Fr. Al Kimmel, now going under the alias Aidan, is a universalist, or at least he flirts with it openly. The likely reason why he does so is somewhat a matter of public record, though I will not go into it here. I mention it only because his web-log contains this: “Readings in Universalism.” One who knows even a bit about the topic won’t be surprised at the list. What they may be surprised to find, however, is Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart’s comments which, inter alia, confirm what many of his readers have long suspected, namely his own universalist leanings.
Agree or disagree, he raises several interesting, even challenging, points which, I imagine, are difficult to refute by his lights. And by “his lights,”I mean the lights of contemporary Orthodoxy theology which, at its best, is Patristic-oriented, Christocentric, and deeply spiritual. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s free from certain pathologies, not the least of of which being its tilt toward the oracular. Perhaps it all points to something profound so many of us have long missed. Or maybe it’s not saying much at all. Either way, his remarks are worth a gander.
