A Conversation (or two) on Universalism
And Frank Robinson, of course
The following are links to two conversations (or two parts of a single conversation) I recently had with David Artman, who has a podcast devoted principally to the question of Christian universalism.
If this is an aspect of my thought you dislike, you may want to skip them. (But the sound quality is excellent.) Then again, if it is an aspect of my thought you very much like, you may fear you have probably heard it all already. (Though perhaps not with such excellent sound quality.)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-saves-all-christianity-and-universal-salvation/id1534051216?i=1000531027334
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-saves-all-christianity-and-universal-salvation/id1534051216?i=1000531030809
I would just like to say that I am very pleased with how the interview(s) with Dr. Hart turned out. My purpose was not to cover any new ground with Dr. Hart. Rather, what I wanted to produce was a lively conversation (with good sound quality!) which succinctly introduced Dr. Hart's thoughts on Christianity and universal salvation. I also wanted to give more attention to Dr. Hart's translation of the New Testament and its connection to TASBS.
I hope that these interviews will become a widely used introduction to his unparalleled scholarship, not to mention garnering more support for Leaves in the Wind. David Bentley Hart is a godsend for all of us who have been trying to articulate the necessity of a Christian universalist approach. We needed someone with his status and breadth of scholarship to come forward and to make an urgent, modern argument for the biblical, historical, and philosophical case for universal reconciliation. And, Dr. Hart has done just that.
So I have followed your work on this for quite some time. I must admit I find it quite compelling. But I must ask how exactly you see your view relating to Catholicism? Can a Catholic endorse your view? The Catholic tradition, to me, seems on the whole very anti-universalist (Although thankfully the tradition appears to have softened a bit in recent years).
That being said, I really have a hard time seeing how universalism it is not a necessary implication of the metaphysics of classical theism and creation ex nihilo. In short, as even every good Thomist would agree, what God will to happen happens (Feser gets this very wrong as I saw in one interview he did), but according to the way in which God wills it. Therefore, God's willing something to happen does not deprive it being done freely by creatures. Thus, divine action is not a hindrance to creaturely freedom but the very condition for its possibility. (This is why the free will defense of hell is so wrong. Such a defense would only work if God and creatures were related as two discreet entities.) It seems then that if God really wills that all men are saved, it must happen (unfortunately Aquinas has to read I Timothy 2:4 as meaning that God doesn't really will that all men are saved).