No Other Name: An Investigation Into the Destiny of the Unevangelized

by John Sanders

Book Overview

An investigation into the destiny of the unevangelized This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802806155
• ISBN13: 9780802806154
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Best book on this important subject

For all those interested in this question, this is the first book to obtain. Mr. Sanders surveys the contemporary spectrum of opinion as well as the approaches to this question throughout history. Overall, this very balanced approach is most valuable. The author has a viewpoint but is fair in describing the competing ideas. I firmly believe that it is by carefully reading the wide divergence of opinions that one makes more progress in formulating a coherent answer to a difficult question. I appreciate John Sander's high Christology and high view of the scriptures. Without this base, all opinions are outside Christianity. I have one minor issue with the author and that is his confusion regarding the doctrine of election as it relates to the working of God apart from the preaching of the word. Election is a separate issue and can fall either within the more restrictive view or the inclusive view of the destiny of the unevangelized. This critique is minor. The book deserves 5 stars for it's balance approach.

Excellent Bibliography

Regardless of your stance on the fate of the unevangelized and religious pluralism, this book provides an incredibly wide survey of literature to aid the researcher's thought on these issues (in English language sources). Especially helpful, I thought, was the extensive bibliography Sanders included for "salvation after death," or "postmortem evangelism," a topic difficult to research because of its many names and expressions. Sanders could have increased his research by going into works such as Paul Althaus's Die Letzten Dinge and others, but for most Americans who obstinately refuse to glance upon anything but English texts, he provides an indispensable resource for this topic.

Excellent Survey of Christian Views on the Unevangelized

John Sanders' "No Other Name" is a scholarly, comprehensive survey and critique, written primarily for evangelical Christians, of historically-held Christian positions on the destiny of the unevangelized. By "unevangelized" Sanders means those who never come to know or understand the Gospel message of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ before their death, for whatever reason. He includes those who are simply incapable of understanding, such as young children and the severely mentally disabled; those who have never had the Gospel presented to them, as in all indigenous peoples before missionary contact; and those who may be aware of such "buzz words" as "Jesus" but who never come to an understanding of what the Gospel message charges upon them.Sanders begins by placing the issue in context: arguing for why it even matters (for example, because of its apologetic importance - people are going to ask and Christians need to have a reply at hand) and describing the controversy it has elicited in modern times among evangelical Christians. He then proceeds to present the two extreme positions on the issue: exclusivism (which he calls restrictivism) and universalism.Restrictivism is the position that only those who come to know and understand the Gospel during their lifetimes have the opportunity to be saved (whether they actually are, of course, is based on whether they accept the message in faith). Thus by necessity, since they either do not know or do not understand, all the unevangelized are lost to "Hell" (Sanders leaves what that means out-of-scope of the discussion). In a pattern that is repeated with each position, he discusses the Scriptural and theological case for restrictivism, its proponents throughout history (for example, Augustine), and offers a critique, itself based in Scripture and theology.Universalism, in contrast, is the position that everyone is (at least eventually, perhaps after some "time" beyond death) saved. Thus the destiny of the unevangelized - in fact, everyone's destiny - is at least eventually to be united with God. Universalism is a position that evangelical Christians today would probably almost uniformly find unorthodox and heretical, but Sanders gives it a fair shake (though ultimately rejecting it - and restrictivism for that matter).After presenting these extremes, Sanders turns to what he lays out as a "wider hope". He discusses universal evangelization - the idea that God miraculously sends a messenger (angelic if not human) to all during their lifetimes, so that all have the opportunity for salvation (whether there's any empirical evidence for this empirically-testable claim is not really discussed - to my knowledge, there is little or none, despite popular evangelical "urban legends" to the contrary). He discusses eschatological evangelization - the idea that God presents the Gospel at the point of death, or after death, to those who are otherwise lost (curiously, the Catholic concept of purgatory is n

Brilliantly researched and objectivly written.

Sanders has meticulously researched each of the available views on salvation. The beauty of the book is that Sanders himself is careful not to take a stand till the last, but rather to show the evidence (Biblically, historicly, and philosophically,) for each view in question. The pure weight of evidence presented for each individual view is testimony of Sanders' honest attempt at an unbiased presentation. The strength of the presentation does not allow one Christian to look at another and say, "Your view is silly. You just haven't read your Bible." To criticize the author for a moment, I believe his decision in the end of the book to adopt a personal preference for the "wider hope views" is the book's most important downfall. It forces those who disagree with him to step back and assume his presentation is biased (which I suppose epistimically it probably is.) This mars an objective reading of what I believe to be an honest attempt at objective writing.