Robin opens his introduction to All Shall Be Well with:
“At the most simple level Christian universalism is the belief that God will (or, in the case of ‘hopeful universalism’, might) redeem all people through the saving work of Christ.”
I’ve thought of myself as one of those “hopeful” universalists, but I never located the “might” where Robin does. Robin describes hopeful universalism as the belief that “God might save all” as opposed to the belief that “God will save all.” I express my doubts differently. My doubt is not that if universalism is true it might only be true for some but not all (Robin’s “hopeful universalism”). My doubt is with respect to the truth of universalism per se. In other words, I concede that it might be the case that universalism is false. It’s about being academically honest. For me the “might” qualifies the entire proposition positing UR for all and not just some. But I don’t entertain any doubt at all that if universalism is true some persons will succeed in forever rejecting God. Once one assumes the truth of UR, there is no meaningful sense in which I can express doubt regarding the salvation of any. That seems to exclude me from Robin’s “hopeful unversalist” group. But I don’t affirm my belief (in UR per se) dogmatically, which seems to exclude me from Robin’s more certain (the “God will save all”) group.
Tom