I read it slowly, cover to cover, and thought I'd unleash my two cents on the book. This novel (and I'll reiterate...NOVEL) came by me highly recommended. In fact, I was a little leary reading it BECAUSE of all the hype. Then I had friends calling me and telling me "it's the most AMAZING book you'll ever read!" Still I had other friends telling me it's heretical and theologically unsound. Chris breezed through it before me, but my literary digestive system is much slower in cases such as this.The first 5 chapters went pretty quickly, as it reads much like any mystery novel. But then chapter 6 happens, and all I could think was "what the...!?" I can't give away the storyline, but let's just say that God is portrayed in a very unconventional way. While I don't think the story is heretical, I do think it needs to be read with discretion. With any novel that is inclusive of religious theology, there are often elements of truth...but those are usually interminged with lots of imagination on the author's part, or how they interpret scripture. It, after all, has no more authority on God's reasoning than Left Behind has on the tribulation.
The objectives of this book are clearly twofold:
1) To answer the question of why God allows suffering, and
2) To give us a tangible, intimate understanding of the Trinity.
It does the first, I think, very well. Then again, will we EVER know the answer to that? All we can do is draw our best conjecture and leave the rest to faith. The second was a little harder for me to swallow. If you've read the book, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And I wasn't a big fan of all the crazy "color" stuff, either. But during the sermon at our church on Sunday on "intimate relationships," I found myself picturing the scenarios in "The Shack". In that way, I suppose it accomplished it's goal.
I'm interested in your opinions...
Fire away.
3 comments:
I LOVED The Shack. As someone who is VERY skeptical of the whole god thing and as someone who doesn't want to lose her "hippiness" I found the portrayals to be wonderful. It made god seem real to me and therefore easier to relate to. I have so much more I want to say about this, but I'm about to write you a nice LONG email, so I'll save it all for that.
This book was at first an exciting new look at God for me, but that was before I realized it wasn't true. I make myself sound gullible, but the author stated "it's a true story," so what else was I supposed to think? Both my husband and I felt the author did a poor job at presenting his NOVEL, but over all this FICTION is a great challenge to think of God on a more personal level. I personally loved the character of the Holy Spirit.
Jamers. I can't remember if I was on the "heretical/theologically unsound" side when we talked on the phone, but at this point I am still reading the book because I read a little and get upset. Then, I try reading again and I get upset. So, at this point I am trying to finish it and am right there with you. I have a hard time with "Christian" books like these and feel they do much more damage than they ever do good. We need to be pointed directly to the word to know who God is. It is right there!
Post a Comment