Book Review: Everything is Spiritual, Rob Bell

Everything is Spiritual, Rob Bell

I’m…a little…confused about…what to write…

I enjoyed the book. The book-ish. It’s not really a book, and I agree with other reviewers that whatever he says – that spirituality is everywhere and everything – could have been said easily and more understandably in a short blog. The book is actually one long run-on sentence that wafts around like disembodied fingers pointing at cracks and holes or at anything that may or may not be there.

I think I would like Bell. I have a strong draw toward Christian mysticism and have been trouble more than once in explaining how, yes, I love the scriptures, but think that a relationship with Jesus is more important than a Bible verse. This kind of thing doesn’t bode well in a deepish South where I live. Nor does calling Notre Dame G’s football team.

I quite like – and consider it profound – how he explains that the word spiritual isn’t found in Hebrew scriptures putatively because, well, when you call a thing spiritual you call other things non-spiritual. And if American Christians are good at anything, it’s calling things nonspiritual and judging people based on how they fit into our spiritual;/nonspiritual categories. (I’m not sure if this is true and will keep a very curious eye open for word as I read through the OT.)

I like, too, that he admits to his own changes. Duh. Isn’t that the entire point of transformation? But I’m not a pastor and I’m guessing it’s a tough row for a pastor to hoe. The book strikes me as akin to the Ragamuffin Gospel. Not in content, really, but in that it speaks to a plain truth that neither the church nor most modern people are interested in.

I hate to whine about what I don’t like in a book – writing is a tough slog and I want to remain as upbeat as I can – but I really dislike when writers mix science and religion. This is the entire point of the book, of course, that there is no separation, but I cringe when writers use quantum as a springboard to taking about G. It seems cheap and easy . We know virtually nothing about quantum or G and comparing the two seems silly. But I venture here, too, where I often step: I teach science and veer often into the wondrous and often unexplainable world we live in. I hope to student’s benefit.

Should you read it? It’s a long and inspiring sentence and unlike most books you’ve read. There are few details and no how-tos which make sense from a mystic’s vantage, but not from the viewpoint of the sub-title: Finding Your Way I a Turbulent World.

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