{"id":55,"date":"2011-05-29T06:16:52","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T06:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2015-11-18T20:42:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T20:42:25","slug":"n-t-wright-reflects-on-rob-bell-and-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/n-t-wright-reflects-on-rob-bell-and-hell\/ ","title":{"rendered":"N.T. Wright reflects on Rob Bell and Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a recent interview of N.T. Wright<\/a> about his thoughts on “Hell” and Rob Bell’s new book, “Love Wins<\/a>\"\"“.<\/p>\n

If you prefer viewing theology over reading theology<\/a> or vice versa, you have the choice below. In this interview Tom Wright<\/a> gives and interesting outsiders observation of “American” theology.<\/p>\n

If you have read “Love Wins<\/a>\"\"“, do you agree with Wright that it is a good thing to stir things up as Rob Bell has done so with his book? What do you think? Has Bell succeeded in getting you to re-evaluate and and thereby adjust\/refine your view of “Hell” and eschatology<\/em><\/a> in general? Even if you went away from Bell’s book not agreeing with a lot of his arguments, did the book act as a catalyst for your own re-evaluation of “heaven” and “hell”? <\/p>\n

The Video<\/h3>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Wright on Hell & Bell<\/a> from The Work Of The People<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Interview<\/h3>\n

My usual counter question is: \u201cWhy are Americans so fixated on hell?\u201d Far more Americans ask me about hell than ever happens in my own country. And I really want to know, why is it that the most prosperous affluent nation on earth is really determined to be sure that they know precisely who is going to be frying in hell and what the temperature will be and so on. There\u2019s something quite disturbing about that, especially when your nation and mine has done quite a lot in the last decade or two to drop bombs on people elsewhere and to make a lot of other people\u2019s lives hell. So, I think there are some quite serious issues about why people want to ask that question.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I am not a universalist. I\u2019ve never been universalist. Someone quoted a theologian saying, \u201cI\u2019m not a universalist, but maybe God is.\u201d That\u2019s kind of a neat way of saying, \u201cOK, there\u2019s stuff in Scripture which is a little puzzling about this, and we can\u2019t be absolutely sure all down the line.\u201d But it seems to me that the New Testament is very clear that there are people who do reject God and reject what would have been His best will for them, and God honors that decision. How that works and how you then deal with the questions which result I have written about at some length.<\/p>\n

[two_third]
\nI don\u2019t think myself that Rob Bell has quite taken the same line that I did in Surprised by Hope<\/a>\"\"
\n. I haven\u2019t actually had the conversation with Rob since his book was published. So, one of these days, we will and we\u2019ll have that one out. I do think it\u2019s good to stir things up because so many people, as I say, particularly in American culture, really want to know the last fine-tuned details of hell. And it seems to be part of their faith, often a central part of their faith that a certain number of people are simply going to go to hell and we know who these people are. I think Rob is saying, \u201cHey wait a minute! Start reading the Bible differently. God is not a horrible ogre who is just determined to fry as many people as He can forever. God is actually incredibly generous and gracious and wonderful and loving and caring. And if you paint a picture of God which is other than that, then you\u2019re producing a monster and that has long-lasting effects in Christian lives and in the church.\u201d
\n[\/two_third]
\n[one_third_last]
\n\"Rob<\/a>
\n[\/one_third_last]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a recent interview of N.T. Wright about his thoughts on “Hell” and Rob Bell’s new book, “Love Wins“. If you prefer viewing theology over reading theology or vice versa, you have the choice below. In this interview Tom Wright gives and interesting outsiders observation of “American” theology. If you have read “Love Wins“,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14,3],"tags":[123,6,7,18,66,124,122,65],"aioseo_notices":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":12,"label":"Eschatology"},{"value":14,"label":"N.T. Wright"},{"value":3,"label":"Rob Bell"}],"post_tag":[{"value":123,"label":"Eschatology"},{"value":6,"label":"Heaven"},{"value":7,"label":"Hell"},{"value":18,"label":"Love Wins"},{"value":66,"label":"Mission of the Church"},{"value":124,"label":"N.T. Wright"},{"value":122,"label":"Rob Bell"},{"value":65,"label":"Surprised By Hope"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/NTWright_feature.jpg",680,188,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Nick","author_link":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/author\/nick"},"comment_info":1,"category_info":[{"term_id":12,"name":"Eschatology","slug":"eschatology","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":49,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":12,"category_count":9,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Eschatology","category_nicename":"eschatology","category_parent":0},{"term_id":14,"name":"N.T. Wright","slug":"n-t-wright","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":8,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":14,"category_count":8,"category_description":"","cat_name":"N.T. Wright","category_nicename":"n-t-wright","category_parent":0},{"term_id":3,"name":"Rob Bell","slug":"rob-bell","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":6,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Rob Bell","category_nicename":"rob-bell","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":123,"name":"Eschatology","slug":"eschatology","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":13,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":6,"name":"Heaven","slug":"heaven","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7,"name":"Hell","slug":"hell","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":8,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":18,"name":"Love Wins","slug":"love-wins","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":66,"name":"Mission of the Church","slug":"mission-of-the-church","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":78,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":124,"name":"N.T. Wright","slug":"n-t-wright","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":122,"name":"Rob Bell","slug":"rob-bell","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":4,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":65,"name":"Surprised By Hope","slug":"surprised-by-hope","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":77,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingtheology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}