Universalism and Predestinarianism: A Critique of the Theological Anthropology that Undergirds Catholic Universalist Eschatology

Abstract

The way one addresses the question of the possibility of universal salvation and the reality of damnation is determined by one’s understanding of the relationship between human freedom and divine grace. The universalist solution presupposes a predestinarian approach, which undermines the natural integrity of created freedom. Highlighting the determinative role of theological anthropology in eschatology, I propose that the subjunctive universalism advocated by some Catholic theologians, such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, ought to be replaced with a more nuanced theodramatic eschatology based upon the emerging consensus in the twentieth-century Catholic theology of grace.