Whatcha been reading?

During some of my downtime at the airport(s) waiting to see if we'd get on the plane, I had the chance to read Wild at Heart and The Shack. Both were good books that I recommend. I'm not so sure I buy into everything within Wild at Heart. The author almost plays too much into the male and female stereotypes for me, but he makes some good points. It's a worthwile read if you can get your hands on it. I'll make use of it in future sermons no doubt and apply some of it to parenting 3 boys.
The Shack is a book recommended by my wife. What a thought provoking story! It takes the most tragic thing a parent could ever go through and works its way in story form through issues of suffering, tragedy, good and evil, forgiveness and redemption. I found it very cathartic. I had to stop at times to avoid crying (macho Soldier ya know) and laugh out loud at others.
Some churches have placed The Shack on their blacklist telling church members to stay away from it. Granted the book is anti-institution (but pro-God), anti-religion (but pro-relationship), and arguably anti-scriptue (but pro-revelation). It also raised questions of univeralism and was sprinkled with elements of Buddhism. (I plan to use it in my World Religions course). But as one well versed in orthodox Christianity, it had a sound presentation of the Trinity and did the best job I can recall on dealing with the problem of evil and suffering in the world.
Go ahead and pick it up. Tell the narrow-minded to get their head out of the sand.

The Wandering Chaplain