Eternal punishment, universal salvation and pragmatic theology in Leibniz

Abstract

In this chapter I will consider Leibniz’s attitude towards the doctrines of eternal punishment and universal salvation. The question of Leibniz’s views on this issue was the subject of a debate around half a century after Leibniz’s death between Johann August Eberhard, who argued in his New Apology for Socrates (1772) that Leibniz had been a secret advocate of universal salvation, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who argued in his Leibniz on Eternal Punishment (1773) that he adhered to the doctrine of eternal damnation.