010 THE REVELATION (Come Sunday)

This episode considers the life and spiritual vision of the Rev. Carlton Pearson, subject of a popular This American Life episode as well as the recent Netflix bio-pic Come Sunday. When Rev. Pearson hears God reveal to him a potentially heretical view by way of a special revelation—universal salvation (everyone goes to heaven, and there is no hell)—he risks losing his congregation and jeopardizing his spot as a rising Christian star. How would people know whether God revealed new information by revelation? Along the way we talk about racial division in church, the pros and cons of revelation as a mode of spiritual discourse, and the reasonability of hell.