Believers and Supporters of Christian Universalism

Christian Universalism: The belief that everything in heaven and on earth will ulitmately be reconciled back to the Creator through the work of Jesus Christ, his Son. In plain language, no one is going to be endlessly tortured or annihilated as has been commonly taught. The teaching of universalism has been in the church since its inception. The ancient church fathers called it by its name found in the Greek New Testament, apokatastasis, that is, the "restoration of all things." (Acts 3:21) It has also be known simply by the name universalism, sometimes it's called "Biblical Universalism or Christian Universalism. It's been known by Ultimate Reconciliation, Universal Salvation, Universal Restoration, the Larger Faith, Blessed Hope, Happy Gospel, Irresistable Gospel, the Glorious Gospel of God's Grace, the glorious Gospel of the Kingdom, The Larger Hope, The Greater Faith, the Doctrine of Inclusion. I, Gary Amirault, like to call it the "Victorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul, the apostle called it the "Glorious Gospel." When Christians once again embrace this teaching in great numbers, the body of Christ in the earth will once again shine like a city of a hill and draw those to it that could never embrace a God who said he was love and all-powerful and yet managed to lose most of mankind which is what the present-day church teaches.

Famous (and not so famous) people throughout the centuries have declared publicly or strongly hinted that they believe all mankind will ultimately be saved. Keep in mind, during most of Church history, openly declaring this belief often cost one their lives and their writings often destroyed. The list includes early Church Fathers and leaders, theologians, scholars, historians, royalty, writers, poets, statesmen, humanitarians, pastors, scientists, and other streams of life. While some may not be well known to Americans living in the twentieth century, many of the are well known in the countries and times in which they lived. These men and women left written evidence behind declaring their views. Behind them stand millions who, while not having left behind a written record of their beliefs on earth, nevertheless, will one day brightly manifest to all creation corporately as a Great Cloud of Witnesses.

This list was compiled from several sources among which are: "A Cloud of Witnesses" by J.W. Hanson, first published in 1885 and reprinted by Concordant Publishing Concern; "Mercy and Judgment" by Canon F.W. Farrar, published in 1881; "Christ Triumphant" by Thomas Allin, first published in 1890, reprinted by Concordant Publishing Concern; and "Universal Reconciliation and the Evangelical Covenant Church." Dean Hough, Editor of Unsearchable Riches also contributed greatly to the list. Over the years, I, Gary Amirault, have continued to add names as they come along.

Check back with us from time to time. If you know of names that should be on this list, email them to us at [email protected]

Christian Universalists

All the Hebrew Prophets who prophesied of the coming of the Messiah
Jesus Christ (John 12:32)
Paul, the Apostle (never used the word "Hell" once) (1 Tim. 4:9-11)
John the Apostle (John 4:42)
The Didascalia (the Catechetical school of Alexandria)
Pantaenus, first head of catechetical school at Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria, second head of catechetical school at Alexandria
Origen, greatest scholar of the early church
Athenasius, Archbishop of Alexandria
Didymus
Ambrose, Bishop
Ephraim
Chrysostum
Gregory of Nyssa, Bishop
Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop and President of the second Church council
Titus, Bishop of Bostra
Asterius, Bishop of Amasea
Cyril
Methodius, Bishop of Tyre
Eusibius, early church historian
Hillary, Bishop of Poictiers
Victorinus
Macrina, the younger
Erigena
Dionysius
Barsudaili, Abbott of Edessa
Diodore, Bishop of Tarsus and Jerusalem
Theodore of Mopsuestia
John Cassian
Maximus of Turin
Proclus, Bishop of Constantinoplus
Theodoret the Blessed, Bishop of Cyrrhus
Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna
Theophylact, Archbishop of Achrida
Anselm
Hermes Trisgistus
Joachim of Flora
Thomas Hobbes
Francis Quarles
Sir Harry Vane
La Fontaine
Sir Isaac Newton
