Beautiful. A challenging read but such a needed reminder of "God's bigger imagination" like you said. Also sidenote: thank you for using "she" pronouns. I'm not sure how long you've been doing that but it means a lot to me as someone who recently was able to come back to the church through a relationship with a feminine God. It's surprisingly difficult to find much theology about the feminine God, so thank you!
Oh there is SO MUCH thealogy of the Divine Feminine! Start with reading work from the late 20th century by thealogians like Valerie Saving, Carol P Christ, and others:
Thank you for sharing. I guess I should clarify theology seems to be out there but bible translations that literally use the word "she" are not. The closest I've found is the New Egalitarian Version that de-emphasizes gender on the whole. If you know of any others let me know!
This sounds like a very ripe opportunity indeed! We just need volunteers to team up, use existing digital tools to create this version of the Bible, and make it widely available for free. Let’s turn this to-do item into Ta-Da!
Thank you Brian. As a person who tries, and does not always succeed, to not judge people I appreciate your take on this. My personal belief includes a 'life review ' when we pass over. I think Christianity turned this concept into The Judgement, meaning we would all be judged by God as worthy or unworthy. Life Review however is not judgement, it is ourselves replying our own life without a speck of rationalization, experiencing not only our own feelings and emotions but all the ripples that our actions have created. We experience our creations as others have experienced them as a direct result of our actions or inaction as the case may be. No judgement, straight up experience of what your life created.ight be good, might be bad, most of us probably have a mix of both. So, in my view of things there is no escaping fear and horror if that is what your creations amount to. God doesn't need to judge us, and if She did She would say "I love you, I always have. Too bad you made a lot of mistakes this time, but there is always next time around to make amends. Let's hope you can get it right."
Thank you, Brian! I am an ordained Unitarian Universalist clergywoman, in dialogues with people of many faiths and no faith, recently including my nephew who’s studying for the ministry at Liberty University. Your work here articulates a version of traditional Universalist theology/cosmology that works for me, and I’ve sent this article to my nephew in hopes he’ll read and we can converse. Thank you for bridging these complexities in such an accessible way for people coming from many places. Bless you!
This moved me deeply, as even at my most religiously brainwashed, I couldn’t conceive of a Hell that was static punishment for all eternity. What good would that do for anyone, even those who think they want that for their enemies? Thank you!
"4. Only the true self will enter God’s love—the ego will be destroyed.
Paul speaks of someone who “will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). The soul will return to love, but their words and deeds are burned up, unfit for eternity. We all have a true self, a God-self—but many of us spend our lives constructing false identities out of domination rather than love. For some who have devoted their whole lives to cruelty and dehumanization, their souls have shrunk so small there is barely a sliver of humanity left. Most of what they call “themselves” is pure ego, there’s nothing human about it, and every bit of it will be burned up and destroyed—there is no place for it in God’s future.
For the deeply inhuman, whose personality was consumed by death, even the smallest buried flicker of God-likeness will be rescued and returned to love. Before anyone became a monster, they were a child who wanted to be loved.
I believe there is a part of all of us that can be saved. There may not be much left—but even that smoldering wick is enough for God to refuse to give up.”
I believe that what you are suggesting here is true Brian, and I am fairly sure I have heard this argument made by Thomas Merton as well. My only caveat is that I remain uncertain whether any of these awful people, Trump, Miller, Epstein, Netenyahu, Putin, Hitler, Stalin etc have even that flicker of the true self left at all. I think that there may well be some who suffer of death of nothingness, that may seem an eternity for them with their fragile egos. If they do have a smidgin and God saves them then God has forgiven me so I will trust in God for that.
Thank you for this, Brian. After reading Hell Bent, I was really comfortable leaving the theology of hell behind. But after reading some of the horrible things Epstein and others did in those files… It was the first time in a long time that part of me HOPED for hell to be real again. Thank you for reminding us to turn back to love, even (and maybe especially) in the face of horrors and atrocities.
The theological gymnastics required to reconcile a 'God of Love' with the reality of an Epstein suggests a simpler, if colder, alternative: Maybe the Problem of Evil isn’t a divine mystery to be solved, but a biological and sociological reality.
If there is no God, the silence of the heavens isn't a complex choice; it’s just silence. In that framework, 'Hell' isn’t a post-mortem destination or a restorative process. It’s simply the horrific things humans do to one another when our social systems fail.
While it lacks the comfort of a cosmic 'making things right,' a naturalist view offers a stark clarity: Justice isn't a divine guarantee waiting in the wings. It is entirely a human responsibility. If we want it, we have to build it ourselves, because (maybe) there is no one else coming to settle the score.
Thanks for thinking so deeply about this. I couldn't resist asking about it when I saw you, and I'm grateful to keep learning from you and others, my friend.
Beautiful. A challenging read but such a needed reminder of "God's bigger imagination" like you said. Also sidenote: thank you for using "she" pronouns. I'm not sure how long you've been doing that but it means a lot to me as someone who recently was able to come back to the church through a relationship with a feminine God. It's surprisingly difficult to find much theology about the feminine God, so thank you!
