A theological reflection on William P Young's book - The Shack (and theodicy)

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.