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List of Christian universalists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of writers who advocated Christian universalism—specifically, Trinitarian universalism–prior to the 1961 creation of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Scholars Hosea Ballou (Ancient History of Universalism, 1828), John Wesley Hanson (Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years, 1899), George T. Knight (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1911), and Pierre Batiffol (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914) catalogued some early Christians—from the second through fourth centuries—as universalists, but modern scholarship questions the claim that all of these individuals were believers in universal reconciliation.[a] Some listed by those writers may have simply believed in apokatastasis in the Jewish or early Christian sense, without any expectation that all who had ever lived would be saved.

Several modern Christian theologians have been deemed "hopeful universalists" for a belief in the possibility of universal reconciliation, but did not claim it as a dogmatic fact, e.g. Karl Barth and Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

Table

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Name Lived Nationality Denomination Notes
Richard Coppin 1500s or 1600s–1660s English Anglican, later Presbyterian Ranter Anglican clergyman
William Law 1686–April 9, 1761 English Anglican Cleric
Jane Leade 1624–1704 English Behemenist, later Philadelphian Mystic, founder of the Philadelphians
Alexander Mack July 27, 1679–January 18, 1735 German Reformed, later Brethren/German Baptist Founder and first minister of the Brethren/German Baptists
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola February 24, 1463–November 17, 1494 Italian Roman Catholic Kabbalist and philosopher
John Pordage 1607–1681 English Anglican, later Philadelphian Priest and mystic
Andrew Michael Ramsay January 9, 1686–May 6, 1743 Scottish Roman Catholic
Thomas Potter 1689–1777 American Baptist, later Universalist Church of America Universalist minister
Gerrard Winstanley 1609–September 10, 1676 English Digger and Quaker
George Macdonald December 10, 1824 - September 19, 1905 Scottish Congregational Clergyman and writer of novels
Maria Cook 1779 - December 21, 1835 American Universalist First woman to be recognized as a Universalist preacher.

Notes

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  • ^ For example, Frederick W. Norris in the article on apocatastasis in 2004's The Westminster Handbook to Origen writes that "As far as we can tell, therefore, Origen never decided to stress exclusive salvation or universal salvation, to the strict exclusion of either case."

References

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  • Ballou, Hosea (1885), The Ancient History of Universalism: From the Time of the Apostles to the Fifth General Council (4th ed.), Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Universalist Publishing House
  • Battifol, Pierre (1907), "Apocatastasis", in Herberman, Charles G.; Pace, Edward A.; Allen, Condé; Shahan, Thomas J.; Wynne, John J. (eds.), The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, vol. 1, United States: The Encyclopedia Press
  • Hanson, John Wesley (1899), Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years (1st ed.), Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Universalist Publishing House
  • MacDonald, Gregory, ed. (2011), "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology from Origen to Moltmann (1st ed.), Eugene, Oregon, United States: Cascade Books, ISBN 978-1-60608-685-8
  • Parry, Robin; Partridge, Christopher H., eds. (March 2004), Universal Salvation? The Current Debate (1st ed.), Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States and Cambridge, England, United Kingdom: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 0-8028-2764-0

See also

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