Hope of Universal Salvation as a Form of Divine Mercy Cover Image

Nadzieja powszechnego zbawienia jako postać Bożego Miłosierdzia
Hope of Universal Salvation as a Form of Divine Mercy

Author(s): Ignacy Bokwa
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Systematic Theology
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: hope; salvation; the paschal mystery; the mercy of God; heaven; hell

Summary/Abstract: The article raises the issue of hope of universal salvation, which is not knowledge, certainty about the ultimate faith of man after death, but only hope based on God’s revelation contained in the Holy Bible. A Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), undertook in the twentieth century the matter of hope for salvation. A Lublin ecumenist Wacław Hryniewicz (born in 1936) has been dealing with this issue in Poland for many years. This article discusses synthetically the views of both theologians in a mutual relationship. Both of them refer to the Bible talking about God as love. Such an image of God is incompatible with the vision of eternal hell as a punishment without prospects for improvement and conversion of man. The argumentations concern the philosophical and theological nature of man as a being of freedom. It also refers to the testimonies of Christian mystics and saints in favour of hope of universal salvation. This idea is located in the concept and reality of God’s mercy and converges with it.

  • Issue Year: 63/2016
  • Issue No: 07
  • Page Range: 27-45
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish