postmodernbible

More on those lead tablet codices: April DeConick Disembowels the Hype and lots of links! #bigbible

Here's a piece from a proper Professor of Biblical Studies. And I have to say that as a New Testament lecturer, I'd have to say that I am share a lot of these concerns.

But also, have you noticed how in the picture the tablets seem to have become oxidized - how? This looks very much like rust - iron oxide. But these are supposed to be lead tablets. Lead oxidises to a white powder. Evidently I am missing something here.

via forbiddengospels.blogspot.com and Jim West

I was so hoping that I could avoid posting on the Jordanian Lead Tablet discovery. But, I keep getting people sending me links and asking me about what I think. So here it goes.

Sensationalism? It is the right time of year. It is nearing Easter, so what else should we expect from the media?

The minute I saw the first posts about it, my eyebrows raised. Lead tablets? We have examples of copper tablets, bronze tablets, and gold tablets from the period of early Christianity, but I don't know about lead tablets. This seems fishy to me.

"70 or so" books? That also is fishy, especially when I discovered through a little internet research that the original news release said 20. Is it 70 or 20? How many books are in this horde?

What else am I skeptical about? Where do they come from? The original news release says these books were in the family for 100 years. "The objects belong to Hassan Saeda, a Bedouin farmer in Galilee who says they have been in his family's possession since his great-grandfather found them in a cave in Jordan, a century ago." The latest news story claims that they were found five years ago. I might note that this five-year window was simultaneous with the James ossuary trial. Coincidence? Or not?

They were written in a code? This is feeling more and more like popular fiction (or forgery?).

The lead scholar is David Elkington? Check out this website for his book In the Name of the Gods: "Everything that exists does so because of vibration." Is this really a summary of his book? And what is this about a book he published last year called The Lead Codices? Then I discovered that he has a literary agent and a book on these lead tablets already in production. Read all about it HERE. These are Elkington's credentials that I found on the website announcing his book In the Name of the Gods:

David Elkington was born in England in 1962 but spent his formative years travelling and exploring the Southern Hemisphere with his parents. His childhood in Australia was supplemented by sojourns in Polynesia, New Zealand and Indonesia. It was in these places that he first developed an interest in Sacred Sites and ancient traditions.

He trained as an artist at the Bath Academy of Art where an interest in the relationship between Christian myth and sacred sites was fuelled. Research for 'In the Name of the Gods' began in earnest in the early 1980s when he walked through Europe and the Middle East on a quest to understand and appreciate the mind of Ancient Man and his relationship with particular sites upon the Earth. For 20 years David has been led on a revelatory trail through world mythology, linguistics and philology into geophysics, architecture, acoustics, music, neuro-physiology, theology and still further into the all-encompassing, resonant atmosphere of the planet. As his research continued, surprising results emerged. For several years, David has been working with Dr Keith Hearne, the 'father of lucid dream research', on a new area of psychology - Geolinguistics - which sees the development of language as a direct result of the Earth's physical environment.

David began to introduce his work to the public in 1996 when he presented a major lecture on 'Acoustic Resonance, Life and Consciousness' at the Quest for Knowledge Conference in London. He lectures in England and Europe, has co-hosted a tour of the major ancient sites of Egypt and is a member of the Egypt Exploration Society and Palestine Exploration Fund. He has been a consultant to the government of Sierra Leone, to the BBC, ITV, and to NASA.

These are all red flags for me. There is a lot of explaining that needs to be done before we can determine what these books are. At this point in the analysis we certainly shouldn't be claiming that they are going to revolutionize our understanding of early Christianity. Come on. No one has even been able to read them yet!

Other posts and opinions on the subject:

http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_03_27_archive.html#8929466330980520973

http://cscoedinburgh.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/lead-tablets-news-story/

http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/more-on-the-lead-codices/

http://rogueclassicism.com/2011/03/30/lead-codices-silliness/

http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/secret-writings-about-the-last-years-of-jesus/

http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/philip-davies-on-the-newly-discovered-jesus-plates-scrolls-whatever/

http://www.patheos.com/community/bibleandculture/2011/03/29/lead-codices-about-jesus-the-latter-years/

http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2011/03/latest-on-lead-books-from-bbc-and.html?showComment=1301442142419#comment-c5159507401733979034

http://www.postost.net/2011/03/strange-true-sealed-christian-books-found-bedouin

http://daralqibt.blogspot.com/2011/03/jordan-battles-to-regain-priceless.html

http://www.gentlewisdom.org.uk/3130/new-discovery-as-important-as-dead-sea-scrolls/

http://theconnexion.net/wp/?p=10063#axzz1HzgDbZiR

Photo from BBC release HERE.

via forbiddengospels.blogspot.com

The Church and The Arts « blogpost on Changing Worship and links to Phil Ritchie's post on a similar topic.

Just want to affirm what is being said here. I sincerely believe that the losso of the artists is one of the main stumbling blocks to revival in the church today. No artists, no revival. Why? Dunno. Because they reflect the creative God more fully in who they are???

Thanks to Phil and Rob for posting two amazing pieces! Read and circulate.

And if you are an artist, sorry we have not cherished you as we should!

via changingworship.wordpress.com

It is very topical to talk about the arts here in the UK as a lot of funding has been cut.  Earlier today I read Phil Ritchie’s blog, who like me is a priest in the Church of England.  During prayers this morning we both remembered John Donne who was a poet, a priest and the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral.  This inspired Phil to asked the question “where are today’s poet priests”?  When I read this it opened up a much broader issue for the church to consider:

‘How are our churches cultivating todays artists, musicians, poet’s, singers, songwriters, sculptors, glass blowers….. our artists’?

Historically the church was the main place that cultivated the arts.  It funded the arts.  It commissioned the arts.  It inspired the arts.  *God* inspired the arts.  People looked at the majesty of creation and artistic expression poured from within.  When people read the scriptures, poetic expressions overflowed.  As people contemplated the awe and wonder of God, the notes flowed onto the manuscripts.  You need only walk into one of the many museums in the UK and you will see the great works that the church has cultivated and inspired throughout the ages.  The church was the hub around which the arts rotated.  Music was created on the church’s instruments.  Glass was crafted for it’s windows.  Stone was carved for display in, on or around it’s buildings.  Art was painted to hang inside or even painted straight onto the walls of it’s chapel’s, monasteries and Cathedral’s. 

When I was training for ordination I was lucky enough to do a placement at a church where they carved the prototype pillars for Durham Cathedral.  With the modern church there is a financial reality that causes me to marvel that there was an era in which Durham Cathedral could be envisaged, never mind created.

The modern world comes with all sorts of things that people didn’t predict.  They said that in “the future” we would have vast quantities of free time with which to enjoy ourselves.  Now that we are here and now firmly planted within “the future” the reality is that we have less free time than ever before.

“Where are today’s poet priests”? 

Whether ordained or lay the modern church is struggling with a financial reality and an administrative reality that leaves little time for the arts.  As parishes are placed together with reducing numbers of both ordained and lay alike, “the job” becomes increasingly time consuming.  This is coupled with the propensity in all modern world workplaces for paperwork.  Everything must be filled in, signed in triplicate and sent to the correct office to be stored in the appropriate filing cabinet…. for each church that you are working with.  For those who work for the church this comes with an additional emotional constraint that plays upon the sense of guilt about these things.

An unending task with an emotional attachment?  Ponder that for a moment if you will.

When we contemplate the arts and their place within the church we have to ask how much they are currently valued by the church.  For many, the arts are a guilty secret that is indulged in when a sneaky couple of hours off are partaken of one evening whilst no one is looking.  If we engage with them more often we are often perceived to be elevating our self-indulgence above our calling to serve ‘the church’.  This is why I know several people who were musicians in the ‘previous life’ that they ‘gave up’ before ordination. 

If this is the reality in which the modern church lives, how do we perpetuate the ”rich tradition of priests who fulfilled this part of their vocation through poetry” and other art forms into the future?

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Featured on PopPressed U.K. Artist Finn Stone Revamps A Pair of Stilettos With…Legos

Filed under: Arts, Christianity, Church, Church of England, CofE, Creativity, Culture, Religion, The Arts, Theology

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Evangelical Alliance responds to publication of Rob Bell's book (via @jasonclark) #lovewins

The EA UK just issued this statement in response to Rob Bells book.

---------------------

The Evangelical Alliance has responded to publication of Rob Bell’s latest book, Love Wins, which has attracted widespread attention on account of its controversial views concerning the nature of hell. The Alliance’s Theological and Public Policy Advisory Commission has discussed the book and has helped shape the Alliance’s response. The Alliance is also concurrently publishing a review of Love Wins on its website written by Derek Tidball, a member of the Alliance’s Board and Council (of which he was previously Chair), and former Principal of London School of Theology.

Rob Bell is a popular evangelical celebrity figure and widely appreciated as a pastor and inspiring speaker. 

It is recognised that there may be strong feelings about Bell’s alleged departure from the majority traditional view that heaven is reserved only for those who profess faith in Christ and, perhaps, for infants who die within the church community before being able to make such a profession. However, the Alliance is urging that debate about the book should be characterised by respect, humility and grace, particularly where Christians disagree with one another.

Love Wins, as its title suggests, is a positive and hopeful book written in Bell’s customary winsome style which will strike sympathetic chords with many readers. However, it casts doubt on the traditional Christian understanding of hell and the fate of non-Christians. Though he does not state dogmatically that all will be saved in the end, Bell appears to adopt a view more akin to ‘wider hope’ theology which is optimistic that God will ultimately save the vast majority of people, or even, perhaps, all people.

The Theology and Public Policy Advisory Commission points out that this type of theological debate is not new, reflecting especially 19th century concerns, and indeed goes back to debates among the early church fathers. However, over the centuries a minority of Christians have adopted such views and the Church has consistently rejected similar arguments. It is the personal profile of Rob Bell that is responsible for the current highlighting of issues that are familiar to centuries of previous theological debate. Therefore, the importance of an accurate historical perspective on these questions is crucial.

Anticipating such a debate, the Alliance clearly articulated its understanding of the evangelical position on this subject in its book The Nature of Hell published in 2000. Its conclusions are available on the Alliance’s website but the following key points may be of help to the present discussion:

·        In The Nature of Hell, the Alliance explicitly rejects universalism (pp.24-34; Conclusion 4, p.131)

·        The Nature of Hell is open to a 'wider hope' for those who don't explicitly profess faith in Christ, citing as possible examples at least some of those who have never heard the gospel, children who die in infancy (including the unborn), and those whose mental incapacity makes such profession impossible. However, it is insistent that absolutist assertions that these and other categories of non-professing people are saved risk being at least as arrogant as absolutist assertions that they are damned. The destiny of such people is God's to determine, and it is determined by his grace alone. (pp.93-95; Conclusion 4, p.131)

·   In The Nature of Hell, the Alliance recognises that certain reputable evangelical scholars have either embraced or entertained the possibility of 'second chance' repentance. However, having explored the exegetical arguments for this position, it finds them unconvincing (pp.89-92; Conclusion 4, p.131).

·   The Nature of Hell also considers restitutionism - the teaching that some or all in hell will ultimately be translated to heaven - finds this teaching similarly unconvincing, and concludes that consignment to hell cannot be repealed (pp.81-89; Conclusion 5, pp.132-33).

The Alliance’s position is also clearly set out in its Basis of Faith which makes clear orthodox evangelical Christian belief in:

“The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.”

Steve Clifford, general director of the Evangelical Alliance, commented: “Rob Bell is a valued brother in Christ and has felt it important to raise publicly some difficult areas of Christian theology that many people feel uncomfortable with. The issues he raises reflect genuine but complex questions that Christian theologians have wrestled with over centuries. We hope that Christians who disagree with Rob will nevertheless model how good debate should be conducted.”

The Alliance’s key principles relating to how evangelicals should conduct their relationships with each other are set out in its Practical Resolutions.

Steve Clifford added: “There are deeper and perhaps more crucial questions which should be addressed as to the nature and character of the God that we worship and to his commitment to and care for the earth he created. I trust that in this biblical exploration we will discover that both love and justice win.”

