Have you ever had a spirited discussion with someone and no matter what you say or no matter what questions you ask you just cannot get them to change their mind or even consider your point of view?
It happens all the time when we talk about politics, or movies, or music, or the best coffee, or the ethics of wartime invasion, or menus or the color of a carpet or the boundary line between our houses.
Sometimes, it even happens when we talk about religion.
But only sometimes right?
Right.
The last few weeks in the Christian blogosphere have been all about Rob Bell and his new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Before it even came out there was a teaser video and synopsis released by the publisher Harper Collins. A cosmic Christian kerfuffle followed (read a related post here). Then Bell did a circuit of interviews with USA Today, Good Morning America and Sojourner’s Magazine. The conflict continued. Then, oddly enough, the book was released and people started to read it. The quarrel only intensified.
What I find most interesting is that if you were Jane Q. public and did a simple Google search for Rob Bell or a review of his book you would find yourself reading a thousand different versions with a million different conclusions.
a defender of a generous orthodoxy
a misquoter and misinterpreter
I am reading Love Wins right now. For all intensive purposes I meant to have finished it by now and be posting a full review today. However, as I sat down and drank my chai latte yesterday and finished another chapter of this controversial tome on the life, death and the destiny of all humanity past, present and future, I looked out on the streets of Houston and thought,
“the last thing that needs to be posted right now is another statement about whether Bell is wrong, right, orthodox or heterodox. That’s not really what the people of this world, lost or not, really need.”
So, what am I doing instead?
Good question.
While I was volunteering with my wife in South Africa, she and I attended a gathering outside Johannesburg called Amahoro. The gathering was uplifting, encouraging, challenging and provoking. It still pokes and prods me to this day. One of the presentations that really got me going was one by Brian McLaren (cue half of you reading this stopping and saying, Ken…you little heretic you…) who exhorted all of us to consider the Reformation. McLaren posited that the Reformation was about statements, which lead to civil strife, division and hatred. What he encouraged today in the “Great Emergence” are questions. Then he outlined ten. Here are two of the questions:
8. The Future Question: What is our vision of the future? The world getting worse and worse until God destroys and replaces it? Better and better until it’s perfect? How do our views of the future affect our behavior in the present?
9. The Pluralism Question: How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions? Is Jesus the only way – and the only way to what? Can we have both a strong sense of Christian identity – and a strong sense of hospitality and love toward people of other faiths?
I think these are the two questions that Bell is dealing with in his new book. For the record I think they are good questions to be asking.
Why?
They are questions that our culture is asking. They are questions that our loved ones are seeking to answer. They are questions from people in our pews, from members on our leadership council. They are questions that challenge us. They are questions that need answering.
Now, I am a Lutheran. I am a born, baptized, raised, left for a few years, came back, university, grad school, future pastor (hopefully) and present vicar Lutheran. Why am I a Lutheran? It is not because I look back on the Lutheran confessions, forged in the time of the Reformation, and say, “You know what, they got everything right, for all time, done deal.” I am not Lutheran because we have all the right answers (although, I tend to form my understanding of life, doctrine and grace around Law & Gospel and Word & Sacrament).
I am Lutheran because at the heart of what Luther and the early reformers did was ask the right questions.
Is God bent on our destruction?
Do we have the free will to choose or reject God?
Do we participate in our own salvation? Can we earn that?
What is the role of the state in the church?
Why are the leaders of the church so immoral?
Who are the leaders of the church?
What does God’s Word really say?
Who holds the authority in the church, the pope or the congregations?
What is going when we read the Word, baptize someone or participate in the Lord’s Supper?
Good questions.
Great questions.
Important questions for their time and for our time.
Today, I believe we have other important questions to be asking.
I believe people like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and others are provoking those conversations and asking those questions. While I may not agree wholeheartedly with their conclusions, I appreciate their quest.
I am one to believe that being a Christian is not only about believing, teaching and confessing something. I do not believe that Christianity is all about dogmatic defense of doctrine. Instead, I believe it is about being restored in Christ and joining the Triune God on a relentless pursuit for the lost and going on a brave adventure to discover, and rediscover, truth, hope, peace, faith and love in Christ in this world and the next.
To that end, I pray that those who read Love Wins do not immediately and dogmatically donkey-kick against Bell and his quest. There are certainly a lot of opinions about what he actually said, and in classic Bell fashion, he was not explicitly clear with what he wrote. So, before we condemn him, praise him or question him let us join the journey and ask the tough questions that people inside and outside the church are asking already.
I know that if we do the Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13) as we hear the questions of our time, respond and rediscover the answers given from God for all time.
In the end, I think the truth may be wider than some of us are comfortable with and narrower than others would hope, but let us all decide to take the journey, ask the tough questions, relentlessly pursue the truth in God’s Word and dialogue with one another along the way.
With that, I invite all my readers to join me in a five-week dialogue and discussion about Bell’s book Love Wins. Over the next five weeks I will be diving back into Bell’s book and investigating the statements he makes, exploring the questions and asking a few of my own. There will be written posts some audio/video from my end and I pray you will send me some video responses and comments as well. My hope is that you will not only read my posts, but interact with them, post your own thoughts, read Bell’s book on your own. Most importantly I pray you engage in your own study of Scripture on the subject of heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived.
Will you join me?
Now that’s a good question.
First, a caveat: in a conversation with a friend at a pub last night I clarified that the Reformers of the 16th century were about questions, but they VERY MUCH came to conclusions and answers and then defended them wholeheartedly. However, Martin Luther especially started with issues for discussion (questions) and engaged in debates with others (Eck, Zwingli etc.) centered around questions. Certainly there were books written and published and books written against (take for example Erasmus and Luther on the bondage of the will), but at the heart of the Reformation were some engaging questions leading people to a passionate pursuit and rediscovery of Christ’s Gospel!
Also, if you are looking to join me in a study and discussion of Love Wins please contact me at recreativeblog@gmail.com.
That way I can get a grasp of the folks that are doing this with me.
And, if you happen to be in the Houston, TX area maybe we can get together to talk about it in person.
Peace.
If you’re interested, a group of us are discussing the book chapter-by-chapter on my blog.
http://www.shanebertou.com
I hope you’re as challenged by it as I have been thus far.
Great Review. the most insightful, fairest and well-thoughout I’ve read about this book that I assume I will love from the Preview. It is scary how many christians fear and condemn the very word – Universalism. Embrace it, Embrace EVeryone, Embrace Creation. Good work Playa