Daniel Defoe
Joseph Addison
Isaac Watts
Dr. Edward Young
Chevalier Ramsay
William King, Archbishop of Dublin
William Duncombe
Bishop Joseph Butler
John Donne
James Thompson
Dr. Philip Doddridge
Peter Bohler
Dr. David Hartley
Thomas Say
Samuel Johnson
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian Rennaisance philosopher
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Frederick the Great
Ferdinand Oliver Petitpiere
Henry Brooke
Dr. Andrew Kippis, writer
Mark Akenside
Immanuel Kant
Thomas Gainesborough
William Cowper
James Neckar
Dr. Joseph Priestley
Jung Stilling
John Frederick Oberlin
Alison Rutherford Cockburn
Johann Kasper Lavater
Anna Letitia Barbauld
Dr. John Prior Estlin
Samuel Parr
T. W. Goethe
Thomas Belsham
Rev. Robert Aspland
George Crabbe
Ralph Cudworth
Henry Moore
Erbury
Samuel Richardson
Bishop Rust
Pierre Cuppe, author
Hey, Cambridge professor
Letsone, philanthropist
George Walker
Jeremy White
Bishop Stillingfleet
Dr. Burnet, Master of the Charter House
William Whiston
Bishop Newton
William Law
J. Windet
R. Clark
Cooke
J. Relly
Sir George Stonehouse
W. Dudgeon
Capel Berrow
C. Charnay
Elhanan Winchester
John Murry
Ershine of Linlathen
Anne Bronte
Whittier
Robert and Elizabeth Browning
Robert Burns
Johann Schiller
Joanna Baillie
Samuel Rogers
Sir James Mackintosh
Alexander Von Humboldt
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Foster
Edna Lyall
George MacDonald
Mrs. Oliphant
James Hinton
C. Bronte
Emily Bronte
Gen. Gordon
Miss Mulock
Alexander Pope
William Wordsworth
James Montgomery
Thomas Dick
James Hogg
Robert Southey
Fredericka Bremer
Ellice Hopkins
Hesba Stretton
Florence Nightingale
F. Schlegel
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bishop Ewing of Argyll
Canon Kingsley
John F.D. Maurice
Dr. Samuel Cox
Baldwin Brown
Bishop Westcott
F. W. Robertson
Sir G. W. Cox
Andrew Jukes
Rev. Lucius R. Paige
Thomas Whittimore
J. H. Hanson
Archer Gurney
Phillips Brooks
Professor Mayor
Canon F. W. Farrar
Principal Caird, the Bishop of Meath
Dean Church
Johann A. W. Neander
Martensen
Friedrich A.G. Tholuck, German Professor
E.A. Thomas Rawson Birks, secretary to Evangelical Alliance
Erik Jakob Ekman, author
Karl Johan Nyvall, author
Peter Paul Waldenstrom
Reuss
Spener
Kristofer Jakob Bostrom, prof. of Philosophy, University of Uppsala
Johna Wilhelm Personne, Swedish Lutheran Bishop, author
Nils Ignell, pastor, author
Rev. Dr. Littledale
Rev. H. B. Wilson
Bishop Forbes of Brechin
Bishop Moorhouse of Melbourne
Dean Stanley
Rev. Prof. Challis
Archdeacon Reichel D. D.
Rev. Prof. J. B. Mayor
A.J. Beresford-Hope
Rev. T. Griffith, Prebendary of St. Paul's
Archbishop Tillotson
Richard Coppin
Gerard Winstanley
R. Stafford
Bishop Stillingfleet
Rev. Dr. Thomas Burnet
Dr. Doddridge
Archdeacon Paley
Robert Robinson
Rev. Dr. Hey, Prof. of Divinity
Dr. Cheyne
Rev. Presbendary Constable, M.A.
Rev. R. W. Dale
Rev. Edward White
Rev. Henry Allon D. D.
M. Guillaume Monad
Nathaniel Scarlett
Paul Chatfield
Helen Maria Williams
F. W. Faber
Charles Lamb
Mrs. Mary M. Sherwood
F. W. T. Schelling
Sarah Flower Adams
Walter Savage Landor
Henry Crabb Robinson
Thomas Campbell
Horace Smith
William Ellery Channing
Rev. L. Carpenter L.L.D.
F. De La Mennais
Washington Irving
Bernard Barton
Leigh Hunt
Thomas De Quincey
John Pierpont
John Wilson
Prof. Espy
Dr. T. Southwood Smith
Lord Byron
Lady Byron
H. H. Milman
Percy B. Shelley
Felicia Dorothea Hemans
William Cullen Bryant
William Whewell
J. G. Percival
Horace Mann
Hartley Coleridge
T. C. Lockhart
Gerritt Smith
Theophilus Parsons
Thomas Hood
McDonald Clarke
Dr. F Hase, professor of theology
Chauncey Townsend
Frederika Bremer
Johann Peter Lange
Dr. C. F. Kling
Lydia Maria Child
William Leggell
Thomas Guthrie
Bishop Ewing
George Sand
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Mary Bowitt
T. P. Nichol L.L.D.
James Marlineau
Hans Christian Andersen
John Stuart Mill
Rev. J. C. Street
Rev. T. Latham
Emile Giradin
Elizabeth Oakes Smith
N. T. Willis
John Sterling
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
John Greenleaf Whittier
Rev. L. C. Marvin
Abel C. Thomas
Christian Edward Baumstark
Caroline E. S. Norton
John R. Thompson
Ross Winans
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Alfred Tennyson
Richard Milnes
Prof. J. S. Blackie
John R. Beard D.D.
