Published by Penguin Audio in 2025.
Read by the author, Brian Recker.
Duration: 6 hours, 40 minutes.
Unabridged.
My cousin reviewed Hell Bent on Goodreads and his review made me very excited to read it as well.
I just re-read that review and I am still excited to read the book he described. The actual book is solid, but took a long time to get going and seemed like it was put together in an odd way - almost backwards and I think that diluted its strength.
Recker starts with a lengthy discussion of what happens if you fall out of your tribe's accepted truths. In this case, his tribe is American Evangelical Christianity, but you may have had a similar falling out with another group. For example, I have had a falling out with a lot of friends and family because I left my political tribe (I am a never-Trump Republican.)
This part was simply too long for me. I was far more interested in the actual discussion about the relative strengths and weaknesses of those that argue in favor of a Biblical case for an actual hell as a place of eternal torment for unbelievers.
Recker looks into the Bible verses and looks at their context, not just the isolated verses. He follows up with a look at church history and sees where the actual teachings of the church changed over time. Recker delivers those arguments quite well and then shows how bad that the pro-hell argument really is for the ongoing growth of Christianity.
I liked this book and think it has a well-earned place in any discussion of the topic. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love by Brian Recker.
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