Eyeglass Theory...
I walked off without my glasses this morning. Why? Carelessness. I looked for them, searched the house (I thought) pretty thoroughly... Didn't see them. I just called Lori and she found them - beside the computer (where I looked at least twice this morning, I swear). Sigh...
I can see okay without my glasses - things are kinda blurry, but I can still read - though I'm much slower without my glasses and I'm getting a thundering headache...
So things are just a little out of focus - but it's really causing me a little stress and strain.
Hmmm - I'm thinking about what happens when we present the Gospel "just a little out of focus" - do people have to work too hard to really see Jesus?
I'm going to teach a class on The Shack this month - and there's a few things in the book that I would argue are "a little out of focus" theologically. It's easy for me to say "it's just fiction" - I mean, after all, that gets me through The Chronicles of Narnia (well, sort of - I've never made it through the whole series because, dang it, they're all the same...). I'm trying to sort out what people who don't like the book have problems with, and what people who do like the book find so appealing. I don't think that Young presents some "different" god here - I think that he's trying to sort out his faith and his understanding of God - trinity and all that - and his experience of religion and fatih and...well, he covers a lot of territory.
But the biggest complaints that I'm reading about the book are that the theology is a little off, a little out of focus - making the reader strain a bit...and maybe come to the wrong conclusion - like what happens when I close my left eye - which is not blurry at all - and try to read with my right eye alone - I can come up with some pretty funky things - unless I concentrate really hard and pay very close attention... And the thing about The Shack is that it's fiction - it's a novel - so we don't expect to have to read carefully and closely and interpret - just ride it out casually... I mean this isn't 9th Grade English class, right?
And I think, in the end, that's fine. Read it as a novel. Enjoy the story. Don't work too hard - this isn't systematic theology after all. Nor is it intended to be. I'm sure when the movie comes out there will be protests (just like the DaVinci Code which I also thought was a pretty engaging story and didn't have any trouble with the fictional theological elements...).
I can see okay without my glasses - things are kinda blurry, but I can still read - though I'm much slower without my glasses and I'm getting a thundering headache...
So things are just a little out of focus - but it's really causing me a little stress and strain.
Hmmm - I'm thinking about what happens when we present the Gospel "just a little out of focus" - do people have to work too hard to really see Jesus?
I'm going to teach a class on The Shack this month - and there's a few things in the book that I would argue are "a little out of focus" theologically. It's easy for me to say "it's just fiction" - I mean, after all, that gets me through The Chronicles of Narnia (well, sort of - I've never made it through the whole series because, dang it, they're all the same...). I'm trying to sort out what people who don't like the book have problems with, and what people who do like the book find so appealing. I don't think that Young presents some "different" god here - I think that he's trying to sort out his faith and his understanding of God - trinity and all that - and his experience of religion and fatih and...well, he covers a lot of territory.
But the biggest complaints that I'm reading about the book are that the theology is a little off, a little out of focus - making the reader strain a bit...and maybe come to the wrong conclusion - like what happens when I close my left eye - which is not blurry at all - and try to read with my right eye alone - I can come up with some pretty funky things - unless I concentrate really hard and pay very close attention... And the thing about The Shack is that it's fiction - it's a novel - so we don't expect to have to read carefully and closely and interpret - just ride it out casually... I mean this isn't 9th Grade English class, right?
And I think, in the end, that's fine. Read it as a novel. Enjoy the story. Don't work too hard - this isn't systematic theology after all. Nor is it intended to be. I'm sure when the movie comes out there will be protests (just like the DaVinci Code which I also thought was a pretty engaging story and didn't have any trouble with the fictional theological elements...).
Comments
In other words, Aslan is not Jesus. Papa is not God the Father.
Religious fiction can unfortunately subvert our correct understanding of fundamental truths. Does that mean we shouldn't read it? I wouldn't go that far, but I think we need to consciously read it with careful discernment and our shields up.
See Titus 1:13-16
Pastorjim
Also, I hope you aren't dead. Long time no post dear friend. Haha.