New Universalism

Justin Taylor

Can Hope Be Wrong? On the New Universalists

The above post reference a great short article by James K.A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College.

There is great insight into this issue looking at it in this context. After reading the Smith post, I could not help but recall how in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian not only has a desire to get the great burden of Sin off his back at the Cross, and to progress the narrow path to Heaven, but also keeps a great concern and desire that his wife and children would be able to join him.

It seems true that we all do have great desire for this end. But as the discussion shows if we give up on the teaching found in the Bible where will we turn to go to for this life?

Just read John 6:60-69 for a powerful insight on this.

Below is a short sample:

1) The "I-can't-imagine" strategy is fundamentally Feuerbachian: it is a hermeneutic of projection which begins from what I can conceive and then projects "upwards," as it were, to a conception of God. …… I take it that discipleship means submitting even my imagination to the discipline of Scripture. (Indeed, could anything be more countercultural right now than Jonathan Edwards' radical theocentrism, with all its attendant scandals for our modern sensibilities?)

2) The "at-least-I-hope" strategy might seem less problematic. ….. I can't imagine life without her; indeed, I don't want to imagine life without her. And I want to hope that we will share this intimacy as a husband and wife forever.

The new universalism is not the old universalism. Fair enough. But those of us who reject even the new universalism aren't gleeful about it. We might even wish it were otherwise. But we also recognize that even our wishes, hopes, and desires need discipline.