Wolfhart Pannenberg

  That All Shall Be Saved (Yale University Pr: New Haven, CT, 2019)— A Summary and Review David Bentley Hart's argument, when you strip away the polemics, is fairly simple: if Christianity is coherent at all, universalism is the only version of it that can be. Not a hopeful add-on, not a pious wish — the only logically stable position. Everything else in the book is Hart working out the implications of that claim across scripture, philosophy, and the history of doctrine. He starts with the moral problem, and it's the part of the book I keep coming back to. Borrowing William James's thought experiment — would you accept a utopia bought at the price of one soul's eternal torture — Hart says no coherent Christian ethics can take that deal, whether the soul in question is Hitler or an unbaptized infant. Historically, he points out, the church's answer has usually included the infant. He insists that anyone who claims to fully believe in eternal hell while also loving th...

I have had the privilege of interacting with the author of this book on twitter. I also have the privilege of being in a reading group that explores the thoughts of various theologians. We chose this book, and I am glad we did. We have an existential approach that focuses on salvation as the center of systematic theology and offers a basis for universalism. This means he is working on reviving dialectical theology for this century. Even if you don't agree you will have much to ponder.      Does humanity need saving? If so, does salvation come from outside of us or does it arise from within and among us? These are two questions that this book at least makes me ponder. Does humanity have a saving end? Alternatively, does humanity as a whole, do we as individuals, fade to black, as the end of the TV show Soproanos suggested?      One of the many insights I have found helpful is the need to bring the Spirit into our unders...