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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780830837083
ISBN: 0830837086
Label: Intervarsity Press
Manufacturer: Intervarsity Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: February 01, 2009
Publisher: Intervarsity Press
Studio: Intervarsity Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Shack has touched millions of readers with its portrayal of a compassionate God in the face of great evil. Many have identified with the main character's Great Sadness, the terrible burden of grief that often accompanies and follows a deep loss, for the Great Sadness is part of the human condition. And it compels us to ask, Where is God? Who is God?
Roger Olson, who has faced his own Great Sadness, finds a good deal of comfort in this much beloved, story as have so many others. Some may ask, however, Is God really like that? Is that really how God responds to evil? Can God be trusted?
Olson also views The Shack with a theologian's eye and finds much sound truth. He delves into many of the significant issues raised by the book such as forgiving those who have done us great evil, how God acts in the world, how God is three persons in one and what difference this makes to us. While he offers his own criticisms of the book, he largely finds the truth about God in The Shack.
Average Rating: 
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This book was an good book to use along with the book "The Shack." It studies the "The Shack's" view of forgiveness and redemption. I read it for a group study on the Young book. I did not use it as class material, but used it as additional resource material. I would recommend reading it after reading "The Shack" to further your understandings of the book.
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great book. I love the way this writer brings out important things to help understand a different perspective after reading the book The Schack.
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It is, of course, no substitute for reading The Shack, but it is a sympathetic reflection on the theological themes present in Paul Young's modern parable. I respect Olson's scholarship in historical theology (especially since he often cited my dissertation on Arminius in his recent book on Arminianism and consequently I thought I would receive a balanced, thoughtful assessment of The Shack(which I did).
There was much I liked about the book, but I was also somewhat (mildly) disappointed. Olson reviews The Shack positively. He does not think Young's parable is heretical in relation to the Great Tradition of the church (the ecumenical councils), though he recognizes that many of its points would be heretical within some denominational traditions (e.g., Reformed theology)--and even Olson's own writings have been regarded as heretical by some on some of the same points that The Shack would be condemend (e.g., human freedom). If Olson is critical of The Shack's theology, it is on issues like prevenient grace, regeneration, ambiguous atonement theology and ecclesiology. But his criticisms are rather mild.
My disappointment, however, was with the ahistorical reading of the novel, that is, there was no consideration of Young's own purpose, background or metaphors for his journey. There was little recognition that the "shack" functions as a metaphor for the woundness of one's life and the journey of recovery toward healing.
I understand that a novel may stand alone without an author's background providing the hermeneutical frame for reading it, but this publication gives us hints and clear clues that we should read this novel within the frame of Young's own life. For example, it was written for his children so that they could understand how his vision of God had changed through his redemption as a fallen minister. The acknowledgements at the end reveal that the "shack" is a metaphor for the soul's woundness. Indeed, in Young's own life, the "shack" is his own murdered childhood (Missy).
If we don't understand that, then we will misread the intent of the parable. While Olson recognizes that the novel is not a "systematic theology," he does tend to read it through the lens of a discipleship manual or, as he put it, "trusting God, following Jesus and being transformed" (p. 123). But this misses the point, I think. The Shack is about Young's recovery journey, about his own redemption, through an encounter with God that is telescoped into two-day dream. It is not a discipleship manual, nor an ecclesiology, nor a systematic theology. It is an expanded parable of a Jobian prodigal son who returns to discover the Father's love. I think Olson misses the metaphor and thus the real impact of the redemptive story Young narrates, especially about Young's own life.
Another example of this is how one perceives the ending. For some, as it was for Olson, it was "all sweetness and light" (pp. 129ff). Though recognizing the parallel with Job, the "happy ending" is off-putting because it is disconnected from the reality of Young's own personal recovery. His children recognize their father's "happy ending"--it is his real story. His vision (the way he thinks about God, relates to God and experiences God) changed his life and God recovered him for ministry through this novel. It is not everyone's "ending," but it is Young's.
Despite this, however, Olson's book is a light (too much so perhaps for my tastes) review of The Shack's theology in the light of biblical and historical concerns as well as existential realities. He reflects on the themes through Scripture but also in the light of historical theology. He recognizes the criticisms of the book--yields to a few of them (very few), but ultimately recommends the book as a way of walking through significant themes that daily challenge believers. I would recommend Olson's book as a healthy interaction with Young's novel.
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Our Book Club had read Finding God in The Shack , I recommended it to our prayer Group ; which led us to read the Respond to Finding God in the Shack. The Questions at the end are on target and serve as a bases for great discussion and thoughtfulness
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I thought this was an excellent read following the Shack. I was hooked from the beginning. I highly recommend it to anyone who loved The Shack.
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