List of Christian universalists

This is a list of writers who advocated Christian universalism—specifically, Trinitarian universalism–prior to the 1961 creation of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Scholars Hosea Ballou (Ancient History of Universalism, 1828), John Wesley Hanson (Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years, 1899), George T. Knight (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1911), and Pierre Batiffol (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914) catalogued some early Christians—from the second through fourth centuries—as universalists, but modern scholarship questions the claim that all of these individuals were believers in universal reconciliation.^[a] Some listed by those writers may have simply believed in apokatastasis in the Jewish or early Christian sense, without any expectation that all who had ever lived would be saved.

Several modern Christian theologians have been deemed "hopeful universalists" for a belief in the possibility of universal reconciliation, but did not claim it as a dogmatic fact, e.g. Karl Barth and Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

Table

Name	Lived	Nationality	Denomination	Notes
Richard Coppin	1500s or 1600s–1660s	English	Anglican, later Presbyterian Ranter	Anglican clergyman
William Law	1686–April 9, 1761	English	Anglican	Cleric
Jane Leade	1624–1704	English	Behemenist, later Philadelphian	Mystic, founder of the Philadelphians
Alexander Mack	July 27, 1679–January 18, 1735	German	Reformed, later Brethren/German Baptist	Founder and first minister of the Brethren/German Baptists
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola	February 24, 1463–November 17, 1494	Italian	Roman Catholic	Kabbalist and philosopher
John Pordage	1607–1681	English	Anglican, later Philadelphian	Priest and mystic
Andrew Michael Ramsay	January 9, 1686–May 6, 1743	Scottish	Roman Catholic
Thomas Potter	1689–1777	American	Baptist, later Universalist Church of America	Universalist minister
Gerrard Winstanley	1609–September 10, 1676	English	Digger and Quaker
George Macdonald	December 10, 1824 - September 19, 1905	Scottish	Congregational	Clergyman and writer of novels
Maria Cook	1779 - December 21, 1835	American	Universalist	First woman to be recognized as a Universalist preacher.

Notes

^{^} For example, Frederick W. Norris in the article on apocatastasis in 2004's The Westminster Handbook to Origen writes that "As far as we can tell, therefore, Origen never decided to stress exclusive salvation or universal salvation, to the strict exclusion of either case."

References

Ballou, Hosea (1885), The Ancient History of Universalism: From the Time of the Apostles to the Fifth General Council (4th ed.), Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Universalist Publishing House
Battifol, Pierre (1907), "Apocatastasis", in Herberman, Charles G.; Pace, Edward A.; Allen, Condé; Shahan, Thomas J.; Wynne, John J. (eds.), The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, vol. 1, United States: The Encyclopedia Press
Hanson, John Wesley (1899), Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years (1st ed.), Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Universalist Publishing House
MacDonald, Gregory, ed. (2011), "All Shall Be Well": Explorations in Universal Salvation and Christian Theology from Origen to Moltmann (1st ed.), Eugene, Oregon, United States: Cascade Books, ISBN 978-1-60608-685-8
Parry, Robin; Partridge, Christopher H., eds. (March 2004), Universal Salvation? The Current Debate (1st ed.), Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States and Cambridge, England, United Kingdom: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 0-8028-2764-0

Table

Notes

References

See also