"The proclamation of the Church must make allowance for this freedom of grace. Apokatastasis Panton? No, for a grace which automatically would ultimately have to embrace each and every one would certainly not be free grace. It surely would not be God's grace. But would it be God's free grace if we could absolutely deny that it could do that? Has Christ been sacrified only for our sins? Has he not ... been sacrificed for the whole world? ... [Thus] the freedom of grace is preserved on both these sides."_Karl Barth
In this quote Barth does not restrict himself to universalism but leaves us with room to hope that ALL will be saved. I think Barth's direction is good. Even if Scripture merits the concept of an eternal "hell," there should be nothing in us which is willing to settle for that. We should still strive to imagine salvation as universal. We should not settle for thinking that some will just have to go... God does not believe in collateral damage!
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