SPCK contacted me today to inform me that The Evangelical Universalist is now out in Europe (originally published by the great folk at Wipf & Stock). Amazon are doing a deal at the moment offering 34% off, bringing it to a very reasonable £8.57.
Oliver Crisp, Lecturer in Theology at the University of Bristol, has written the following new endorsement for the back cover:
"Here is an attempt to think through the implications of the doctrine of universalism that really tries to tackle the considerable difficulties posed by the biblical material, as well as traditional theological and philosophical arguments. Clear, well-written and engaging – MacDonald's charitable reading of his opponents is a model of fairmindedness. Those in the evangelical constituency will need to do some hard thinking in order to show why one cannot be both an evangelical and a universalist"
If anybody wants more information, dash a comment off and I'll perhaps, permission allowing, upload the new front and back cover along with the press release.
I'll be honest, many Christian universalists (though not Gregory) make me feel uneasy. Gregory MacDonald, I'm quite sure, would rather have people wrestle and struggle with his arguments than have people jump on a universalist bandwagon. We are on holy ground with this theme so let us tread carefully, prayerfully and discerningly. And The Evangelical Universalist will help you negotiate your way through the debates with grace.
For those interested in a lucid and word-efficient defence of the traditional evangelical view of hell and such like, at least in terms of Paul, I recommend a read of the relevant pages in Thomas R. Schreiner's Paul, apostle of God's glory in Christ: a Pauline theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2001).
Can anyone recommend any recent works defending a traditional view?
4 comments:
What do you mean by traditional view?
The way your posts have been lately, it seems that most every one starts with traditional theology being started quite a few hundred years after the apostles died instead of using Scriptures to understand what was traditional.
How we've come up with an eternal hell burning from "traditional" teaching from the OT (never did the early believers believe that nor those who remained in the traditional Jewish faith), and then come up with more eternal burning from the NT...seems to mean that your traditional views start with the schools of thought that came much later when translating the language came into effect. As you know quite well...translators are traitors.
Uhh... Did you ever hear of like progressive revelation? Ya know, like people learned more stuff and developed their views on things like what happens to the dead (both righteous and wicked) as time went on...
And umm... by Jesus' time, a hell of fire was a belief well enough established that he could use a garbage dump where fires continuously burned as an example of it in his teaching/preaching...
Uhh... Did you ever hear of like progressive revelation? Ya know, like people learned more stuff and developed their views on things like what happens to the dead (both righteous and wicked) as time went on...
I think the dead are pretty much still dead (except for a few that rose during when Jesus rose)...but I know that doesn't work with "progressive" theology from the traditions of man.
And umm... by Jesus' time, a hell of fire was a belief well enough established that he could use a garbage dump where fires continuously burned as an example of it in his teaching/preaching...
Sadly (for some), the fire of which you speak of has burned out.
Hi Anon,
"seems to mean that your traditional views start with the schools of thought that came much later when translating the language came into effect"
In as far as the subject oif universalism goes, I certainly agree that church history, especially during the middle ages, took things in a different direction. But I don't think it started from a Universalist beginning into something else later. By the traditional view I mean the eternal separation from God view, that tends to mean eternal damnation and not annihilation.
Thanks for your comment.
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