"That All Shall Be Saved" - A Concise Review

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That All Shall Be Saved - A Concise Review

Title: That All Shall Be Saved
Author: David Bentley Hart
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2019
Pages: 222
ISBN: 0300246226

              David Bentley Hart’s most recent book, That All Shall Be Saved, argues about the dubiousness of the most commonly believed conception of hell and brings forward grounds for a scriptural, reasonable, and thoroughly historic belief in universal salvation or -as the Greek Church Fathers called it- Apokatastasis. Hart opens the book in full swing, telling readers that he does not want to promote an uncertain hope for the potential that God might possibly redeem all the world. Instead, Hart says, “if Christianity taken as a whole is indeed an entirely coherent and credible system of belief, then the universalist understanding of it is the only one possible.”

              That All Shall Be Saved is broken into three parts, the first of which opens the issue of eternal hell by introducing the questions and issues associated with it, as well as establishing some vocabulary that will be used throughout the book. Part two is the meat of Hart’s argument broken up into four meditations. And part three is his concluding statements of the work, and his suggestions for further reading.

              Meditation one, “Who is God?”, focuses on God as the creator of everything, and the ethics of God (or rather, God as the source of ethics). This chapter also has an interesting discussion about human language and our ability to talk about God, especially in terms of our capacity to say that God loves. What do we mean when we talk about God’s love, and is it similar in any way to discussions of human love? Hart rightly says, that we can talk about and understand, to some degree, the love of God, and that God’s love, if it is anything, is not the opposite of love as we know it.

              The second Meditation, “What is Judgement?”, is the location of Hart’s primary direct interaction with the New Testament. For many, this will be the section that holds the most weight, and I think that Hart carries his argument well. This section is inspired by his recent New Testament translation from 2017, therefore, he employs considerate exploration of the Greek text along with his explanations. Some Greek knowledge is helpful here, but readers be assured, Hart makes this whole chapter very accessible to anyone. Here, Hart brings forward recent academic discussions on the Greek words that we translate ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ and ‘hell,’ while usefully pointing to texts from Plato to help readers grasp the significance of these words.

              Meditation three, “What is a person?”, contained, for me, a very intriguing and new explanation of personhood, which had never occurred to me before. Hart begins by asking how people in heaven could be happy while any of their loved ones are forever tormented in hell. The discussion in this chapter goes much deeper than most readers -myself included- would realize. It is not all an argument from pathos or emotion, -though the Greeks certainly have taught us the importance of those kinds of arguments- but it also employs a lot of logic and Theological reasoning. The culmination of this chapter is when he describes personhood in terms of communal existence and synergistic development, saying that no one exists alone; we are not merely ourselves. This is one of my favorite chapters because, in it, Hart reminds readers of the New Testament's emphasis on the community, rather than just individuals.

              Finally, meditation four, “What is Freedom?”, puts together an idea that strings itself along the entirety of the book; namely, that humans have freedom, but they are not so free as to wholly reject their creator in full knowledge. I would bet that the subject of this last meditation is the starting point for many Christians who hope to believe in Universal Salvation. For this section, Hart applies Aristotelian ethics -particularly, of mankind’s search for ‘the Good’- to show that people, no matter how hard we may try to turn from God, always have an interior drawing toward goodness, of which God is the source.

Despite what some commentators have attempted to say, David Hart is not a religious pluralist; he does not believe that different religions make up different paths to the same end. Hart does, however, show himself to believe that in Christ -and only Christ- God brings all of man and womankind into the rest that can be found only in Godself. According to David Hart, Universalism is not a shameful belief, and entrusting to God the vindication of every human life, by his salvation through Jesus Christ, is not a vain hope.

At its worst, That All Shall Be Saved will bring some readers to consider valid and penetrating arguments against the hell that we take for granted and neglect to consider deeply, and at its best, it should give some readers the historical context and contemporary theological language in which to situate oneself into a Christian expression of universalism that is not merely a modern fabrication, as some would suggest. Throughout the text, Hart consistently draws on Gregory of Nyssa (335 C.E.) -and periodically on others from throughout the centuries-  in order to show that this is no new teaching without precedent. I highly recommend this book to academic students and non-academics alike, because it is a good articulation of an educated universalist approach that is written, by necessity of conscience, quite accessibly for all.

Hart, David Bentley. That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.

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About Concise Theological Reviews

A Pilgrimage of the Mind

     

   
   

       Doing Theology, especially Historical Theology, is like a pilgrimage of the mind. Like a pilgrimage, we may find holy relics in the form of teachings that were once emphasized; teachings which we might at times forget or not ourselves have known before. Like a pilgrimage we not only follow Christian thinkers and Saints into the past, but our journey into older days helps us to more clearly recognize and understand God in the present and into the future. As the Church has always believed, Theology is not something for anyone to do alone -although solitude does have its proper place in our contemplation- rather, Theology is thinking about God and having a discussion from within the community and through our solidarity with others. We include the historic shaping of our Theology because the thinkers and Saints, who long ago were seeking out God, are still a part of that community; their journeys -their pilgrimages- will continue to shape our minds when we think of God. The purpose of this blog is to bring this historic and communal discussion, from today's Theology, to people who would like to know what Theology in the 21st century looks like, by providing short and personal book reviews that are accessible to general readers. My hope is that, over time, Concise Theological Reviews may be a good starting point for readers to find where their interests in Theological Studies may lie and which authors they should be reading.

       Along with book reviews, I aim to periodically post short biographic information on various people who have done their part to shape the history of the Christian Church by their own entrance into the great conversation. These biographic entries will come from a selection of various Church Fathers, Saints, Theologians, and lay persons whose lives are especially significant because what they have done adds a great deal to the Theological discussion. I aim for these biographical portrayals to be compassionate and ethical descriptions of those lives who may have lived long ago, but are no less real than you or I. These biographic entries are by no means to be thought of as comprehensive; instead, they should be thought of as biographic inquiries that introduce us to people we might like to better meet.

       Overall, I hope that these articles will help someone find their feet in the theological community and be pointed towards the tools and resources that allow us to come closer to seeing God more fully together.