Product Description

What would it be like to lose your youngest child to a serial killer? And then to have God invite you out for a conversation at the very shack where the terrible deed took place? And then imagine that the door to that shack of horrors opened . . . and before you knew it you had been swept up in the motherly embrace of a large African American woman? This most unlikely of stories, as told in William Young's The Shack, has become a runaway bestseller and it is easy to see why. The book brings us on a redemptive journey through the shacks' of deepest pain and suffering in our lives, guided by the triune God of Christian faith. But even as lives have been transformed through this book, other readers have sternly denounced it as a hodgepodge of serious theological error, even heresy. With one pastor urging his congregation to read it and another forbidding his congregation to, many Christians have simply been left confused. Aware both of the excitement and uncertainty generated by The Shack, theologian Randal Rauser takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the pages of the story. In successive chapters he explores many of the book's complex and controversial issues. Thus he explains why God the Father is revealed as an African American woman, he defends the book's theology of the Trinity against charges of heresy and he considers its provocative denial of a Trinitarian hierarchy. But at its heart The Shack is a response to evil and so Rauser spends the final three chapters considering the book's explanation for why God allows evil, how the atoning work of Christ offers new hope for a suffering world and ultimately how this hope extends to all of creation. Through these chapters Rauser offers an honest and illuminating discussion which opens up a new depth to the conversation while providing the reader with new opportunities for Finding God in The Shack.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15943 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
"If you have ever had a conversation on The Shack, whether with an enthusiast or a critic, you will want to invite this skilled and accessible theologian into the conversation. Before you have read a dozen pages you will know why we need to keep company with theologians.

They help us keep our conversations on God intelligent, informed , and irenic." --Eugene H. Peterson Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

From the Publisher
If you have ever had a conversation on The Shack, whether with an enthusiast or a critic, you will want to invite this skilled and accessible theologian into the conversation. Before you have read a dozen pages you will know why we need to keep company with theologians. They help us keep our conversations on God intelligent, informed, and irenic.

- EUGENE H. PETERSON
Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology
Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

About the Author
Randal Rauser is associate professor of historical theology at Taylor Seminary, Edmonton, Canada and was granted Taylor's first annual teaching award for "Outstanding Service to Students" in 2005. He authored Faith Lacking Understanding, the forthcoming Theology in Search of Foundations and co-authored Christian Philosophy A to Z. He has had articles appear in International Journal of Systematic Theology, Heythrop Journal and Christian Scholars Review. He enjoys speaking on topics of theology, apologetics and popular culture. He is married to Jasper and they have a 6 year old daughter, Jamie and a lhasa apso named Sonny.

Randal Rauser is associate professor of historical theology at Taylor Seminary, Edmonton, Canada and was granted Taylor's first annual teaching award for Outstanding Service to Students" in 2005. He authored Faith Lacking Understanding, the forthcoming Theology in Search of Foundations and coauthored Christian Philosophy AZ. He has had articles appear in International Journal of Systematic Theology, Heythrop Journal and Christian Scholars Review. He enjoys speaking on topics of theology, apologetics and popular culture. He is married to Jasper and they have a 6 year old daughter, Jamie and a lhasa apso named Sonny.

Customer Reviews

Digging deep into the theology of The Shack
I have read and loved The Shack (and have given away 3 copies of it on my blog so far), reviewed it, encouraged many others to read it and defended it (not always very tactfully) from some that don't agree with it. This book is the missing link for those of us that love The Shack but can't always defend it properly or for those that might need a little clarification on my The Shack is a great book and not a theological nightmare.
Randal Rauser is a theologian that has laid out, in an easy to read format, why The Shack has been a great tool for opening people's eyes to some amazing ideas and facts about God. He addresses many sticking points people have including -

1) The Trinity
2) Why bad things happen to good people
3) Why God is portrayed like He is
4) Much, much more

This book will provide a lot of food for thought on its own. Take this for example when he is discussing God and Abraham with the whole sacrifice Isaac scenario...

