Everything Is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We’re Doing Here

Former evangelical Christian pastor Bell (Love Wins) persuasively preaches a gospel of embracing one’s story in this enjoyable mix of memoir and sermon. Bell was a star in the evangelical Christian firmament until he left his Michigan megachurch (a term, he notes, that made him wince) and challenged conservative Christians with his 2011 book, Love Wins, which argued all people will be saved. Bell anchors his musings in family history (particularly the deaths of an uncle and great-grandfather he never met who he’s felt have “been present in [his] life since the beginning”) to establish his premise that “everything is connected to everything else.” He traces his spiritual journey through college and seminary and details formative events that led him from being an assistant pastor to founding Mars Hill Church, where he established a national reputation. Throughout, Bell encourages readers to embrace change, and his reflections on his time as a pastor are both grounded and imaginative, and make more sense than some of his meanderings into such areas as particle physics. Bell’s vigorous, quirky outing will appeal to progressive Christians. (Aug.)