David Artman is the author of Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism (Wipf & Stock, 2020) and the host of the Grace Saves All podcast.

On this first of two episodes with David, he and I begin a conversation on the topic of Christian universalism, a conversation which we will continue in a subsequent episode to be released in a couple of weeks. Here we discuss his own journey to Christian universalism, some of the major historic and contemporary figures within this stream of thinking, and clear up some of the common misperceptions and critiques.

PODCAST LINKS:

David’s book: https://wipfandstock.com/9781532650888/grace-saves-all/

Grace Saves All podcast: https://www.davidartman.net/podcast

David’s website: https://www.davidartman.net/

David’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidartman?lang=en

CONNECT:

Website: https://wipfandstock.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wipfandstock

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wipfandstock

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wipfandstock/

SOURCES MENTIONED:

Artman, David. Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism.

Hart, David Bentley. That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation.

Hronich, Andrew. Once Loved Always Loved: The Logic of Apokatastasis.

Jersak, Bradley. Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hell, Hope, and the New Jerusalem.

MacDonald, Gregory (Robin Parry). The Evangelical Universalist.

Parry, Robin, with Ilaria Ramelli. A Larger Hope?, Volume 2: Universal Salvation from the Reformation to the Nineteenth Century.

Ramelli, Ilaria. A Larger Hope?, Volume 1: Universal Salvation from Christian Beginnings to Julian of Norwich.

Talbott, Thomas. The Inescapable Love of God.Wood, Jordan Daniel. The Whole Mystery of Christ: Creation as Incarnation in Maximus Confessor.

OUTLINE:

(00:14) – Microphones and Monty Python

(05:05) – Podcasting and publishing on universalism

(08:30) – Private journals: Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, Hans Urs von Balthasar, C. S. Lewis

(12:35) – White Russian, English Breakfast-Cocoa elixir

(17:26) – From evangelical fundamentalism to Brite Divinity School

(22:50) – Discovering Christian universalism

(28:20) – Universalism and holding on to faith

(30:35) – The logic and history of Christian universalism

(35:03) – Historic figures: Gregory of Nyssa, Origen of Alexandria, Maximus Confessor

(40:31) – Universalism and (Nicene) orthodoxy

(48:48) – Contemporary figures: David Bentley Hart, Thomas Talbott, Ilaria Ramelli, Robin Parry

(54:45) – What are the alternatives?

(58:49) – Facing the critiques of Christian universalism

(01:07:53) – To be continued . . .