran a truly remarkable race — delivered eight to nine thousand sermons, married one thousand couples, wrote about five hundred articles, edited a journal and founded a utopian community. There are numerous theological and historical works concerning Adin Ballou available at the Friends of Adin Ballou website.

If I remember correctly, Adin originally attempted to defend ECT against Hosea’s ultra-universalism (a third-cousin). He was eventually led to believe that ECT was erroneous (though there was an ultra-U sweetheart that might have helped him with this conviction — he was only allowed to marry her if he converted to universalism :wink: ). He was admitted to the Universalist Church as a minister, but had retained a view which was then called Restorationism — the belief that rehabilitative punishment would follow final judgement. The Universalist Church who had welcomed him into their fold, heavily derided his purgatorial views and eventually ousted him from the church (a course he ultimately initiated and welcomed).

There is a better introduction to his life here. It claims he was married before his conversion, but I’m pretty certain I read otherwise. Anyway, it’ll be more accurate than my recalled biography above.

I could not endorse Adin Ballou enough. Though he might have a slightly naive and homespun theology, he has been an unshakeable influence on my own life (in many ways) and has led me to Christ.

#12

Some of the universalists in the current volume were not Trinitarians, so I’m going to guess the answer is “no”. :slight_smile:

Hosea Ballou was definitely very influential, so I agree he’d be a good pick for a sequel.

His third-cousin Adin sounds interesting, too. Possibly a chapter could be devoted to both of them at once–one of the chapters in the current volume does this with two concurrent authors.

Besides, if Adin was a modalist and Hosea was a unitarian, put them together and they more-or-less add up to binitarianism at least. :mrgreen:

(It’s been a while since I looked at Hosea, so I don’t recall clearly what his stance was. I think I recall him being a type of unitarian, but mostly I was making a joke so I hope any fans of Hosea won’t lynch me for that if I’ve mis-recalled.)

#13

I just wanted to add to my earlier post about Adin Ballou (and Jason’s thoughts about combining individuals in one chapter). I’d love to see a chapter on Paul Dean, who seems to have so far avoided discussion on this board. Interestingly, Dean, a student of John Murray, remained a trinitarian despite pastoring the Unitarian church (the only trinitarian to do so, and also the only prominent trinitarian universalist of his generation). The following is an overview of his theology from the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biographies:

Dean had a “close and sacred relationship” with Adin, and they left the Universalist church together, along with several others, as part of the Restorationist controversy, to found the Massachusetts Association of Universal Restorationists (MAUR). Adin described Dean as “a preeminently just, magnanimous and conciliatory man”. However, Dean “had not one particle of faith in” Adin’s optimistic attempts to establish an ideal community (a visible seed of the Kingdom of God) and pleaded with him to abandon the espousal of his radical social reforms. Adin supposed that Dean “gave him up as hopelessly bewildered, if not fatally demented” for this pursuit and after a brief exchange of letters, Dean closed all correspondence and MAUR’s members were split between those who preferred Dean and those who preferred Adin, with Dean’s followers too few to continue the organization. Dean and Adin became entirely estranged and met only once more at a mutual friend’s funeral.

[size=85] (All but one quote is from Adin Ballou’s auto-biography, if people happened to be as interested in that guy as I am).[/size]

#14

I think Berdyaev is a must - becuase he unites the two traditions of universlaism in his thinking; the Eastern tadition of Origen and Greogory Nyssa, and the western tradition of Boheme (via the unvieralist interpretation of William Law) - if William Law is included Boheme would have to be considered too, at least as background (aothought Boheme was nt a universalist).

Fredrick Farrar - the Dean fo Westminster who was the first Nalgicna to popularise Universalism to a wide audience - deserves a mention too, as does Gerrad Winstanley, the Digger who wrote the first open defence of Universlaism in early modern Europe.

#15

Sorry about rubbish spelling :blush: I just don’t see them unless I print out or type into a Word document first :blush: :laughing:

For **aothought ** read ‘although’

And for Nalgicna - now what on earth could one of those be? Yes - it’s an ‘Anglican’ or ,more specifically, Farrar was ‘Church of England’ :laughing: :laughing:

#16

Waclaw Hryniewicz has been impressing me recently (with The Challenge of Our Hope). An ex-EOx priest who is by far the most gung-ho Roman Catholic universalist I’ve read or heard of since Gregory Nyssa. (Yes, moreso than Balthasar.)

Here’s a translated Polish Wiki page.

#17

I’d be intersted in a chapter on Adolph Knoch to complete the spectrum of universalists.

#18

Good call!