Rob Bell, Philosopher
Thinking about all the drama Rob Bell is creating with his new book Love Wins and all the controversy his trailer stirred up (who does a trailer for a book?!) makes me dizzy and nauseated.
(When do you use nauseous and when do you use nauseated? Are they interchangeable?)
I was always a big Rob Bell fan. I loved simple way he presented his ideas, and the challenge he always presented to my carefully manicured Christianity.
I haven’t lost respect for him because he’s challenging mainstream evangelicals to rethink their doctrinal positions on heaven and hell. I’ve lost respect for him because he’s jumping all over the map: saying this here, then qualifying it several paragraphs or questions later. He won’t say directly what he believes.
I’ve finally come to a point in my own personal walk of Faith where I can accept that other people have different opinions of my own and still stand next to my own positions. I can, in most instances, articulate where I stand on an issue, but I don’t mind if someone brings to light a different perspective. There are certain areas where I have to say, “Well, I just don’t know.” And Rob Bell admits to doing the same thing. But he wrote a book. A book that we all seem to take as being some sort of theological gauge.
I was chatting with a friend recently about his book Velvet Elvis, which I definitely attribute some of my changed perceptive to the reading of, and she said she felt it was more of a philosophy book than a strict theological exegesis. It helps to think of it that way. Philosophers are allowed to talk in circles—or talk in what seems like circles to the rest of us, even if they claim to have it perfectly straight in their own minds.
The spinning circles of Rob Bell’s new philosophical concepts may make me dizzy, but I do believe they will change our views more than we realize.
Is Rob Bell a Universalist? Do you agree he’s talking in circles?
Filed under: 10 Minute Blogs | 4 Comments
Tags: Love Wins, Rob Bell, Universalist
Don’t know, don’t care. People are allowed to wonder out loud/write books/ask questions/answer them/not answer them/have different views. I think most of the time evangelicals care more about starting wars with each other than the people around them. I don’t know anyone who really gives a sh** about this whole Rob Bell debacle except evangelicals. Orthodox ones go off about him, and disenfranchised ones seem to love him. Non-church friends are likely to say, “Who the hell is Rob Bell?” if you bring it up. Ugh, Western Christian subculture. Forgive us, Lord, we know not what we do.
I think evangelicals get fired up about this–and have a right to–because it is challenging our belief system and concepts.
I totally agree that most people who don’t care much about religion or church wouldn’t really know who Bell is (though, they might now with all the media attention he’s gotten–he was front a page story on cnn.com). But the thing that matters is that what Bell is saying has the potential to impact how we deal with those very people who don’t even know about him. Simply reading his book, even if you don’t think you’re “ingesting” it, will impact how you think about Christianity and will drive you to ask questions. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s something we need to be aware of, otherwise it can drive us off the cliff.
And as far as Western Christian subculture goes, I’m glad we have the ability to discuss and debate things here–that we are able to use media to get the word out fast and to question century-old traditions that are bad and change them, and to keep ourselves aligned to the basics of the Gospel that have stood the test of 2000 years.
It’s not about starting wars among ourselves, it’s about keeping the fires burning, the passion we have building the kingdom of God and inviting others into that kingdom. When we debate openly and with compassion and humility we have the potential to make ourselves, our church, our religion more like what God intended. We can root out the bad, the selfish and can chase the good and the most effective.
We have to balance good theology with practical actions.
And that’s why I think it’s important that we question what Rob Bell is saying, ask which of it is Biblically true (usually good thinking and logical practices) and put into action the conclusions we come to.
Sorry to drop by unannounced, but I did want to let you know that a few of us are reading and discussing Bell’s book as a group over at my blog. I think we’ve really had some good insights thus far. Feel free to chime in if you’d like!
http://www.shanebertou.com
So, normally I’m not a fan of people hijacking my blog, but I checked yours out and the little book club you’ve started seems way cool. I don’t know if I’ll join in (maybe sometimes), but I’d definitely recommend it.