Rob Bell has done it again; managed to bring attention to
his writing by way of controversy. I am beginning to wonder if his recent
attempts at writing books that appear to be intentionally irritating to
evangelicals is a new recipe for topping the New York Times list. While his
book Love Wins contained more
explicit heresy surrounding the potential of universalism, his newest work What We Talk About When We Talk About God
appears to contains no fewer problems, albeit more subtle ones.
In his review of Bell’s work, Mark Galli points out that Rob
Bell’s epistemology (how we know what
we know) as it relates to our relationship with God is rooted entirely in our
personal feelings and experience. Bell writes, “When I talk about God, I am
talking about a reality known, felt, and experienced” (p.63). In a word, Bell is talking about intuition. I know, and you know, that
God exists, because…well…"we just know it."
My point here is not to re-hash Galli’s well done review of
Bell’s work (which can be found in the May 2013 Christianity Today) but to think together about what is right about
Bell’s assertion, as well as how it can go terribly awry. From the very outset many people can recognize
the potential danger of basing our understanding of God solely on our own intuitions. One needs to look no further than the
sheer number of people who want nothing to do with God after tragedy strikes
because they no longer trust that a good God could allows human suffering, to
know that our emotions may not always align with the truth. I could fill this blog for months with
horrible decisions that I have made based on my “intuition.” Intuition is
hardly a solid material to build a worldview on.
Positively speaking though, Bell is correct to assert that
all decisions we make are fundamentally emotional
on some level. The role logic plays in the decision process is almost always in
the form of justification, not necessarily the input of information. The problem is not following our emotions, but
educating them. This fundamental gap in Bell’s theology is filled by James K.
Smith (philosophy guru of Calvin College) whose recent book Imagining the Kingdom argues, quite
simply, we cannot think our way to
God. In this Smith agrees with Bell on the important role that our affections
play in faith development. The crucial difference between the two however is
that Smith moves on to discuss the importance of community, liturgy, and
worship to help focus our affections in the right direction, towards the right
things. While both authors would agree that “we worship what we love and love
what we worship,” Bell appears to be satisfied to leave each of us to our own
devices in a personal search for God while Smith helps us install the
guardrails.
With Smith’s encouragement we are fully free to feel deeply
as Christians, to “follow our hearts” even, rely on our intuitions, and give
ourselves over to our passions completely, when
those passions align with the heart of God. When we love what he loves, and
hate what we hates.
In a world that constantly bombards our hearts with pleads
to love its values of money, sex and power, Christians need each other to help
us, regularly, realign our hearts with the heart of our Father. This, I
believe, is the truth behind the exhortation found in the book of Hebrews to
guard ourselves from the temptation to surrender the gift of weekly fellowship (Heb. 10:25).
In know that for many friends of mine, this decision to stop participating in fellowship, has become
the catalyst for some to begin to trust their own
experience and intuitions over communal wisdom, and in the end, love the world
more than the God who created it.
In one regard Bell remains absolutely correct, Love Will Win,
it will always win. What we love ultimately directs our energies, consumes our
time, and demands our resources. The only question is whether or not what we
love deserves it. And to answer that question, I desperately need a community
of others, indwelled with the Spirit, to grant me increasing wisdom. For none
of us, not even Rob Bell, was created to walk this journey alone.
