The Good God

How do you think of the Trinity?  What difference does your understanding of the Trinity make to the way you live?

There are a number of good books around which look at the key doctrine of the Trinity, but I am half way through Mike Reeves book 'The Good God' and I have to say it is the best book I have read so far.  It brilliantly looks at how the very nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is integral to creation and everything else in the universe.  The relational (trinitarian) nature of God explains why he creates, why he saves, how he saves and what we are redeemed for.

This book is theologically heavy in terms of the truths it looks at but is easy to read and understand.  The books aim is not just to make us more theologically knowledgeable but to show us how to enjoy Father, Son and Spirit.  Whilst I haven't finished it yet it is fast shaping up to be my must buy book of 2012.

The Shack

'The Shack' is a novel written by William P Young, it is a fictional story which has achieved phenomenal popularity. It is being hailed as our generations Pilgrims Progress. With that in mind I bought it at the weekend and began reading it, as I continue to do so I'm going to post some thoughts here and then when finished examine it more thoroughly.

The first point that has to be made is that this is a fictional story but which, through that medium, teaches theology. Mack, the main character, is invited to The Shack of the title in a note signed by Papa - the families private name for God. The Shack is significant because it is where the bloodstained clothing of his youngest daughter Missy was found four years previously after her abduction during a family holiday though her body was never found.

We first meet Mack as he lives with 'the great sadness' that is the result of that loss. Having received the note Mack goes to the shack where he meets with the Godhead and what follows is largely dialogue between the Godhead and Mack.

The nature of the book makes it hard for us to be discerning as we examine it as the Bible exhorts us to do with everything. It is emotionally very touching, as a dad I found myself empathising with Mack and his grief, the great sadness that marked everything after the loss of his child. I found myself aware of my idolatry of my children, that actually they are the one thing I am not sure how I would live without. It made me turn to God and pray thanking him for his blessing but also praying that he would help me not to make my children idols.

There are a number of issues that the book has covered already about which I am uneasy however; as Mack meets the Godhead he meets God as a matronly African American woman - why is the big question, though the story maintains it is to challenge our preconceptions about God. The Holy Spirit is an Asian woman and Jesus is a young Jewish male. I was and am uneasy about such personifications of the Godhead.

The book does challenge us about our preconceptions of God, that we just make him our image with our limitations and it challenges us to understand that God is inherently good. However there are large parts of the book so far which seem to go against what the Bible teaches:

Young teaches there is no hierarchy in the Trinity and that all hierarchy is wrong. He also teaches that God is fully human in Jesus Christ incarnate. He also makes other statements and suggestions about the Trinity which have no scriptural support and therefore are just conjecture. The Trinity is complex and Young does have God saying that man cannot understand it, but overall the books teaching on it leaves me concerned.

More thoughts as I read on.