Running Heads

It seems that I have been consumed with various universalism-related projects of late:

• the annotated edition of Thomas Allin’s Christ Triumphant (just published by Wipf & Stock)
• a longish chapter for a Zondervan Four Views on Hell book, edited by Preston Sprinkle. This is simply an attempt to defend a universalist understanding of hell and to interact with those who have different understandings. The other authors are Denny Burke (eternal conscious toemenrt), John Stackhouse (annihilation), Jerry Walls (Purgatory). We are just about to write the responses to each other. Should be fun.
• a longish chapter for a Baker book on different types of Christian universalism, edited by David Congdon. Here I am looking at evangelical universalism in particular (as distinct, say, from patristic or Barthian universalisms). I think that the other authors are George Hunsinger, Morwenna Ludlow, Tom Greggs, and Fred Sanders, but my memory may be faulty here.
• working on a co-authored semi-pop book with Ilaria Ramelli on Christian universalism from the Reformation to the present day. Currently I am in the eighteenth century. This one will take a while, even though it is not an academic texts for specialists. Still—I love history, so it is fascinating research.

I feel like my brain is a tad universalism-focused at the moment. My plan is that once these are done I will move on to other stuff. Perhaps:

• a book on what I call arboreal theology: theology told through different trees in the biblical story
• a book on Jesus’ baptism
• A book on Edom in Scripture—a biblical and theological reading. (It is a lot more interesting than you may suspect.) I am just itching to get stuck in to texts again.
• a book on atonement. (I know everyone is at it, but I feel that one day I need to sit down and work out exactly what my atonement theology looks like.)
• A simple hermeneutical guide for appropriating biblical law today if one is a Jewish or gentile Christ-believer. (This has been at the back of my mind for many years.)

Those are the two things that are drawing me—especially the trees to start with, then perhaps Edom. (But who would read a book on Edom?)

However, looking into so much universalist history I keep thinking of new projects there

• more annotated editons of classic texts (Stonehouse? Relly? Winchester? Jukes?)
• a biography of John Murray—he’s an interesting chap and ought to have one (even if he was a bit quirky)
• a sequel to “All Shall Be Well” covering another batch of folk (alternatively, covering different traditions: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Pietism, etc., etc.)

I guess that will keep me going for a few more years—probably long after I’m dead. Hmmm, I detect a problem there!