That All Shall Be Saved — David Bentley Hart — An Introduction

One of the most anticipated books to come out this fall was David Bentley Hart’s book entitled That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell & Universal Salvation. Like many people in the progressive Christian stream, he takes on Eternal Conscious Torment and argues for a better more beautiful view of the afterlife called “Apokatastasis” or the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). One of the attributes of David Bentley Harts books is that a person needs a dictionary and thesaurus as a guide since he uses a vast vocabulary in his writings. Like those in the early church, he argues after a brief period of recovery or being in the Lake of Fire, all souls will eventually be united to God at the end of the age so that God can be “all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28) He uses the early church fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor and Origen as his guides in the theory of Apokatastasis.

He also answers questions that those that believe in Eternal Conscious Torment from both Catholicism and Protestantism would raise why Universal Salvation is a pipe dream or fairy tale. He answers questions about the free will argument that Arminian (Wesleyan) Christians would raise about the final judgement, and other objections that traditional Christians would have about Apokatastasis. He also raises questions of Calvinists belief in the doctrine of predestination based upon the sovereignty of God as a confused reading of scripture (DBH — Kindle Loc. 644).

He writes:

“Perhaps, however, the free will defense just such a mythical sort of God. Because, if God really is “God” in the classical acceptation of the word-the transcendent plenitude of all reality, as well as an infinite act of consciousness and love-then all these concerns about discrete personal agency and autonomy of the will must vanish as just so many category of errors.” (DBH — Kindle Location 2514)

David Bentley Hart’s main argument is based upon these two questions he raises at the end of his first meditation:

1. If God is the good creator of all, he must be the savior of all, without fail, who brings to himself all he had made, including all rational wills, and only thus returns to himself in all that goes forth from him.
2. If he is not the savior of all, the Kingdom (referring to the Kingdom of God) is only a dream, and creation something considerably worse than a nightmare. But, again, it is not so. According to scripture, God saw that what He created was good. If so, then all creatures must in the end of the ages, see it as well.

Many people, especially Evangelicals, have raised doubts about David Bentley Hart’s argument for the salvation of all of humankind either because of a lack of Biblical support (see DBH’s second meditation for a Biblical Defense of Apokatastasis), or he ignores or doesn’t give humans enough credit for their free will to reject God (he argues against this in his fourth meditation). Again, David Bentley Hart draws on the early church father’s support of the doctrine of the restoration of all things, and his own translation of the New Testament as primary and secondary sources to back up his argument.

I have only scratched the surface of this important work in eschatology. Many other scholars have written blogs and reviews of this excellent work. On Al Kimel’s Ecclectic Orthodoxy Blog, both Thomas Talbott and other scholars have written excellent reviews of David Bentley Hart’s Book — That All Shall Be Saved. Brad Jersak, has written a terrific review from a different perspective on hopeful inclusion as another way to explain Apokatastasis (I am more in line with Brad than I am with David Bentley Hart and Thomas Talbott). Others who believe in a traditional view of the afterlife have dismissed this important work and have criticized this book especially Michael McLydon and Peter Leithart. David Bentley Hart answers Peter and Michael here and here.

Overall, David Bentley Hart’s Book — That All Shall Be Saved is important because it brings back into the conversation the possibility of Patristic Universalism as a viable alternative of the afterlife within Christian Orthodox Theology in addition to conditional immortality and eternal conscious torment. I am sure many future seminarians will be required to read this book as part of their studies in eschatology (last things) in the future. I believe for those like myself coming from an Evangelical background, this book gives the best argument for Universal Salvation. Other books that are coming out that also discuss this topic from a more layman’s perspective is Keith Giles book — Jesus Undefeated which releases on November 9, 2019 on Quoir Press. His book will be a good complement to That All Shall Be Saved since he gives a basic Biblical explanation of Universal Reconciliation in comparison to eternal conscious torment and conditional immortality (as the best most loving possible outcome of the afterlife) in a way that can be received from those coming from an Evangelical background that may struggle with DBH’s argument and vast use of a diverse vocabulary.