Read this book on the recommendation of a friend. Bell is controversial in some circles, but I didn't see anything heretical about his book. I found it to be a refreshing look at Christianity because he doesn't try to give you answers or "rules" or doctrine, but just asks endless questions. He posits answers to those questions, but at least the way I've interpreted it, he leaves it up to you to decide what "truth" you will have faith it. I definitely think I will reread it because it is a bit of an exhausting read: Bell throws out question after question for a while without pause. Good food for thought.
challenging hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

Review pending (probably will have some stuff up [early?] next year). Writes in an interesting way, which I why I gave it two stars (and not less), but it's mostly because he just asks a lot of rhetorical questions. He just doesn't interpret/apply Scripture well. Hard pass.

This is a quick read/listen but it packs a punch. If you are in the wake of a faith shift this is a great book to meet you where you are. I grew up most of my evangelical life being told to run away from Bell’s writings. Now that I am dealing with the traumatic fall out of Evangelicalism, his writings have been a balm. If you are experiencing guilt or shame from beliefs you used to espouse, especially those centered on hellfire and fear tactics, hear this from the final chapter.

“Love frees us to embrace all of our history, the history in which all things are being made new.”
challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

What is hell? A place with fire and torture? Satan's realm? A state of being? Where do our ideas of Hell come from? What does the Bible say about it? Does eternal punishment bring God glory? If someone's knocking on The Door, would a loving God say "Sorry, too late. If you had been here earlier, or, believed the correct thing, I could've done something?"
These are the types of questions this books explores, and while I liked the overall message of this book, Bell's writing style is very distracting haha.
fast-paced
challenging inspiring reflective fast-paced

Where to start with this one..... it's hard for me to decide whether I truly enjoyed this read or not. The writing was a bit strange, written and spaced as if it were poetry but none of it is written as such. For example:

Rob likes to write like this.
To add a tone and pauses to the text as if it were spoken, maybe? But in book format, it can be a little annoying. It just keeps going on.

And on.
And on. 

You begin to notice how fast you're reading the book because a good portion of it is white space. It's 200 pages, but it feels like 100 with the way you're flipping through them. Then you realize, "holy crap! I can finish this book in one sitting!".

Before you know it, you're done.

The end.


Feels more like I'm reading a string of text messages from a good friend who's had some kind of religious revelation and wants to tell me all about it. 
On top of that, I'm a bit disappointed how little Rob defended his beliefs. It was more like throwing thoughts and ideas out, giving a verse here and there (more than half the time, without the whole verse number, just the book and the chapter), and then moving on to the next train of thought, which was not always easy to follow. I was hoping for something more in-depth. Much, much more in depth. It feels like a lot of jumping to conclusions. A lot of it can only really be taken at face value, at least I feel that way, without much information to support your view aside from picked out verses which may or may not have a different context than what you are using it for. But I think that's where the value of the book comes in.

It's a conversation starter! A dip into the shallow end of the pool before diving in. An introduction to the very complex and hard-to-ask questions that he presents in the book. It makes you question, and therefore, sets you out on a journey to figure these things out for yourself- at least, that is the value I got from it. While I didn't agree with everything he said, there were some things that did have an impact on the way I thought about life and how Christians should go about living. I think that's something I'll carry with me always. There's also a list of other good theological/spiritual reads in the back (which I WILL be adding to my TBR), and even a short list of important websites in the back with which you can donate or help out with certain causes (that is relevant to the book, I promise). 

All-in-all,  while it wasn't the most compelling read, and I feel it was much too "bare minimum" when discussing a topic like "the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived", it had some wisdom that has stuck with me, some interesting points to make, and was the start of something deeper, which Rob Bell outlined in the introduction as at least one of his goals. So, well done, Mr. Bell.

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It was interesting to me how this book is literally laid out as a sermon. It is literally typed up as multiple pastors type their sermons...same spacing, same repeating the same, same using multiple scriptures to make the same point.

I am currently a member of a nondenominational church but was raised Lutheran. Some of what Bell says does not align with my personal beliefs, but I think this is an amazing message that the church as a whole needs to heed.

A personally momentous book for me, whatever I may think of its exact contents and beliefs now. I'll leave you with just this quote:

“Some communities don't permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most. Lots of people have voiced a concern, expressed a doubt, or raised a question, only to be told by their family, church, friends, or tribe: "We don't discuss those things here."

I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the book of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with...a question.”