It is seldom I disagree with the folks at the Ekklesia Project. However, their most recent post, The Trinity and the Shack, by Debra Dean Murphy, gave me pause. It was not the content of the piece. Most of that I agreed with. The book is poorly written, the characters often one-dimensional and the theology simplistic at the very least.

The opening passage sets the tone

If you are a savvy and astute reader of Trinitarian theology who can elucidate the fine distinctions between, say, Augustine and Origen or Moltmann and Marshall or Zizioulas and LaCugna, you may or may not be up on the latest (actually, the only) treatise on the Trinity to capture the popular imagination: a little self-published tome called The Shack.

And that tone is strikingly elitist and not a little paternalistic. Very few of us have the means, ability and time to pursue graduate studies in theology that would give us the understanding that Murphy deems so necessary. And living in a society permeated by a therapeutic ethos, it is understandable that this would colour our understanding of our Christian faith.

I read (and re-read) The Shack at an extraordinarily low point in my life; I didn't take it to be a theological treatise. It challenged me in two ways. First, it insisted that, even in the face of tragedy, the foundation of faith is hope. People of faith live in hope because they realize that the future is in God's hands. Second, it insisted on forgiveness even when confronted with stark evil; no matter the circumstances, we are called to forgiveness just as we are forgiven. Nothing fluffy or out of line there.

And that was enough.

We should celebrate that so many are opening themselves to this message. Given the numbers, it is clear that it is not only those in the pews, but many who have been absent for some time, that are receiving this message. We can fine-tune the theology later.

As for the therapeutic, it is the lingua franca of today. If we are able to reach people using this language, we can address the problems with the foundational ideas later.

Far from decrying this phenomenon, perhaps we should celebrate that so many may well be truly hearing these messages for the very first time.