After all the prepublication stir about it, I was eager to read Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. I had never read anything by him before nor had I seen his popular NOOMA videos that have been all the rage for quite some time. So I went into Love Wins with little preconceptions about what it might be. Overall, I liked the book very much. I’m glad it has ignited a fire in the church world because it brings a topic to front and center in the Evangelical world that deserves to be considered and discussed. That topic has to do with the implications of the shared view of all believers that God is Love.
The biggest controversy surrounding the book before its publication had to do with whether or not Bell ascribes to Universalism. He is not a Universalist. That is clear, unless people think him a liar. He has plainly denied being a Universalist in interviews he has done and reaffirms that position in the book. He writes, “So will those who have said no to God’s love in this life continue to say no in the next? Love demands freedom, and freedom provides that possibility.” Then again, a few pages later, “Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires.”
The problem many have with Love Wins are the unanswered questions Bell raises. The flesh hungers for definitive answers and the Western World thrives on it. But, alas, our God has been and always will remain Mystery in many regards. That can be maddening to some. Hope isn’t equivalent to dogma and Bell posits nothing more or less than what many through church history have seen as a well-founded hope for mankind’s ultimate future. While most of the Evangelical church world has largely gone into frenzy over his views, the Eastern Orthodox church would surely wonder what the big deal is about it. The theology of Love Wins finds its roots all the way back to the Cappadocian Fathers in church history.
I don’t believe the book is going to immediately change the minds of many who are predisposed to resist such a hope but it will encourage those who already have an underlying sense of hope about the subject. Love Wins will certainly continue to stir controversy, not because it lacks biblical support but because it flies in the face of the traditional views that many have held. At times, it becomes easy for any of us to confuse the difference between sacred doctrine and sacred cows. This book certainly will attack some of our sacred cows and they've never been known to die quietly.
The strength of the book is that Bell writes with simplicity in the way that the average reader can understand. While I’ve said that I don’t think the book will immediately change the minds of opponents, I do think it may plant the seed of hope in many. His consistent focus on the ontological nature of God as being love may well set open minded readers on a trajectory toward positive implications of that reality.
I think he also did a good job in showing how the kingdom of God is among us now as opposed to simply an eventual escape for those who believe. His now-and-not-yet approach to heaven hopefully will awaken the minds of many evangelicals whose tradition has left little room for the social implications of the gospel in the here-and-now. Many of us come from traditions that focus so heavily on the afterlife that the idea of living out kingdom life in ways that confront systemic evil now hasn’t even been on our radar.
Bell doesn’t deny hell’s existence in the slightest. In fact, he makes it clear that choosing to try to function independently and not live experientially in His love is the essence of hell both now and post-mortem. To Bell, rescuing people from hell isn’t something that only delivers them from an eternal fate but sets them free from its reality right now.
I do wish that the book had addressed the matter of the importance of the Trinity as a starting point for our theology. While Bell has done a good job describing the love of the Father, I think his message might have found greater strength had he discussed the perichoretic aspect of our Triune God. To understand the relational aspect of the Trinity and to see how that sharing that relationship with all humanity has been the divine plan from eternity past may have helped clarify why Bell has such hope for mankind’s ultimate future.
I understand that the book is about the ultimate fate of every living person but also would have like to have seen a greater focus on how living in the “Circle of Life” today makes a difference in the world. As already noted, Bell is not a Universalist but one of my critiques against Universalism in general is its focus on who goes to heaven and hell to the exclusion of much said about what it means to participate in the life of the Father, Son and Spirit now.
I end as I began my thoughts about the book. I appreciate Bell’s willingness to weather the storm that he surely must have known Love Wins would bring and am happy that he has brought this topic to the front of the ecclesiastical room so that it must be discussed. Perhaps many will see that there is another option than being a Universalist who dogmatically insists that everybody goes to heaven or a Calvinist who emphatically insists that only the minority elect go there. This book reminds the reader that there is tension in the Scripture on this subject but encourages us toward the reality that “love hopes all things.” The implication of that fact may lead us to differing viewpoints but must leave us all with the conclusion that love certainly wins because God is Agape and Agape cannot lose.
