He's a Yale professor so I expect that he doesn't tend to make "bad" arguments. It's funny too how such highly regarded scholars as David Bentley Hart and Ilaria Ramelli make the same bad argument. Other scholars may disagree with them but they do not question their credentials or accuse them of making "bad" arguments. * * *
I have said Ilaria Ramelli was quoted as making a "bad argument" right here on CF more than once. Someone quoted Ramelli as saying "Origen spoke of 'after eternal life' many times. in Origen's commentary on the book of John." I bought the digital edition $30.00 +/-. In that book Origen mentioned "after eternal life" one time and it had absolutely nothing to do with the salvation of men.
Here is a quote from Ramelli who I refer to as the high priestess of UR.
"But even the
aiónes will come to an end, Origen tells us: “After
aiónios life a leap will take place and all will pass from the aeons to the Father, who is
beyond aiónios life. For Christ is Life, but the Father, who is ‘greater than Christ,’ is greater than life” (
Comm. in Io 13.3; quoted in Ramelli, p. 160)."
Sometimes Eternity Ain’t Forever: Aiónios and the Universalist Hope
And here is what Origen actually said.
Origen Commentary On The Gospel Of John Book Thirteen
[1]
(18) For, as there, the bridegroom leaps upon souls that are more noble-natured and divine, called mountains, and skips upon the inferior ones called hills, so here the fountain that appears in the one who drinks of the water that Jesus gives leaps into eternal life.
(19) And after eternal life,
perhaps it [the fountain v.18] will also leap into the Father who is beyond eternal life. For Christ is life; but he who is greater than Christ is greater than life.20
[2] Pg. 23
Contrary to the assertion by UR high priestess Ilaria Ramelli and her loyal followers, here is the one and only time Origen mentions “after eternal life.”
Note the context, Origen is not talking about the fate of believers he is talking about the well of water, John 4:14. Origen is saying after the well of water springs into eternal life perhaps, not for certain, it [the well of water] springs into the Father because the Father is beyond eternal life.
Ramelli also says "aionios" never means eternal, everlasting, for ever. Here is how Origen describes eternal life.
......
(59) He [Heracleon] is not wrong, however, when he says that
the water that the Savior gives is of his spirit and power.[John 4:14]
(60) And he has explained the statement, “But he shall not thirst forever,” as follows with these very words:
For the life he gives is eternal and never perishes, as, indeed, does the first life which comes from the well; the life he gives remains. For the grace and the gift of our Savior is not to be taken away, nor is it consumed, nor does it perish, when one partakes of it.
[1] Origen. (1993).
Commentary on the Gospel according to John Books 13–32. (T. P. Halton, Ed., R. E. Heine, Trans.) (Vol. 89, pp. 67–69). Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
[2] Origen. (1993).
Commentary on the Gospel according to John Books 13–32. (T. P. Halton, Ed., R. E. Heine, Trans.) (Vol. 89, pp. 72–73). Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
Eternal life *never perishes, twice, *remains, *is not taken away and *is not consumed. That is certainly eternal to me.
