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A review by kcoover
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
3.0
I could say that I read 198 pages of a mind-bending Q & A & Q book. If Love Wins were a movie, it would be Inception.
Great script. Lots of confusion. And there’s never-ending speculation about how it ends.
* Does Bell deny the existence of hell? Eh, kind of, not really.
* Does Bell assert that Jesus is the only way to heaven? Well... yeah.
* Is Bell a universalist? Eh... yes and no. That’s a loaded question that requires explanation and is never explained quite clearly (to me anyway).
Bell’s book is thought-provoking and engaging enough to warrant 3 stars but to me, it’s not a book that will stand the test of time as a reference. It’s a book for the here and now, to engage this generation of post-modernists. We love asking questions but just as much, I think we also demand answers. It’s why people believe in evolution or creationism or the Big Bang or Darwinism or Calvinism or a whole host of theories they believe best explain (or provide answers to) the whys and hows.
Bell raises lots of questions. He provides few answers. But the few answers he does provide provoke more questions that he doesn’t even bring up. He’s mastered the art of the Socratic method so well, it’s as if he sat directly under Socrates’ teaching.
This. Frustrates. Me. I don’t mind questions as long as I get some answers. And I want some of those answers to be final.
There are lots of things I like about Bell’s books, things that may frustrate a lot of people. For example,
sometimes he writes
like
this. It’s almost poetic,
the way he tries to keep his paragraphs
short,
his sentences
short,
and if you just want to read straight prose,
it can get very frustrating.
Bell is an artist. But he also has a way with words. He can describe images that come alive with such detail that the reader can easily picture the description. Bell’s prose, as a result, is engaging for me to read.
Bell invites his readers into a discussion, which I don’t mind because I’m looking for answers too. I’m just disappointed when I read 198 pages and put a book down that’s filled with more notes and questions than when I walked in. I’m not a pastor or seminary-educated; I’m just a layperson just trying to navigate my way around Scripture and documented church history.
And by the way, Bell offers no notes.
No footnotes at the bottom of a page.
No notes at the end of the book.
No citations for any of his English translations from the Greek or Hebrew languages.
No cited sources for any assertions that aren’t common knowledge.
The best Bell offers is a Further Reading section, which is probably where he got a lot of his ideas and inspiration from.
So Bell’s aim, as I understand it, is to simply introduce readers to a centuries-old discussion about heaven and hell, along with (as the book’s tagline claims) the fate of every person who ever lived. The following is a chapter-by-chapter summary of Bell's book.
Chapter 1: Questions about heaven and hell that are set-up for the rest of the book.
Chapter 2: Heaven is a place on earth. God will eventually redeem and restore this broken world.
Chapter 3: Bell says Gehenna was really the city dump in Jesus' day. Not a spiritual place of eternal torment. Bell says people can still reject God in the afterlife but leaves the door open for eventual repentance. He introduces an idea similar to purgatory in Catholicism. Then he says everyone will eventually be reconciled to God.
Chapter 4: Bell asks: Does God get what God wants? What is it that God wants? "'God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim. 2)." Bell says contradicts himself in this chapter by saying that yes, some people believe God gets what He wants through eventual universal reconciliation and restoration but that God's love allows for the freedom to reject him if someone wishes to do so. He adds that people don't need to believe in the traditional doctrine of hell to be a Christian and that people can assume there's a chance for repentance in the future.
Chapter 5: Bell tells his readers that Jesus dying on the cross and rising again the third day was a very beautiful thing. Don't mar this beauty with nasty talk of eternal exclusivity via the traditional view of hell.
Chapter 6: Bell says that (since Paul says that) Jesus was present in the rock that Moses struck to give water to the Israelities, so Jesus is present in anywhere or anything. He also puts forward the odd idea of reverse universalism which posits that Jesus is present in all paths (ie, Jesus can be Mohammad for Muslims, Vishnu for Hindus, or nirvana for Buddhists).
Chapter 7: Using the template of the parable of the prodigal son (or the two sons), Bell says that we will all be at a party/celebration (heaven) and we can choose to exhibit negative attitudes and vices (hell) during the party if we want to. We can reject the Father's love.
Chapter 8: Bell reminds his readers that people can miss out on rewards, celebrations, and opportunities and that love wins.
