What We Talk About When We Talk About God Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00B8WKVTE | Format: PDF
What We Talk About When We Talk About God Description
"I've written this book because there's a growing sense that when it comes to God, we're at the end of one era and the start of another, an entire mode of understanding and talking about God is dying as something new is being birthed." - from What We Talk About When We Talk About God
How God is described today strikes many as mean, primitive, backwards, illogical, tribal, and at odds with the frontiers of science. At the same time, many intuitively feel a sense of reverence and awe in the world. Can we find a new way to talk about God? Pastor and New York Times best-selling author Rob Bell shows how traditional ideas have grown stale and dysfunctional and reveals a new path for how to return vitality and vibrancy to how we understand God. Bell reveals how we got stuck, why culture resists certain ways of talking about God, and how we can reconnect with the God who is with us, for us, and ahead of us, pulling us forward into a better future - and ready to help us live life to the fullest.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 4 hours and 25 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Audible.com Release Date: March 12, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00B8WKVTE
Rob Bell's new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, is a mind-blowing, life-transforming observation of the world in which we live. It is about everything (literally!), from the space between atoms to the vastness of the universe to the distance between our hearts.
It is very, very good.
But, sadly, it sure to be very, very controversial.
For example, Chapter One ("Hum") sets the stage:
"This book, then, is deeply, deeply personal for me. Much of what I've written here comes directly out of my own doubt, skepticism, and dark nights of the soul when I found myself questioning - to be honest - everything. . . what I experienced, over a long period of time, was a gradual awakening to a new perspective on God - specifically, the God Jesus talked about."
I can just see and hear Rob's critics now. "A new perspective on God," they'll say. "Why? The old perspective has worked just fine for thousands of years!"
Then, Rob reveals the purpose of his new book:
"This is a book about seeing, about becoming more and more alive and aware, orienting ourselves around the God who I believe is the ground of our being, the electricity that lights up the whole house, the transcendent presence in our tastes, sights, and sensations of the depth and dimension and fullness of life, from joy to agony to everything else."
And then he shares the three words he considers the backbone of the book: With, For, Ahead.
"With...because I believe God is with us because I believe that all of us are already experiencing the presence of God in countless ways every single day."
"For...
How does he get away with this?
This is the question I ask myself whenever I pick up a Rob Bell book.
Imagine the original book proposal sent to his editor at HarperOne. Did it sound like this?
Dear Mickey,
I would like to publish anther book with you now that I've moved out to L.A. That last one just went viral, didn't it?! Anyway, tell me what you think. Nothing high tech or fancy on this one. All text in the book will be 14 point font san serif, with big margins. Use that pulpy paper I like. Instead of indented paragraphs we'll just drop a line like most blogs I'm reading recently. The full text of the book will be about the same length as a long piece in The New Yorker.
The book is about God, and it won't have any big words at all, or fancy terminology... until it does, like when I use the German word Grenzbegriff in one chapter, and then the mostly untranslatable Hebrew term kavod in another chapter. But no one will notice, because I will have won them over with my simple and approachable breathless language (you know, like the way I talk in all of those Nooma videos).
I promise
to make
lots
of lists
and format
some paragraphs
like this.
All kinds of people want to talk about God. They really do. This book will sell. It will also make a difference in people's lives. Here's my outline for the book, kind of like the table of contents.
It will be
Open,
Both,
With,
For,
Ahead,
and So.
These are the words that will shape how I talk about God in this book.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
What do you think?
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