Thomas Talbott

Thomas Talbott is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. He is best known for his advocacy of Trinitarian Universalism. Due to his book "The Inescapable Love of God" and other works he is one of the most prominent Protestant voices today supporting the idea of universal salvation. The 2003 book "Universal Salvation?: The Current Debate" presents Talbott's "rigorous defense of universalism" together with responses from various fields theologians, philosophers, church historians and other religious scholars supporting or opposing Talbott's universalism. Talbott contributed the chapter on Universalism for "The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology".

Universalist Argument

Talbott has offered three propositions which are biblically based but can not all be true at the same time.
#God is omnipotent and sovereign.
#God is omnibenevolent, ontologically love and wants all men to be saved
#Some (a lot) of people will experience eternal conscious torment in hell. Talbott, Thomas. "The Inescapable Love of God".1999.ISBN 1-58112-831-2.]

Traditionally, Calvinists resolved this by disagreeing with #2. God elects some to be saved and passes over others, who are to be damned for their sin in the doctrine of double predestination. Arminians resolve this by disagreeing with #1. Some people will resist God and choose eternal damnation. Universalists disagree with #3.

Since there are multiple biblical verses (in some translations) about people experiencing eternal conscious torment in hell, Universalists must either refute or reinterpret these verses.

Works

*cite book |author=Thomas Talbott |title=The Inescapable Love of God |publisher=Universal Publishers |location=Parkland, Fla |year=1999 |pages= |isbn=1-58112-831-2 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mJ4dsmuY81IC&dq=%22Thomas+Talbott%22+date:1950-2008+RELIGION&lr=&as_brr=0&output=html |doi= |accessdate=

Notes

References

*cite book |author=Partridge, Christopher H.; Robin Parry |title=Universal Salvation?: The Current Debate |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Pub |location=Grand Rapids, MI |year=2003 |pages= |isbn=0-8028-2764-0 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jvYShr7hAjcC&vq=contributors&dq=%22Thomas+Talbott%22+universal+salvation&lr=&as_brr=0&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 |doi= |accessdate=
*cite book |author=Walls, Jerry G. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology (Oxford Handbooks) |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |location= |year=2007 |pages=xvii, 446-461 |isbn=0-19-517049-0 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cJV0grlTMI4C&pg=PR17&dq=%22Thomas+Talbott%22+date:1950-2008+RELIGION&lr=&as_brr=0&output=html&sig=ACfU3U1jjA2V4HIMQ0-aFZ8nPh7_2ZdJsQ |doi= |accessdate=

Links

*http://www.thomastalbott.com/
*http://www.willamette.edu/~ttalbott/