View source for Christianity Allows for the Possibility of Universal Salvation

=== From Wikipedia Entry on St. Gregory of Nyssa ===

Gregory was one of the earlier proponents of [[Christian universalism]]. Gregory argues that when Paul says that God will be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), this means that though some may need to undergo a long period of purification, eventually "no being will remain outside the number of the saved"<ref>In Illud 17; 21 (Downing)</ref> and that "no being created by God will fall outside the Kingdom of God".<ref>In Illud 14 (Downing)</ref> Due to the unity of human nature in Christ "all, thanks to the union with one another, will be joined in communion with the Good, in Jesus Christ Our Lord".<ref>On the Song of Songs XV</ref> Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection results in "total salvation for human nature".<ref name="Against Apoll">{{cite web |last1=McCambly |first1=Richard |title=Against Apollinarius by Gregory of Nyssa |url=https://www.lectio-divina.org/images/nyssa/Against%20Apollinarius.pdf |website=Lectio-Divina.org |access-date=9 April 2023 |ref=Against Apoll}} p. 39</ref>

Gregory also described God's work this way: "His [God's] end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last—some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil—to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' nor thought ever reached."<ref>{{Cite web|title = Church Fathers: On the Soul and the Resurrection (St. Gregory of Nyssa)|url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2915.htm|website = www.newadvent.org|access-date = 2015-10-18}}</ref> That this is what Gregory believed and taught is affirmed by most scholars.<ref>Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), p. 432</ref><ref>Morwenna Ludlow: Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and Postmodern (Oxford: University Press 2007)</ref><ref>[[Hans Boersma]]: Embodiment and Virtue (Oxford 2013)</ref><ref>J.A. McGuckin: "Eschatological Horizons in the Cappadocian Fathers" in Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity (Grand Rapids 2009)</ref><ref>Constantine Tsirpanlis: "The Concept of Universal Salvation in Gregory of Nyssa" in Greek Patristic Theology I (New York 1979)</ref> A minority of scholars have argued that Gregory only affirmed the universal resurrection.<ref>Giulio Maspero: Trinity and Man (Brill 2007), p. 91</ref>

In the ''Life of Moses'', Gregory writes that just as the darkness left the Egyptians after three days, perhaps redemption <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[apocatastasis|ἀποκατάστασις]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> will be extended to those suffering in [[hell]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[gehenna|γέεννα]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>.<ref name=Brill-57>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 57</ref> This salvation may not only extend to humans; following [[Origen]], there are passages where he seems to suggest (albeit through the voice of Macrina) that even the [[demon]]s will have a place in Christ's "world of goodness".<ref name= Ludlow-80>Ludlow 2000, p. 80</ref> Gregory's interpretations of 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("And when all things shall be subdued unto him&nbsp;...")<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|15:28|KJV}}</ref> and Philippians 2:10 ("That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth")<ref>{{Bibleverse||Philippians|2:10|KJV}}</ref> support this understanding of his theology.<ref name= Ludlow-80/>

Nevertheless, in the ''Great Catechism'', Gregory suggests that while every human will be [[resurrection|resurrected]], salvation will only be accorded to the [[baptism|baptised]], although he also states that others driven by their passions can be saved after being purified by fire.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 56-57</ref> While he believes that there will be no more evil in the hereafter, it is arguable that this does not preclude a belief that God might justly damn sinners for eternity.<ref name=Brill-59>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 59</ref> Thus, the main difference between Gregory's conception of ἀποκατάστασις and that of Origen would be that Gregory believes that mankind will be collectively returned to sinlessness, whereas Origen believes that personal salvation will be universal.<ref name=Brill-59/> This interpretation of Gregory has recently been criticized, however.<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 433-4">Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), pp. 433-4</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Ilaria|last1=Ramelli|title=The Debate on Apokatastasis in Pagan and Christian Platonists: Martianus, Macrobius, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine|journal=Illinois Classical Studies|issue=33–34|year=2008|volume=33-34 |pages=201–234|publisher=University of Illinois Press|doi=10.5406/illiclasstud.33-34.0201 |jstor=10.5406/illiclasstud.33-34.0201|s2cid=169733447 |doi-access=free}}</ref> After all, at the end of chapter XXXV of the ''Great Catechism'' Gregory writes that those who have not been purified by water through baptism "must needs be purified by fire" so that "after long succeeding ages, their nature may be restored pure again to God".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.xi.ii.xxxvii.html|title=NPNF2-05. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=www.ccel.org|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref>

