Oh, I think Damian has a very interesting advance, but he's killing himself methodologically...the problem with holding that there is no personal merit in salvation is that answering how salvation is arrived at becomes problematic. The Calvinist says it's predetermined, making God appear to be responsible for a great deal of suffering that doesn't seem to have a real point. But the universalist, recognized or not, has precisely the same problem, unless he posits that suffering is more or less necessary and then the question of why begin with the crudely material that invites additional suffering is in play. Why not a gentler method?
No one has a truly satisfactory answer, though his polar notion seems mistaken to me for a number of reasons.
You?