Review of Sex God by Rob Bell

 Thoughtful and full of biblical insight, Rob Bell’s sophomore book, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality, reconnects Christians to idea that sexuality is also spiritual. Bell offers a new look on what it means to be human, how our definition of humanity is ultimately found in God alone, and what is means to be intimate with other humans and with an intimate God. Sex God has little do to with sex in and of itself, but has everything to do with sexuality.

According to Bell, when man and woman fell in the Garden, they became profoundly disconnected from the world, each other, and God. Sexuality, then, is defined as “the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God.” (42) What was ultimately lost in the Fall was man’s ability to be “naked and unashamed”—that is, the ability to be completely vulnerable in front of another.

Bell likens this vulnerability to a junior high dance—boys on one side and girls on the other; both sides afraid to cross to the other for fear of being rejected. On one such occasion, Bell made the long walk over to the girls’ side to ask a young lady to dance. Instead of accepting his offer, the girl made a beeline for the girls’ bathroom and did not reappear for the rest of the evening. By asking her to dance, Bell says that he took a risk in being rejected, which he was. He goes on to compare this experience with how God interacts with His people—God asks humans to join in a love relationship with Him, and allows humans to ultimately reject Him.

This is how God is vulnerable with humans—and God’s ultimate vulnerability was given to humanity in Jesus. Bell puts it like this, “Jesus is God coming to us in love. Sheer unadulterated, unfiltered love.

Stripped of everything that could get in the way. Naked and vulnerable, hanging on a cross, asking the question, ‘What will you do with me?’”(105) As Jesus came to us in vulnerability to restore our connectedness to the Father, so it is in our sexuality that we reconnect with each other as well. Human sexuality is all about learning to be naked as we were before the Fall—to be vulnerable with each other, to give selflessly to each other, to allow another person to be who he or she really is—and all of this generally takes place in the content of marriage. Or at least it should.

Bell takes it one step further and says that this is what it means to be in a truly sexual relationship with the God who was first vulnerable with us. Sexuality with God is a human being’s ultimate goal and what humans are ultimately headed towards once this life is over. Using bridal imagery from Revelation, Bell says that humans will be reconnected with God, with the earth, and with each other.

Also, discussed in Sex God are how disconnectedness causes humans to devalue sex, how dehumanizing others dehumanizing ourselves, and the beauty of both marriage and singleness. Bell has the ability to engage readers who are new to Christianity as well as those who have studied the Bible for years. Not only does this book weave stories and experiences together with solid biblical teaching, its Endnotes are also well-done. Sex God restores a spiritual perspective on one of the church’s biggest taboo topics and makes sexuality with God and others, beautiful.

*Thanks to the publisher for my review copy, which I read and reviewed on my other site before the FTC made these silly rules.

Do you think society takes spirituality out of sex? How do you feel about God being a "sexual" being?  Does this sound like a book you'd read--why or why not?  Have you read Bell's latest book, Love Wins?