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A review by glendonrfrank
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
3.0
It's very weird to read a book that I've seen demonized as "heresy" and "radical leftism" from a "false prophet" only to find it's like, pretty basic orthodoxy.
Honestly, I find it pretty hard to get worked up over a small, well-meaning pastoral article written in the style of a tumblr post. Bell doesn't say anything radical in here that theologians haven't been saying since forever. He doesn't try to argue that heaven or hell don't exist, he doesn't even argue for universalism. If anything he doesn't rock the boat enough - his prose all feels pretty surface level and he never stops long enough to engage deeply with the arguments on any side. Maybe that's why people disliked this so much? Because Bell isn't really interested in fighting anyone's particular viewpoint? That feels more like an indictment of the reader than the author, to me. This isn't a manifesto or a treatise, it's just a breezy summary of a few points people have been talking about for a long, long time. It's a lovely vision of faith, but one that's been articulated better and with more depth by other authors.
Honestly, I find it pretty hard to get worked up over a small, well-meaning pastoral article written in the style of a tumblr post. Bell doesn't say anything radical in here that theologians haven't been saying since forever. He doesn't try to argue that heaven or hell don't exist, he doesn't even argue for universalism. If anything he doesn't rock the boat enough - his prose all feels pretty surface level and he never stops long enough to engage deeply with the arguments on any side. Maybe that's why people disliked this so much? Because Bell isn't really interested in fighting anyone's particular viewpoint? That feels more like an indictment of the reader than the author, to me. This isn't a manifesto or a treatise, it's just a breezy summary of a few points people have been talking about for a long, long time. It's a lovely vision of faith, but one that's been articulated better and with more depth by other authors.