Rob Bell has defended his headline-making new book, Love Wins, saying that he did not set out to be controversial.

The HarperOne release that has seen Bell accused by critics of promoting universalism was an attempt to respond to the "barriers to faith" that the idea of hell presents to many people, he wrote in a column for The Huffington Post.

"When someone sets out to be controversial or provocative or shocking as an end in itself, I don't think that's a noble goal," Bell said. "My book is part of an ongoing discussion people have been having for thousands of years about the things that matter most.

"When we enter into this discussion, the one about heaven and hell and salvation and God and the future of the world, our questions matter because to ask is to acknowledge our need, which requires tremendous humility. And God can work with that, because God is in the give and take."

Bell ended his column inviting readers to "lose your life and find it, die and be reborn, take a breath, open your eyes and see things you've never seen before." They should "say yes to this Jesus and the love of God (that) He insists is for every single one of us, right now, here, today," he wrote.

"If that invitation, that insistence, that message and that conviction cause controversy, I'll accept that. Because now, more than ever, good news is what we need."

With publication brought forward two weeks because of the controversy surrounding it, Love Wins debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times Hardcover Advice & Miscellaneous best-seller list for the week of April 3.

Among the latest to challenge the book is David Platt, author of the best-selling Radical (Multnomah Books). In a video message filmed in India and posted on YouTube.com, he said that "the crux of the Bible is clear and the story of redemption is sure."

Intellectual universalism was dangerous, he said, but "functional universalism is worse, living like in the end everyone is going to be OK. So let's fight them both—in our heads, in our hearts, let's hold fast to the truth of this gospel.

Click here to read comments by authors weighing in on the Love Wins controversy.

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