Eugene Peterson, on The Shack

“This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ did for his. It’s that good!"

Have you read Pilgrim's Progress? I have. It is a masterwork of allegory, which has virtually no merit as a story, per se. If it nothing to do with Christianity, it would be an awkward, clunky, rather boring story. What makes it great is the way it brings to life Scripture.

In fact, many versions of the book have the sides coated with Scripture references...Bunyan's original version included these references so that his allegories would not be missed. The book was an avenue to bring to life Scriptural truth. It was, and should always, be embraced not as a fictional story but as vivid account of Spiritual life. I can't imagine why it would have any attraction or resonance with anyone who is not a Christian.

The Shack has slightly more literary value, perhaps. But John Bunyan and William Young have vastly different ends for their respective works.

Young was "hurt" by "the church" and for years had rejected it.

Bunyan was also "hurt" by "the church," I guess, since he wrote his book while in prison, but he wouldn't have given a darn, wouldn't have gone through counseling, and certainly didn't consider Pilgrim's Progress as some sort of cathartic experience.

Young was concerned about the harmful ways that God has been portrayed, and so he tries to connect to the culture around him by present the trinity in an accessible way.

Again, Bunyan is also concerned about the ways God is portrayed, but again he wouldn't have given a darn about his culture "connecting" to his "presentation" of God. He was concerned about one thing...how does God communicate himself in his own Word? All other considerations were the vain speculations of man and were worthless.

I guarantee that if John Bunyan were alive today he would laugh at the existential angst of Young and other men who were "hurt" by the church, or by God, or by their vision of fathers, or whatever other concerns people seem to have these days. The perspective is all wrong.

John Owen, saw all ten of his children, and his wife, die. Yet somehow, this did not change his "view" of God.

I don't understand Eugene Peterson. Are we reading the same book? There is richer spiritual content on one page of The Pilgrim's Progress than in the entirety of The Shack.

The Shack inspires men to follow a vision of God of the creation of man. PP is concerned with presenting the Christian life as it is presented in the Bible. One drives men inwards, towards a low regard for holiness. The other drives men upwards, towards a true vision of God as presented in the Bible.