Much has been said and written about Rob Bells Love wins.

Much has been said about heaven
much has been written about Hell
far less has been written about love

I have read much, but far from all. But more important I have read the book. And everything else Rob Bell has ever published.

it is simple

It is not an academic work
He does not claim to scholarly work himself through these subjects
And I am fine with that. There are countless amounts of academic work on these topics.Did I like the book? I will get to that.

As always when I read I change. My beliefs change. When I converse the same thing, I change.

Christians who read Rob Bell are of course full of generosity towards him and very open minded. They wrestle with what he has to say before they open there mouth. They walk a mile in his shoes before they talk. They show love and extent grace despite coming to different conclusions than mister Bell. They help him in the task of breaking down walls and showing those close and those far away how much Christians really love and serve each other. And how Jesus is the most important thing in everything we are and everything we say and do.

The last paragraph is unfortunately not true.
This is not how Christians are known to engage in differences, and once again this has proven to be true. Christians can’t handle disagreeing in a loving and respectful manner.

dogma
theory
theology

is more important than

love
family
friendship
relationship
tribe

I want to ask; is Rob Bell a Christian?

Is he in or out? On much I have read he is out.

Is what we believe about heaven and Hell an essential?

Well now to the theology represented in the book.

Rob Bell has taken much of his thinking and theology from the Eastern Church. Here the view of salvation, Heaven, Hell, God, man is very different than Western Christianity represented by all reformed Christianity and what most western Christians view as true and biblical.

Eastern theology is very much influenced by

The disciple of Jesus

John the apostle

his disciple Polycarp and Polycarp’s disciple

Ireneus

He was a pastor and father

Life is important, relationship is important. Salvation is understood in a therapeutically way. Not in a judicial system.

God is first and foremost

A Father

A Mother

A Sheppard who guides his people through history

Punishment is seen as a process of growth and healing rather than being cut off and punished as in the judicial understanding of punishment: you get what you deserve!

Western thinking has a long love affair with theologians who were judges and lawyers. One of the first and most influential is Tertullian.

He was a lawyer.

For him God is first and foremost a judge. Jesus place in history is explained by a court room and in a courtroom. He took my punishment on him and all the other language we use to explain who God is and Jesus is.

The bible is first and foremost a book of law.

And then Calvin of course

A lawyer

a soldier

The same.

When the Judge and the father clashes in Christianity the Judge always wins. Calvin always wins. He was a soldier. He fought for what was true. He kills for what is true in his eyes. Calvin won.

Maybe there are other ways of explaining Jesus and God?

Maybe they are also found in the bible? Maybe they also go way back in the Christian tradition?

Maybe they are forgotten?

Maybe Calvin was wrong on some issues?

Maybe Bell is wrong on some issues?

But what really matters in the end?

love?

Jesus?

So, after all the fuss and accusation, what does Rob Bell actually say about heaven and hell? Interestingly, he locates them in the same place. Using the story of the prodigal son, he notes that the older brother was invited to and is pretty much at the party. But his resentment made him seethe with anger at the festivities. He couldn’t enjoy the taste of heaven, because he’d grown up with a twisted view of duty, of work, of his family and friends. He didn’t know how to love, because he hadn’t put his selfish self to death.

To paraphrase and precis his whole argument:

If you don’t die to self, then heaven will be hell.

The rest of the book? Well it’s a great read. He simplifies difficult concepts brilliantly. I recommend it. I support the thinking behind it. It is truly Christian, It is soundly biblical and I hope many will read it and find a renewed hope, faith and love. And maybe find and see a repainted picture of Jesus.

Let me end with Rob Bells conclusion.

Love is what God is,
love is why Jesus came,
and love is why he continues to come,
year after year to person after person.

love is what I want to leave you with.
May you experience this vast,
expansive, infinite, indestructible love
that has been yours all along.
May you discover that this love is as wide
as the sky and as small as the cracks in
your heart no one else knows about.
And may you know,
deep in your bones,
that loves wins.

Read more about the forgotten Christianity in my post: The lost Christianity

Kester Brewin says the following in his letter to the church in North America : if you want to find the Kingdom of Heaven, you’re going to have to abandon your pursuit of paradise. In other words, the purified utopian ideal is dangerous; God is found in the dirt of the incarnation. It certainly could be a letter to us in the North too..

Peter Rollins brings his Insurrection Tour to a close in Brooklyn, New York. As always he asks some good questions and brings ideas and thoughts to the table that might be worth contemplating for a minute or two.

Listen to him here.

or watch him below;

Peter Rollins at Baylor University from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.

John Howard Yoder has played an important part in influencing my thinking in various ways. Here he has interesting things to say about Democracy.

Yoder is best remembered for his reflections on Christian ethics. Rejecting the assumption that human history is driven by coercive power, Yoder argued that it was rather God — working in, with, and through the nonviolent, non-resistant community of disciples of Jesus — who has been the ultimate force in human affairs. If the Christian church in the past made alliances with political rulers, it was because it had lost confidence in this truth.

