OK, so this is a delay of nearly three years, but after reviewing this thread for a completely unrelated reason...

I've now read the exchange between John Stott and David Edwards in Essentials (see below) and I think it is a tad strong to say Stott 'defends' the annihilationist position - he advances it very tentatively and reluctantly. Tentatively, it seems to me, because he is not convinced in his own mind, and reluctantly, because he doesn't want to break the evangelical consensus.

Well I guess we live in times when the evangelical consenus has been blown apart, although this in itself doesn't seem to be reason to accept any particular doctrine. In the wider context and longer time frame of our current age, hellfire and damnation aren't very fashionable, but how much of this is genuine doctrinal reappraisal and how much the church following the world's liberal agenda, I'm not sure.

Co-incidentally, Helen Parry wrote an interesting piece today on carrots and sticks for the LICC's Word for the Week (which hasn't appeared online yet, but I guess it will shortly!) in which she says:

Evangelistic preaching in the past has made a lot of use of both the carrot and the stick. Hell-fire preaching is totally out of fashion these days - a gospel that is based on fear is no gospel, and a response based on fear is not a free response. On the other hand, ‘pie in the sky when you die’ is equally derided, as self-interested escapism.

Nevertheless, hell and heaven exist, and should remain factors in our planning, our daily living. That is not to say, though, that either should be the mainspring of our motivation. Sticks and carrots may be the only ways of making a donkey move. But human beings are not donkeys.

This seems to be helpful in assessing the priority of this issue, at least.

If anyone has seen the article by Francis Bridger and Graham Kings in the Church Times today, it would be interesting to hear their reactions. Despite the provocative headline - "Why Archbishop Akinola is wrong" - I'm sure their intention is to stimulate discussion and understanding, rather than to fix positions.

Click here for more about the article

I was a bit concerned by a CEN headline a few weeks ago which seemed to imply a belief in reincarnation: "Archbishop to return to life as parish priest"