"Velvet Elvis" may be a good metaphor for the book. Like any painting generally complementary of Jesus or Elvis, there may be some things worth admiring but not everyone will want to hang it their house. Rob has an engaging style of writing, flip-flopping between paragraphs and single sentences as if he were talking to you in your kitchen. His theology and style are put forth as common sense, hopeful, authentic, and reflecting his experience of the world in 21st century America.
A few quotes:
"It doesn't matter where I find it, who speaks or lives it, or what they believe, I claim and affirm the truth wherever I find it." (p80)
"...to be Christian is to do whatever it is that you do with great passion and devotion." (p84)
"Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it." (p114 quoting his therapist).
"God has an incredibly high view of people." (p134)
Particularly striking about the first quote is his use the first person singular, implicitly claiming Rob Bell the arbiter of truth. Similarly, the other quotes show the high value Rob places on self-actualization whether it is in discerning truth, work and vocation, or to become who God has made us individually to be. He does have some good things to say about the work of God in Christian communities and society - "It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to each other, really can change the world." (p164)
Rob Bell probably considers most things that would be a part of a systematic theology but it comes out rather randomly and some things just don't hang together as well as we might hope. I appreciate his sense of hopefulness but distrust his reliance on "whatever seems like truth," "feels good," or "feels right."
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