HarperCollins is one of the world's largest publishing companies. Headquartered in New York City, the company is a subsidiary of News Corporation. The company name is a combination of Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers (founded 1817) and Row, Peterson & Company; and UK publishing company William Collins, Sons (founded 1819), acquired in 1990. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray.^[1] HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and India. The company publishes many different imprints, both former independent publishing houses and new imprints.

History[link]

HarperCollins UK headquarters in Hammersmith, London

Collins[link]

Harper[link]

Mergers and acquisitions[link]

In 1989, Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and the publisher was combined with Harper & Row, which NewsCorp had acquired two years earlier. In addition to the simplified and merged name, the logo for HarperCollins was derived from the torch logo for Harper and Row, and the fountain logo for Collins, which where combined into a stylized set of flames atop waves.

In 1999, News Corporation purchased the Hearst Book Group, consisting of William Morrow & Company and Avon Books. These imprints are now published under the rubric of HarperCollins.^[2]

In 2011, HarperCollins acquired the publisher Thomas Nelson (pending).^[3]

Management history[link]

Jane Friedman was CEO for HarperCollins from 1997 to 2008. Notable management figures include Lisa Sharkey, current senior vice president and director of creative development and Barry Winkleman from 1989 to 1994.

Notable books[link]

HarperCollins maintains the backlist of many of the books originally published by their many merged imprints, in addition to having picked up new authors since the merger. Authors published originally by Harper include Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters and William Makepeace Thackeray. Authors published originally by Collins include H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie and J. R. R. Tolkien. This is a list of some of the more noted books, and series, published by HarperColllins and their various imprints and merged publishing houses.

• The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm (1956)
• Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian (1970) (adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
• the Leaphorn and Chee books, Tony Hillerman (1970-2006)
• Collins English Dictionary (1979), a major dictionary^[4]
• Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell (1981-2006)
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Hayden Herrera (1983), adapted into the 2002 film Frida
• Weaveworld, Clive Barker (1987)
• the Paladin Poetry Series (1987-1993)
• Of Gravity & Angels Jane Hirshfield (1988)
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, (1988) (first published in Portuguese as O Alquimista, 1988)
• Take Back Plenty, Colin Greenland (1990)
• The Language of the Genes, Steve Jones (1993)
• The Gifts of the Body, Rebecca Brown (1994)
• Microserfs, Douglas Coupland (1995)
• One of the Guys, by Robert Clark Young (1999)
• Shuka Saptati: Seventy tales of the Parrot a new translation from the Sanskrit by A. N. D. Haksar (2000)
• First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, Loung Ung (2000)
• Bel Canto, Ann Patchett (2001)
• A Theory of Relativity, Jacquelyn Mitchard (2001)
• recent volumes in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (books from 2001 to present)
• American Gods Neil Gaiman (2001)
• Boonville, Robert Mailer Anderson (2003 reprint)
• Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (2003)
• Don Quixote, a new translation by Edith Grossman (2003, Ecco)
• Acquainted with the Night, Christopher Dewdney (2004)
• Darkhouse, Alex Barclay (2005)
• Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman (2005)
• The Hot Kid, Elmore Leonard (2005)
• Freaky Green Eyes, by Joyce Carol Oates (2006)
• Next, Michael Crichton (2006)
• Mister B. Gone, Clive Barker (Harper) (2007)
• The Children of Húrin, J.R.R. Tolkien (posthumous, compiled by Christopher Tolkien) (2007)
• Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith, Beth Holloway (2007) (about Natalee Holloway)
• The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall (2007)
• The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, Jeff Sharlet (2008)
• Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin (2009)
• Solo, Rana Dasgupta (2009)
• The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, J.R.R. Tolkien (2009) (copublished by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton (2009) (posthumous publication)
• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (2009)
• Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder, Kathryn Casey (2010)
• Micro, Michael Crichton (2011) (posthumous publication)
• The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (2011)

Harper Children's Books[link]

Children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom was the director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973, overseeing the publication of classics such as Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, Charlotte's Web, Beverly Cleary's series starring Ramona Quimby, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. They were the publishing home of Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown.^[5] In 1998, Nordstrom's personal correspondence was published as Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (illustrated by Maurice Sendak), edited by Charlotte Zolotow. Zolotow began her career as a stenographer to Nordstrom, became her protege, and went on to write more than 80 books and edit hundreds of others, including Nordstrom's The Secret Language and the works of Paul Fleischman. Zolotow later became head of the Children's Books Department, and went on to become the company's first female Vice-President.

