There's this new book coming out soon by Rob Bell. If you're not familiar with him, he's a guy who likes to challenge Christians to think in new ways (at least some might describe him as such, and I'm all about and feel we need more of it) but sometimes I feel like he must enjoy smirking at the way he gets his points across more (this is just my opinion, and I've not read or listened to close to everything this guy has to say - it fits with what I've seen/read). To be sure, he's very deliberate about the way he chooses what he has to say, and I can appreciate someone who spends time thinking about not only what he has to say, but also how he wants to say it.Anyways, the book is called Love Wins (link at amazon). In certain circles, it's started quite the conversation about the afterlife and Bell's theology in general (example 1, example 2). Some commenters, with varying degrees of familiarity with the upcoming book, have said The book doesn't hit shelves until March 29th, but I'm interested in reading it for a couple of reasons.
1. There are too many books that are easy for people to read without ever having to think. If a book is talking about that which you value most, it should make you think about, not just agree with, what it has to say.
2. Rob Bell's delivery/arrogance/confidence/whatever else you want to call it places him in some sort of magical middle ground that seems to make a startlingly high percentage of people who encounter what he has to say think about what they really believe about the potentially outrageous things Bell has just said (and while sometimes this results in polarization in his crowd, few of those, at least in my experience, just find themselves in one crowd or the other... for the most part, they've thought about what they believe, thought about what Bell's said, and decided from there... That result of the conversations he initiates I happen to really like...).
3. The folks who may have spoken out of turn (let's face it, it's not always wise to make sweeping comments about hot topic issues and notable personalities without reading everything that's been said, i.e. the whole forthcoming book) about what's allegedly in Bell's book seem to be motivated by a desire that resonates with me: not only are there are things that are right and things that are wrong, but those things are worth talking about and in many ways demand that we talk about them (or at least if we're not talking about them, we have something to say about them that's rooted in more than what we've heard).
So here's the part where I'm going to pretend that I'm somebody famous and people will actually do this... Heh... I like to entertain myself...
Here's a "book trailer" for Love Wins. After I've read the book, I'll be better prepared to say whether or not it's a solid intro or not, but for now, it's what's there.
While I don't always agree with his answers, I'm often intrigued by many of Rob Bell's questions. This book is no exception.
If you're interested in reading this book, talking about these things, thinking about these things, let me know. I'm going to read the book and be thinking about it, but the more people who help that along with conversation, the better.
