EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL

A former megachurch pastor’s stab at sagacity.

In his latest, Christian speaker and writer Bell, the founder of Mars Hill Bible Church, offers a hybrid work of autobiography and exploration of “big ideas.” The author sets himself up as something of a mystic; indeed, he fondly recounts how a woman in his congregation “pulled me aside and said, “'You’re a mystic.’ ” As he writes, “the mystic doesn’t need an authority figure to validate what they know is true. I was never interested in religion….I was after an experience.” Bell makes it clear that through much of his career, he has strained against, or simply ignored, the authority of church traditions, denominationalism, and established theology. In this brief work, he attempts to distill lessons from his own life and from his grappling with questions of faith and existence, all in a nearly stream-of-consciousness, poetic format. Unfortunately, the author’s halting, fragmented style makes the text difficult to read, and his conclusions are hardly groundbreaking. Among his insights: “We’re made of thingness, / we have life, / we have minds, / and we also have / soul. / And soul is real, / just as real as your skin and bones. / The mind thinks, / the soul knows.” As a memoir, the narrative is scattershot and saturated with Bell’s feelings of loss, confusion, and anxiety. Throughout, the author is unsure about his next steps despite his massive successes in ministry, books (Love Wins, What Is the Bible? etc.), and public speaking. Dipping his toe into quantum physics, Bell sees in the Big Bang and the structure of molecules deep life lessons about belonging and growing. Yet even these ideas don’t convey smoothly, as the author unnecessarily camouflages them within a garden of chopped-up phrases.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Bell could have done better.