Yesterday I read Rob Bells latest book, Sex God. Rob is speaking in Belfast on Tuesday night, as part of the Calling All Peacemakers tour, so I thought I’d take the chance to read this before then. I found it a really useful book in exploring sexuality and how it relates into everything we do.
Bell has always come in for critiscm, but until now, I’ve never really had any problem with him. However, as much as I appreciated this book… there was one thing he said that just doesn’t sit well with me. He is speaking about the Jewish context of marriage and sex, that in the Hebrew understanding you weren’t married until you’d had sex. He talks around this about ‘unmarried’ couples and suggets that maybe in God’s eyes they are already married… I dunno about this! I think you should read it and judge for yourself. I’m not going to throw out everything because of this, but it did kinda take me aback for a moment.
On a brighter note, here are some points I loved…
“Our sexuality is all the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other,
and with God.”
“Sexy is when it feels good to be in your own skin. Your own body feels right, it feels comfortable. Sexy is when you love being you.”
“Sex becomes a search. A search for something they’re missing. A quest for the unconditional embrace. And so they go from relationship to relationship, looking for what they already have.”
“Is sex in its greatest, purest, most joyful and honest expression a glimpse of forever?
Are these brief moments of abandon and oneness and ecstasy just a couple of seconds or minutes of how things will be forever?
Is sex a picture of heaven?”
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Been reading it at the moment too.. have to agree with you.. think it’s been one of the most sensible coherent christian views that i’ve read about sexuality so far.
Think i would probably need to read some more Jewish literature as well as getting it second-hand from Mr Bell, but my impression is that if we go looking for a authentic Christian worldview that incorporates sexuality, its going to be something deeply differnt from our the rest of the worlds thinking. I think what strikes me most about that particular passage is not so much about the idea that it presents a “low” view of marriage, but that it gives sex a “high” view (i think thats also a quote somewhere in the book, but its hard to find it right now).
Would also recommend the “Flame” nooma video… an excellent wee piece of video too..
and the book has nice colours and graphic design… ahh… so nice to read!
oh.. and i tagged you with a wee meme! 🙂
http://www.nealb.co.uk/2007/06/non-books/
Paul wrote to gentiles, who were busy not being hebrews, who he even told to stop trying to be hebrews, and gave what is regarded as exactly the same instructions about sexuality/marriage as is found in the letter to the hebrew church. Jesus’ teachings on lust didnt seem to draw from hebrew models. Song of Songs emphasises how excellent a relationship can be in the christian context (marriage song in early bit) with the greatest pleasure being the other person, not sex.
But apart from that it just makes sense. People are sacrosanct, sexual union should be too.
Rob is seemingly a genius, but when genius puts forward views that they’ve just breakthrough-discovered, sometimes genius will change their mind again a year later even though it would passionately fight for those views now. Apostolic accountability is a wonderful thing but maybe its missing or at fault in this case.
Neal… The “high” view quote is straight after that passage I was talking about…
“This isn’t a low view of sex, it’s a higher view of sex. It’s a higher view of marriage. It’s people living in the reality of the decisions they’ve already made.”
I asked Bell about this when he spoke in Belfast last week, and he said that it came across through his reading of / working his way through the book of Exodus… didn’t get into too much discussion over it unfortunately. I’d like to have a read through Exodus to see where he gets this from, though it’ll prob be a wee while before I get round to that.
My view is that Bell is much like everyone else… some things he says are brilliant for proding me to ask questions and search for truth, but not everything he says is faultless or true… test everything…