The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, while not originally published by a merged imprint of HarperCollins, were acquired by the publisher.

HarperCollins has published the following notable children's books:

• the I Can Read! series for beginning readers, including the Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish), Frog and Toad (Arnold Lobel) and Little Bear (Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak) books
• the Warriors series
• A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket
• A Taste of Blackberries, Doris Buchanan Smith (1973)
• Skulduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy
• Bart Simpson's Guide to Life (1993)
• Love That Dog, Sharon Creech (2001)
• The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (1964)
• Where the Sidewalk Ends (book), Shel Silverstein (1974)
• The Saga of Darren Shan, Darren Shan (2000-2004)
  • Cirque du Freak manga series, Darren Shan and Takahiro Arai (2006-2009)
• The Dangerous Book for Boys, Conn and Hal Iggulden (2006)
• Sabriel, Garth Nix (1995)
• I Am Number Four, Pittacus Lore (pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes) (2010)
• The Power of Six (sequel to I Am Number Four), Pittacus Lore (pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes) (2011)
• A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, Jules Feiffer (1995)
• Mister God, This Is Anna, Fynn (pseudonym of Sydney Hopkins) (1974)
• the Little House on the Prairie series, Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932-2006)
• The Wolves in the Walls, Neal Gaiman and Dave McKean (2003)
• Monster, Walter Dean Myers (1999)
• Coraline, Neal Gaiman and Dave McKean (2002)
• the Pretty Little Liars series, by Sara Shepard (2007-present)
• Surviving the Applewhites, Stephanie S. Tolan (2002)
• Ruby Redfort (series), Lauren Child (2011)
• Divergent, Veronica Roth (2011)

Imprints[link]

HarperCollins has over 30 book imprints, most of which are based in the United States.^[6] Collins still exists as an imprint, chiefly for wildlife and natural history books, field guides, as well as English and bilingual dictionaries based on the Bank of English, a large corpus of contemporary English texts.

HarperCollins imprints (current and defunct, including imprints that existed prior to various mergers), include:

Business strategy[link]

Web approach[link]

In order to both boost book sales and reach the online market, HarperCollins has created a browsing feature on its website, whereby customers can read selected extracts from books before purchasing.^[9][10] There are some concerns among publishers with this approach because they feel that the online books could be exploited by file-sharing.^[11] In addition, excerpts of books are also available to mobile phone users.^[12] HarperCollins were first to market with an innovative approach to slushpile management with the introduction of the authonomy website. From 2009 to 2010, they operated Bookarmy, a social networking site.

Speakers Bureau[link]

The HarperCollins Speakers Bureau (also known as HCSB) is the first lecture agency to be created by a major publishing house.^[13] It was launched in May 2005^[13] as a division of HarperCollins to book paid speaking engagements for the authors HarperCollins, and its sister companies, publish. Jamie Brickhouse is the director.^[14]

Some of the notable authors the HCSB represents include Carol Alt, Dennis Lehane, Gregory Maguire,^[15] Danny Meyer, Mehmet Oz, Sidney Poitier, Ted Sorensen, and Kate White.

HarperStudio[link]

HarperCollins announced HarperStudio in 2008 as a "new, experimental unit... that will eliminate the traditional profit distributions to authors. The long-established author advances and bookseller returns has not proved to be very profitable to either the author or the publisher. The approach HarperStudio is now taking is to offer little or no advance, but instead to split the profit 50% (rather than the industry standard 15%), with the author." The division was headed by Bob Miller, previously the founding publisher of Hyperion, the adult books division of the Walt Disney Company.^[16][17] HarperStudio folded in March 2010 after Miller left for Workman Publishing.^[18]

Controversies[link]

If I Did It[link]

If I Did It was a book written by O.J. Simpson about his alleged murder of Nicole Simpson, which was planned as a HarperCollins title, and which attracted considerable controversy and a legal battle over publication.

