The Last Drop of Divine Mercy?

Latin Scholasticism and the Alternative to Universalism

DELIVERED BY

RYAN HURD

A FREE ZOOM LECTURE + Q&A

Date

Thursday, September 4, 2025

LOCATION

Zoom

TIME

7:00pm ET

In Latin scholasticism and especially following Augustine, scholastic masters commonly held an alternative to universalism: rather than claiming that Hell was temporally finite (universalism properly speaking), they lessened its intensity in order to do full justice – as they judged the matter – to the mercy of God.

This lecture considers this common opinion, particularly as handled by Lombard in his Sentences (IV Sent d 46) and then Thomas as a representative commentator within this tradition. It especially focuses on the issue of divine mercy, and how this was understood as requiring some lessening of hell, even when such a lessening must be explained under the conditions (or even assumptions) imposed by the catholic faith. For the scholastic masters, if one cannot–for reasons of orthodoxy or otherwise–hold that hell is not perpetual, then one must hold that hell, even for the extremely evil, is softened, on pains of denying that God is merciful.

Jordan Daniel Wood will serve as a respondent for this lecture.

WHAT ARE FACULTY LECTURES?

Davenant Faculty Lectures are free, public lectures hosted monthly via Zoom throughout the academic year. They aim to showcase the scholarly expertise of our Davenant Hall faculty, and to provide a bank of high-quality lectures freely available online. Lectures are recorded, with both video and audio being made available after the event. To access past lectures, visit our YouTube or podcast archives.

Schedule

7:00-8:00 Pm ET:

LECTURE: “The Last Drop of Divine Mercy?” by Ryan Hurd

8:00-8:30 Pm ET:

Response

8:30-9:00 Pm ET:

Moderated Discussion

Our Speaker

Ryan M. Hurd

Phd candidate, Theologische Universiteit Kampen

Ryan M. Hurd is a Thomist theologian whose focus is on doctrine of God, especially the divine names and trinitarian theology. More recently, he has been especially concerned to develop the interplay between high-scholastic theology proper and holy Scripture, and has been working on Maimonides and Jewish/Muslim principles of interpreting sacred texts, particularly when involving God.

Our Respondent

Jordan Daniel Wood

Jordan Daniel Wood is Assistant Professor of Theology at Belmont University, in Nashville, TN. He’s the author of The Whole Mystery of Christ: Creation as Incarnation in Maximus Confessor (Notre Dame Press, 2022), and is nearing completion of the first complete English translation of Maximus’s letters. He lives outside of Nashville with his lovely wife and four daughters.