In Death on a Friday Afternoon, Richard John Neuhaus argues that we may hope that in the end all will be saved. A reader writes to ask whether Neuhaus would say that even those who actively reject Christ are saved. (Neuahaus, by the way, is the editor of First Things magazine. He is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of New York who was formerly a Lutheran minister and social activist. For more on Neuahaus' view, see Cardinal Avery Dulles' article, "The Population of Hell," in First Things.) Here's a preliminary answer.

To begin, Neuhaus draws a distinction between hoping that something is true and affirming that it is true. For example, everyone hopes that he himself will be saved--in fact Catholics are commanded to do so and not to despair of their salvation--yet one sins by presumption if one affirms that one will in fact be saved. Neuhaus, therefore, does not believe that we can affirm as a matter of faith that everyone will be saved. On the other hand, he also makes it clear that by hope he means something much stronger than desire. For example, this writer desires that he could fly like Superman. But given the practical impossibility, it is useless to hope for this power. Hope, according to Neuhaus, is something in between affirmation and desire. It is, in his words, "faith directed toward the future." He takes this definition in part from Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." In this writer's view, it is in Neuhaus' strong definition of hope combined with other statements he makes about the universality of God's salvific plan that lead him quite close to universalism, i.e., the affirmation that all are saved. Universalism contradicts a number of statements of various Popes, Church councils, catechisms, and, it would appear, the Bible.

Now, as to the specific issue of whether Neuhaus would say that we can hope that even those who actively reject Christ will be saved, the answer is a qualified no. Even Neuhaus would affirm that those who actively and definitively reject Christ cannot be saved. However, Neuhaus would be open to the possibility that in ways known only to God, everyone may have the opportunity to know Christ. Perhaps at the moment of death, for example, everyone has the opportunity to encounter the Risen Lord in his glory. Who, upon encountering the Risen Christ in his majesty, would remain unrepentant and hard-hearted? It's a rhetorical question; perhaps some or even many people would still reject the Lord, out of an insane spite or pride. But Neuhaus makes clear his own belief that in the end all will accept Christ and all will be saved. He cites a number of passages in St. Paul's letters for support. For example, "Every knee shall bend and every tongue proclaim, to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord." Thus, Neuhaus would not affirm that those who reject Christ will be saved, but he would question whether, in the end, anyone will still reject Christ since Scripture seems to indicate that in the end all will accept Christ.