Personal Divinity in Young's The Shack
Where Creativity Fits in Christians’ Relationship with God
Jul 23, 2009
On Wednesday, July 2008 a post, in the blog Herescope, connected the God, Elousia, in The Shack to the archetypal Black Madonna that is found around the globe. The post references an article by Matthew Fox: The Return of the Black Madonna: A Sign of Our Times or How the Black Madonna Is Shaking Us Up for the Twenty-First Century.
In his article, Fox describes the Madonna as being an archetype who calls us to our personal divinity and invites us to share in creativity. William P. Young doesn’t embrace the challenge of divine creativity but he does seem to use creativity to make the path to God broader.
Participating in Divine Creativity
Fox equates divinity to creativity, he places her at the center of creativity “She calls inside, into the ‘kingdom/queendom of God’ where we can co-create with Divinity and feel the rush of the Divinity’s holy breath or spirit.” He says that the Black Madonna absolutely expects us to be creative and to ignite our imagination. He argues that embracing our creativity will help us improve the environment, improve failing educational systems, and improve society’s moral conscience.
Creativity and The Holy Spirit
Young is a theologian and not an artist and so he doesn’t ask Christians to become creative divinities. However, creativity does feature in how he has people learning from the Holy Spirit. Sarayu says “Of course. You might see me in a piece of art, or music or silence or through people, or in Creation, or in your joy and sorrow. My ability to communicate is limitless, living and transforming, and it will always be tuned to Papa’s goodness and love. And you will hear and see me in the Bible in fresh ways. Just don’t look for rules and principles; look for relationships—a way of coming to be with us.” (201)
Not the Narrowest Path
The Bible says that the path to God is narrow. In this case, Young seems to walk beside the path rather than on it, which means that it is easier to wander away. He emphasizes how the Holy Spirit can speak to people in art, music, people, creation, etc. Young even correctly, suggests that believers need to go to the Bible. However, he directs them to go there only to look for relational ideas and not to test what is heard in art, music, people, and creation.
Humans are faulty, what people hear in art or music can be a tool for leading them astray. In the Bible Paul, speaks of the Bereans and how they test everything against Scripture. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11 Paul commands believers to be like Bereans and to test everything against the Bible.
Unfortunately, Young undermined the authority of scripture at the beginning of the book when he suggested that it was dead and useless (page 63 ). While he correctly, suggests that God speaks through the Bible he still undermines its authority in Christian’s lives.
Young, William P. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity. Windblown Media. 2007.
Read more about William P. Young and The Shack at Suite101.
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