Book description
Rob Bell's highly-praised third book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians,
is his most political yet. Published as part of the Rob Bell Classics
relaunch, this is an inspiring call-to-arms for Christians to tackle
poverty, inequality and oppression.
'There is a church not too far from us that recently added a million
addition to their building,' writes Rob Bell. 'Our local newspaper ran a
front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in
five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers.'
Jesus Wants to Save Christians is a book about faith and fear, wealth
and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland
insecurity. 'The author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God teams up with
fellow pastor Golden to write a manifesto that packs as much
sociopolitical zing as rhetorical punch. If Americans today miss the
central message of the Bible, say the authors, the reason is that the
United States is an empire like those described in Scripture that build
powerful armies and seek to protect what they accumulate rather than
promote justice and mercy. Chapter titles such as "Swollen-bellied
black babies, soccer moms on Prozac, and the mark of the beast"
will provoke many readers. Likely to get a bigger rise is the suggestion
that when the Bible says enemies will one day worship together, that
includes today's enemies, the Taliban and al-Qaeda… This dramatic book
is politically charged but not party-bent, bearing a message
evangelicals need: that Jesus didn't come just to save people for heaven
someday but to transform his followers and the physical world now.'
(Publishers Weekly)
'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)
'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)
'One of the nation's rock-star-popular young pastors, Rob Bell, has
stuck a pitchfork in how Christians talk about damnation.' (USA Today)
Rob Bell is the Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Holy Bible Church in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of the bestselling Velvet Elvis, Sex
God, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Drops Like Stars, speaks to
sold-out audiences across the world and pioneers a series of short films
called NOOMA. He and his wife Kristen have three children.