Attempting to reconcile these disparate positions, [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] theologian Dr. Mario Baghos notes that "when taken at face value the saint seems to be contradicting himself in these passages; on the one hand he asserted the salvation of all and the complete eradication of evil, and, on the other, that the fire needed to purge evil is 'sleepless', i.e. everlasting. The only solution to this inconsistency is to view any allusion to universal salvation in St Gregory as an expression of God's intention for humanity, which is in fact attested to when his holy sister states that God has "one goal ... some straightway even in this life purified from evil, others healed hereafter through fire for the appropriate length of time." That we can choose either to accept or ignore this purification is confirmed by the saint's many exhortations that we freely undertake the virtuous path."<ref name=Baghos>{{cite journal|last=Baghos|first=Mario|title=Reconsidering Apokatastasis in St Gregory of Nyssa's On the Soul and Resurrection and the Catechetical Oration|journal=Phronema|year=2012|volume=27|issue=2|pages=125–162|url=https://www.academia.edu/13515695|access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> Dr. [[Ilaria Ramelli]] has made the observation that for Gregory free will was compatible with universal salvation since every person would eventually accept the good having gone through purification.<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 433-4"/> Nevertheless, some interpret Gregory as conceding that Judas and similar sinners will never be completely purified when he wrote, "that which never existed is to be preferred to that which has existed in such sin. For, as to the latter, on account of the depth of the ingrained evil, the chastisement in the way of purgation will be extended into infinity".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2015/04/stump-priest-is-universalism-heresy.html|title=Fr. John Whiteford: Stump the Priest: Is Universalism a Heresy?|publisher=Blogger|date=April 23, 2015|access-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/may-we-hope-for-universal-salvation|title=May We Hope for Universal Salvation? The Orthodox Life|publisher=WordPress.com|date=November 23, 2015|access-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref> However, Ramelli renders the original Greek "εἰς ἄπειρον παρατείνεται ἡ διὰ τῆς καθάρσεως κόλασις" as "the punishment provided for the purpose of purification will tend to an indefinite duration."<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 411">Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), p. 411</ref>



==Views on hell==
Christian universalists disagree on whether [[Hell in Christianity|hell]] exists. However, they do agree that if it does exist, the punishment there is corrective and remedial and does not last forever.<ref>[https://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/univ2.html  ''Plain Guide to Universalism''] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160826141910/http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/univ2.html |date= 2016-08-26}} Chapter 2, Section III, Auburn: "There are some Universalists who hold to punishment after death, nevertheless, we are glad to hail them as Universalists. They agree with us in our views of the great consummation, – all punishment, in their view, is disciplinary, and they denounce punishment, either in this world or the next, having any other object, as cruel and unjust."</ref>

===Purgatorial hell and patristic universalism===
Purgatorial universalism was the belief of some of the early [[Church Fathers]], especially Greek-speaking ones such as [[Clement of Alexandria]],<ref>Brian E. Daley, ''The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology'' (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 46-47.</ref> [[Origen]],<ref>Brian E. Daley, ''The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology'' (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 57–58.</ref> and [[Gregory of Nyssa]].<ref>Brian E. Daley, ''The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology'' (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 88–89.</ref> It asserts that the unsaved will undergo hell but that hell is remedial (neither everlasting nor purely retributive) according to key scriptures and that after purification or conversion all will enter heaven.

Fourth-century Christian theologian and bishop [[Diodorus of Tarsus]] wrote: "For the wicked there are punishments, not perpetual, however, lest the immortality prepared for them should be a disadvantage, but they are to be purified for a brief period according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall therefore suffer punishment for a short space, but immortal blessedness having no end awaits them&nbsp;... the penalties to be inflicted for their many and grave sins are very far surpassed by the magnitude of the mercy to be shown to them."<ref>J. W. Hanson, citing Assemani, ''Bibliotheca Orientalis'', III, p. 324.</ref>

[[Ilaria Ramelli]], a scholar of the early Patristic history writes, "In the minds of some, universal salvation is a heretical idea that was imported into Christianity from pagan philosophies by Origen" ({{c.|185–253/54}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1= Ramelli |first1=Ilaria |title=A Larger Hope? |volume=1. ''Universal Salvation from Christian Beginnings to Julian of Norwich'' |date=2019 |publisher=Cascade Books |isbn=978-1-61097-884-2}}</ref> Ramelli argues that this view is mistaken and that Christian theologians were the first people to proclaim that all will be saved and that their reasons for doing so were rooted in their faith in Christ.

