Love Wins - by Rob Bell (Paperback)

About the Book

The bestselling author of "Velvet Elvis" reveals a secret deep in the heart of millions of Christians--they don't believe what they have been taught are the essential truths of their faith. Bell brings out to the open and faces squarely the questions on everyone's mind.

Book Synopsis

In Love Wins, bestselling author, international teacher, and speaker Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis, Drops Like Stars) addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith--hell and the afterlife--arguing, would a loving God send people to eternal torment forever?

Rob Bell is an electrifying, unconventional pastor whom Time magazine calls "a singular rock star in the church world," with millions viewing his NOOMA videos.

With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial with a hopeful message--eternal life doesn't start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.

From the Back Cover

"There are a growing number of us who have become acutely aware that Jesus's story has been hijacked by a number of other stories, stories Jesus isn't interested in telling, because they have nothing to do with what he came to do. The plot has been lost, and it's time to reclaim it. . . .

"I've written this book because the kind of faith Jesus invites us into doesn't skirt the big questions about topics like God and Jesus and salvation and judgment and heaven and hell, but takes us deep into the heart of them." --from Love Wins

Review Quotes

"In Love Wins, Rob Bell tackles the old heaven-and-hell question and offers a courageous alternative answer. Thousands of readers will find freedom and hope and a new way of understanding the biblical story - from beginning to end." - Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity and Naked Spirituality

"In the current religious climate in America, it isn't easy to develop an imagination, a thoroughly biblical imagination, that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ in all people and all circumstances in love and for salvation. Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire just such an imagination. Love Wins accomplishes this without a trace of soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction in its proclamation of the good news that is most truly for all." - Eugene H. Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, and author of The Message and The Pastor

"Love Wins is a bold, prophetic and poetic masterpiece. I don't know any writer who expresses the inexpressible love of God as powerfully and as beautifully as Rob Bell! Many will disagree with some of Rob's perspectives, but no one who seriously engages this book will put it down unchanged. A 'must read' book!" - Greg Boyd, senior pastor at Woodland Hills Church and author of The Myth of a Christian Nation

"Claiming that some versions of Jesus should be rejected, particularly those used to intimidate and inspire fear or hatred, Bell persuasively interprets the Bible as a message of love and redemption. . . . His style is characteristically concise and oral, his tone passionate and unabashedly positive." - Publishers Weekly

"Outspoken pastor and best-selling author Bell dares to question conventional Christian wisdom. . . . By asking pointed questions, Bell raises issues some may find disturbing or, at the very least, unsettling, not only about religion but about what it means to be a believer. . . . Thought-provoking." - Booklist

"Love Wins is sure to become a classic." - Huffington Post

"This evangelical celebration of the love of God will open new doors for Jesus seekers fed up with the toxic hellfire and brimstone tirades of fundamentalist Christianity. As that happens, love wins again!" - Spirituality and Practice

"Love Wins will make Christians re-examine their faith and will help them reclaim a vital and exciting vision of heaven and God's love." - Relevant

"Weaving the story of Obergefell and his late husband, as well as the decades-long plight of civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein, into the larger context of the injustice faced by LGBTQ people, Love Wins is sure to become a classic entry in our cultural memory." - Huffington Post

"In reality, Love Wins seeks to break down the walls of rigid religiosity; it exposes the heart of faith, the fate of the world and how they are connected. The book is a challenging read, but a necessary one because, within it, the author reveals where the Church has missed the mark in sharing the most important message of all time." - Beliefnet

"Much of Bell's book wisely focuses on our perceptions of God. For example, why would God bait and switch in a moment's notice on such fundamental matters as love and condemnation?... Charging Bell with being a universalist doesn't work. Not only does the idea never appear in the book, nothing could be less applicable to somebody with Bell's own passionate faith in Jesus Christ.... The glue holding Bell's project together is the firm conviction that Jesus is bigger than any one religion. ...Bell fights every impulse in our culture to domesticate Jesus. ...The triumph of Bell's book is the absence of triumphalism. The only sin he attacks with any ferocity is the sin of presumption. Time and again, Bell challenges the reader to be open to surprise, mystery and all of the unanswerables contained within the 'wide stream' called Christianity. ....Bell has given theologically suspicious Christians new courage to bet their life on Jesus Christ." - Christian Century

"Bell fights every impulse in our culture to domesticate Jesus [and] challenges the reader to be open to surprise, mystery and all of the unanswerables. . . . Bell has given theologically suspicious Christians new courage to bet their life on Jesus Christ." - Christian Century

"Bell is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christianity in America." - Time magazine

"One of the country's most influential evangelical pastors." - New York Times

"This attention-getter of a book ignited a heated popular conversation about whether God saves people like Gandhi or sends him and billions of other non-Christians to a fiery and painful place in the afterlife." - Publishers Weekly, Best Books of the Year

"Gently written, yet fundamentally provocative, Bell's book seeks to break free from a cookie-cutter faith into a more intimate understanding of who Christ is and what He offers to the world. More than anything, Love Wins is a refreshing and liberating call to connect with a God who truly is love-love without limits." - BookPage

"In his controversial bestseller, ...Bell challenges the notion of heaven as an exclusive country club with a 'keep out' sign at its entrance that would be condemned on earth for its political incorrectness and intolerance. . . For Michelangelo, as for pastor Bell, there is no divine prejudice in the afterlife -- and that's probably why they call it heaven." - USA Today

"It isn't easy to develop a biblical imagination that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ . . . Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire just such an imagination--without a trace of soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction." - Eugene H. Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, and author of The Message and The Pastor

"A bold, prophetic and poetic masterpiece. I don't know any writer who expresses the inexpressible love of God as powerfully and as beautifully as Rob Bell! No one who seriously engages this book will put it down unchanged. A 'must read' book!" - Greg Boyd, senior pastor at Woodland Hills Church and author of The Myth of a Christian Nation

"One of the nation's rock-star-popular young pastors, Rob Bell, has stuck a pitchfork in how Christians talk about damnation." - USA Today

"A great book, well within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and passionate about Jesus. . . . [The real hellacious fight is between] generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people." - Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Seminary, quoted in USAToday