The Evangelical Universalist and “the ethos in some evangelical circles”
In response to my “Underground Universalism?” post from a few weeks ago, Thomas Talbott (author of The Inescapable Love of God) writes the following:
Incidentally, in support of your point about closet universalists, Gregory MacDonald (pseudonym) has just published a book entitled The Evangelical Universalist (Cascade Books); and after saying some nice things about his book, the distinguished New Testament scholar, Andrew T. Lincoln, wrote: “One’s only regret is that the ethos in some evangelical circles is such that the author felt compelled to use a pseudonym.”
(A web page for this new book is here. The sentence of Lincoln’s that Tom quotes above seems to have been cut from the advertising, but is [verified now] included inside the front cover of the book. “Gregory MacDonald” — assuming this really is the author of the book, and not just someone pretending to be — wrote a comment on this blog post, explaining his pseudonym as follows: “Gregory [as in ‘of Nyssa’] MacDonald [as in ‘George’].”)
Posted by Keith DeRose | Permalink
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Comments
Thanks for stopping by, Gregory, and good luck with the book. I just started reading it, and am enjoying it very much.
Posted by: Keith | July 07, 2006 at 11:48 AM
OK, now I HAVE to pick up a copy!
Posted by: bruced | July 18, 2006 at 04:39 PM
My problem is that when I first tell people I’m a Universalist, they automatically assume I’m not a Christian or that I’m a Unitarian. They also assume I don’t know the bible or that I’m liberal. It takes a while to work through all that before we can talk about Trinitarian Universalism. But I have enormous freedom because I’m not employed by a Christian organization. I do belong to a conservative Baptist church but I promised my pastor that I’ll keep my gospel to myself. We just slyly tell each other that we now know what to say to people who are devastated because an unbelieving loved one died.
Posted by: Caroline | September 30, 2006 at 09:31 AM
For anyone wishing to follow this discussion further, a new interview with the author:
http://christianbookshopsblog.org.uk/2008/05/08/the-evangelical-universalist/
Posted by: Phil Groom | May 09, 2008 at 03:56 AM
& the author now has a blog:
http://evangelicaluniversalist.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Keith DeRose | May 09, 2008 at 09:00 AM
Keith
Hi. I am the author of the book entitled “The Evangelical Universalist” and I wrote under the name Gregory MacDonald for the reason that you cite above. I had pondered about Susan D. O’Gregory (a pun on Pseudo Gregory) but decided against it.
You are quite right about the pressures not to be a universalist. However, I could live with that – my job may be on the line but perhaps not (if I smile sweetly enough and say lots of evangelical things). Even if I was dismissed from the job I could live with that. My more serious problem is that if I was known for universalism my other books would be treated with automatic suspicion and thus not read. However, I believe that my other books are more important for the church than “The Evangelical Universalist” and I do not wish to undermine what God is doing through them. I am a committed universalist but I don;t think it the most crucial message I have. Other than that I’d be happy to tell Pat Robertson on live TV that I was a universalist.
Thank you also for being the person who first sowed the seed of the possibility of universalism in my life through your online essay (and I have also enjoyed some of your work on skepticism)
in Christ
Gregory
Posted by: Gregory MacDonald | July 07, 2006 at 09:29 AM