The Hell of Bell. A constructivist analysis of the image of hell in Rob Bells 'Love Wins'

摘要

This paper is an analysis of the hell theme in Rob Bell's book Love Wins. A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Using a constructivist text analysis the essay examines how Bell creates a theology around the image of hell that he advocates. The study aims to analyze and explain how Bell constructs the meaning he advocates in the concept of hell. This includes an analysis of the passages in the book that discusses what the term hell refers to and the passages that deal with properties of hell. The method is constructivist analysis according to Lennart Hellspong, as described in his text book Metoder för brukstextanalys. Theoretical basis for the survey is a social constructivist perspective with ontological realism as a philosophical background. Key findings are that Bell approves the term hell, highlights that hell has little support in the Bible and contests the idea that God punishes people with hell. Furthermore, he emphasizes that hell is not a secluded place and problematizes the notion of the term aion in order to indicate that hell is not eternal. In this Bell uses storytelling a lot, as well as the constructivist strategies fictitious strategies, grading strategies, assimilative strategies and dissimilative strategies.