"I plead for the acceptance of this central truth as the great hope of the gospel, that the victory of Jesus Christ must be final and complete, i.e., that nothing can impair the power of his cross and passion to save the entire human race."--Thomas Allin In 1885, the Rev. Thomas Allin waded into the debates on final punishment that had plagued the Church of England during the nineteenth century. His contribution was a radical book that sought to demonstrate that reason, tradition, and Scripture all affirm that God will one day redeem his whole creation through Jesus Christ. Universal salvation, he maintained, was the only way to coherently affirm the victory of God over evil. Allin's book is one of the first detailed attempts to show that global salvation was not some modern heresy, but an ancient Christian tradition with a serious claim to catholicity and orthodoxy. Turning the tables on the critics, Allin boldly argued that universalism, far from being dangerous, was actually needed to defend the orthodox faith of the church. This new edition of Allin's classic work includes an introduction that sets it in its historical context, the addition of subtitles to help readers navigate the argument, and numerous explanatory annotations.

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Does our close relationship with the sentient beings who give us so much emotional and physical comfort indicate they have immortal souls? Preece (emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier U.) goes far beyond this simple question in his collection of debates, subtitled Joseph Hamilton's Animal Futurity (1877) Together with the Debate among Karkeek, Spooner, and Manthorp on "The Future Existence of the Brute Creation" in The Veterinarian 1839-1840. The issue is charged not only because human deliberation over animal immortality is also human deliberation about human immortality, but also because claiming strictly human immortality is a type of chauvinism that extends to deny non-human animals the respect they deserve. In the series of debates and Hamilton's text reprinted here, both sides skate along the edge of philosophy and theology while making points in the good old eclectic Victorian way with citations from a range of disciplines. Annotation :2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).