Let me start with a few caveats. The Shack is not scripture. It is not the inspired word of God. It is a novel written by a man. But this book made me examine some of my beliefs about God. It changed me and that's not a bad thing. The Shack is about a man named Mac whose daughter is murdered. God invites him to the shack in the aftermath of that tragedy. Mark Driscoll is correct about how God is personified in this book. God is portrayed as a black woman. But, get real. that doesn't mean the author is promoting goddess worship. It's just a literary device. I don't think God is a black woman. I also don't think he is a white man. He is God. My brain is not big enough to even begin to define him. But the author of this book is trying to portray what he believes the trinity to be. And I think he does a pretty good job. Can we be honest here? Most mainline Christians love Jesus, are scared of God and are just confused about the Holy Spirit. Is this book the answer to that? I doubt it. But it will get you to think about what you believe and why.
The funny thing is that the part of The Shack that doesn't seem to be controversial is the part that ripped me to shreds. Over and over, the trinity try to explain to Mac about how they love us. God's love is pretty easy to understand when it's directed at me. Of course God loves me. I'm delightful right? But the mystery of God's love is that He loves an evil murderer as much as he loves me. That's a hard one. And yet, it's the truth. Why does God allow this cruel world to keep moving forward while children get brain cancer and women get raped and men get murdered. How can he stand it? Especially when he has the power to stop it at any time? Can't we just fast-forward this whole business and get to the good stuff? And the answer is simple and horrifying. God allows this mess to continue because he is desperately in love with us and he wants 'all to come to repentance'. Imagine what that kind of love must be like. It's inconceivable to me.
The Shack won't answer any questions for you. In fact, it will create a bunch of new ones. It's not doctrine. It's not supposed to be. Just read it and remember...God loves you but he is especially fond of me :)
1 comment:
Thanks for you review. I love this book.
Do you not think that the author is not trying to say that God is a black woman but instead trying to point out the preconceived notion of many of us that God is not a male. Is he not trying to point out that God is God and does not have a gender? He is a spirit? So many of us tend to have this image of an old man with a beard and Young, in my opinion, is trying to point out this misleading image? God can portray himself to us as any gender because He does not have a gender.
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