Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1651 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Synopsis
We know there's something more. We sense it, we feel it, and we want it. But how do we find it - a spirituality that stands up to the questions of an honest, searching mind? "This book is for those who need a fresh take on Jesus and what it means for us to live the kind of life he teaches us to live," writes Rob Bell. "This pursuit of Jesus is leading us backward as much as forward...I am learning that what seems brand new is often just the discovery of something that has been there all along - it just got lost somewhere and it needs to be picked up, dusted off, and reclaimed." "We have to test everything," writes Bell. "Do that to this book. Don't swallow it uncritically. Think about it. Wrestle with it. Just because I'm a Christian and I'm trying to articulate a Christian world view doesn't mean I've got it nailed. I'm contributing to the discussion. God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?" Velvet Elvis offers original and refreshingly personal perspectives on what Christianity is really about.

Customer Reviews

A book to restore your sanity
I bought this book without realising what a cult Christian book it had been, based on an Amazon recommendation. Once I started reading it I could not put it down. Somehow Rob Bell manages to write some very profound ideas in a light easy to read format. What he says makes incredible sense, but he challenges us all to question both what he writes and what is taught to us as 'God's word'. The basis for this is not that he doubts the Bible, but that firstly since we always read a translation there is a degree of human interpretation, and secondly anybody teaching from the Bible brings their own personal interpretation, and so can never say that they are teaching God's word.
For those frustrated by the black and white simplicity of today's conservative evangelical Christianity, this book will restore your sanity that you can be Christian and use your brain, and that to question what you are taught is good not bad. Rob Bell has a infectious faith that is real and engaged with the world of today.
Read this book once as a light read, return to it again and digest it at a deeper level and then pass it on to others who can also be encouraged by it.

Best avoided
2 good things and a plethora of bad things:
Good thing #1: Rob Bell is an excellent communicator, and is very easy to read.
Good thing #2: He has some interesting Jewish/Greek background information that sheds new light on some familiar Biblical passages.
Bad thing #1: He has no idea what the Christian gospel is. Or more likely, doesn't like it. "This is what we are all dying for - something that demands we step up and become better, more focussed people. Something that calls out the greatness that we hope is somewhere inside of us." (p169) In other words, salvation is found in being good people. This is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. It's a disasterous liberal falacy.
Bad thing #2: Actually #1 is bad enough not to need a #2. But here's another example anyway: "Heaven is full of people whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live..." (p146) The guy is a heretic. And mixes truth with utter falsehood, like the worst kind of false teachers. Avoid like the plague.

Take him very seriously...
...when he says you should read this book critically. I have a hard time recommending this book. I found it frustrating, because Rob veers wildly from wonderfully insightful to deeply misguided and misleading. It worries me that he would so casually throw out some of the observations he makes in this book, because he's a figurehead to many Christians who aren't inclined to approach critically anything that fits their preconceptions, and I doubt there's much in here to challenge anyone of that particular mindset. There are parts of this book which manage to even come across as if Rob were not a Christian at all, and I dread to think of the impact it could have on the developing faith of one of the many teens he's popular with.

If you have set everything about your faith rigidly in place a good while ago, you could really have something to gain from reading this book, if you are able to approach it with an open mind. Try not to allow recognition of how flawed some of the ideas in the book are to get in the way of the genuine, timely insight shown elsewhere.

If, however, you've yet to have a long, hard look at what you believe, I would urge you to look elsewhere. The last thing you need is something easy to swallow and utterly worthless - and unfortunately, there is much in here that fits the description.