Books on the unevangelized

Survey of the main alternatives

• John Sanders No Other Name, 1992 covers seven views held in church history. Each chapter covers the biblical and theological support, and who has held each view in history. Available from Eerdmans and from Wipf and Stock.
• Religious Perspectives on Religious Diversity, Robert McKim editor. Brill 2016.  Christian, Muslim, and Jewish authors discuss versions of restrictivisim, inclusivism, and postmortem opportunity in their religious tradition.
• Veli-Matt Karkkainen, An Introduction to the Theology of Religions (IVP)

Multi views books:

• Four Views on Salvation edited by Okholm and Phillips (Zondervan) includes chapters and responses by Hick, Pinnock, McGrath (who was not very informed about the debate at the time and does not lay out a clear position) and Doug Geivett/Gary Phillips. Geivett/Phillips use middle knowledge to argue for the view William Lane Craig has made known: every single person who dies unevangelized would not have put faith in Jesus under any circumstances because they all suffer from transworld anti-Christian depravity. This amounts, in my opinion, to a form of restrictivism but they attempt to hide this fact and only make it clear on the very last page of their response to the criticisms (270)
• What About Those Who’ve Never Heard? Three Views, ed. Sanders. Includes Sanders’ defense of inclusivism, Gabriel Fackre on post mortem evangelism and Nash (critique of the other two views in favor of restrictivism)

Restrictivism. Most of the books I know of do not actually make a case for the restrictivist position. Rather, they simply criticize evangelical forms of inclusivism and postmortem evangelization. The fullest articulation and defense of restrictivism to date remains the chapter in Sanders’s No Other Name.

• Millard Erickson How Shall They Be Saved?: the Destiny of Those Who do not Hear of Jesus.  Grand       Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1996

• Robert Peterson and Christopher Morgan eds. Faith Comes By Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism (IVP, 2007?)
• Daniel Strange, The Possibility of Salvation Among the Unevangelized (Paternoster, 2001) is his doctoral dissertation which is an elaboration and critique of Pinnock’s view. Though he affirms restrictivism he does not make a case for it.
• Ronald Nash, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Zondervan) offers only a critique of pluralism and inclusvism. In my What About Those Who’ve Never Heard? The editors at IVP begged Nash to provide an account and defense of restrictivism but he vehemently refused because it would make restsrictivism just one view alongside others.
•  Crockett ,William and Sigountos, James eds. Through No Fault of Their Own. Grand     Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1991
• Ramesh Richard, The Population of Heaven: a Biblical Response to the Inclusivist Position on Who Will be Saved (Moody1994)

Inclusivism

• A Wideness in God’s Mercy, Pinnock.
• Sanders, “Inclusivism” in What About Those Who’ve Never Heard? Edited by Sanders.
• Sanders, “Christian Approaches to the Salvation of Non-Christians” in Religious Perspectives on Religious Diversity, Robert McKim editor. Brill 2016.
• Terrance Tiessen, Who can be Saved? (IVP, 2004). Tiessen is an irenic Calvinist (a friend of mine, in fact) who lays out a very qualified form of inclusivism (though he does not use that term). He argues for “accessibilism” in which God makes salvation a real possibility for each individual (p. 230). The second part of the book is a discussion of the relationship between Christianity and other religions. Does God use the other religions?

Postmortem opportunity

James Bielby, Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death. InterVarsity Press, 2021.

Universalism

• von Balthasar, Dare We Hope that All Men be Saved? Ingatius Press, 1988 affirms a “qualified universalism of hope” option.
• Gregory MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist (Wipf and Stock)
• Universal Salvation? The Current Debate eds. Robin Parry and  Chris Partridge (Paternoster, 2003) contains three chapters by Talbot defending universalism followed by chapters interacting with Talbot’s chapters by I. Howard marshall, Jerry Walls Eric Reitan, John Sanders, Daniel Strange, etc (some of these other authors defend universalism).

• John Kroner and Eric Reitan, God’s Final Victory, philosophers who argue for universal salvation.
• Baker, Sharon. Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You’ve Been Taught about God’s Wrath and Judgment (Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox, 2010
• Bradley, Heath. Flames of Love: Hell and Universal Salvation (Cascade Books, 2012).

• David Krieger, The New Universalism, Wipf and Stock (I do not know anything about this one.)
• Jan Bonda, The One Purpose of God (Eerdmans, 1993) mostly deals with Romans from a Reformed perspective.