A La Carte (10/22)

I want to say that I find it amusing that you keep throwing out reviews of The Shack by those who are eager to condemn it. If I thought less of you then I do - the amusement might be tenable; but I do respect you, Tim, so - rather - I am further saddened. I personally feel that I am a Conservative who holds the World of God in a high position, and therefore values the need for an active and intrinsic faith in the life of the Believer. It is therefore a bit odd sounding when the thought comes to mind - but it is nonetheless still true: it is possible to become so wrapped up in Dogmatic Wrangling that it chokes out the very essence of faith; even moreso - the effectual work of the Spirit. I know that I am probably not phrasing this correctly - but I think what I am trying to say is that it is indeed possible (though I am prone to think you actually have to work at it to accomplish it) to make a form of Idolatry out of Theology itself - one that blocks out the image of the God that it is itself a revelation of. I think that Barth talks about this somewhere - making a God out of the Scripture, rather then allowing the Scripture to speak of God.

You want so eagerly to point out all the flaws of The Shack; but how is the nature of the work of one man all that different from the nature of the man himself? You must be willing to concede that we are all, ourselves, broken vessels. We must also, necessarily, concede that everything that we ourselves produce - is also not just a reflection (hopefully) of the Divine, but also irreparably a reflection of our own nature. For us to acknowledge that we are broken people - but to lambast the flaws (be they as they may be, if we are to agree that they are there at all) of a work by a broken man, this is a critical dissonance in judgment. This is why we have to look at both the fruit of both a person and their work. Ultimately - it is the Holy Spirit that uses anything that anybody ever created to do anything. I cannot help put point out this is a point that dovetails with Calvinian Soteriology/Hermeneutic Theory.

You can pull out all of your Theological Howitzers and try to pound away all day at the Shack - but Tim - God is using that book in an incredible and powerful way. The shameful thing is that you have aligned yourself against it, and now have very likely blinded yourself to that reality. Tim, what are you going to tell someone, someone very close to you, when they call you weeping, and tell you about ‘this book- The Shack’ - and they tell you that spiritually-speaking, it has touched them in such a way that they can only see how they saw God/their Faith in terms of before and after reading it. Perhaps you find that a ludicrous notion. I know of several lives - one in particular - which God has used that book to tremendously impact them. Tim, I ask you; as you should well know; to please prayerfully consider when you attack anything like this. Those of us called to Leadership will be judged accordingly and held to a higher standard for the things that we have told others and the guidance that we gave. We train ourselves to be diligent and to be “Heresy Hunters” - and all my friends know that I myself, have a long and colorful history in this regard - but yet; we should be careful that we not trample on the seeds cast by the Master’s Hand in the places that we might not necessarily expect.

God is using this book in powerful ways.

Your continued attacks against it - at this point in “the Game” -only seem as efforts on your side to affirm a position that has been shown by the fruits of a multitude of lives to be egregiously wrong. I sincerely hope that someday you see that God has used this book to touch lives. I believe that you have the humility to recant an incorrect position; even if it costs you respectability amongst your peers.