What We Talk About When We Talk About God
Article by May 2013
Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God (New York: HarperOne, 2013), 240 pp., $16.00
"Detheologizing" Christianity
For those who have read Rob Bell's other books (such as Love Wins and Velvet Elvis), the tone, disposition, and content of this new book will sound all too familiar. In What We Talk About When We Talk About God,
Bell continues his campaign to reshape and repackage Christianity for
this postmodern generation, and to rescue it from those he thinks are
holding it back (traditional Christians).
In
this way, Bell positions himself as an apologist of sorts. Our world
views the Christian God as irrelevant and outdated (like an Oldsmobile),
and Bell's mission is to give Him an extreme makeover. Bell takes the
God who seems like a grumpy, judgmental old man in a polyester suit who
is pointing his finger at you while simultaneously thumping the Bible,
and changes him into a hip, urban young guy with skinny jeans and
horn-rimmed glasses who invites you to have a latte with him and ponder
the mysteries of the universe.
Bell's book,
therefore, functions a lot like the Apple vs. Microsoft commercial that
was popular a number of years ago. Microsoft was represented by an out
of shape, poorly dressed geek, while Apple was represented by a thin,
hip, well-dressed urbanite. In effect, Bell is arguing that God is not
like Microsoft. He is more like Apple. God is relevant. He can keep up
with the times.
Unfortunately, being an apologist for the
faith does not always lead one to uphold the faith. Indeed, there is a
long history of folks who have sought to defend Christianity from
critical attacks by simply changing the problematic portions of the
faith. In other words, apologetics is not always about defending what we
believe, but is sometimes about modifying what we believe. Apologetics is sometimes about giving Christianity an extreme makeover.
In
this regard, one thinks of scholars like Rudolph Bultmann. Despite the
negative press Bultmann has received, it should be noted that Bultmann
regarded himself as a committed Christian and a defender of the faith.
Bultmann recognized that in this modern, enlightened age, people could
no longer believe in supernatural events. So, in order to rescue
Christianity from its imminent demise, Bultmann stripped all the
supernatural elements out of the faith (see his book, New Testament and Mythology).
In short, he "demythologized" the Bible. Bultmann wanted to convince
people that God wasn't an Oldsmobile. God could keep up with the times.
Of
course, Bell's method of defending Christianity is not by stripping it
of its supernatural elements (that was the issue in Bultmann's day). On
the contrary, Bell is quite keen to remind the reader of the
supernatural--God is everywhere, busy at work, in us and in our world.
Instead, Bell's makeover method is to change Christianity into a broad
"spirituality." His book downplays (and in some instances, simply
ignores) many of the key doctrines that make Christianity distinctive.
He simply turns Christianity into vague, general, theism. Whereas
Bultmann demythologized the faith, Bell has detheologized the faith.
Bell's
makeover motif is evident from the very opening chapter, entitled
"Hum." He complains that there are many "conventional categories" of
belief that are harmful to the church. His examples include the belief
that women shouldn't be pastors, the belief that "everybody that is gay
is going to hell," and the belief that non-Christians will endure
"untold suffering" after the second coming of Christ (p.6-7). These are
the types of beliefs (though not all) that Christianity must rid itself
of, if it is to avoid going the way of the Oldsmobile.
In
chapter two, entitled "Open," Bell offers modified form of the
teleological argument. He goes into great detail about the order and the
complexity of the universe in an effort to show the skeptic that you
can't rule out the existence of God--the universe is too marvelous, too
complex, to be sure there is no divine. I think this chapter will be
effective with the non-Christian, and is probably the best (and most
interesting ) chapter in the book.
In chapter
three, entitled "Both," Bell returns more directly to his makeover
motif. The overall point of this chapter is that the language we use to
describe God is inherently and unavoidably vague--God is beyond words.
And if God is beyond our ability to explain, then we cannot really be
certain in our beliefs about God. Bell laments those fundamentalist
types who process God in either/or categories. "There are limits to our
certainty because God, it's repeated again and again, is spirit. And
spirit has no shape or form" (p. 88).
It is
clear that Bell is using this chapter to set the stage for his makeover.
If words about God are unclear, and we can never really be certain
about anything, then we should not feel bound by certain limitations
about God. This allows Bell to scold those "fundamentalist" types who
are all too certain about their theology, and it allows him to suggest
that we should think of God differently. In particular, Bell hones in on
the issue of God's gender. He argues that masculine language in the
Bible about God is just the product of primitive cultures that couldn't
help but think of their "god" as male (p.88-89).
In
chapter four, entitled "With," Bell focuses on the immanence of God and
how he is always near and present with us. This would be fine if Bell
stuck to biblical categories about the way that God is present. But,
instead he "detheologizes" the Christian view of God's immanence and
makes it more like New Age, Gnostic spiritualism. God's presence is
described in language like "creative energy," a "life force," and an
"unending divine vitality" (p. 106). This divine energy creates a
oneness to the universe: "When we talk about God, we're talking about
the straightforward affirmation that everything has a singular, common
source and is infinitely, endlessly, deeply connected" (p.118). This
sounds more like "the Force" from Star Wars, than the God of the Bible.
In
chapter five, entitled "For," Bell says that he wants to recover the
"fundamental Christian message that God is for us" (128). That is
certainly a commendable goal, but Bell once again "detheologizes" what
this concept actually means according to Scripture. Entirely missing in
this chapter--indeed entirely missing in the whole book--is any
meaningful discussion of the cross and atonement. Absent is discussion
about our sin, God's wrath on our sin, and how Christ's death on the
cross paid that penalty. Absent is the clarification that without the
cross, God is definitely not for us and that his wrath remains on us.
Sure, Bell talks about Jesus and the incarnation. But, the mission of
Jesus is reshaped so that its purpose is "giving us a picture of God who
is not distant or detached or indifferent to our pain...but instead is
present among us in Jesus to teach us and help us and suffer with us"
(p. 131).
In the final two chapters, Bell
continues to talk about key Christian themes such as Jesus, repentance,
confession, forgiveness, and so on. But, incredibly, he empties each of
these terms of their biblical meaning and simply replaces them with a
meaning that fits with postmodern spirituality. His "detheologizing" of
Christianity is complete.
In the end, my
overall concern about this volume is a simple one: it is not Christian.
Bell's makeover of Christianity has changed it into something entirely
different. It is not Christianity at all, it is modern liberalism. It is
the same liberalism that Machen fought in the 1920's and the same
liberalism prevalent in far too many churches today. It is the
liberalism that teaches that God exists and that Jesus is the source of
our happiness and our fulfillment, but all of this comes apart from any
real mention of sin, judgment, and the cross. It is the liberalism that
says we can know nothing for sure, except of course, that those
"fundamentalists" are wrong. It is the liberalism that appeals to the
Bible from time to time, but then simply ignores large portions of it.
Bell's
book, therefore, is really just spiritualism with a Christian veneer.
It's a book that would fit quite well on Oprah's list of favorite books.
What is Rob Bell talking about when he is talking about God? Not the
God of Christianity.
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