Edward Clodd
Mary Carpenter
Theodore Parker
Margaret Fuller Ossoli
J. S. Taylor
George Moore
Martin Tupper
Charles Sumner
Horace Greeley
W. M. Thackery
J. H. Scholten
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Norman MacLeod D.D.
Charles Mackay
Charles Dickens
Lewis Carroll
Henry Ward Beecher
J. Ross Browne
Olympia Brown
Mary Livermore
Thomas Starr King
George Pullman
Sylvester Judd
Rev. C. A. Bartol
Rev. Fergus Ferguson
Caroline M. Sawyer
Daniel Schenkel
Franz Delitsch
Johann Tauler
Jean De Ruysbroek
Johann Arndt
Sonner
Denk
Hetzer
Johann Wilhelm Petersen
Matthew Reuz
Johan Conrad (Christian) Dippel
John Henry Haug, Prof. at Strasburg
Dr. Ernest Christoph Hockman
Count De Marcy
Francesco Giorgi
Postel
Curione
David Joris
Campanella
George Klein-Nikolai, author
Anna Letitia Barbauld, English poet and writer
Sarah Flowers Adams, hymnist
Elisabeth Arundel Charles, hymnist, writer
Elisabeth C. Clephane, hymnist
Eliza Scudder
Alison Rutherford Cockburn, writer
Joanna Beitte, author
Mary M. Sherwood, writer
Lydia Child, writer
Caroline Norton, writer
Mary Carpenter, English philanthropist
Margaret Fuller Ossoli, writer
Caroline Sawyer, writer
Sarah G. Edgarton Mayo, writer
Francis Power Cobbe, author
Lucy Larcom, writer
Dinah Muloch Craik
Mrs. Bloomfield, writer
Mrs. E.H.J. Cleveland
Helen L. Bostwick
Julia H. Scott, writer
Fredrika Bremer, Swedish novelist
Woelner
Seebach
Steinbart
Rev. Alexander Schweizer
Rev. John Page Hoppe
Rev. G. Vance Smith D.D. Ph. D.
Bishop Colenso
Jules Francois Suisse Simon, French Statesman
George Dawson
Charles Reade
John Cooper Vail
Philip James Bailey
James Gaylord Clark
John Sare
J. A. Fronde
Acton Warburton
James Russel Lowell
Dr. R. A. Lipsins, Prof. of Theology
John Ruskin
Arther Hugh Clough
Walt Whitman
Louis Figuier, French Scientist
Charles Kingsley
J. C. Holland
Prof. E. H. Plumptre
William Howard Russell
W. R. Greg
Stopford A. Brooke, chaplain to the Queen
G. Campbell
Leopold Scheffer
Matthew Arnold
Frances Power Cobbe
J. H. Duganne
T. W. Higginson
Thomas L. Harris
George Rust
Rev. John Wallace
Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
S. Baring Gould
Lucy Larcom
Thomas Griffith
Adelaide A. Procter
Bayard Taylor
Dinah Mulock Graik
Henry James
S. A. Tipple
Quillen H. Shinn, evangelist
John Brown, M. D.
Eliza Scudder
Charles G. Ames
Joseph John Murphy
James Hinton
Mrs. E. H. J. Cleaveland
Gerald Massey
Theodore Winthrop
Alexander Smith
Albert Laighton
Jean Jugelow
Edwin Arnold
Robert Bulwer Lytton
William Morris
Rev. John Orr, Prof. Biblical Criticism
J. B. Munroe
N. C. Wilkins
Bret Harte
Rev. William Archer Butler
Elizabeth C. Clephane
Rev. Albert Reville D. D.
Dr. S. Fillmore Bennett
Robert Ingersoll
William Wallace
John Hay
Helen Bostwick
Robert Buchaman
Hattie Griswold
Sharon Turner
Seba Smith
Julia H. Kinney Scott
Joaquin Miller
Principle Caird
The Cary Sisters
M. B. Smedley
Paul Janet
Rev. John Monsell L.L.D.
