The Heretic Origen
David Bentley Hart claims to be Orthodox, but he is a secularized modernist, and an anathematized heretic who trusts his thoughts too much. He holds to the condemned heresy of universalism, supports the modernist movement to ordain women, rejects the doctrine of the aerial toll-houses, and considers the condemned and anathematized heretic Origen to be a saint. If Origen is a saint, then Orthodox Christianity is false, because Orthodoxy has officially condemned Origen. My response here is not exhaustive.
ORIGEN IS AN ANATHEMATIZED HERETIC, NOT A SAINT
Origen’s universalism was first condemned at a synod of Alexandria (A.D. 394), a synod at Cyprus and a synod at Rome.
In 543, the Emperor Justinian condemned Origen as a heretic, issued an anathema on him, and ordered all his writings to be burned.
Origen was also condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council of 553.
(Note: Universalists sometimes claim that the Fifth Ecumenical Council did not condemn universalism. But according to Dr. Michael McClymond, author of "The Devil's Redemption", Origen was named in the condemnation, and the universalist contention that universalism was not condemned is not the way the tradition was received. He states that for centuries Origen's view of universal salvation was rejected. See Dr. McClymond's interview with Alisa Childers).
The Orthodox theologian Fr. Michael Pomazansky stated:
"The Church, basing itself on the word of God, acknowledges the torments of gehenna to be eternal and unending, and therefore it condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council the false teaching of the Origenists that the demons and impious people would suffer in hell only for a certain definite time, and then would be restored to their original condition of innocence (apokatastasis in Greek). The condemnation at the Universal Judgment is called in the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian the "second death" (Apoc. 20:14).
The Orthodox Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) devotes a chapter to this subject in his book "Life After Death (Chapter 8, “The restoration of all things”, pp. 273-312), and affirms that this heresy was condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council.
The Roman Catholic bishop and theologian Karl Josef von Hefele stated that Origen was in fact condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council, and that Theodore Ascidas had already pronounced a formal anathema on Origen. (Hist. Councils, Vol. iv., p. 336.).
Origen and his writings were also condemned in Canon 18 of the Fifth Lateran Council of 649. This canon calls Origen an abominable heretic. The Lateran Council of 649 was presided over by Pope Martin, and St. Maximus the Confessor put this council on the same level as the five ecumenical councils.
The Synodikon of Orthodoxy, which is recited every year on the first Sunday of Great Lent anathematizes those who hold to the doctrine of the end of torments.
The sixth session of the Seventh Ecumenical Council:
"Those who, moved by Divine zeal, always concur with the Fathers and the traditional ordinances of the Church flee from all who hold contrary opinions, as though from enemies."
From the Synodicon of the Holy Spirit:
"To all things innovated and enacted contrary to the Church tradition, teaching, and institution of the holy and ever-memorable fathers, or to anything henceforth so enacted, ANATHEMA."
Eighth proceeding of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod:
“If anyone breaks any ecclesiastical tradition, written or unwritten, let him be anathema.”
St. Vincent of Lérins:
"for Christians to declare something which they did not previously accept has never been permitted, is never permitted, and never will be permitted,—but to anathematize those who proclaim something outside of that which was accepted once and for ever, has always been a duty, is always a duty, and always will be a duty."
CONCLUSION
David Bentley Hart is an anathematized heretic who should not be permitted to receive Holy Communion, since he is not fully converted to the Orthodox Christian faith. With regard to the subject of the aerial toll-houses, I highly recommend the book, “The Departure of the Soul According to the Teaching of the Orthodox Church,” by Saint Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery.