The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Thomas Talbott

I am thrilled to see that Tom Talbott has agreed to come onto the form. As those who have read my book will know, Tom’s work has had a profound influence on my own journey towards universalism. Indeed I can say without hesitation that had I not come across Tom’s work I do not see how I would ever have made my way to embrace a doctrine of universal reconciliation. I owe him a huge debt as do many who have read his articles and books as well as his online engagements. For that reason I dedicated TEU to Tom and for that reason I am excited that he has agreed to join us for a discussion.

Tom is first and foremost a Christian philosopher. I first came across him through William Lane Craig’s attempts to refute universalism. Craig tried, on a couple of occasions, to blow Talbott out of the water. I read Craig’s articles as a traditional evangelical very keen to find a good argument in favor of Hell. To my horror I discovered myself more persuaded by Talbott and than by Craig! (and I ought to add that I rate Bill Craig very highly as a Christian philosopher)

Through a series of events (some of which you can read about in TEU) I came to read lots of Tom’s work and to interact with him online (and eventually face to face). To this day I remain unwavering in saying that his philosophical work on universalism is absolutely outstanding. It played a major role in opening me up to the possibility of apocatastasis.

Tom is not a biblical scholar but I must also say that his work on the biblical text also played a very signifcant role in leading me away from traditional views on Hell. Whilst I did not find all of Tom’s suggestions totally convincing I did find them sufficiently plausible to give me solid grounds for hope that universalism might be biblical after all! This was a real lifeline for a struggling soul.

So Tom is for me a real hero. I hope that any of you who have not taken the time to read his work will check it out.

Pax

high fives to Gregory and Tom

I had started to think along Christian Universalist lines a little over 10 years ago when I was 18. It came very naturally to me as I contemplated things philosophic and spiritual. I was delighted to find a few years later that there is indeed such a thing as Christian Universalism. It wasn’t until 2003 that I discovered Talbott’s website. I soon thereafter ordered a copy of The Inescapable Love of God, and found Tom’s logic to be sound and his exegesis to be solid. I have had the pleasure of dialoguing with him on his old bravenet forum where he painstakingly explained to me what the modal fallacy is. I am delighted to hear that he will be joining this forum for a bit.

I think we’re all excited to have Dr. Talbott join us. Having he and Gregory to share ideas and help us in our wrestling with scriptures is more than we could ask for. It truly is amazing what the internet has done for the world. Before, it was VERY difficult to get authors like this to interact with people all over the world. Now they simply log on and off they go.

Thomas has deeply moved me in so many ways concerning the bible. I’m more of a believer in scripture than I was before I understood the christian universalism view.

After reading GM’s book I was 90% convinced and Bob Wilson was the one who dragged me to the finish line :slight_smile:

I am so excited and especially to possibly see GM and Talbott interact. It is so much like paul and peter in a late night discussion and we get to sit in on it!!! WOW!

I’m very excited.

Aug