Since its release last month, Love Wins has flown off the shelves, reaching No 2 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Whilst it has clearly struck a chord with people looking for an alternative to the hellfire and brimstone concept of God, many critics have pounded the book and denounced Bell as a universalist or a heretic.
They accuse Bell of distorting biblical truths about judgement, wrath and hell, and diminishing the meaning of the blood and the cross in salvation, with potentially devastating consequences for the spiritual fate of those who embrace his perspective.
Love Wins was released in mid-March and yet the firestorm had already erupted weeks earlier, when a short film announcing the book’s publication prompted a flurry of responses.
Speaking to journalists in London yesterday, Bell said it was “tough” being misunderstood, misread and “accused of all sorts of devious things”.
Asked if he found it hurtful that some people had criticised the book before it was published, he responded: “It hurts more than me.”
He said: “Some of the things people say and the way that they act, this can’t be the way of Jesus. There’s got to be a little higher standard of civil discourse.”
He added later: “My first thought is that [people] should read the book first. That was a phenomenon that I didn’t expect, that there would be that sort of level of discussion surrounding a book that nobody had read.
“So when people said [about] the controversy, I was like: has anyone even read the book? Because then there is something substantive to knock around.”
Despite the fierce criticism from some corners, Bell said others had been “extraordinarily supportive and appreciative”, and that some had been set free because they realised they could be a Christian and “ask that sort of question”.
“The Christian tradition’s quite diverse. It can handle the discussion. It can handle different perspectives. That’s part of its strength and its vibrancy.”
Asked whether there was any moment in which he had regretted writing the book, he answered: “Any moment like that has been immediately followed up with an email or phone call or someone telling me ‘hey, thanks’.
“So no, this was sort of in my bones and this is just part of the cost of capturing it and writing it down and putting it out there.”
Later in the evening, Bell got up on stage to talk about his book in front of some 3,000 people at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster.
He told them it had never been his intention to be controversial but that his book was rather about “recapturing the Gospel” and pointing out that Christianity has a “wide variety of perspectives” on judgement and reconciliation.
“I don’t think that trying to be controversial is a noble goal. I don’t know if God honours those sorts of intentions,” he said.
