Conference Summary: Is Universalism an Evangelical Option?

Yesterday, Spurgeon’s College in south London hosted a one-day conference, Is Universalism an Evangelical Option? Almost ninety delegates attended, representing a range of (how shall I put it?) evangelical persuasions or intensities; and of these, all those to whom I spoke thought that the day was very interesting and worthwhile.

Robin Parry’s good-humoured presentation was first on the programme. I missed the first ten or fifteen minutes of his talk, as I was welcoming latecomers and dealing with conference administration. But I still caught most of what Robin had to say. As anyone who has read The Evangelical Universalist will anticipate, Robin didn’t need to say much beyond what is already written in that book. The uniqueness of his lecture came through its layout: Robin took various objections to universalism – e.g., Doesn’t universalism undermine evangelism? – and attempted to show why these objections do not apply to his thesis. On the whole, I found Robin persuasive. Broadly speaking, I see no reason why universalism can’t be an evangelical option.

It was Derek Tidball’s task to challenge Robin’s position. After a series of preliminary comments about various things (apologies for my vagueness), he focussed on certain New Testament texts that could point either to universalism or the reality of eternal conscious torment or annihilationism. (Others who have read his books will no doubt confirm or refute this, but Derek seems to be in favour of annihilation, so to speak!) He argued that all the texts Robin supposed pointed to universalist readings (as discussed in The Evangelical Universalist) in fact did no such thing. I must admit that I was unconvinced by a lot of what Derek said. By discussing specific biblical texts, Derek approached the conference theme differently to Robin, who had limited himself to sketching a framework for reading Scripture and identifying commonalities between his account of universalism and general evangelical thought. Moreover, I didn’t think that Derek acknowledged as clearly as he could or should have done Robin’s own defence of his interpretations of these texts in The Evangelical Universalist. I wonder how many people in attendance yet to read this book thought that Derek had drawn Robin’s attention to a number of texts that he had neglected to consider. Still, Derek’s paper was interesting and presented in a way that did not belittle Robin or his views.

After lunch, Robin and Derek spent half an hour in free discussion, focussing on how one determines the ‘natural’ way of reading individual scriptural texts and so on. Following this, Graham Watts delivered a paper on universalism in the thought of P. T. Forsyth and T. F. Torrance. Graham thought that the differing views of these two theologians in part can be accounted for by their relation to Karl Barth’s doctrine of election. Forsyth’s thought was pre-Barthian in this respect, and so his leanings towards purgatory, prayers for the dead and so on should have lead inevitably to universalism – a conclusion with which Forsyth flirted, but one to which he did not finally commit himself. Thus Graham concluded that Forsyth is theologically incoherent on this score; Forsyth had no theological reason not to hold to universalism. However, T. F. Torrance, influenced directly by Barth, denied universalism as a real possibility on the basis that such a conclusion would deny God the freedom of God’s love; there can be no logico-causal connection between the statement that ‘Christ died for all’ and the conclusion that ‘all will be saved’. Even if all are elect in Christ, this does not mean that the Spirit will actualise faith in all, for only God in God’s freedom can determine the faith of individual people. Graham indicated that the Barthian–Torrance line is preferable to wholesale universalism (though in the final Q&A session, Robin argued that the intention to defend the freedom of God in fact presupposes that there is still a God behind God, in so far as God’s intentions of universal salvation revealed in Scripture are obscured by the divine freedom which could, in fact, mean that not all are actually saved). I thought Graham’s self-contained paper was outstanding, and I do hope that it finds publication at some point.

Finally (well, penultimately, but I’m not going to summarise the final Q&A session), Nigel Wright read a paper on Jürgen Moltmann and universalism. The main thing I took from this is Moltmann’s insistence that human decision cannot prevent God from making all things new in Christ. If people can refuse salvation, this makes the faculty of human decision-making triumphant over God’s power and intention to bless the world. Nigel, echoing the Barthian sentiments found in Graham’s paper, suggested that there is a difference between universalism (as proposed by Moltmann and Robin) and universal hope (as in Barth). He concluded by suggesting that Scripture is silent on the topic of universalism, or at least gives mixed signals, so that we don’t know how things will end. Personally, I think this is a via media too contrived: Robin is surely right to suppose that if Scripture gives hints that all will one day be saved, then we are entitled to attempt to fit these hints into some kind of interpretative framework by which they will make sense alongside other, perhaps contrary texts.

That’s my take on the day; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must admit that I’m still more with Barth than with Robin, but I think Robin’s arguments need to be taken very seriously – and I need to reflect more on his comment that prioritising the freedom of God can actually run the risk of obscuring scriptural revelation. There has to be some coherence between the two, otherwise we could say that God is free to act arbitrarily or inconsistently.

Some final notes: Audio recordings were made, though I’m not sure at the moment in what way they’ll find their way to public access. And Harvey and Andy have offered their reflections on the day.

UPDATE: See Robin's further thoughts on universalism and the 'God behind God' here.