Sex God

A deliberately provocative title for the latest book by Rob Bell, founder of Mars Hill Church in Michigan, the latest big name American Christian writer and speaker.

What attracted me to his first book Velvet Elvis -Repainting the Christian Faith was his open-ended style of writing. Each chapter was like a conversation with himself - then just when you're agreeing with him then he chucks a real curveball into the discussion to really get you thinking. You might not agree, but to him that's Okay - it's a discussion.

The subtitle of this book is Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality. It tackles a big question that's recently been plaguing me in relation to the evangelical church - we don't know what it means to be human. he explains that the word sex comes from a Latin root that means to be cut off or severed. We’re born into a world of disconnection, we’re disconnected from the earth, from each other, from God and ourselves. People say “I don’t know who I am”. So, sexuality is all of the ways that we are aware of this cut off state we’re in and the desire to reconnect.

Stylistically Sex God is very similar to Velvet Elvis, and is maybe too open-ended for some tastes, and I was expecting some discussion around homosexuality (maybe that's for a later book) but the final chapter where he draws everything together into exactly why he thinks Jesus uses the wedding analogy for his relationship with church is classic. I read this while I was away from Lisa in Chicago for a few days and it really gave me goosebumps!