Ben Collins[link]

In August 2010, the company became embroiled in a legal battle with the BBC after a book it was due to publish, later identified as the forthcoming autobiography of racing driver Ben Collins, revealed the identity of The Stig from Top Gear.^[19] In his blog, Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman accused HarperCollins of "hoping to cash in" on the BBC's intellectual property, describing the publishers as "a bunch of chancers."^[20] On September 1 the BBC's request for an injunction preventing the book from being published was turned down, effectively confirming the book's revelation that "The Stig" was indeed Collins.^[21]

East and West[link]

The company became embroiled in controversy in 1998 after it was revealed it blocked Chris Patten's (the last British governor of Hong Kong) book East and West after a direct intervention by the then-CEO of News International, Rupert Murdoch^[22]. It was later revealed by Stuart Proffitt, the editor who had worked on the book for HarperCollins, that this intervention was designed to appease the Chinese authorities- of whom the book was critical- as Murdoch intended to extend his business empire into China and did not wish to cause problems there by allowing the book to be published.^[23]. Murdoch's intervention caused both Proffitt's resignation from the company and outrage from international media outside of News International. Chris Patten later published with Macmillan Publishing, initially in America, where it carried the logo "The book that Rupert Murdoch refused to publish" ^[24]. After a successful legal campaign against HarperCollins, Patten went on to publish the book in the UK in September 1998 after accepting a sum of £500,000 and receiving an apology from Rupert Murdoch. ^[25]

eBooks[link]

In March 2011, HarperCollins announced it would distribute eBooks to libraries with DRM enabled to delete the item after being lent 26 times.^[26][27] HarperCollins has drawn criticism of this plan, in particular its likening eBooks, which are purely digital, to traditional paperback trade books, which wear over time.^[28][29]

See also[link]

Children's literature portal

• COBUILD – a research facility set up by Collins in conjunction with the University of Birmingham.
• Harper's Magazine – a separately owned magazine, although begun by the original Harper & Brothers.
• The Big Six publishing companies:
  • HarperCollins, Hachette, Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Putnam, Random House and Simon & Schuster^[30]
• List of largest UK book publishers

References[link]

External links[link]

• HarperCollins Publishers India
• HarperCollins Publishers US
• HarperCollins Speakers Bureau
• HarperCollins Publishers UK
• Collins UK
• HarperCollinsChildrens US
• HarperCollins Publishers AUS
• HarperCollins Publishers CAN
• Zondervan
• Collins English Dictionary online Collins English dictionary and thesaurus (free online lookup)
• Times World Atlases official website published by Collins Geo
• Fontana Modern Masters a groundbreaking series of pocket guides on eminent writers, philosophers and other thinkers, published by Collins under its paperback imprint, Fontana Books, in the 1970s

Rajiv Malhotra, born September 1950, is an Indian-American author, philanthropist, public speaker and writer on current affairs, world religions and cross-cultural encounters. He is the founder of the Infinity Foundation.^[1][2][3] He is also a former telecommunication entrepreneur. After a career in the software, computer, and telecom industries Malhotra took an early retirement to pursue philanthropic and educational activities.^[4] He founded the Infinity foundation in 1995.^[4]

Prema A. Kurien considers him to be at "...the forefront of American Hindu effort to challenge the Eurocentricism in the academia."^[5] He has been considered by Hinnells to lead the traditional Hindu criticism of Wendy Doniger's methodology for the examination of Hinduism^[6]

His criticism of American academia[link]

He considers that a positive stance on India has been underrepresented in American academia, this was derived from programmes staffed by Westerners, their "Indian - American Sepoys" and Indian Americans wanting to be white - whom he describes as "career opportunists" and "Uncle Toms" who in their desire to become even marginal members of the Western Grand Narrative sneer at Indian culture in the same manner as colonialists once did. Academia according to him promoted "a perscective on India using worldviews which are hostile to India's interests", and that "...Indian American donors were hoodwinked into thinking that they were supporting India through their monetary contributions to such programmes". He has claimed that American scholarship has undermined India by encouraging paradigms that oppose its unity and integrity, with scholars playing crirical roles, often under the garb of 'human rights' in channeling foreign intellectual and material support to exacerbate India's internal cleavages. He has accused the academia of abetting the Talibanisation of India, which would also lead to the Talibanisation of other Asian countries.^[7]

