Factors Affecting People’s attitude to the Hope of Universal Salvation

The hope of universal salvation is the view that all people will one day be saved. A study of 573 people aged 13–86 showed that the greater the frequency of their religious practices, the more likely they were to have a decidedly positive attitude towards the hope of universal salvation. Women were more in favour of this idea than men, and people aged 60 more than those under 30. In the second study it turned out that the declared attitude of students towards the hope of universal salvation is influenced by the information transmitted to them. Subjects (N = 115) to whom two sentences from the Catechism of the Catholic Church were quoted – “God desires the salvation of all people” and “Everything is possible with God” – expressed a positive attitude to this idea considerably more often than those (N = 119) who were informed that Fr Wacław Hryniewicz, who propagates this idea in Poland, was disappointed with Benedict XVI’s statements on Christian hope.

The hope of universal salvation is the view that all people will one day be saved. A study of 573 people aged 13–86 showed that the greater the frequency of their religious practices, the more likely they were to have a decidedly positive attitude towards the hope of universal salvation. Women were more in favour of this idea than men, and people aged 60 more than those under 30. In the second study it turned out that the declared attitude of students towards the hope of universal salvation is influenced by the information transmitted to them. Subjects (N = 115) to whom two sentences from the Catechism of the Catholic Church were quoted – “God desires the salvation of all people” and “Everything is possible with God” – expressed a positive attitude to this idea considerably more often than those (N = 119) who were informed that Fr Wacław Hryniewicz, who propagates this idea in Poland, was disappointed with Benedict XVI’s statements on Christian hope.