Some quick observations. I have noticed Rob's initial focus on the themes of faith v. doubt, and the idea of openness, to be the very themes we have been exploring here at Relevancy22 these past many years. Nice to know great minds think alike! LOL
Too, I quickly understood Oprah's confusion between pan-theism (God and creation are one) and pan-en-theism (God in creation, but separate from creation) in her descriptions of God as being "the All." Rob graciously lets it go as a matter of convenience even as he was working out the larger dilemma as to how to bridge the missional distance between Christianity and societal evangelism. Basically, you don't go to these shows to correct, but to explain, in attempts to move the discussion along to a larger audience which may be intrigued and searching for hope.
R.E. Slater
November 4, 2013
"When Rob Bell — pastor, best-selling author, provocative thinker — recently joined me on the show, we talked for two and a half hours, and I could have kept going," wrote Winfrey. "The ideas Rob sets forth in his books Love Wins and What We Talk About When We Talk About God opened my heart and my mind. People like him are the reason I set out to build OWN in the first place: to be able to gather a global community of like-minded seekers."
The post titled, "What Oprah Knows for Sure About Spirituality," was accompanied by a picturesque photo of Bell and Winfrey deep in discussion with the media mogul grasping a copy of What We Talk About When We Talk About God.
Considered one of America's most influential and progressive Christian pastors, Rob Bell joins Oprah to explore his latest book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, and to discuss why more people are identifying with spirituality over religion.
'It's Not Crazy To Acknowledge That There's A God' (VIDEO)
October 30, 2013
Considered as one of America’s most influential, progressive -- and controversial -- Christian pastors, Rob Bell joins Oprah this week on "Super Soul Sunday" to explore his latest book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God.
"So let's begin where you begin in the book," Oprah says in the above video from the upcoming episode. "We first need to open."
"First and foremost, to all the really smart, studied people who have been to the TED conference and have iPhones: It's not crazy to acknowledge that there's a God," Bell says. "It may actually be the rational move, is simply to say, 'I've come to the end of my own logical powers and acknowledge there's too much that's beyond what we can sort through using these little brains that we have.'
"First and foremost, to all the really smart, studied people who have been to the TED conference and have iPhones: It's not crazy to acknowledge that there's a God," Bell says. "It may actually be the rational move, is simply to say, 'I've come to the end of my own logical powers and acknowledge there's too much that's beyond what we can sort through using these little brains that we have.'
"And for 300 years the water we've been swimming in, that we've been handed by the enlightenment tradition -- which has brought us medicines and hospitals and all sorts of wonderful things -- has also brought us, ultimately, if you cannot explain it ... I don't know. And yet we're fascinated as humans. We're wired for the mysterious. We love it. We're drawn to it. You can't stifle it."
"So you're saying just open to that," Oprah says.
"It's OK to be open," Bell says. "It's OK to be open."
Oprah's conversation with Bell on "Super Soul Sunday" airs Sunday, November 3 at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.
Rob Bell Says Faith And Doubt Go Hand In Hand (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/rob-bell-oprah_n_4195219.html
By OWN Posted: 11/04/2013 10:03 am EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/rob-bell-oprah_n_4195219.html
By OWN Posted: 11/04/2013 10:03 am EST
In Pastor Rob Bell's 2011 book, Love Wins, he pondered questions that are often considered taboo in traditional Christianity: What if heaven is open to all, rather than a select few? What if hell doesn't exist at all? Though the book became a New York Times bestseller, it also caused controversy among conservative Christians.
Now, Bell sits down with Oprah on "Super Soul Sunday" to discuss his latest book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, in which he explores why some people resist talking about and embracing God.
In the above video, Bell explains why he believes that faith and doubt are not opposites but instead really "excellent dance partners." He says we're all leaping, even if we don't all realize or acknowledge it.
'Everybody's really taking sort of fragments and the shrapnel you have of your experience and you're leaping into this story or this story. 'I'm going to make the leap that what I do matters, that I'm not an accident, that there is some call on my life,'" he says.
He says that people who believe in God aren't the only ones making a leap, though. "I think the people in the modern world with the most sort of, 'This is the rational scientific evidence why there is no God' -- that's just as much a leap."
"So that is what you mean by God being a reality known and felt but difficult to analyze," Oprah says.
Oprah also asks Bell about his description of a "lethal division between the science and the sacred."
"Well, I think it cuts people off from celebrating," Bell explains. "To me, the only kind of faith worth having is faith that can celebrate the good and the true and the beautiful, wherever you find it."
"Super Soul Sunday" airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.