Appropriation of Indian symbols by the West and U-turn theory[link]

Malhotra states that by 1900 Aryanisation had been firmly established in German academic circles, German thinkers first glorified India as their cradle, then did a U-Turn and asserted German nationalism - its purity and the lower status of Indians. Despite the extent of German study of India, India's influence is barely mentioned in contemporary western texts on European History. According to him the use of Swastika has been symbolic of this appropriation.^[8]

Infinity Foundation[link]

The Infinity Foundation is an organization based in New Jersey promoting Indic studies.^[9] According to Prema Kurien, since 2003 it is one the most prominent and active Indic studies organization in the United States.^[4] The foundation defines "Indic traditions" as to include Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism.^[10]

The Foundation has given more than 400 grants for research, education and community work.^[1] The Infinity foundation has provided small grants to major universities in support of programs including visiting professorship in Indic studies at Harvard University, Yoga and Hindi classes at Rutgers University, the research and teaching of nondualistic philosophies at University of Hawaii, Global Renaissance Institute and a Center for Buddhist studies at Columbia University, a program in religion and science at University of California, and endowment for the Center for Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania, lectures at the Center for Consciousness Studies at University of Arizona.^[11] The foundation has provided funding for journals like Education about Asia,^[11] International Journal of Hindu Studies^[12] and in the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Non-violence at James Madison University.^[12]

Criticism[link]

Martha C. Nussbaum describes him as a multimillionaire who is the mastermind of US based denigration of American scholars of history of religion.^[13]

Publications[link]

• Malhotra, Rajiv (2005). "India and Globalization". In Nagendra Rao. Globalization, pre modern India. Daya Books. 
• _____________ (2007). "The axis of neo-colonialism". Indian Journals 11 (3). ISSN 0971-8052. http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:wa&volume=11&issue=3&article=003. 
• _____________ (2009). "American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the Frontiers". In Rajani Kannepalli Kanth. The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-61227-3. 
• Malhotra, Rajiv , Aravindan Neelakandan (2011). Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. 
• Malhotra, Rajiv , (2011). Being Different. 

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Prothero, Stephen (2006), A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-5770-0 
• Campbell, James T. (2007), Race, Nation, and Empire in American History (EasyRead Large Bold ed.), The University of North Carolina Press 
• Kurien, Prema A. (2007), A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0-8135-4056-6, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ONMxZc5_saYC 
• Bloch, Esther (2010), Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, Routledge, pp. 208, ISBN 978-0-415-54890-8 
• Martha C. Nussbaum (15 October 2008). The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03059-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=WS_0saaC-jkC&pg=PA214. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
• Mittal, Sushil (2006). Religions of South Asia: an introduction. Gene R. Thursby. Routledge. 
• John R. Hinnells (2010). The Routledge companion to the study of religion. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-47328-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=RyuJ_BfJki8C&pg=PA52. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
• Peter Wilberg (April 2008). Heidegger, Phenomenology and Indian Thought. New Gnosis Publications. ISBN 978-1-904519-08-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=rWE0HcgTmGAC&pg=PA49. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 

External links[link]

• rajivmalhotra.com
• List of articles
• Was the US Senate Attack on Hinduism an isolated Instance?
• Panel Discussion held at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver, Nov 17, 2001
• Outlook India
• Rediff

Bell at the 2011 Time 100 gala

Robert Holmes "Rob" Bell Jr. (born August 23, 1970 in Ingham County, Michigan) is an American author and pastor. He is the founder of Mars Hill Bible Church located in Grandville, Michigan and is also the featured speaker in a series of spiritual short films called NOOMA. In 2011 Time magazine named Bell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Love Wins and Velvet Elvis. Under his leadership Mars Hill Bible Church was one of the fastest-growing churches in America.

Biography[link]

Education and ministry[link]

Bell is the son of Judge Robert Holmes Bell, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan to the federal judiciary and publicly confirmed by the United States Senate.^[1][2] Bell grew up in a traditional Christian environment. In 2011, Bell was recognized as a member of the 2011 Time 100 list.

