So, I had a new years resolution to read one hundred books this year. Like most of my new years resolutions I’m finding now that maybe it was a little to ambitious as it is now well into February and I’m quite a bit behind. But I will say that I have read more books than I have read more books because of the resolution than I would have without it so the net gain is still positive.
I spent the month of December compiling my list of books to read. I wanted to avoid the temptation of reading just the books that fit with the ideas I already ascribe too though it is much more enjoyable to read if you are stopping only to say, “Ah yes, it is so!”. I also wanted diversity in the types of books and genres – novels, classics, modern, science fiction, spirituality, science, self-help, leadership, etc. To research books for spirituality I think I googled “best spiritual books” to begin my search. Now that is really casting a wide net because what is spiritual to one person is absolutely not to another. Some books on the list I would indeed say are great books – like “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo. Others I had heard enough about to know that they were not really my cup of tea but I wanted to be fair and at least see what all of the fuss was about. One of the latter such books for me was “The Shack.”
If you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all. Except that I can’t help it, I guess. And I feel like I need to process the discomfort I feel as I’m still trying to plow my way through this book that is almost unreadable for me.
So the book begins with the story of a murder. The main character goes on a camping trip with his family and his youngest daughter is kidnapped by a serial killer who leaves a calling card to let the authorities know it was him. They never do find the girls body – only her bloody dress in an abandoned shack. The main character suffers for quite some time with the “great sadness” when he receives a letter from God in his mailbox to meet him at the shack. When he gets to the shack he meets God in the form of three people, the Holy Trinity, who take turns spending time with him showing him the nature of the universe and such.
Here’s my problem. The first part of the book is so dark, depressing and sad and leaves you with a sickness in your stomach. And the response to that is this very straightforward, superficial, fundamentalist, atonement theology encapsulated in some real cheesy imagery – like Jesus shows up wearing a carpenters toolbelt carrying a fishing pole. Cheesy. The response to the tragedy and discomfort the author leaves you with in the first part of the story is grossly insufficient.
Then it dawned on me – this s not just the problem with the book. This is the problem with this kind of Christianity in general. This straightforward, simplistic atonement theology – you know, the Jesus died for your sins so you can go to heaven stuff – is a grossly insufficient response to the real difficulties and tragedies of life. Most people don’t believe the Christian myth as history anymore given what we know about the universe these days and as a myth, this version of the myth just doesn’t work for people anymore.
Except there is a subset of the population it does work for. This book that was almost unreadable to me sold a gazillion copies. So, it must work for somebody?
I have met a lot of people, usually parents of the boomer generation but also some of the boomers, who seem deeply troubled that there kids don’t go to church. Oftentimes I have been asked to do a memorial service for someone who was a person of faith and the kids thought they should do something religious for mom in terms of a religious funeral even though they themselves were really luke-warm about the whole idea. It seems to be a generational thing. It’s not like just one of the kids went astray so to speak. My take is that the religious story that worked for previous generations just doesn’t work for people today anymore because of how much we have learned about the universe in such a short time. We live in the in-between times where the old myth doesn’t work and the new myth hasn’t come into being.
We don’t’ need a new story, one that integrates what we know about the cosmos today and leaves behind all of that atonement stuff. Or maybe we don’t’ need a new story so much as a deeper understanding of the old.
ryanwriting 