Ends

Media enquiries:          

Daniel Webster, Evangelical Alliance, 0207 207 2129 / 07766444650 [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The Evangelical Alliance, formed in 1846, is the largest body serving evangelical Christians in the UK, and has a membership including denominations, churches, organisations and individuals.  The mission of the Evangelical Alliance is to unite evangelicals to present Christ credibly as good news for spiritual and social transformation. According to a Tearfund survey (Churchgoing in the UK, 2007), there are approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in the UK.  For more information please visit www.eauk.org

via jasonclark.ws

#LoveWinsChat Pub Lunch, Angel-in-Fields, London April 7 1-230 with Maggi Dawn etc - key = positive, useful, engagement

Event: #LoveWinsChat Networking Lunch

 

Venue: Upper Room at The Angel in the Fields, 37 Thayer Street, Marylebone, London, W1U 2QU

Deal: CODEC have booked the Upper Room, you buy your lunch and a drink yourself from the upstairs bar

Purpose: A few of us have been discussing #LoveWins and Peter Rollins concept of Pyro-Theology - mostly via the net, on blogs, twitter and facebook.  Well, we want to gather together for a face to face conversation to look at a positive and useful response and engagement.  Sounds like fun!  Open, chatty, networky...

Space: Space is limited this time, so please email me or send a tweet (@pmphillips) to confirm you are coming!

Menu: 

 

 

Who's attending: (put your details in a comment and I'll add you to this list...)

• Maggi Dawn, Chaplain at Robinson College, Cambridge (maggidawn.com)
• Pete Phillips, Research Director at CODEC (bigbible.org.uk ,www.durham.ac.uk/codec)
• Phil Ritchie, Diocesan Lay Ed and Training/soon to return to be vicar, Chelmsford (website)
• Anna Drew, Media Officer at Methodist Church
• your name could be here!

Jordanian Texts Treasure Trove (via http://bbc.in/i1HVRZ) - Press Release - Another Pre-Release No News Yet So Lets Make it Up Story? #LoveWins

The BBC have been heralding the find of a treasure trove of inscribed lead plates bound in a form of codex and sealed together from a cave in Jordan.  Currently the trove is in Israel, it seems, and there are considerable shenanigans about getting them out and back to Jordan.  Since it's a treasure trove, it remains the property of the Kingdom of Jordan.

What are they?  Here's the press release and then some info from Jim Davila one of the UKs experts in Second Temple Judaism:

51302092-Sealed.pdf Download this file

From Jim Davila (via his PalaeoJudaica blog), via James Charlesworth, via Jim West!!!

The claim is that these are first-century Jewish-Christian documents, but nothing in the description seems to me to point compellingly to any Christian element. The suggestion that the Hebrew text is "in code" is possible (the Mt. Zion stone cup may be a precedent and there are Dead Sea Scrolls in code as well) but it's also convenient and may mean that the plates are just forgeries with gibberish text.

The first order of business is to secure the collection and get it to a safe place where it can be studied properly. The second is to subject it to a rigorous process of authentication, about which I have already commented here. If the texts prove to be genuine (I remain skeptical), that will be very exciting indeed.

Meanwhile, is it really quite necessary to make a documentary film about them right now? Sigh.

Stay tuned ...

Oh, there's another Press Release - kind of the same information but this time via David Elkington

51540533-Lead-Plates-Press-Release.pdf Download this file

Not sure there is much to say here.  But with years before someone publishes these texts, we might even manage to hype it up as "Totally Changing Christianity" like with the Rob Bell stuff?

Pete

Tending The Rose Garden - a word given at King's Church Durham (@KCD) this morning (via Jenny)

via superstock.co.uk

I was preaching at King's this morning on the various responses to Jesus ministry in Matthew 26. In the time of worship after the word, Jenny came and said that God had given her an image of a woman tending a rose garden. The woman was prone to feeling discouraged when her flowers were not in bloom and when she saw others growing up and leaving the village in which she lived for more exciting things abroad. But God said to her that this was the rose garden he had given her and it was there to bring pleasure and beauty and it's what he wanted her to do.

Wonderful image. It resonated with me because the key image of the sermon was the woman who anointed Jesus with the perfume. Abundance, perfume filling the house, devotion to Jesus. Same as found in the image of the garden.

Beautiful image. Made me ponder what my rose garden is and to focus more on it than on the plot next door!

Pete

The Press Association: Soup runs for homeless set to stay - victory for @MethodistMedia?

Soup runs for homeless set to stay

(UKPA) – 1 day ago

Soup runs for the homeless will not be banned from a part of central London after a council U-turn, MPs have been told.

