Thursday, January 29, 2009

New Gregory MacDonald book in 2010/11

OK, I know it is a long time off but there will be a second Gregory MacDonald book in late 2010 or early 2011. In fact, I am not writing this one but merely editing it.

The book is provisionally entitled

"All Will be Well"
Universalism and Systematic Theology

The publisher will be Cascade Books.

Essentially there will be a range of chapters on various Christian theologians who happened to be either (a) dogmatic universalists, (b) hopeful universalists, or (c) almost universalists. (By 'almost universalists' I mean theologians whose systematic theology pointed to a clear universalist conclusion but they pulled away from the implications of it and denied being universalists. I have in mind people like P.T Forsyth and Karl Barth.)

The idea is to get scholars who know the work of the selected theologians well and to invite them to reflect on the way in which universalism was integrated into their theological 'system' (for want of a better word). The goal is to see different ways in which universalism has found a home within Christian theology and to offer some kind of assessment of these ways.

The kinds of people we shall be looking at include, amongst others, Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa, Schliermacher, Thomas Erskine, P.T. Forsyth, Sergius Bulgakov, Karl Barth, H. H. Farmer, Jaques Ellul, J.A.T. Robinson, Hand Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, John Hick, Jurgen Moltmann.

We have a great line up of authors (to be revealed once the line up is complete).

This is, as far as I am aware, the first book of its kind and we hope that it will be of service to both the academy and the Church.

I am very much looking forward to the editing process. I think that there will be a lot I will learn from the team of scholars we have.