David Congdon, "Universalism & Christology"

 I'm currently looking through the best arguments (both theological and philosophical) for universalism. David Congdon of Princeton and IVP was recommended to me via Robin Parry's The Evangelical Universalist. In looking up David on google, I found his blog. Which is quite good. He has a book coming out in 2013 that should provide a sketch of universalism. Which I look forward to.

And I started to pour over his material in favor of universalism and was struck by this:

Congdon:

To begin, universalism is like a doctrine of the atonement: nowhere in the Bible is any “doctrine” to be found, because Scripture is not a collection of propositional truths. Scripture is the authoritative witness to the event of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, and this witness authorizes the rational (though not rationalistic) exposition of the faith based on the narrative of God’s being-in-act in the kerygma. Doctrines and dogmas are explications of what is testified to in the Scriptures, and these doctrines allow for the further interpretation of the biblical text. Some doctrines function as hermeneutical keys or categories which provide a rule for reading the biblical text in a way that coheres with the proclamation of the gospel in the communion of saints.

Universalism is thus accepted or denied based on a complex framework of hermeneutical principles which are situated in the church as the people of God.

David has written much on this subject, and his conviction and arguments are striking. Enjoy them HERE.

--Nick