Companions,
I read The Shack on Monday. If you would like to engage some of my questions and critique and praise of it, go over to my wall on Facebook and go back to Tuesday (2/3) when I put up 5 wall posts with a whole bunch of citations, critique, and some praise. (If you want to see it, you'll need to become my Facebook friend-- but I'm pretty easy to find given my last name!).
Basically, I think this book, if only because it is so widely read, should be read by all of us here. Whether one likes it as literature or as theological statement, its sheer circulation/viral distribution through US culture (at least) means it's a must read to engage the conversations with all sorts of folks that it might bring up.
I don't want to get into a huge conversation about the book in general here. If you haven't read it, just go read it. If you have, don't spoil it. I think folks just need to read it.
So for here, I have just one question with three possible answers (multiple choice) and an essay portion for those of you who have read it:
Is the Christology/theology developed in The Shack missional? Or not? Or what? And if so, or if not, how so (or not)?
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
3 comments:
The Shack can and should be utilzed as a primary resource for anyone serious about engaging the culture missionally. I believe that this may very well be one of the most important books to come along in quite some time. It appeals to people from all walks of life and from various theological persuasions. I offer three reasons why I believe The Shack to be an amazing missional resource:
1. Tragedy and Grief. As missionaries to a post-everything culture, we would do well to begin here because everyone understands what tragedy and grief feel like. The Shack places this issue front and center.
2. Mystery and Surprise. By presenting such surprising and unorthodox answers to the "why" questions that inevitably result from the tragedy and grief in this story, Mr. Young opens the door for us to talk about theological issues in "new" and "different" ways with those searching for answers in this world.
3. Diversity and Pluralism. Mr. Young's brilliant characterizations make room for all kinds of dialogue about God; dialogue that for once allows us to move beyond issues of race, gender, and ethnicity.
In short, The Shack is a resource that we can use to further the message of faith, the promise of hope, and the love of Christ in new and fresh ways as we seek to be missionaries to the world around us.
i think the shack does begin to invite some new missional imagination. primarily because "missional" for me really could be framed as "trinitarian" in that God is missional in respect to God's complete relationality in and through all of life, penetrating the darkest and deepest of human experiences ensuring God's sustaining presence in and with the world.
i've appreciated this book as an accessible entry point into this trinitarian conversation that is practically demonstrated for what God is up to in the world and how involved in life God actually is.
i was particularly drawn to God's response to Mac as he struggled to make sense of his despairing loss. God responds wishing She could take the pain away but suggesting the only way Mac would heal was through "a little bit of time, and a lot of relationship." THIS could preach!!!
where God promises to dwell with the least of these, with those in most need throughout the world, where the greatest pain and suffering exist comes good news, we are not alone, God is closer to us than we could ever possibly imagine and involved in the messiness of life.
if this isn't missional, the deep indwelling of God's presence in and through all of life, i don't know what is? Great question and wonderful wondering. thanks.
I too, think that the book is highly missional. One of the starting places for me in missional theology is the realization that God cares for each of us personally - that there is no separation between me and my neighbor. The Shack does an excellent job of describing how God LOVES each and every single one of us as a child.
I think the book also correctly identifies (although, I might quibble with some of the gendered implications) some of the problems that have kept us from relationship with God. It does so in a way that can have serious implications for how we reach out to people in our midst who may have never thought they "needed" the church.
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