Rob Bell and Universalism – some resources

There have been a number of detailed reviews published of Rob Bell’s latest book. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (HarperOne, 2011). I do not intend to repeat their contents here, though I think that two are worth mentioning. Kevin DeYoung’s review is the most helpful covering in some detail problems with Bell’s exegesis, understanding of history and eschatology [a pdf version of the review can be found here]. I have to agree strongly with his statement that:

This is a book for people like Bell, people who grew up in an evangelical environment and don’t want to leave it completely, but want to change it, grow up out of it, and transcend it. The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief.

This brings me the second review by Albert Mohler. Mohler concentrates on the similarities between Bell’s theology and that of Nineteenth Century Liberalism. For Mohler, Bell is simply Schleiermacher redivivus.

Now, to my main purpose in writing. Here are some on-line resources that might be of help. I have extensive bibliographies on both Hell and Universalism. From these these articles might be of most interest:

Graham Keith, “Patristic Views on Hell – Part 1,” The Evangelical Quarterly 71.3 (1999): 217-232.

Graham Keith, “Patristic Views on Hell – Part 2,” The Evangelical Quarterly 71.4 (1999): 291-310.

Richard Bauckham, “Universalism: a historical survey,” Themelios 4.2 (September 1978): 47-54.

Timothy K. Beougher, “Are All Doomed to Be Saved? The Rise of Modern Universalism,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 2.2 (Summer 1998): 6-24.