"If God knows all events before they occur, including every detail of Abraham's life, then what was the point of the testing? The point was not that GOD would learn Abraham was fully committed to him, but rather that ABRAHAM would learn from and be strengthened by his own faithfulness." (page 29)

Grab a copy of this book and delve into the theological eyeopener that many of us lovingly refer to as "The Shack".

An Excellent Companion Book to The Shack
My name is Mike Morrell - I'm a back-cover endorser on the runaway-bestseller The Shack. I said "Finally! A guy-meets-God Novel that has literary integrity and spiritual daring. The Shack cuts through the clichés of both religion and bad writing to reveal something compelling and beautiful about life's integral dance with the Divine. This story reads like a prayer-like the best kind of prayer, filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise. When I read it, I felt like I was fellowshipping with God. If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it."

I stand whole-heartedly behind my endorsement. And yet even I have been surprised by the wide range of impassioned responses the book has received, ranging from people receiving it as a literally-true story straight from the mouth of God on the one hand, or a witch's brew of New Age heresy on the other. The Internet is filled with armchair speculation on the literary and spiritual merits of The Shack - much of it rather un-inspiring.

So imagine my delight when I found out that Authentic Media was publishing Finding God in The Shack, an interrogative-yet-playful tome by theologian and author Randal Rauser. Rauser takes readers on a fascinating journey through the pages of the story that has ignited the church's interest in theodicy ("the problem of evil") and the Trinity, a doctrine that has long been locked away in seminary classrooms.

As Rauser explores the intricacies of the plot, he addresses many of the book's complex and controversial issues. In the process, he takes a stab at why God the Father is revealed as an African-American woman, defends the book's theology of the Trinity against charges of heresy, and considers its provocative denial of a Trinitarian hierarchy (with a nod toward the eastern Cappadocian Mothers & Fathers). At its heart The Shack is a response to evil, and Rauser offers an honest and illuminating discussion of the book's explanation for why God allows evil, how the atoning work of Christ offers new hope to a suffering world, and ultimately how this hope extends to all of creation.

So: If you've been inspired, challenged, or even threatened by Young's novel, Finding God in The Shack is like inviting an intelligent, even-handed conversation partner in your home.

A powerful book at The Shack
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (4/09)

Before I begin the review on "Finding God in The Shack," I admit that I am a huge fan of "The Shack." I bought eighteen copies of it and gave them away at Christmastime. I have been very surprised by the mixed reviews and strong reactions that people have had to the book. I was very happy to see the author's response and explanations in this book. Theologian Randal Rauser takes readers through "The Shack" and outlines the areas that are the most complex and controversial. I found the book to be very enlightening and easy to understand.

As I sit down to review this book, I realize that I must have at least thirty post-it note tabs on pages where I highlight excellent points. I will highlight only a few here and encourage you to pick up a copy of this book for your unanswered questions. The author first addresses the reason God is being presented as an African American woman named Papa. In his view, the conceptual idea of who God really is, is so big that it is probably something that humans cannot even begin to understand. The most important aspect of God being presented like this was to show that God does not want to just communicate with us, but desires to have a relationship with us. That point is emphasized over and over again throughout the book.

I also thought that Rauser did an excellent job explaining the Trinity. It always seems to be such a hard concept, but I found it much easier to understand after reading this.

One thing that really helped me was keeping a Bible close by to refer to the biblical references that Rauser makes. You don't need to because he explains them well, but I found it helpful to look at the full context of what he was quoting.

The author best summed up "The Shack" in his chapter on "Why this Theologian is especially fond of the Shack" (page 17). He states "The Shack will not answer all our questions, nor does it aspire to. But we can be thankful this has started a great conversation." And that is really all we can ask for. Hopefully it will get people thinking about our Creator and asking some important questions. If you enjoyed "The Shack" or had a lot of questions after reading it, "Finding God in The Shack" is an excellent resource.