A theological reflection on William P Young's book - The Shack (and theodicy)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 8:04PM I'm not sure if you've read William P Young's book The Shack yet? This week I was asked to offer some theological commentary on this book for a Radio program on our local radio station 'Radio Helderberg'. I am always quite astounded by how quickly conservative persons (and particularly conservative Christians) are to condemn anything that doesn't fit the mould of the mainstream... Many people have objected to the metaphorical language that Young employs in picturing God (who ultimately is a mystery that transcends ALL language, symbols and metaphors... You can read about that in my book 'An uncommon Spiritual path' that you can download by following the link below). For example, no Christian would find the statement 'God is my rock' offensive or heretical - yet it is clearly not a FACTUAL statement from a purely etymological sense (the word 'rock' refers to heavy stone that has no faculties, or even life...) Rather, we can understand that the metaphor conveys the best of what we hope for in God (i.e., that God is solid, strong, trustworthy, a shelter etc.) So, why do we find it so difficult when other (more contemporary) metaphors are applied to the Person of God? Perhaps it is our socialisation (and our lack of imagination) that causes us to be stunted in this regard. Just imagine what beauty and blessing we miss out on because we cannot allow the images of this book to enliven our imagination...
Well, in this video I discuss Young's approach to metaphors, the notion of 'genre' in relation to Young's text (and the Biblical text). Oh, and I also take a stab at explaining St Augustine of Hippo's 'Augustinian free-will defence' as a theological explanation of suffering (theodicy).
I would love to hear your comments on 'The Shack', and of course on my take on the book, my view on metaphors, Biblical interpretation and of course 'suffering' and theodicy.
Reader Comments (4)
Hello Dion!! This is Pieter G. Hope u r well. Thanks for the interesting comments on the Shack! The shaking camera made me sea sick!! U so clever u know!
Hope the Stormers make a show of it after all their comments in recent weeks ! Go Bulls!
anything like the "loveshack" from the B52's?
;-)
peace
Hi Dion,
Greeting from N.Z. Really enjoy your blog great to follow your adventures in God. I think the challenge relates to Young's acknowledging that he was intentional in communicating theological concepts. I agree with you concerning genre but to me it can be dangerous to the biblically illiterate. Thus the comments of loving the God of the "shack" by naive believers is what I think concerns most of our "conservative" friends.
Love getting your videos - here in Franklin TN, USA - in fact today in the park my wife and I ran into Cape Town's own Samantha Ornellas, wife of Daniel - of the band Tree 63 (here in Franklin TN) - the Shack is a super book - and go See movie Slumdog Millionaire - blessings, Mike Greenberg