Between coverage of the earthquake aftermath in Japan and The Bachelor finale, about 6,000 people tuned in online recently to watch Rob Bell discuss his book Love Wins to a crowd in New York City. Even before his book was published, Bell was making waves. See, for example, Eric Marrapodi, "Firestorm grows over 'Christian heresy' book" (BeliefBlog, March 8, 2011).
Bell was interview recently by Lisa Miller, the Religion Editor of Newsweek, though for some reason I can't find a video clip of the interview at present. But here is a decent interview: "MSNBC Host Makes Rob Bell Squirm: "Youre Amending The Gospel So That It's Palatable!" (YouTube, March 15, 2011).
Bell's book was outselling the latest release by Pope Benedict XVI on Amazon.com even before its release, which tells you just how fashionable his sort of universalist Gospel has become -- and Catholics can hardly assume that their numbers are immune.
All the more relevant now is the perspective of Fr. Alvin Kiemel's in "Counting the Saved" (Pontifications, February 16, 2008).
The reader who sent me the links above commented: "What is encouraging about the Bell book is the fact of the volume of controversy it raises. Orthodoxy has a voice: in this instance I think it will come more from outside the Church." He suggests that conservative Evangelicals and traditionalist groups like the SSPX may be responsible in some respects for assisting in the maintenance of the witness historically entrusted to the Roman Catholic Church.
[Hat tip to J.M.]
11 comments:
Rob Bell?
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dnz8z4JVk0BA&h=caaa6
No fault auto insurance. No fault divorce. Hey, why wouldn't no fault particular judgment be popular? Especially among the separated breathren, who have been inching toward that end ever since the sixteenth century?
But Catholics like it too, and it may not be too much to say that the Catholic Church has been inching toward that same end for the past century or more. I think, for example, of Cdl Scola's slavish enthusiasm for Balthasar, which seems not to have been tempered in the least by "Dare We Hope That All All Men Be Saved"
I wonder if poor, brave Alyssa Lyra Pitstick, recently graduated from the Angelicum in Rome, has found gainful employment on the faculty of a Catholic educational institution as yet.
Hey, we're all "People of God," right? What else matters??
What God permits is done for the greater good. If God allows a storm to erase a continent... it is Willed for the greater good.
This is the first I have heard of this Mr.Bell. He sounds like many of the "c"atholics I know.
Lyra Pitstick did indeed get hired ... at a Calvinist institution, Hope College. I will mention that there is a defence of hell by a Catholic in an article, 'The justice and goodness of hell', forthcoming in the journal Faith and Philosophy.
Ralph and John,
One of my colleagues, presently on sabbatical in Amsterdan, has just written a great critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar's "Dare We Hope" book. It's not published yet, but I do hope he gets a publisher for it.
On this topic, readers may be interested in an earlier article by Carmello Fallace, entitled "Is God's Love Unconditional?" published in the New Oxford Review (February, 2008). A post was devoted to this article three years ago, entitled "Is God's Love Unconditional?" (Musings, March 10, 2008). As I recall, Fallace's piece in the NOR sparked considerable controversy for obvious reasons. It seems Catholics these days are more Protestant than many Protestants on this issue.
How is the claim the God loves everyone unconditionally imply that everyone is going to heaven?
Sam,
Because if God loves everyone unconditionally and not everyone goes to heaven, then salvation is still not unconditional but conditioned on the arbitrary will of God -- Ockham's potestas Dei absoluta.
It has been said that God loves the sinner and hates the sin. However if you have habituated your self a liar, you are a liar. Where does that leave the separation?
"One of my colleagues...has just written a great critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar..."
Would it not be terrific if it were to come out under Ignatius Press. Carl O. if you r reading here, take note! LOL.
It is pretty interesting that in this instance we Catholics beat the Protestants to popularizing the trendy thinking. Also, to be fair, Ignatius does have Piers Paul Rand's pretty salty 'Hell... and OTher Destinations."
John L,
Thanks for the update. I cannot honestly say that I am surprised. What a sad, pitiful state our Church is in, unwilling to accept the consequences of its own doctrine.
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