current read...

i naturally shy away from books that are largely endorsed by the religious right...as unfair as that may seem, i highly doubt that w. wink is on the top of the reading list for the religious right...however, i find it both necessary and intriguing to see what all the buzz is about...

so i started reading "the shack" yesterday...this summer at brooks, i met many clients who went on and on about how it challenged their perception of god...the more i questioned, i finally realized that it is basically about the portrayal of god as a big, black woman named papa that threw their worldview for a loop...

i am almost finished with the book - many times it was painful to keep reading - and at other times i appreciated the author's use of tillich, barth, and schleiermacher to theologically challenge the american "idol" of god...as i read the back cover, m.w. smith was quoted as saying something to the effect that this book was the most stimulating fictional read he has read in years...i had to think - seriously?

even though god is a big black woman, w. young still keeps her in the kitchen...jesus is, of course, a jewish man working in the back shop making woody things...and the spirit is an asian woman that both confronts and comforts the main character - mack...as i talked with derek about it, he saw papa in the kitchen as a source of nourishment...i, on the other hand found, it terrifyingly stereotypical and only reaffirming of white prejudices...not to mention that mack found jesus to be astoundingly "ugly"...instead of the smashing, muscular, intensely handsome white jesus that hangs on the wall in most american churches...

even though i found the trinity to human conversation sometimes excruciating, i did find young's portrayal of the economic trinity in flesh to be enlightening...he addresses hierarchy and the will to power and then accurately addresses the human longing for autonomy and individualism...which theologically, negates our willingness to embrace the "absolute dependence" schleiermacher so adamantly tries to school us on...

i don't know whether to think the gender shift is the most challenging aspect of this book for its overwhelmingly right readers - or the overt address to the need for power within our society...if a gender quandary is all the reader is left with - young's challenge to the system is lost...i will say that if the reader puts the book down and starts to challenge power and autonomy - the church might have revolution on its hands...which is strange...it would be difficult for me to imagine seeing women in the religious right fighting hierarchical power...but stranger things have occurred from the reading of literature...

if the same phenomenon occurs with this book as it did with lahaye's last series - then i would love to know the number of people who try to go to the shack (located in the northwest) in order to meet papa in hopes to see god for themselves...fiction people...remember, its fiction...

i imagine a discourse between god and humanity to be something like reading a james joyce novel...somewhat recognize-able yet overly mysterious...actually, the gospel parables are more than enough of a challenge to me...forget joyce...but i have to say, as a fictional read i am thankful for young's challenge to the manly idol of god the american church has created for itself...if we are lucky - it might be the source of a new beginning...