Eastern Orthodox theologian [[David Bentley Hart]] makes the case on the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail.<ref>David Bentley Hart, ''That All Shall Be Saved'' (Yale University Press, 2019). ISBN 978-0-300-23848-6</ref> In his book, ''That All Shall Be Saved'', he calls opponents of the school, who believe that some or all people are condemned to eternal damnation, "infernalists".<ref>{{cite web |last=Kilby |first=Karen |date=16 March 2020 |title=Against the Infernalists |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/against-infernalists |access-date=3 June 2022 |work=[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]}}</ref>

===Eternal hell in Christian history===
Christian Universalists assert that the doctrine of eternal Hell was not a part of Christ's teachings nor even the early church, and that it was added in.<ref>{{cite web |last=McMillen |first=Jacob |date=January 2, 2016 |url=http://brazenchurch.com/how-hell-invaded-church-doctrine/#_edn2 |title=Hell, Part 3: How & When The Idea of Eternal Torment Invaded Church Doctrine |website=Brazen Church}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=June 2023}}  According to theologian [[Edward Beecher]], in the first four centuries there were six main theological schools, and only one of them advocated the idea of eternal hell.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution |first=Edward |last=Beecher |author-link=Edward Beecher |location=New York |publisher=D. Appleton and Company |url=http://www.tentmaker.org/books/Retribution/retribution22.htm |chapter=22. Early Theological Seminaries and Retribution |via=Tentmaker |quote=What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the Christian world, in the age of Origen, and some centuries after? It was, in brief, this: There were at least six theological schools in the Church at large. Of these six schools, one, and only one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punishment. One was in favor of the annihilation of the wicked. Two were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on the principles of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on the principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia.}}</ref>

====Origins of the idea of hell as eternal====
Christian universalists point towards mistranslations of the Greek word {{lang|grc|αιών}} ({{transliteration|grc|aion}} – an epoch of time), as giving rise to the idea of eternal hell.<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Tony |last1=Nungesser |first2=Gary |last2=Amirault |url= https://www.tentmaker.org/articles/EternalPunishmentNotTrueToGreek.html |title='Eternal' Punishment (Matthew 25:46) Is NOT Found In The Greek New Testament |website=Tentmaker}}</ref> Dr. Ken Vincent writes "When it ({{transliteration|grc|aion}}) was translated into Latin Vulgate, {{transliteration|grc|aion}} became {{lang|la|aeternam}} which means 'eternal'." He also states that the first written record of the idea of an eternal hell comes from Tertullian, who wrote in Latin.

The second major source of the idea of hell as eternal was the 4th-century theologian [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]. According to author Steve Gregg, it was Tertullian's writings, plus Augustine's views and writings on eternal hell, which "overwhelmed" the other views of a temporary hell. First Augustine's views of hell were accepted in the early Latin Church, Up until [[the Reformation]] Augustine's view of hell as eternal was not questioned.<ref>Gregg, Steve. ''All You ever Wanted to Know about Hell''. pp. 130–31</ref>

====Mistranslation of the Greek word {{transliteration|grc|aion}}====
About the word {{transliteration|grc|aion}} as having connotations of "age" or "temporal", the 19th-century theologian [[Marvin Vincent]] wrote:

{{blockquote|{{transliteration|grc|Aion}}, transliterated aeon, is a period of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (peri ouranou, i. 9,15) says: "The period which includes the whole time of one's life is called the aeon of each one." Hence it often means the life of a man, as in [[Homer]], where one's life ({{transliteration|grc|aion}}) is said to leave him or to consume away (Iliad v. 685; Odyssey v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the beginnings of history.

The adjective {{transliteration|grc|aionios}} in like manner carries the idea of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting. They may acquire that sense by their connotation, as, on the other hand, {{transliteration|grc|aidios}}, which means everlasting, has its meaning limited to a given point of time in Jude 6. {{transliteration|grc|Aionios}} means enduring through or pertaining to a period of time. Both the noun and the adjective are applied to limited periods.

Words which are habitually applied to things temporal or material cannot carry in themselves the sense of endlessness. Even when applied to God, we are not forced to render {{transliteration|grc|aionios}} everlasting. Of course the life of God is endless; but the question is whether, in describing God as {{transliteration|grc|aionios}}, it was intended to describe the duration of his being, or whether some different and larger idea was not contemplated.<ref>{{cite web |last= Vincent |first=Marvin|title=Note on Olethron Aionion (eternal destruction) | publisher = Auburn |url= http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/vincent.html |work=Word Studies in the New Testament|access-date=18 June 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180521042920/http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/vincent.html|archive-date=21 May 2018 |url-status= dead}}</ref>}}

