All Posts Tagged With: "theology"

The Shack

December 1st, 2008 • stephenlawes • 4 comments • Related • Filed Under

I hope you have enjoyed November’s Christian Book Club book of the the month “The Shack”. By now you should have completed all 18 chapters. As we started reading this book I told you about how controversial it was. People seemed to love the book or be really upset with it.

Personally, I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and kept my attention. I generally have a lot of stuff going on and there are some book that I really struggle to read over the course of a month. The Shack really got my attention and I found myself making time to read it. I enjoyed the interaction between Mack and the representations of the trinity. I don’t feel like I need to defend the theological aspects of the book becasue it is not a book on theology. It is a story. There is tremendous power in story and I think it is very possible for God to be able to use a story like to help people embrace a walk with Jesus.

I also felt the forgiveness parts of the story were really well done. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, used the power of story to teach on forgiveness. In his book, Prince Caspian, Lewis uses the power of story to present the impotance of forgiveness. Working the Mack character through forgiveness to help lift the great sadness was a wonderful use of story.

I am including a comment by Amanda on this post in case you didn’t read the comment section on week 2.

Comment by Amanda on 15 November 2008:

At first, I was surprised that Papa was a woman! Jesus was portrayed in a way that I had read before and I suppose that Sarayu is kinda how I’ve thought of the Holy Spirit, just not as a female. At first, I wondered why Young would portray Papa as a woman, however, as I read further, I realized that God and Jesus were showing up in the forms that Mac needed them to be. Had God initially been a huge gray headed guy who was all ruling, then Mac would have not been comforted in the least.

One of my favorite chapters is chapter 7 where Jesus and Mac spend time on the dock at night. What a picture of the true and awesome friendship that we can have with Jesus! I too understand that this is not theology, but I think we can pull some great theological concepts from the story.

The conversation that takes place in chapter 8 is heavy! It’s the conversation I can see all of us having, no matter our life experiences. How many times have we battled the question of the Holy Trinity and the chain of command. And how many times have we said “That’s not fair!” I was especially touched by the place that Mac tells Papa that he will never understand how Missy’s death will be justified. And Papa simply tells him it won’t but that it will be redeemed. Wow! What a concept!

I love that Mac expresses his anger toward Papa, Jesus and Sarayu. I think too often we feel as Christians we feel that we have to be thankful and righteous and proper all the time. God is our friend, and when we are upset, we tell our friends, we don’t hold back. We let them know how we feel. I really feel that this is the type of relationship that God wants from us, we are just hesitant to give it to Him.

I am going to leave the “Shack” comments open for a while as I would like to hear from all of you on your thoughts of the book.

I will also include a link here in case you need to order a copy of the book.

729230: The Shack The Shack

Mere Christianity - Week 4

March 25th, 2008 • stephenlawes • 0 comments • Related • Filed Under

Week four in the Christian Book Club brings us to Book 4 Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

Lewis tries to explain some basic theology in this book. How do you think he did? Was he able to express fairly complex ideas in a way that was understandable?

After reading Mere Christianity do you think it would be a book you would recommend to someone who had questions about Jesus and Christianity? Why or why not?

I enjoy the parable he borrows from George MacDonald on page 205. “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself”. What do you think of this parable?

I look forward to your comments. Don’t forget to get next month’s book “Prince Caspian”. It’s another Lewis book but I thought it would be fun for us to read it before the movie comes out May 16, 2008. If you don;t have a copy of “Prince Caspian” you can order it at the Christian Book Club Books page.

At the end of each Christian Book Club I would ask you to consider donating a cup of Virtual Coffee to help keep the site up and running. It will cost you $5.00 (five dollars) and you can use a credit card or PayPal account. Pray about it and if you feel like you should just click on the coffee cup at the end of this post or on the home page. If you would like to contribute a larger amount there is a place to do that at the bottom right of the home page. Thank you!

Would you consider buying a cup of virtual coffee to help keep the Christian Book Club running?