Christianity Has a Hell Problem
Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back From a Spirituality of Love releases 9/30. Preorder now!
Preorders are open for my book, Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back From a Spirituality of Love.
Here’s why I think you should read it.
I remember the moment I decided I needed to write this book.
I was standing outside of my church with a friend, who had just visited for the first time.
“Wait. I don’t understand,” she said, with genuine curiosity. “If you don’t believe in hell, why do you still even go to church?”
For a moment, I was confused—on the surface, those two things don’t necessarily have much to do with each other.
But since I also come from a background steeped in punishment-avoidance spirituality, I knew exactly what she meant.
Not only that, I realized in that moment how deeply Christian spirituality has been twisted by hell and punishment.
After all, for most Christians, the whole point of Christianity is salvation.
Salvation from what? Salvation from hell.
If you remove hell, there is no punishment to be saved from.
For many people, if they discard hell, there would be no more point to their spirituality, because it was fear-based punishment avoidance all the way down.
That’s what Hell Bent is about.
It’s about how fear-based theology warps the way we relate to God, others, and ourselves. It turns love into control, faith into anxiety, and difference into danger. Many of us were taught to see judgment as holy and punishment as love.
For so many of us, spirituality has been so defined by fear that if we uprooted punishment from our faith, there would be no positive vision for spirituality left. We don’t have a map for imagining spirituality outside of punishment.
My goal in this book is to help you rewire your brain and start to imagine a spirituality of love beyond a punitive God.
I want to help you rescue your spirituality from hell.
But it’s not enough to just rip hell out of our faith—after all, it’s deep in the foundation. If there’s no hell, then we also need to ask:
Why was Jesus born?
Why did Jesus die?
Does sin matter if there’s no hell? Is sin even a real thing?
If there’s no hell, is there a heaven?
If there’s no hell, what’s the point of being a Christian?
If there’s no hell… why the hell does any of it matter?
If you’ve been asking those questions—or are ready to—you can now preorder Hell Bent!
Why Preorder?
Preordering Hell Bent helps get this message into the world. It tells retailers, media outlets, and publishers that this conversation matters. If you’ve ever felt the impact of fear-based faith, ordering now helps this book find the people who need it.
🗓️ Hell Bent releases September 30, 2025
📖 Available in hardcover, ebook, or audiobook (narrated by me!)
Choose your favorite retailer here to purchase!
Who is Hell Bent for?
Christians rethinking what they were taught about salvation
People still haunted by hell—even after leaving church
Spiritual seekers looking for faith without fear
Pastors, parents, and deconstructors trying to rebuild something beautiful
Your mom, probably
Praise for Hell Bent:
"Like many of us, Brian Recker grew up in a conservative Evangelical family. Like many of us, he had misgivings about what he was taught about hell. Unlike many of us, he had the courage to face his misgivings and to use his biblical training to confront them head on. The result? This amazing and trustworthy book. Few first-time authors write with such clarity, skill, depth, personal transparency, and emotional impact. I am confident it will help you and people you know."
— Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt and The Last Voyage"For centuries, Christianity has treated the doctrine of hell like a family secret stored in the attic—we know it's there, but prefer not to discuss it openly. In Hell Bent, Brian Recker boldly throws open the attic door, letting in light that's both clarifying and healing. Drawing from deep wells of pastoral experience and theological insight, he shows us how the fear of hell has functioned as a spiritual autoimmune disease, causing faith to harm the faithful. Part memoir, part manifesto, this book offers both diagnosis and antidote for one of organized religion's most potent tools of control. Recker shows us what many have suspected but few have dared to say: that a God who threatens eternal torture is not a loving father but a cosmic abuser. It’s essential reading for anyone ready to imagine a Christianity liberated from its worst impulses."
- Jonathan Merritt, columnist and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch
If this resonates with you, I hope you’ll preorder—and consider forwarding this post to someone else who’s ready to let go of fear and imagine something more beautiful.
In the comments, I’d love to hear from you.
Do you resonate with this? How has hell/fear-based spirituality affected you personally?
Done. I love your content, I hope to love your book too.
Already pre ordered ❤️