Phil suggested in today's Spiritual Seed that we open a discussion of universalism based on this quotation from Justin (100?-180?) who was martyred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (d. 180) :

"Christ is the first-born of God, his Logos, in whom all people share. That is what we have learned and what we bear witness to . . . All who have lived in accordance with the Logos are Christians, even if they have been reckoned atheists, as amongst the Greeks Socrates, Heraclitus and the like."
- Justin, "Apology" -

I find that amazing statement very close to my own faith. I also find it corresponds very closely to the declaration of Paul in today's Epistle from Phil. 2:5-11.

Never before in history have we have such an opportunity as we have now to observe and be in close contact with all other religious traditions in all their variety. Never before have we been able to see the extent to which the Logos of God has been and is at work in those traditions as in our own. The more we have this contact, the more we shall realize how much we have in common. What Paul wrote in Phil. 2:10-11 is an 'end of history" vision. We can now see the possibility of it occurring during this new millennium, although perhaps not in our lifetime.

Two contemporary authors have made exceptional effort to bring this reality to our attention. I recommend their most recent works: Karen Armstrong's *The Fight For God* and *Islam.* and the late Wilfred Cantwell Smith's *What Is Scripture?*

How do you feel about this early Christian martyr's conviction and how it relates to our own time and place in this global village? Consider, if you will, how little Justin may have known about other traditions outside of the Mediterranean basin; and compare that to the information we have today about the scriptures and faiths of other ordinary human beings like ourselves.

Thanks for starting this one off, John. It's one of my favorite topics, accounting for what I like to call implicit faith.

That quote by Justin expresses an intuition that was strong in the early Church: namely the Logos (Word) who became incarnate in Jesus Christ pre-dated the existence of the historical Christ and has always been at work influencing the formation of God's creation. This includes all who lived before Christ, and all who have lived since but who have not known the Gospel. It even includes those who have rejected explicit faith in Christ for whatever reason, but who continue to lead lives of goodness and love.

The early Christian missionaries called this influence of the Logos the proto-evangelium or pre-evangelization, and considered it important in preparing the ground for the reception of the seeds of explicit faith that they were sowing. In the 20th Century, the Catholic theologian, Karl Rahner, S.J., further explicated this idea in his teaching about "anonymous Christians."

Obviously, this understanding finds friction when bumping up against teachings which emphasize salvation only for those who have come to an explicit, born-again faith in Jesus Christ. Such a view was not shared by the early Christians, however--not even by Paul, as you noted.

What do others think of this?

I so resonate with the thoughts shared and the sentiments expressed here in this thread! but have written so much on this, in these fora and elsewhere, that I can't think of much else to add (not that I eschew redundancy as my essays submitted to this forum, today, reveal).

This is evocative, to be sure:

quote:

Consider, if you will, how little Justin may have known about other traditions outside of the Mediterranean basin; and compare that to the information we have today about the scriptures and faiths of other ordinary human beings like ourselves.

It requires our depthful deliberation and prayerful meditation on the Logos and on the Holy Spirit. To think that Justin's inclusivism and St. Paul's teachings about the Unknown God are only so slowly sinking into our traditions may be disheartening. To think that these thoughts could have even occurred to them is downright inspirational!

Thanks, John.

pax,
jb