I’ve been reading a two hundred year old book this afternoon, and I keep finding passages that sound as fresh and reasonable and relevant today as they must have sounded back in 1805. Here’s one such passage, which still sounds relevant after all these years:

The origin of sin has, among Christians in general, been very easily accounted for; but in a way, I must confess, that never gave me any satisfaction, since I came to think for myself on subjects of this nature. A short chimerical story of the bard, Milton, has given perfect satisfaction to millions, respecting the introduction of moral evil into the moral system which we occupy….

This passage comes from one of the founding documents of Universalism, Hosea Ballou’s Treatise on Atonement. And, sadly, two hundred years after Ballou wrote this passage, the bad theology of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” remains deeply ingrained in our culture. If you’re a religious liberal in 2005, you inevitably wind up having conversations with people who are quite convinced that Milton’s account of evil is, in fact, the only and correct account — even though you know perfectly well that while Milton’s book is great literature, it is not good theology. So, religious liberals, it is worth your while to review Ballou’s scathing and hilarious review of Milton’s book at the beginning of the second chapter of the Treatise on Atonement,which concludes with Ballou saying:

So, after all our journeying to heaven after a sinning angel, and after pursuing him to hell, and from hell to earth, we have not yet answered the question, viz., What is the origin of sin? We have only shown, that the way in which this question has been generally solved, is without foundation.

I’ll be talking more on this subject in my sermon this Sunday, so come on down and find out more.