After enjoying an intimate dinner playfully made by the God-Trinity, Mack and Jesus head out to lay on the dock to stargaze and talk alone. As they talk, the conversation shifts towards Jesus’ humanity and down-to-earthness, yet being fully God at the same time. As their night together ends, The Great Darkness invades Mack again, but Jesus reminds him that he is with him and not lost.
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Top Posts
- Chapter 10 - Wade in the Water
- Chapter 11 - Here Come Da Judge
- Chapter Four - The Great Sadness.
- Chapter Seven: God on the Dock
- Chapter Three - The Tipping Point
- Chapter Nine—A Long Time Ago, in a Garden Far, Far Away
- The Guidelines of Participation
- Chapter Eight - A breakfast of champions
- Chapter Six - A Piece of Pie
- Chapter Five ~ Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
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Jeromy! Thanks for getting this up here – I am going to skim the chapter, and then get posting…
So I guess I’ll ask the obvious…are we done here? With the book? With the ShackReview?
it appears that way…. I feel like anything I have to say would come out too controversial….
Please don’t be done! I found this today as I was doing a search on The Shack for more information about it. All the reviews I read were glowing reports of its life-changing effects. I have read through all that you have here from the start of reading the book…yet, you all seem to just slowly taper off and disappear. Did the book not have the same life-changing effect on you? What are your thoughts after finishing the book? Or did any of you actually finish? When Nicole said earlier that she almost put the book down and that the portrayal of God the Father as a woman felt blasphemous to her, did she decide to stop reading the book?
Please come back and wrap this up!
Thanks,
Lisa
That’s funny, I thought I was the controversial one! It seems as if we all started pretty gun-ho, had some good dialogue (I don’t sense it was heated)…which expressed differences of opinions, and then we all pulled back (not only here, but overall) from dialogue. I wonder why that is? Or am I the only one who senses that?
yeah… me too…
maybe it was Christmas break or something?
I’m on if you guys are!
Agreed. Let’s chalk it up as a Christmas break. We owe it to our listening audience (which if you are reading this, we also invite you into the dialogue) to finish what we started.
Jonathan? Nicole?
I have to go back and read it again to refresh. Give me a couple of days.
Yesterday was our best day for blog stats? What’s that??
I keep seeing this book coming up on other people’s search enginges… I guess we can keep going…
I never felt like things got too heated – I’ve also held back alot of my thoughts on the book…. I didn’t want Raquel to hate the Shack by the end of this, since it was her idea to start this thing…
Regarding a walk at night with Jesus – the following discussion occured…
“Incredible!” whispered Jesus, his head near Mack’s in the darkness. “I never get tired of this.”
“Even though you created it?” Mack asked.
“I created it as the Word, before the Word became flesh. So even though I created this, I see it now as a human. And I must say, it is impressive!”
Do you think Jesus needed to become man to see things from man’s perspective? Do you think He somehow better understands us now, than before? Is He not outside of the realm of time?
Do you mean omniscience or time?
I think this conversation is the beginning of why I loved this book. The impression I got was of how much God loved his creation. This is one of the central message of the Gospel that I think has been lost throughout history.
For me, like Mac, seeing Jesus in such humanity and flesh was refreshing. I feel we have lost a lot of his humanity to his divinity. Almost like a drop of honey in the ocean. Sure their is honey there, but it is overwhelmed by the salt-water. Sure Jesus was human, but I fear that in our view, his humanity is overwhelmed by his divinity.
This effects how much we follow his teachings and example. If he is too divine, then we relegate them to “high ideals” that only Jesus, in his divinity, can do — surely he didn’t mean for us to follow his ways or teachings. Our problem today is not seeing Jesus as too human, it is seeing him as too divine.
Nicole – you bring up a good point. Did he have to experience being a human in order to understand being human? I’m not sure. I’ll put it on my list of things to ask him when I see him.
By the way, Hi Lisa and thank you for your passion for the book and encouragement to us to finish our conversation. Feel free to chat along with us.
Hi,
Thanks for continuing on. I’m not sure I would say that I have a passion for the book…although, I do have a concerned, hesitant interest in it. I probably came across as being passionate for it, but it was really more a passion for what you had going here! I like your conversation for learning a little more about the book, rather than all the reviews on Amazon.com. There are many glowing 5 star reviews, as well as many not-so-great 1 star reviews…and everything in between.
I have not read The Shack yet, so I really won’t be able to join in with anything substantive. I am trying to figure out if I want to read it. Your discussions here at least help me to see how maybe you can still have some productive dialogue with the difficult theological questions that come up while reading it. I hope it’s ok with all of you that I “listen in” even though I haven’t read it yet!
I went on my search for more information about this after receiving an email from a friend and her husband who have both read it, and they have heard the author speak. She relayed that the book “changed her life and her relationship with the Lord, healing hurts and bitternesses over the last 30 years of being a Christian.” I thought that was a pretty tall order for a book other than the actual Word of God to accomplish in someone. She is a woman who has always had an emotional faith, and leaned toward the charismatic and contemplative and new age and emerging church fads. (I separated all of those by “ands” because she has dipped into all of those at different times.) So, I guess because of that history, I’m a little skeptical of the claims being made. But I do like how you are not necessarily making those claims yourselves right now. Maybe you will when you are done reading and discussing…then I can follow along the paths that your hearts and minds are going as the Lord uses or does not use this book to “change your view of Him forever.” (That was another claim she made!)
I appreciate the time and thought you are all putting into your review. I like the references back to Scripture, because I believe everything needs to be tested by it.
Thanks again!
Lisa
There’s a fairly thorough review and interesting thoughts going on about The Shack at http://www.challies.com today. Give it a read!
Lisa P.
Pretty clear he doesn’t like it. Too bad.
I thought it was a good summary….
Is anyone going to post chapter eight?
“Do you think Jesus needed to become man to see things from man’s perspective? Do you think He somehow better understands us now, than before?”
No & No.
Hebrews 4:15 does seem to imply however that the earthly experiences of Jesus (temptations) can serve to strengthen our faith in him. This is for our gain however and not for his.
I quoted that verse to a friend this morning… God’s timing is so cool. Well said RSC.
The discussion on page 112 is about how the being is more important than the appearance. That is the point of Young showing God as a woman in Mack’s vision. It is the Being behind that face that is important, and Mack needed to get to know God on a new level.
I really enjoyed this chapter, I think it really shows how we needed God in the flesh (Jesus) to better relate with him.