So—and this goes especially for more conservative readers—before you jump all over your friend who’s excitedly reading Bell’s book because Oprah said great things about it, slow down. Wait a minute. Ask questions. Trust that Jesus can be at work here, even if you would have preferred that he use a different book.

Eckhart Tolle.

Rhonda Byrne.

Elizabeth Gilbert.

…Rob Bell?

Yes, the moment has arrived. After encouraging us to learn from Tolle about ‘The Power of Now’, pushing us to unlock ‘The Secret’ with Byrne, and exhorting us to let Gilbert teach us to ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ Oprah has added Rob Bell to her list of must-read spiritual gurus. This month the media mogul picked Bell’s recent offering What We Talk About When We Talk About God as her ‘Super Soulful Book of the Month,’ saying:

Pastor Rob Bell is shaking up the way we think about God and religion. I love his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God (HarperOne). When I first started reading it, I was highlighting my favorite passages, but then I realized—what’s the point? I’ve marked every page! It just wowed me. In the book, Bell explains that God is and always has been with us, for us, and ahead of us—and then explores how we can really absorb this knowledge into our everyday lives to become more connected to spirit.

So, having reviewed Bell’s book previously for Christ and Pop Culture, I have three basic thoughts on this:

1. It Makes Sense – I’ll admit it, my first reaction was “Welp, that figures.” Bell does not advocate a kooky, cheap metaphysic like Byrne does in The Secret, or deal in vague, consumer-packaged spiritual generalities as Tolle and Gilbert do. As I’ve said before, it’s Bell’s Areopagus speech to a religiously-disaffected populace that still feels the ‘hum’ of spirituality. Bell’s book about God is still focused through Jesus, the incarnate one. Even so, it still has plenty of that vague, spiritual-ish feel to it. It’s a version of Christianity with a lot of the sharper, bloodier, particular edges shaved off to be accessible—palatable—to a more pluralistic and inclusivist milieu.

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