Commons leader Sir George Young said Westminster City Council was now taking an "enlightened approach" and would allow soup runs for the capital's rough sleepers.

There had been protests against the local authority's plans, which it said were justified because the handouts from the area around Westminster Cathedral kept the homeless on the streets for longer than necessary.

The council also sought to introduce a by-law to ban rough sleeping around cathedral.

On Thursday, Sir George said the Tory-run authority was now seeking a "non-legislative approach" but soup kitchens were more desirable when operating from "established" buildings rather than on-the-street.

He told shadow Commons leader Hilary Benn: "The portfolio holder at Westminster City Council (Cllr Daniel Astaire) has made it clear he wants a non-legislative solution. He plans to have discussions with those running the soup runs.

"It is already the case that two soup run providers have agreed to provide their services within a more settled environment and I welcome that.

"You might also look at some of the comments made by those helping rough sleepers about the desirability of trying to focus the soup runs within an established building rather than having a magnet which attracts rough sleepers from all over the capital.

"I very much hope we are at one on rough sleepers and that we can support Westminster City Council and the enlightened approach which they are now taking."

The council's consultation on rough sleepers will continue until March 25.

Copyright © 2011 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

via google.com

I blogged about this a while ago and the subject was picked up by the Methodist Church (http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.newsDetail&newsid=489). Now the Council seems to have backed off this rather stupid idea!

RSA - Faith 2.0: Religion and the Internet - Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Durham University - I'm chairing one of the panels...

14th Apr 2011; 08:30

Morning Session
As the winds of political change are channelled through fibre-optic cables and wireless internet waves across North Africa and the Middle East, we are reminded once again of the remarkable paradigm shift ushered in by the internet. This shift has impacted nearly every area of contemporary life, and religion is no exception.

Faith 2.0 will explore this, one of today’s most pressing questions: How has religion been impacted by information technology and how has the public sphere in turn been influenced by this interaction?

The RSA is delighted to be working in association with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Durham University to present this special one-day conference, which will include world renowned scholars, policy makers and religious leaders whose work covers the positive, negative, and the outright surprising elements of this new and dynamic exchange.

Panellists and audience members will engage in a lively discussion on the topics of Religious Identity and Internet; Religious Communities Online; and Religious Authority and Online Extremism.

Morning Programme

8:30-9:30 - Registration, tea & coffee

09:30

Opening Address: Emma Murphy, Durham University and Ruth Turner, Tony Blair Faith Foundation

10:00 - 11.15

Panel 1: Religious Identity: How should we understand the nature and activities of online faith-based communities?

With: Heidi Campbell, associate professor, Texas A&M University; Professor Lorenzo Cantoni, vice-director, the Institute of Public and Educational Communication; Brenda Brasher, visiting assistant professor, Tulane University; Andrew Graystone, director, Churches’ Media Council.

11:15 – Short Break

11:30 -12.45

Panel 2: Building New Communities: How has the internet created space for new religious communities to come together?

With: Gary Bunt, senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Higher Education Academy, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Simon Jenkins, founder and editor of “Ship of Fools”, author, designer & cartoonist; Scott Thumma, professor of Sociology of Religion, Hartford Institute for Religion Research; Lorne E Dawson, professor of sociology, University of Waterloo; Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham and Vice-Chair of the Labour Party; Ambassador Miguel Diaz, US Ambassador to the Holy See.

  

via thersa.org

Should be a great event...

Best email subject lines (via @markpack of the LibDems) - thought provoking piece @tobygmscott @annamdrew

via markpack.org.uk

I retweeted this but then thought it was worth a little bit of comment. Notice that the most frequently opened items are those who are honest and offer information. This is a newsletter = people open it. I was struck by how a call to participate also works. If I receive an email from a company/person I don't know, I tend to think it will be spam. So, to get under the radar, there has to be some enticement to think that there is real engagement - some infomation to read, something to attend or to speak at. Notice however that sales gimmicks don't work. The engagement is not about selling stuff. Its about engaging with who I am rather than with my wallet which counts. Something that enriches my experience rather than deflates my bank account. Although if I engage it might well deflate the bank account.

Good post which has made me think a bit more...thanks Mark.

