I finished re-reading Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath last night.  What an amazing book.  So much richer than I remembered, but then again, 20 intervening years can tend to make things pretty fuzzy.

I'm now going to reread a book I read only a year ago - Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.  Bell has gotten a lot of press in recent years, and has some incredibly good things to say - and even better ways of saying them.  This book impressed the heck out of me a year ago.  But I had the nagging suspicion that as I raced through it, there were little things that didn't quite seem to make sense and hold water.  My next few posts will be addressing minor issues I have with what Bell says, or how he says it.  My intent is not to minimize what he's contributing to Christian discussion and systematics, but to clarify where I think he has some rough edges theologically.  No metaphor is perfect, after all.