I just finished reading The Shack, by William Paul Young. It is a very unique book that is causing many to revisit their framework for theology, relationship and grief. Here is the jacket description:
Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.
This book is so good that I don't want to share anything that will spoil the story.
There are two things I will say about it though.
1. I am a huge fan of this style of theological dialogue. The book has a gripping story that is used to explore theology in a way that causes many cliches and platitudes to fall away. In creating a narrative context within which to explore these themes, we are saved from the normal theological babel that only a few understand. It also forces the theology to answer the real questions people are asking and not just state some empty philosophy about God.
2. I loved how the author wove so many awesome insights about God together into one narrative. Each insight on its own would be cool, but together they start to reframe our previous conceptions of things and allow us to look at God and life very differently. Since our whole life and all our experience have created the current system through which each person views God, often new thoughts cannot be fully explored because they do not fit into our existing system. This book temporarily allows us to leave our system, as created by so much personal pain and guilt, and to step into an alternate system, briefly, which allows fresh thought.
I would highly recommend that you read this book. If you do, let me know what you think.
One other thought:
I have a feeling that some will call this book dangerous.
Keep in mind that many people call anything that produces new thoughts dangerous. However, if God really is a mystery that is beyond us, then it only makes sense that there is always so much to learn. In this light, even the most biblically astute theologian on his best day, doesn't know far more about God than he does know...
When living in such educated ignorance, massive grace is needed.
