If What David Bentley Hart and Fr. Robert Hart Say Is True. . . .

A day or so ago I responded to a person who asked if the brouhaha over Fr. Robert Hart's embrace of his brother David Bentley Hart's "certain universalism" and Fr. Wesley Walker's platforming DBH at The Sacramentalist Podcast isn't just a tempest in a teapot. My response was that "certain universalism", unlike the "hopeful universalism" advanced by such theologians as Hans von Balthasar and Anglican F.W. Farrar, strikes at the heart of the Gospel. One of DBH's fiercest critics, Michael McClymond, explains why in this article.

If the Hart brothers are right, we the Church might as well close up shop, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die and are saved. Some members of this group might argue that this is a non sequitur. I invite them to defend that argument here, because the burden of proof theologically lies with them.

One of the things that concerns me very much is this:

We in the Continuum fault the ACNA for carrying over much of the of TEC's leaven into their "orthodox" house. But could it be that some of the Anglo-Catholics of the Continuum have carried the leaven of "liberal Catholicism" associated with Gore, et. al  into our house? I see disturbing signs, not only in the case of Hart, that this may be true.

It's not like we're alone. That foul spirit has invaded the Roman Catholic Church and even the stalwart Orthodox Church. Why should we consider ourselves to be the exception? One of the reasons I left Orthodoxy for the Continuum is that I believed it was the exception. No more.

But I believe for certain reasons, one of which being our smallness, is that we have an excellent chance of destroying this thing root and branch.

It will take the bishops to do this, but if they hesitate in acting, faithful lower clergy can certainly light a fire under them. Wouldn't be the first time in church history. Bishops want their priests to remember the vows they took in the Ordinal. But it works both ways. They took vows too:

"Are you ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God's Word; and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same?

"Answer. I am ready, the Lord being my helper."

 

Twelve Questions for the Would-Be Universalist

Comments

[Stephen]

There is no communion in the world that is proof against heresy and error -- even the Apostles' own churches were not! If we put our confidence in anglo-Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Rome, the Westminster Standards, or anything other than Christ in humility and eternal vigilance, we will be overtaken by heresy I fear. The seed is all about us.