Thomas Aird
Ronald Cower
J. Fenimore Cooper
Victor Hugo
Appleton Oaksith
Sir James Stephen
Thomas Carlyle
Allan Cunningham
John Young L.L.D
Thomas Erskine of Lintathen
Schleiermacher
Bengel
Eberhard
Lavater
J Macleod Campbell, Dean of Wells
Canon Wilberforce
Pastor Oberlin
Bishop Ken
Thomas Allin
Hannah Whitall Smith, Evangelist and Bible teacher
Clara Barton
Christopher Sauer (Sower, Saur), Bible Publisher
Charles Chauncy
Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence
William Sargent,
Thomas Potter, illiterate farmer who built a chapel in 1760 in Good Luck, New Jersey to spread Universalism.
Hosea Ballou
Christopher Marshall
George de Benneville
Marie Huber
Jane Leade
Philipp Jakob Spener
Johanna Eleonora von und zu Merlau
Abraham Lincoln
Benjamin Franklin, encouraged the first Universalist Church in Philadelphia
George Washington, defended a Universalist chaplain in his army when attacked by "Orthodox" ministers
Joseph S. Johnston, writer
Rev. Charles A. Pridgeon, President Pittsburgh Bible Institute
Rev. E. L. Clementson, theologian
John A. T. Robinson, theologian
Jacques Ellul, theologian
William Barclay, theologian and translator
Robert Short, author
A.E. Knoch, Bible student and translator
Dean Hough, pastor, writer, editor
J. Preston Eby, writer
Ray Prinzing, writer
A.E. Saxby, author
Warren Young Kimball, author
Adlai Loudy, author
John H. Paton, author
Guy Marks, author
Vladimir Gelesnoff, author
Dr. Ernest L. Martin, author
Morton Kelsey, author
Ruth Carter Stapleton, Billy Carter's sister
Walter Kunneth
Paul Althaus, theologian
Nels Ferre, theologian
Herbert Farmer, theologian
Nicolai Berdyaev, theologian
Hendrikus Berkof, theologian
H. Dodd, theologian
H. H. Farmer, theologian
Vernard Eller, professor
P. T. Forsythe, theologian
Karl Heim, theologian
John Hick, theologian
F. D. Moule, professor
T. Niles, church leader
Mathias Rissi, theologian
Ethelbert Stauffer, theologian
Thomas Talbott, Professor
David L. Watson, professor
Karl Barth, theologian
Madelein L Engle, author
Tom Harpur, journalist
Richard John Neuhaus
Carlton Pearson, bishop, pastor, author, singer
Robert Rutherford, pastor
Dick King, pastor
Rhett Ellis, author
Kalen Fristadt, author
Mark T. Chamberlain, author
Ernest L. Martin, author
Brian McLaren, author
Philip Gulley, author
James Mulholland, author
Robin Perry (aka Gregory MacDonald), author, editor
Boyd C. Purcell, author, counselor
Doug Frank, author, professor
Stephen Rogers, author, pastor
Adlai Loudy, author
Joseph Kirk, author
C.R. Bierbower, author
Jerry Wayne Bernard, Ph.D, Author
Mikkel Dahl, author
A.E. Knoch, author, bible publisher, founder of Concordant Publishing Concern
Martin Zender (Jeff Priddy), author
Harold Lovelace, author, speaker
Stephen Jones, author, speaker
Keith DeRose, Yale Professor
Stacy Woods, Evangelist
Elwin Roach, writer
Dora van Assen, author, speaker
Fred Hunter, singer, church leader
Benny Skinner, pastor
Charles and Paula Slagle, author and worship leaders
Jim and Susan Coran, writers, publishers
Gary Sigler, writer, speaker
Robert Torango, writer, pastor, evangelist
Elaine Cook
Lynn Hiles
Kellley Varner
Willie Hinn
Gary and Michelle Amirault, author, internet host, speakers
Mercy Aiken, missionary
Jonathan Mitchell, Bible translator
Charles M. Schultz, cartoonist (famous for Peanuts and Charlie Brown)
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Norman Grubbs, author
Peter Hiett, pastor, author
Ivan A. Rogers, pastor, author, seminary President
Julie Ferwerda, author
Jurgen Moltmann, theologian, professor, author
Jan Bonda, author
Gerald Beauchemin, author, missionary
Bob Evely, author
Heleen M. Keiser, scholar
Ilaria Ramelli, scholar
David Konstan, scholar
David Burnfield, author
Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn, catholic authors
Richard Rohr, catholic priest, author
Sharon L. Baker, author, associate professor
Doug Frank, pastor, author
Brad Jersak, author
Steve Dohse, pastor
Michael Phillips, author
Walter Williams, author, pastor
Rob Bell, author, pastor, speaker
Brian McLaren, author, speaker
Jacob Israel, author
John van Tuyl, author
James T. Harman, author
Michael Wood, author
Jackson Baer, author
T.L. Osborn, minister
Daisy Osborn, minister
Wendy Burnfield, author