Rob Bell and Don Golden release a very important book for the church. The reason I say it is a very important book is because this book sums up much of where Rob Bell is coming from in his theology. There are a lot of people that I run into who question why I might follow a lot of what Rob Bell teaches or read a lot of his influences (brueggemann, wright, mclaren, rohr, etc.), they can be very cynical and I think this book gives a great overview of Bell’s ideas on the “new exodus” way of reading the bible and after reading it I think more people may be less cynical and consider this view of the bible as something to consider.
Rob also takes time to develop a way of seeing the bible that allows for more practical information later, when he brings in a number of stats concerning the current state of affairs in our world. It is amazing to me how Rob brings to light so many of the regular day to day activities that we take part in and how some of them are part of destructive systems in our empire, but we are quite blind to them.
To summarize then, I would say that basically the book is a walk from Egypt (the empire that enslaved) to Sinai (the covanent God made with Israel), to Jerusalem (which then became its own empire under Solomon) to Babylon (when the Israelites were exiled). And then everything flows from that as we engage the prophets, Jesus and the Eucharist. I will leave it at that and say that its a 4.5/5 on my CP rating and that it reads almost like poetry. Well done Rob.
Scot Mcknight has a great review here, if you care to read it.
