Love Wins

I have been wanting to join the discussion about Rob Bell's latest controversial book, Love Wins, for the past week. I have yet to discover a good solid chunk of time to collect and post my thoughts, but I will try to get a few down now and perhaps finish later. :-) An article in WORLD magazine piqued my curiosity about this book due to Bell's controversial take on eternity and specifically, eternal judgement (in my teenage years I watched a few NOOMA videos that Bell put out and was captivated by his creativity expressing Biblical truths, and so I have somewhat followed his progression to popular pastor and author...read and enjoyed Velvet Elvis. Anyway, all that to say, I've enjoyed Bell's work in the past and was surprised to discover that his latest work was stirring up a firestorm of controversy and that the blog world was going nuts. Aaron treated me to a day of reading and relaxation at Barnes and Noble for Mother's Day, and I decided to read Love Wins there. It was an easy read, and one that I mostly enjoyed...except I just felt a little bit confused and almost uneasy....like, it all "sounded" good, but something was just off and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I mentioned my feelings to Barie, and she and Keith just finished reading it and both posted about it
Barie's Post
Keith's Post
....and Keith also referred me to another great blog post about it.....Kevin DeYoung's Post

After reading all of these posts and reviews I realized that I had fallen easy prey to Bell's skillful and creative way of communicating his beliefs. I felt a bit sheepish, I must say, since I have a minor in Biblical Studies and think that I have a pretty good grasp on the gospel and general Bible knowledge, to have read the entire book and not really be exactly sure what was off, until reading other reviews. I think I need a second read to go back and really study the texts he brings up in context, but I do feel that the above reviews covered that well, and Keith references several other reviews in his post that also extensively cover the problems with Bell's liberal and "creative" use and interpretations of scriptures.

If you have read Love Wins, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm especially interested to hear what a reader thinks that has previously enjoyed Bell and didn't know about the controversy, and just picked up the book to read it at face value. I think if you don't go in with your guard up and your brain ready to question Bell's many seemingly innocent questions, it is easy to get pulled into his wayward thinking and warped theological thesis (in my opinion).