He called the arrangement whereby the state and the church each supported the goals of the other Constantinianism, and he regarded it as a dangerous and constant temptation. Yoder argued that Jesus himself rejected this temptation, even to the point of dying a horrible and cruel death. Resurrecting Jesus from the dead was, in this view, God’s way of vindicating Christ’s unwavering obedience.

Me, myself and I

I ended off my previous post in this series with a mild criticism on how the western church often views itself as a group of individuals satisfying ones own individual needs by the product offered and packaged as Church. It is a clear tendency in the western Church that members dissatisfied with the theology, the leader, the child ministry or what ever it can be leaves quite easily. This even if one has been in the church for many years and would seemingly have close friendships and relationships with the larger church body. I would argue that this is a clear example of what happens when the old systems of modernism collide with the postmodern mind.

One reason for this is the foundation the western church rests on. It has often been perceived as a package that is consumed and crafted to meet my individual need, when it doesn’t meet my need, I either need the leader to create a new package for me that meets my need or leave and find a package that meets my individual need somewhere else. Was this what Church was meant to be? Or was it meant to be something else? Something where theology, politics, power or anything else would  draw us towards each other,not alienate us from each other, a place where the differences could flourish and be lived out in a fruitful manner. Where family is more important than individuality, where the organic is more important that keeping up a safe status quo?

The reality of a postmodern world

In the wake of modernity the postmodern world responds in contradictory ways. Fragmentation and polarization on the one hand and syncretism on the other. This condition might seem unhealthy, and while there is much that is not healthy about our postmodern context, there are profound creative and redemptive possibilities in this seemingly contradictory ideas.

The word contradiction and paradox are two words that the modern mind find offensive and even dangerous. Post-moderns living in the aftermath of a world by a desire to control and dominate (very much also in the church) are often delighted by notions that defy this easy categorization.

Our postmodern world is a world of profound fragmentation. After modernity this is understandable. Within modernity a select few held power. Now everything is up for grabs.

Balkanization

One word used to describe this is balkanization. This means to divied one place, one idea, or one group of people from each other for any number of reasons. Life is being balkanized. It is fragmenting. The themes of progress and optimism that unified and under-girded the modern project have largely evaporated, and we have been left adrift in a disjointed world where meaning and value is constantly being contested by people willing to fight for it till there death.

Is it any surprise that new kings of churches are emerging out of the husks of these former structures that are struggling to keep pace and adapt to this strange new world?

In a world of balkanization and atomization we are desperate for space to engage, create, and respond free from the power games that are being played in so many circles around us. In a shrinking globalized world we are desperate to learn what it means to be in relationship to the other- to the alien in our midst (or perhaps we are the alien in the midst) for the purpose of dialogue and engagement.

How can we live in this new reality

We desperately need to discover, recover, learn, and live out the ancient Christian practice of hospitality, which is the postmodern means of evangelism.

We do not need more Christian leaders building church empires at a time when our culture is dismantling other such structure around us. We must deconstruct ourselves in love.

A postmodern context requires leaders who instead of seeking to dominate the environment are willing to become environmentalists- people who create spaces that allow Gods people to have the possibility of an encounter with God and other people. Such an environment allows people to discover a future together  under God instead of reducing them to mere pawns serving some large agenda that comes from outside themselves.

Can Postmodernism save us?

Can postmodernism save us? In many ways I believe it can. It can save us from the institution, it can save us from materialism. It can save us from individualism. It can save us from being arrogant. It can save us from being powerful.

In my next post I will ask a question that deals with syncretism. Does everything go? Is it possible in a christian context to blend many different “whatever it could be”?

Read part 1 here; Postmodernity, should we be afraid?

Read part 2 here ; Modernity, the cost?

What is the cost of progress?

Modern travel, modern educational systems, modern medicine, and modern food production are a few examples of the ways in which humanity’s lot has improved through the progress achieved during this era.

However as the twentieth century waned a collective questioning of the assumptions of modernity emerged in many quarters, not least in my quarter.

According to Tim Keel and N. T Wright two theologians I draw on in this article, The very notion of progress itself is questioned. They and others ask; how is it defined and measured, and by whom?

What is the cost of progress?

In the modern story, reality is that which is observable, measurable and repeatable. Everything that is available, accessible and verifiable to the five senses.

No wonder that anything beyond the senses was ignored. Materialism was birthed and the matters of the soul were ignored or reinterpreted within this tightly controlled version of reality.

Spiritual life?

When the life of the spirit is ignored, people will seek to feed the hunger of a neglected soul with the only nourishment available. In my context: the consumptive acquisition of material goods. If spiritually engaged, it is often reduced and turned into on more commodity to be packaged, sold, and consumed like so many other aspects of modern life. In a incredibly individualistic way.

The western church

The western church has been existing within this framework of reality. Church shopping has become the defining metaphor for deciding which community of faith satisfies ones needs. My needs.

Churches rarely possess a corporate understanding of themselves as a people but rather as one more collection of individuals choosing to be together based on similar preferences (music,preaching,programs etc.)

How does the postmodern world respond in the wake of modernity?

read part 3 here; Can postmodernity save us?

Read part 1 here; Postmodernity, should we be afraid?