Bell attended Wheaton College. While at Wheaton, he roomed with Ian Eskelin of All Star United. With friends Dave Houk, Brian Erickson, Steve Huber and Chris Fall, he formed the indie rock band, "_ton bundle", which was reminiscent of bands such as R.E.M. and Talking Heads. This is when _ton bundle wrote the song "Velvet Elvis", based upon the same Velvet Elvis painting that he used in his first book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Wheaton College was also where Bell met his wife, Kristen. The band _ton bundle started to gain some local fame and was even asked to perform at large events, but when Bell was struck with viral meningitis^[3] these plans fell through.^[4]

Bell received his bachelor's degree in 1992 from Wheaton and taught water skiing in the summers at Wheaton College's Honey Rock Camp, making about thirty dollars a week. During this time, Bell offered to teach a Christian message to the camp counselors after no pastor could be found. He taught a message about rest. Bell was later approached by several people, each of them telling him that he should pursue teaching as a career.

Bell moved to Pasadena, California to pursue this calling for teaching and received a M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary. According to Bell, he never received good grades in preaching class because he always tried innovative ways to communicate his ideas. During his time at Fuller he was a youth intern at Lake Avenue Church. He did, however, occasionally attend Christian Assembly in Eagle Rock, California, which led to him and his wife asking questions in the direction of how a new style of church would appear.

Between 1995 and 1997, Bell formed a band called Big Fil which released two CDs; the first was a self-titled disk and the second was titled Via De La Shekel. When asked what style of music they played, Bell would respond with "Northern Gospel!", which later became the name of a song on the second album. Even after Big Fil stopped performing, Bell continued with two more projects by the name of Uno Dos Tres Communications volume 1 and 2, both of which had a similar musical sound to Big Fil.

Mars Hill Bible Church[link]

Bell and his wife moved from California to Grand Rapids to be close to family and on invitation to study under pastor Ed Dobson. He handled many of the preaching duties for the Saturday Night service at Calvary Church. Bell announced that he would be branching out on his own to start a new kind of community and he would call it "Mars Hill" after the Greek site where the apostle Paul told a group, "For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."^[5]

In February 1999, Bell founded Mars Hill Bible Church, with the church originally meeting in a school gym in Wyoming, Michigan. Within a year the church was given a shopping mall in Grandville, Michigan, and purchased the surrounding land. In July 2000 the 3,500 "grey chair" facility opened its doors. As of 2005, an estimated 11,000 people attend the two "gatherings" on Sundays at 9 and 11 AM.^[6] As of March 2011, Sunday attendance numbers between 8,000 and 10,000.^[7] His teachings at Mars Hill inspired the popular "Love Wins" bumper sticker, and the congregation freely distributes these stickers after services.^[8]

In order to maintain balance in his life, Bell maintains his Fridays as a personal sabbath, where he does not allow contact by electronic means, and has all pastoral duties transferred to other Mars Hill pastors.^[9]

In the January 2007 issue of the magazine TheChurchReport.com, Bell was named No. 10 in their list of "The 50 Most Influential Christians in America" as chosen by their readers and online visitors.^{[10][broken citation]}

In June 2011, Bell was named by Time Magazine as one of the "2011 Time 100", the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[11]

On September 22, 2011 it was announced that Rob Bell is stepping down from the church he founded to pursue other areas to reach a broader audience. "Feeling the call from God to pursue a growing number of strategic opportunities, our founding pastor Rob Bell, has decided to leave Mars Hill in order to devote his full energy to sharing the message of God’s love with a broader audience." ^[12][13]

Other projects[link]

Bell is the featured speaker in NOOMA – a series of short films created by a West Michigan-based non-profit film company called Flannel. The title of the video series, "NOOMA", is an English variation of the Greek word pneuma which means breath or spirit. All the videos feature the teachings of Bell accompanied by music written and sung by local independent artists with the exception of The Album Leaf's music being licensed for the Nooma DVD Lump.

