Resensie: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
Die boek Love Wins van Rob Bell, een van Amerika se gewildste evangelistiese predikers, verkondig in die gewilde boek van hom dat die einde van draai-of-braai teologie in die Christendom aangebreek het.
Hy verklaar ook dat God se liefde groter is as die hel is en niemand uiteindelik verlore sal gaan nie. Die hel is leeg, skryf Bell.
"Is Gandhi in die hel? Tog sekerlik nie," vra hy in die boek se YouTube-lokprent. En in een onderhoud sê hy 'n God wat mense vir ewig laat martel "kan nie goed wees nie".
Natuurlik lok Bell hewige teologiese teenstand hiermee uit. Maar met hierdie boek van Bell spreek hy ook heelwat Christene aan, wat al lank ongemaklik voel oor die antieke beskrywings van die hel. Seker daarom dat hierdie boek so 'n groot verkoper was.
Hierdie boek was in so 'n mate gewild dat dit binne dae 'n topverkoper op amazon.com was – waarskynlik die mees opspraakwekkende boek van populêre teologie in 2011. Hiermee saam is Bell onder The New York Times se gewildste boeke van die jaar, en Time Magazine het Bell as "one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World," aangewys.
Dit alles wys op die wêreldwye beweging weg van die dogmatiese, voor-wetenskaplike verstaan van die Bybel. Bell skrywe: "Love demands freedom. It always has, and it always will. We are free to resist, reject, and rebel against God's ways for us. We can have all the hell we want." En sy aanslag in die boek is dat 'n Christen MOET vrae vra. Dat elkeen die reg het om die harde vrae te vra.
Lees hoe hy dit self stel: "Some communities don't permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most. Lots of people have voiced a concern, expressed a doubt, or raised a question, only to be told by their family, church, friends, or tribe: 'We don't discuss those things here.' I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the book of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with ... a question."
Hierdie boek is vir Christene wat met vele vrae sit – en te bang is om dit openlik te vra. Lees Bell se boek en jy sal daarin 'n sielsgenoot vind. Deur openlik te soek sê Bell dat selfs Jesus nuut gesien kan word. Jesus was self tog 'n soeker: "As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion. He didn't come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted whatever conventions or systems or establishments existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels are created to contain him, especially the one called 'Christianity'."
Hy verduidelik ook in die boek dat Jesus, dalk anders as wat vandag geglo word oor die Hel, iets anders wou oordra: "But in reading all of the passages in which Jesus uses the word "hell," what is so striking is that people believing the right or wrong things isn't his point. He's often not talking about "beliefs" as we think of them – he's talking about anger and lust and indifference. He's talking about the state of his listeners' hearts, about how they conduct themselves, how they interact with their neighbors, about the kind of effect they have on the world."
Hierdie boek is hoogs aan te beveel. Lees dit, oordink dit en bly vrae vra!