Great script. Lots of confusion. And there’s never-ending speculation about how it ends.
* Does Bell deny the existence of hell? Eh, kind of, not really.
* Does Bell assert that Jesus is the only way to heaven? Well... yeah.
* Is Bell a universalist? Eh... yes and no. That’s a loaded question that requires explanation and is never explained quite clearly (to me anyway).
Bell’s book is thought-provoking and engaging enough to warrant 3 stars but to me, it’s not a book that will stand the test of time as a reference. It’s a book for the here and now, to engage this generation of post-modernists. We love asking questions but just as much, I think we also demand answers. It’s why people believe in evolution or creationism or the Big Bang or Darwinism or Calvinism or a whole host of theories they believe best explain (or provide answers to) the whys and hows.
Bell raises lots of questions. He provides few answers. But the few answers he does provide provoke more questions that he doesn’t even bring up. He’s mastered the art of the Socratic method so well, it’s as if he sat directly under Socrates’ teaching.
This. Frustrates. Me. I don’t mind questions as long as I get some answers. And I want some of those answers to be final.
There are lots of things I like about Bell’s books, things that may frustrate a lot of people. For example,
sometimes he writes
like
this. It’s almost poetic,
the way he tries to keep his paragraphs
short,
his sentences
short,
and if you just want to read straight prose,
it can get very frustrating.
Bell is an artist. But he also has a way with words. He can describe images that come alive with such detail that the reader can easily picture the description. Bell’s prose, as a result, is engaging for me to read.
Bell invites his readers into a discussion, which I don’t mind because I’m looking for answers too. I’m just disappointed when I read 198 pages and put a book down that’s filled with more notes and questions than when I walked in. I’m not a pastor or seminary-educated; I’m just a layperson just trying to navigate my way around Scripture and documented church history.
And by the way, Bell offers no notes.
No footnotes at the bottom of a page.
No notes at the end of the book.
No citations for any of his English translations from the Greek or Hebrew languages.
No cited sources for any assertions that aren’t common knowledge.
The best Bell offers is a Further Reading section, which is probably where he got a lot of his ideas and inspiration from.
So Bell’s aim, as I understand it, is to simply introduce readers to a centuries-old discussion about heaven and hell, along with (as the book’s tagline claims) the fate of every person who ever lived. The following is a chapter-by-chapter summary of Bell's book.
Spoiler
Preface: Raises more questions than it answers, book has no notes, footnotes, endnotes, or bibliography. Further reading doesn't cut it.Chapter 1: Questions about heaven and hell that are set-up for the rest of the book.
Chapter 2: Heaven is a place on earth. God will eventually redeem and restore this broken world.
Chapter 3: Bell says Gehenna was really the city dump in Jesus' day. Not a spiritual place of eternal torment. Bell says people can still reject God in the afterlife but leaves the door open for eventual repentance. He introduces an idea similar to purgatory in Catholicism. Then he says everyone will eventually be reconciled to God.
Chapter 4: Bell asks: Does God get what God wants? What is it that God wants? "'God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim. 2)." Bell says contradicts himself in this chapter by saying that yes, some people believe God gets what He wants through eventual universal reconciliation and restoration but that God's love allows for the freedom to reject him if someone wishes to do so. He adds that people don't need to believe in the traditional doctrine of hell to be a Christian and that people can assume there's a chance for repentance in the future.
Chapter 5: Bell tells his readers that Jesus dying on the cross and rising again the third day was a very beautiful thing. Don't mar this beauty with nasty talk of eternal exclusivity via the traditional view of hell.
Chapter 6: Bell says that (since Paul says that) Jesus was present in the rock that Moses struck to give water to the Israelities, so Jesus is present in anywhere or anything. He also puts forward the odd idea of reverse universalism which posits that Jesus is present in all paths (ie, Jesus can be Mohammad for Muslims, Vishnu for Hindus, or nirvana for Buddhists).
Chapter 7: Using the template of the parable of the prodigal son (or the two sons), Bell says that we will all be at a party/celebration (heaven) and we can choose to exhibit negative attitudes and vices (hell) during the party if we want to. We can reject the Father's love.
Chapter 8: Bell reminds his readers that people can miss out on rewards, celebrations, and opportunities and that love wins.