Rob Bell has started an online firestorm over the question of hell, said Erik Eckholm in The New York Times. A “Christian celebrity” and the pastor of the 10,000-member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., Bell, 40, has roiled many in the traditional evangelical community with the message of his new best seller, Love Wins. In the book, which is outselling the pope’s at Amazon.com, Bell calls “misguided and toxic” the idea that only faithful Christians will spend forever in heaven while the rest of humanity spends eternity in hell. For Bell, the idea that Gandhi may be suffering in perpetuity somewhere seems absurd.
Bell’s critics are fighting back, using Twitter, Facebook, and podcasts of panel discussions to quash his proposition, said Cathy Lynn Grossman in USA Today. “This is a massive tragedy by any measure,” says Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who’s helped lead the counteroffensive. To traditional evangelicals—what Bell labels “the E-club”—Love Wins flirts dangerously with the heresy of “universalism,” the idea that all people can be saved, regardless of whether they embrace Jesus’ teachings. Bell, for his part, says he’s merely asking questions every Christian should ask. “I think that grace and love always rattle people,” he says. “Jesus spoke of the renewal of all things. He said, ‘I have sheep who are not of this flock.’ Through him, extraordinary things are happening in the world. If saying that gets you banned from the E-club, so be it.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - May 5, 2024Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - annoying noises, gag orders, and more
-
5 highly educational cartoons about student protestsCartoons Artists take on apolitical camping, the National Guard, and more
-
French schools and the scourge of teenage violenceTalking Point Gabriel Attal announces 'bold' intervention to tackle rise in violent incidents
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”