universalist

Universalist refers to a person or doctrine associated with universalism. In religious contexts, a universalist is someone who believes that universal salvation or universal divine love will eventually extend to all beings.

In Christianity, universalism holds that all souls will be saved and that eternal damnation is not final. The movement gained organized form in America during the 18th and 19th centuries, with notable advocates such as Hosea Ballou and John Murray. The Universalist Church of America was established in the 19th century and later merged with the American Unitarian Association in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association, a liberal religious community that continues to explore a range of theologies, humanism, and pluralism.

In philosophy and ethics, universalism denotes the view that some notions—such as moral rights, truths, or duties—are universally applicable to all people regardless of context. Moral universalism argues that certain moral judgments or rules hold across cultures, though interpretations and applications vary.

The term may also be used more broadly to describe advocacy for universal human rights, global cosmopolitanism, or the universal application of certain principles across humanity. Etymologically, universalist derives from Latin universalis, meaning “of the whole.”