The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VI. Dorner—Destructionist Theory Gaining in Approval

Prof. ISAAK AUGUST DORNER (1809-1884), yet another renowned Lutheran theologian, was educated at Tübingen, then traveled in Holland and England. He was successively professor of theology at Tübingen (1838), Kiel (1839), Königsberg (1843), Bonn (1847), Göttingen (1853), and Berlin (1862). Dorner took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical discussion of his time, stressing justification by faith and the authority of Scripture. His last treatise was his System of Christian Theology (1881). CFF2 595.4

However, his most noted work was the History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ (1859)doubtless the most learned discussion of the theme ever undertaken. Significantly, he presses on the persistent freedom of the will in the hypothesis of final extinction. In his comment on the spread of the “destruction ist” postulate, he refers to the fact that the CFF2 595.5

“third [destruction] theory seems now to meet increasing approval,... the hypothesis of the annihilation of the wicked, which likewise thinks it can attain categorical statement respecting the question of persons.” ³⁶ CFF2 596.1