====Arguments against the idea of eternal hell====
Author Thomas Talbott states that if one believes in the idea of eternal hell or that some souls will be destroyed, one must either let go of the idea that it is God's wish and desire to save all beings, or accept the idea that God wants to, but will not "successfully accomplish his will and satisfy his own desire in this matter".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia| last = Talbott | first = Thomas | contribution = Heaven and Hell in Christian Thought | title = The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date = Spring 2017 | editor-first = Edward N. | editor-last = Zalta | url = 
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/heaven-hell/
| quote = Theists who accept the traditional idea of everlasting punishment, or even the idea of an everlasting separation from God, must either reject the idea that God wills or desires to save all humans and thus desires to reconcile them all to himself (see proposition (1) in section 1 above) or reject the idea that God will successfully accomplish his will and satisfy his own desire in this matter}}.</ref>

Author David Burnfield defends the postmortem view<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Patristic-Universalism-Alternative-Traditional-Judgment/dp/1517547113/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Burnfield], ''Patristic Universalism'', 107–149.</ref> that God continues to evangelize to people even after they die (1 Chronicles 16:34; Isaiah 9:2; Romans 8:35–39; Ephesians 4:8–9; 1 Peter 3:18–20; 4:6).

== History ==
{{See also|History of Christian universalism}}

According to the ''[[Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge|New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge]]'' (1912), over the first five hundred years of Christian history there are records of at least six theological schools: four of these schools were Universalist (one each in [[Alexandria]], [[Antioch]], [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]], and [[Edessa]]–[[Nisibis]]), one taught conditional immortality (in [[Ephesus]]), and the last taught eternal Hell (in [[Carthage]] or [[Rome]]). However, the Encyclopedia also notes that most contemporary scholars would take issue with classifying these early schools as Universalist.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge |title= Christian Universalism| volume= 12|location= New York, London |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls | page= 96 | via = Christian classics ethereal library |url= http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc12.u.ii.html}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2022}}

An important figure in early American Christian Universalism was [[George de Benneville]], a French [[Huguenot]] preacher and physician who was imprisoned for advocating Universalism and later emigrated to Pennsylvania where he continued preaching on the subject. De Benneville was noted for his friendly and respectful relationship with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] and his [[religious pluralism|pluralistic]] and multicultural view of spiritual truth which was well ahead of his time. One of his most significant accomplishments was helping to produce the Sauer Bible, the first German language Bible printed in America. In this Bible version, passages teaching universal reconciliation were marked in boldface.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/georgedebenneville.html |title=George de Benneville |publisher= UUA |access-date= 2011-11-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111004144354/http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/georgedebenneville.html |archive-date= 2011-10-04}}</ref>

Other significant early modern Christian Universalist leaders include [[Elhanan Winchester]], a Baptist preacher who wrote several books promoting the universal salvation of all souls after a period in [[Purgatory]], who founded the first Universalist church in Philadelphia, and founded a church that ministered to enslaved [[African American]]s in South Carolina;<ref>[http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/elhananwinchester.html "Elhanan Winchester"] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080820004906/http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/elhananwinchester.html |date= 2008-08-20}}. UUA.</ref><ref>[http://www.tentmaker.org/biographies/elhanan-winchester.htm "Biographies: Elehan Winchester"]. TentMaker.</ref> [[Hosea Ballou]], a Universalist preacher and writer in New England;<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html |title= Hosea Ballou |publisher= UUA |access-date=2011-11-09 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111004144518/http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html |archive-date= 2011-10-04}}</ref> and [[Hannah Whitall Smith]], a writer and evangelist from a Quaker background who was active in the [[Holiness movement]] as well as the [[women's suffrage]] and [[temperance movement|temperance]] movements.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.tentmaker.org/biographies/hannah-smith.htm |title= Hannah Whitall Smith |publisher= Tentmaker |access-date=2011-11-09}}</ref>

The [[Unity School of Christianity]], founded in 1889 by [[Charles Fillmore (Unity Church)|Charles]] and [[Myrtle Fillmore]], has taught some Universalist beliefs such as God's total goodness, the divine nature of human beings, and the rejection of the traditional Christian belief that God condemns people to Hell.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.unityonline.org/aboutunity/whoWeAre/faq.html#teachings |title=Frequently Asked Questions |publisher= Unity online |access-date=2011-11-09}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, some [[Primitive Baptists]] in [[Appalachia]] started espousing Universalist ideas. By 1924, these churches branched off to form the [[Primitive Baptist Universalist]]s. They are often known as "No Hellers" and believe that temporal punishment and separation from God during life is the only hell.<ref>[[Howard Dorgan|Dorgan, Howard]] (1997). ''In the Hands of a Happy God: The "No-Hellers" of Central Appalachia''. [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]]: [[University of Tennessee|The University of Tennessee Press]]. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]] [[Special:BookSources/0-87049-962-9|<bdi>0-87049-962-9</bdi>]].</ref>



References
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