 Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:08 AM
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Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has read the book 'The Shack' by William Young? I'm trying to decide if I liked it or hated it, and wondering if the authors' views on God are crazier than CS's views, or if they make a lot of sense.
I appreciated the themes of forgiveness and redemption, but felt the the author did a disservice to the Trinity by making them three such different characters, and instead of clarifying it for me, it only made me more confused.
I also just finished reading 'The Gentle Art of Blessing' by Pierre Pradervand. Again there were parts that I appreciated, but as a whole I felt like he took God out of the equation completely and made it sound like all we needed was a positive outlook on life and and a willingness to send good thoughts in all directions.
Just curious what other people think....
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:10 AM
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Anonymous November 5, 2009 @ 12:08:20 PM,
I'm wondering if anyone has read the book 'The Shack' by William Young? I'm trying to decide if I liked it or hated it, and wondering if the authors' views on God are crazier than CS's views, or if they make a lot of sense.
A Christian counselor recommended "The Shack" to me when someone close to me was murdered. I still have not been able to read it. I can forgive my friend's murderers. The circumstances of his murder and what I understand "The Shack" portrays, however, are too close. I'm still working through what happened though see that God has used the murder in many miraculous ways.
Besides Science & Health, there are many books out there that cause me to wonder if the authors represent a Biblically sound worldview. I don't know if "The Shack" is such a book or not.
This reminds me of the talk among Christian Scientists regarding "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach. Some found Bach's new age thinking so in line with Christian Science that they began regarding "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" as a new text on Christian Science.
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 3:24 PM
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I recall reading that Richard Bach was a member of the CS church and served as a reader.
He resigned his membership.
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 4:45 PM
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Yes, Richard Bach was a Christian Scientist at some point. He was in my husband's association, but stopped attending before my husband went through class instruction, so they never met. That was in 1976, so I guess he left the church a long time ago.
Ann
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:26 PM
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I'm wondering if anyone has read the book 'The Shack' by William Young? I'm trying to decide if I liked it or hated it, and wondering if the authors' views on God are crazier than CS's views, or if they make a lot of sense.
I appreciated the themes of forgiveness and redemption, but felt the the author did a disservice to the Trinity by making them three such different characters, and instead of clarifying it for me, it only made me more confused.
I haven't read "The Shack" but have read concerns about it from several different sources. Here's a link to an article called The Shack: Four Walls, Five Reviews. The article gives reviews from the viewpoint of five different types of people (a Kids-book author, a naive believer, a worried theologian, etc.) The "Worried Theologian" review lists several concerns about the book that might interest you. I'm wondering if they resonate with some of the concerns you have after reading the book.
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:03 PM
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"Worried Theologian's" first point, "...systematically de-emphasizes Scripture and teaches readers to prefer any other form of revelation over biblical revelation" sounds somewhat familiar. Almost like "been there, done that" or deja vu all over again.
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Friday, November 06, 2009 9:09 AM
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"The "Worried Theologian" review lists several concerns about the book that might interest you. I'm wondering if they resonate with some of the concerns you have after reading the book. "
Yes, all of the concerns listed resonated with me, they were more well said than anything I could have come up with. Especially point #5:
"Depicting God as three characters in conversation illustrates a strongly social trinitarian conception of God. This could be permissible in a literary context. But when the three characters discuss their relationships with each other, they report a kind of egalitarianism that has almost nothing in common with the biblical account of the Trinity. It may be an imaginative portrayal of the ontological equality of the persons as confessed in historic theological accounts, but it flattens out the Father-Son relationship in particular." (The Worried Theologian)
It was the Father-Son relationship that bothered me the most in this book.
Regarding Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I remember my grandparents and other family members really loving that book and how exciting it was for them when it came out. They took it to mean that CS concepts and ideals were starting to take root in many more ways and places, even if it wasn't called CS.
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Posted Friday, November 06, 2009 10:22 AM
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Anonymous (11/6/2009)
Regarding Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I remember my grandparents and other family members really loving that book and how exciting it was for them when it came out. They took it to mean that CS concepts and ideals were starting to take root in many more ways and places, even if it wasn't called CS.
Yes, I remember that was the general feeling about the book, we were all excited and thinking it would spread CS. They even sold it in the Principia bookstore.
Ann
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