Drops Like Stars
A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
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4.2 • 45 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In Drops Like Stars, the New York Times bestselling author of Love Wins explores the complex relationship between suffering and creativity. Rob Bell (“One of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors” —New York Times) suggests that art can be found in the agony of our lives. Fans of the thought-provoking works of Donald Miller, N.T. Wright, Brian McLaren, and Timothy Keller will find true enlightenment in this thoughtful and engaging book from this vibrant, progressive voice for a new generation of Christians, the prolific pastor whom Time Magazine named one of the most influential people of 2011.
Why do suffering and creativity go hand in hand, and how can pain become a source of art?
Creativity and Suffering: Explore the powerful idea that our deepest wounds and biggest failures are not the end of the story, but the raw material for our greatest work.Progressive Christianity: A fresh, honest perspective that moves beyond easy answers, inviting readers to find God not in spite of the mess, but right in the middle of it.Faith and Art: See how the stories of artists like Johnny Cash and Van Gogh, alongside figures from the Bible, reveal a profound connection between the spiritual and the creative process.Finding Meaning in Pain: Discover how life’s disruptions, aches, and moments of solidarity can reshape us, stripping away the non-essential and revealing what truly matters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While Bell's books Velvet Elvis and Sex God received generally strong reviews, this effort to understand the relationship between suffering and creativity feels superficial and overly self-conscious. Few readers will dispute Bell's gentle assertions: that life can be extremely difficult and capricious, that it is often difficult to find God amid suffering, that suffering has a great potential to unify disparate people, and that great bursts of creative energy can arise from pain. Bell explores these issues not by covert biblical exegesis which was a surprising and welcome highlight of Velvet Elvis but new-fashioned storytelling. Bell weaves inspiring stories of people who turned their suffering into something transformative, and many of these stories are memorable. They are certainly accessible: Bell draws from fiction, movies, real-life situations and his own life. These anecdotes do not make a book, however, and Bell's spare prose lacks original insights into age-old theodicy questions. Although the design and layout are first-rate, $35 is a lot of money for a 160-page book that is mostly white space.
Customer Reviews
Good book, but not Bell's best work
I enjoyed this book very much. Maybe, I should have done a little more research on it, but I was a little disappointed in the structure of it. I thought it was going to be a book that dealt a little deeper with issues than it did. I found out at the end of the book that it was intended to be a coffee table book. That being the case, it is a good coffee table book...just not what I was expecting to get on an iPad.