This won’t be a long post but I think it’s important, the review is tomorrow by the way. One of things I always do when reading a book is look for the list of books, study the bibliography, pick out the recurring names and try to see the plot lines of an authors thinking. This helps me track a little of where the author is coming from, have other sources to go to for further reading if needed and see what’s original and what’s not.

Rob Bell is not great at providing much here, there are few references, a tiny bibliography compared to what he actually must have read and studied and limited clues. Limited, not none.

And it’s the influences that we can gather that make this whole debate really intriguing and intriguing as to why Bell has had to face so much flak. Given who has influenced Bell the question is how did he get these people so wrong because they’re not under the same scrutiny? Or is there another reason why Bell is the lightning rod to all this criticism?

So who are the influences behind Love Wins? It’s a surprising mix.

Robert Farrar Capon: Go read the wikipedia article, it’s essentially a quote from Capon on hell. In the light of all this – fascinating. CS Lewis, Mark Baker, Tim Keller, Richard Rohr, Huston Smith and NT Wright. I’ve linked the ones I knew nothing about.

So Capon on Jesus, Lewis on hell, Baker on the cross, Keller on the prodigal son, Rohr on spiritual growth, Smith on God and Wright on resurrection and new creation. I don’t know much about Capon, Rohr, Baker or Smith. I’ve not read any of their works and no nothing about their lives or ministry.

However the remaining three are in a different league altogether. CS Lewis is not always agreed with, he’s respected and accepted. He is often quoted and the general opinion seems to be that he’s one of the good guys. Keller we know is one of the good guys. NT Wright is a bit like Lewis in that he’s not always agreed with but he’s too sharp, says too many good things and is a man of faith and so he’s respected and accepted.

But what has been the outcome for Rob Bell? In terms of the polarising debate and battle-lines in American evangelicalism, well he has been cast out. Not only is he not respected or accepted but even his faith is in question. How did Rob Bell manage to read Lewis, Keller and Wright and end up with a view that gets him castigated and reviled? That takes it’s own special sort of genius.