First Name:
James
Last Name:
Rickenbaker
Major Department:
Philosophy and Religion
Thesis Director:
Richard Spencer
Date of Thesis:
May 2012
There is a growing issue within the church today. This issue is over the Christian notion of salvation. The two sides of this issue are the Christian Universalists and the proponents of the theology of sola fide. This study posits that the rise of Christian Universalism represents a steady and definitive branching off from the traditions of the church regarding the theology of salvation, therefore creating a new theology of salvation .. that disagrees with one that has clear representation in the New Testament (sola fide) and the traditions of the Church.
The study begins by establishing the history of the movement of Christian Universalism, beginning with the late Eighteenth Century. The study continues by taking into account the writings of modern Universalists, most of whom belong to the Emerging Church movement, which is a modern movement that maintains Universalist precepts. Their writings describe the nature of salvation as universal. The writings of the opposing position, sola fide (by faith alone), serve to show the traditional position of the church regarding the nature of salvation. Their belief regarding salvation is that it is contingent on one's faith in Jesus Christ. Both sides discuss the topic in detail and come to separate conclusions regarding the issue of salvation.
These separate conclusions are evidence of the divide in the church today, therefore proving the aforementioned thesis to be correct. The study shows the conclusions drawn from the argumentation section and concludes with several important points of further inquiry as a means of establishing areas of augmentation for the study.