Debriefing from Week 2
Last night, we discussed various aspects of The Shack’s portrayal of God.
The Shack has the following strength’s in its description/understanding of God:
1) God as profoundly relational
2) God’s nurturing side
3) Sacrifice of Jesus as the highest and fullest expression of the extent and commitment of God’s love
We affirmed these.
Most of the evening was spent discussing the following questions:
1) Is Young’s Understanding of the Trinity adequate?
2) Are submission and obedience incompatible with equality and love?
3) Who is Sophia? What role does she play?
4) What about the feminine imagery used to describe God the Father and God the Holy Spirit?
5) Are God’s love and God’s wrath incompatible? Why is there no talk of judgment in The Shack?
To view last evening’s slides, click here.
What questions or comments do you have about last evening’ presentation? What other questions are you interested in asking about The Shack?
Looking ahead to next week, we will be diving into the heart of the book: How does The Shack resolve Mack’s brokenness and lostness over the tragedy and pain of his life experiences? How are Christians to understand suffering and tragedy? What resources does the Christian faith have to answer the “why” questions of life? You may want to (re)read the Chapter “Here Comes Da Judge” (pp. 151-169).
January 23, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I had a thought regarding the section of Week 2 concerning the Hierarchy/Equality section. The thought concerns the quote from the book in which the language that Papa uses includes the word “submitted”.
Instead of looking at the definition as concerning one being submitted to another as meaning one being less than, I think there is another definition that puts the Three on an equal basis. The word submitted can also mean “given”, as in ‘I have submitted my paperwork”, or “I have submitted my opinion’, etc.
So, since Papa, Jesus and Sarayu are each submitted to each other, they are each given to each other. In this way of looking at it one is no more important than the others.
January 24, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I think that this is a good insight Charlie. it moves our conversation forward. God the Father is also self-giving in the sense of sending the Son and the Spirit. The Son and the Spirit give themselves to the will of the Father.