An article in
The Daily Telegraph about Dylan's "30 greatest songs" ranked "Ring Them Bells" 27th, calling it a "post-apocalyptic gospel prayer" and praising its "stately piano chord progression" and Dylan's lyrics for their "Biblical richness and elegance".
Spectrum Culture included it on a list of "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the 1980s". In an article accompanying the list, critic Justin Cober-Lake sees it as an example of Dylan "step(ping) deep into spiritual waters, with churches and saints and holy tintinnabulation. Across a sacred piano and plenty of Lanois-produced void, Dylan sings of St. Peter (possibly the person and the basilica) and proclaims the end of time, liberation for the poor, healing for the blind and deaf. In the world of the song, judgment comes to right the world, and Dylan peaceably watches it come in". In their book
Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon note that the "dynamic of the arrangement and the keen harmonic sense of the song establish 'Ring Them Bells' as one of the triumphs of this album'".
Bruce Springsteen, in an appearance on
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2020, cited it as one of his three favorite Dylan songs (along with "
Like a Rolling Stone" and "
Visions of Johanna"). Dylan scholar and musicologist Eyolf Ostrem considers it to be one of Dylan's most complex songs ever from a musical perspective (along with 1967's "
Dear Landlord", 1980's "
In the Garden" and 2020's "
Black Rider"). A
USA Today article ranking "all of Bob Dylan's songs" placed "Ring Them Bells" 86th (out of 359). A 2021
Guardian article included it on a list of "80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know". ==In popular culture==