In August 2005, Zondervan Publishing published Bell's first book, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Velvet Elvis is for people who are, in Bell's words, "fascinated with Jesus, but can't do the standard Christian package".^{[citation needed]}

Bell's Everything is Spiritual national speaking tour launched on June 30, 2006, in Chicago, drawing sold-out crowds in cities across North America. The proceeds from ticket sales were used to support WaterAid, an international non-profit organization dedicated to helping people escape the poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation.

Bell's second book, titled Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality, was released in March 2007. In February and March 2007 Bell hosted a "Sex God" tour on six university campuses to promote his book. The tour functioned more as a time for engaging questions and conversation. Questions ranged from Old Testament codes to homosexuality to what should Christians do with the word "evangelical". Each night ended with the showing of NOOMA number 15 entitled "YOU".^{[citation needed]}

In June 2007 Bell toured the United Kingdom and Ireland, calling all peacemakers.^[14]

Bell launched another speaking tour on November 5, 2007, in Chicago, ""The Gods Aren't Angry"" again drew sold-out crowds in cities across North America. The subject matter of this presentation was a narrative defense of justification through faith and not works (sacrifice). Proceeds from this tour were used to support the Turame Microfinance program supporting the poor in Burundi, a mission supported by Bell's church.

Bell's 2009 project, Drops Like Stars, explores the links between creativity and suffering. Drops Like Stars was an international tour and a book, initially handwritten by Bell, with photographs. The title of the project comes from a young child's view of raindrops on a window at night. Rather than focusing on the conundrum of why an all-powerful God would allow suffering, Bell instead looks at the creativity, empathy, new connections, and growth that can spring from suffering. When asked in an interview how he had become interested in suffering, Bell replied that as a pastor he had been given a front row seat in the most poignant moment's of people's lives. At the same time he was doing lectures on creativity and realized, "There was a connection between these two halves of my life – all these connections between suffering and art-making."^[15]

Stronger[link]

ABC television has announced production of a new television drama, Stronger, co-written by Bell and Carlton Cuse, the Executive Producer of the television show, Lost.^[16] The show, based loosely on Bell's own life, will follow the life of Tom Stronger, a musician on a spiritual journey.^[17]

Beliefs[link]

In his writings, Bell says "I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God."^[18] However, he acknowledges Scripture as the authoritative source of truth by which to compare all other truths in the Mars Hill Bible Church statement of narrative theology.^[19]

Bell says, "This is not just the same old message with new methods. We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life. Legal metaphors for faith don't deliver a way of life. We grew up in churches where people knew the nine verses why we don't speak in tongues, but had never experienced the overwhelming presence of God."^[8]

In his most recent book, Love Wins, Bell states that "It's been clearly communicated to many that this belief (in hell as conscious, eternal torment) is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear." In this book, Bell outlines a number of views of hell, including universal reconciliation (UR), and though he does not choose any one view as his own, he states of the UR view, "Whatever objections a person may have of [the UR view], and there are many, one has to admit that it is fitting, proper, and Christian to long for it." At the time of the book's publication, some prominent reformed church figures like Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. said Bell's book was "theologically disastrous"^[20] for not rejecting the UR view. Bell denies that he is a universalist.^[21] He does not embrace any particular view but argues that he wants to leave room for uncertainty. Love Wins presents his "case for living with mystery rather than demanding certitude."^[22] Some evangelicals see this "uncertainty" as incompatible with scripture,^[23] while others say that the book is simply promoting overdue conversation about some traditional interpretations of scripture.^[24][25]

Publications[link]

• Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Zondervan, 2005) ISBN 0-310-26345-X
• Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality (Zondervan, 2007) ISBN 0-310-26346-8
• Everything is Spiritual (DVD) (Zondervan, 2007) ISBN 0-310-28556-9
• The Gods Aren't Angry (DVD) (Flannel, 2008) ISBN 0-310-29074-0
• Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile (Zondervan, 2008) ISBN 0-310-27502-4
• Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering (Zondervan, 2009) ISBN 0-310-32704-0
• Love Wins (Harper One, 2011) ISBN 0-06-204964-3
• NOOMA Videos

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rob Bell official website
• Rob Bell debates "Love Wins" with Adrian Warnock on Premier.tv