Oh there is SO MUCH thealogy of the Divine Feminine! Start with reading work from the late 20th century by thealogians like Valerie Saving, Carol P Christ, and others:
https://www.beacon.org/Diving-Deep-Surfacing-Revised-3rd-Edition-P68.aspx - whole worlds open up! Then browse Unitarian Universalist congregations and thealogies… I’m excited for your discoveries to come!
Thank you for sharing. I guess I should clarify theology seems to be out there but bible translations that literally use the word "she" are not. The closest I've found is the New Egalitarian Version that de-emphasizes gender on the whole. If you know of any others let me know!
This sounds like a very ripe opportunity indeed! We just need volunteers to team up, use existing digital tools to create this version of the Bible, and make it widely available for free. Let’s turn this to-do item into Ta-Da!
Thank you Brian. As a person who tries, and does not always succeed, to not judge people I appreciate your take on this. My personal belief includes a 'life review ' when we pass over. I think Christianity turned this concept into The Judgement, meaning we would all be judged by God as worthy or unworthy. Life Review however is not judgement, it is ourselves replying our own life without a speck of rationalization, experiencing not only our own feelings and emotions but all the ripples that our actions have created. We experience our creations as others have experienced them as a direct result of our actions or inaction as the case may be. No judgement, straight up experience of what your life created.ight be good, might be bad, most of us probably have a mix of both. So, in my view of things there is no escaping fear and horror if that is what your creations amount to. God doesn't need to judge us, and if She did She would say "I love you, I always have. Too bad you made a lot of mistakes this time, but there is always next time around to make amends. Let's hope you can get it right."
Thank you, Brian! I am an ordained Unitarian Universalist clergywoman, in dialogues with people of many faiths and no faith, recently including my nephew who’s studying for the ministry at Liberty University. Your work here articulates a version of traditional Universalist theology/cosmology that works for me, and I’ve sent this article to my nephew in hopes he’ll read and we can converse. Thank you for bridging these complexities in such an accessible way for people coming from many places. Bless you!
This moved me deeply, as even at my most religiously brainwashed, I couldn’t conceive of a Hell that was static punishment for all eternity. What good would that do for anyone, even those who think they want that for their enemies? Thank you!
"4. Only the true self will enter God’s love—the ego will be destroyed.
Paul speaks of someone who “will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). The soul will return to love, but their words and deeds are burned up, unfit for eternity. We all have a true self, a God-self—but many of us spend our lives constructing false identities out of domination rather than love. For some who have devoted their whole lives to cruelty and dehumanization, their souls have shrunk so small there is barely a sliver of humanity left. Most of what they call “themselves” is pure ego, there’s nothing human about it, and every bit of it will be burned up and destroyed—there is no place for it in God’s future.
For the deeply inhuman, whose personality was consumed by death, even the smallest buried flicker of God-likeness will be rescued and returned to love. Before anyone became a monster, they were a child who wanted to be loved.
I believe there is a part of all of us that can be saved. There may not be much left—but even that smoldering wick is enough for God to refuse to give up.”
I believe that what you are suggesting here is true Brian, and I am fairly sure I have heard this argument made by Thomas Merton as well. My only caveat is that I remain uncertain whether any of these awful people, Trump, Miller, Epstein, Netenyahu, Putin, Hitler, Stalin etc have even that flicker of the true self left at all. I think that there may well be some who suffer of death of nothingness, that may seem an eternity for them with their fragile egos. If they do have a smidgin and God saves them then God has forgiven me so I will trust in God for that.
Thank you for this.
Thanks for sharing your writing. It gave me a lot to think about.
Amen to that, Brian..!
Thank you for this, Brian. After reading Hell Bent, I was really comfortable leaving the theology of hell behind. But after reading some of the horrible things Epstein and others did in those files… It was the first time in a long time that part of me HOPED for hell to be real again. Thank you for reminding us to turn back to love, even (and maybe especially) in the face of horrors and atrocities.
The theological gymnastics required to reconcile a 'God of Love' with the reality of an Epstein suggests a simpler, if colder, alternative: Maybe the Problem of Evil isn’t a divine mystery to be solved, but a biological and sociological reality.
If there is no God, the silence of the heavens isn't a complex choice; it’s just silence. In that framework, 'Hell' isn’t a post-mortem destination or a restorative process. It’s simply the horrific things humans do to one another when our social systems fail.
While it lacks the comfort of a cosmic 'making things right,' a naturalist view offers a stark clarity: Justice isn't a divine guarantee waiting in the wings. It is entirely a human responsibility. If we want it, we have to build it ourselves, because (maybe) there is no one else coming to settle the score.
Thanks for thinking so deeply about this. I couldn't resist asking about it when I saw you, and I'm grateful to keep learning from you and others, my friend.
looks like maybe not… yet?
Amen
beautiful, redemptive, radical
Thank you for this. I wish I had more words but thank you for helping my anger find a place to rest in hope for true justice.
Thankyou Brian! This is and exceptional read
I needed this today. Thank you