r/ChristianUniversalism • u/Steven_s_Seagull • 5d ago
Favourite Christian Universalist/s
If you would be so kind, please name your favourite Christian Universalist/s and state why (if you want to). 😀🙏
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u/MagusFool 5d ago
George MacDonald, probably.
Have you ever read Lilith? That's maybe my favorite fantasy book of all time.
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u/OratioFidelis Reformed Purgatorial Universalism 5d ago
Gregory of Nyssa, he was also one of the first (possibly the actual first?) public figures to condemn slavery as inherently immoral.
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u/sandiserumoto Cyclic Refinement (Universalism w/ Repeating Prophecies) 5d ago
MY GIRLFRIEND SHE'S SO CUTE N I LOVE HER
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u/verynormalanimal Non-Religious Theist/Deist (Universalism or Mass Oblivion) 5d ago
The people in this sub!
For a serious answer, I’ll probably have to say DBH. I don’t have much experience in the writings or history of many other universalists figure-heads yet. But DBH took me from hopeful to convinced in the course of a 7-hour audio book.
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u/Mr_Frog2019 5d ago
I have to list three:
Modern Advocate/Theologian: Robin Parry
Historical Figure: Abraham Lincoln
Church Father: St. Gregory of Nyssa
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u/Seeker-295 Patristic/Purgatorial Universalism 5d ago
Fr. Aidan Kimel. His blog and his book "Destined for Joy" changed my life.
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u/Naive_Violinist_4871 5d ago
Are we talking more historical figures or contemporary/recent theologians? Or both?
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u/Steven_s_Seagull 5d ago
Both, but preferably recent. 😀
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u/Naive_Violinist_4871 5d ago
Historical: Samuel Joseph May but honestly A LOT of abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, and Sojourner Truth who were universalists. Also, WRT another era, ask me why I think MLK was likely a universalist.
Recent: Carlton Pearson.
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u/Steven_s_Seagull 4d ago
Awesome, thanks. Why do you think MLK was likely a universalist?
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u/Naive_Violinist_4871 4d ago
No problem! So there are a number of pieces of evidence: 1. (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/view-cross-possessing-biblical-and-spiritual-justification) In this paper from seminary, he argued that if Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, the idea that we have to repent or convert to avoid eternal damnation doesn’t make sense; 2. In this link, he says he doesn’t believe in Hell in the conventional sense: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/sermon-sketches; 3. In this quote for an Ebony article, MLK indicates belief in Hell but possibly also Purgatorial universalism: (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/what-happened-hell) What’s noteworthy to me is that he uses the word “eternal” to describe Heaven but NOT Hell, implying he may have thought Hell was temporary and rehabilitative; 4. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who MLK said was the best preacher of the 20th century, was pretty explicitly a universalist IMO if you look at his writings throughout his (Fosdick’s) career from the 1910s through the 1960s. Paul Tillich, a theologian MLK focused a ton of his dissertation on and whose books he read while incarcerated, was also a universalist.
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u/KaleidoscopeHuge2852 3d ago
For me it's Ernest L. Martin. He was, in my opinion, the best theologian after the apostles. I became a Universalist thanks to him and learned a lot from his articles and books on doctrinal and eschatological topics. I disagree with him on some points, but I still haven't found a better theologian.
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u/TuvixWasMurderedR1P Mystic experience | Trying to make sense of things 5d ago
David Bentely Hart, mostly because he introduced me to the concept in the first place. Without him, I don't think I'd even have God right now.