Pete

More Theological Reviews: Here is number one of Steve Holmes (from St Andrews) series of posts on Rob Bell, Love Wins « Shored Fragments

Was ever a book so eagerly awaited? Well, yes, actually, quite a few. And most of the problem with this one is there was not much awaiting visible before people formed, and published, their views of it. So much easier to judge – in either direction – if you don’t have any facts to get in the way, after all.

My copy arrived yesterday. I’ve read it all, now, and intend to re-read it, slowly, and post some reflections here. It is powerfully and winsomely written, but you knew that. (‘Why can’t I communicate like Rob Bell?’ The book’s acknowledgments contain a revealing reference to the multitudinous drafts an editor worked through; perhaps with sufficient work, you could…)

No book is wholly good, save those contained in the canon of Scripture, or wholly bad. This one is no exception. It contains some good ideas; some arresting images; some interesting speculations; it contains some ideas I judge to be poor; some unhelpful caricatures of opposing positions; and some speculations that are hackneyed. There are a few historical reflections in the book, some that are helpful, some that are misinformed. There are many references to Scripture, and some extended readings: some are penetrating; some rather forced. None of this is unusual; I could say the much the same about almost every book on my office shelves.

Is it a good book? That depends. How does one judge the worth of a book? It seems to me that there are two possible criteria: first, on the whole, is this worth reading? Second, despite the deficiencies, is there something so significant in this book that it needs to be read?

The first is easier: do the strengths outweigh the weaknesses? On the whole, despite misrepresentations or problems, does the reader come away with a better appreciation (perhaps emotionally as well as intellectually) of the issue(s) the book is intending to address? A good textbook is good on this level. It is generally authoritative; there may be mistakes, but they are few and minor. The books rarely break new ground, but almost always provide a useful and accurate map of the old ground.

For the second, within the theological tradition, consider Aulen’s Christus Victor. The book had huge flaws, which beset us to this day, 80 years after the publication. Aulen’s historical claims ranged from the tendentious to the absurd; his Biblical exegesis was generally at the top end of that scale, but rarely much better. Yet he opened a question that is still driving thoughtful and worthwhile work today. The book could have been so much better – but the world, the world of academic theology, at least – would be much worse off without the book.

If Bell’s book is good, and my initial – if somewhat hesitant – impression is that it is, it is good in the second sense. This is not a good guide to eschatology and atonement (the two topics focused on in most of the book), or even to theology proper (the real subject of the book). There are too many errors of interpretation, too many misrepresentations, to make it a good textbook. But it advances a thesis that is not new, and that may not even be right, but that is important and perceptive enough to be worth hearing. The thesis is something like this: our accounts of atonement and eschatology determine our  theology proper, and some recently-popular accounts lead to an unacceptable – unbiblical – doctrine of God.

What about the big question? Well, here goes: I can reveal that it is true: the UK cover is much less attractive than the US one.

The other big question? First, the book is not primarily about the populatedness of hell, although the subject is addressed. Second, it seems clear to me from the text that Bell does not, in fact, espouse any form of dogmatic universalism. Bell asserts very clearly that every human being is presented with a choice, and that that choice is decisive for our final fate (pp.116-17). I imagine his position could be characterised as ‘hopeful universalism’: I suppose that he would be prepared to hope and pray that all human beings do in fact make the right choice, and to resist any assertion that this is not possible. He will, not, however, assert that all human beings will be saved.

This conclusion seems inescapable from the text to me, but I draw it hesitantly, since I am aware that others who have read the text have come to a different interpretation. Let me offer my evidence. Bell says:

…we get what we want.
God is that loving.
If we want isolation, despair, and the right to be our own god, God graciously grants us that option … if we want nothing to do with light hope, love, grace, and peace, God respects that desire on our part, and we are given a life free from those realities. The more we want nothing to do with all God is, the more distance and space are created. If we want nothing to do with love, we are given a reality free from love. (pp. 116-17; see also p. 79)

That seems unambiguous to me. You might not like the descriptions of hell; you might not like the Arminian assumption that the decisive decision is ours; but I cannot find a way of reading these words that is dogmatically universalist. Bell believes at least in the possibility that some will finally reject God.

But the book isn’t about universalism. It’s about who God is. And that is a far more interesting question, and that is where Bell makes a useful contribution – one that could have been made much better, but one that is useful nonetheless. I’ll start on that in the next post.

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