Matt Kleberg- What to Think about The Shack

I was pretty hesitant to read The Shack by William P. Young.  It sits in every airport mini-bookstore on the bestseller shelf, displayed loudly, right next to the most recent Joel Osteen self help manual.  Copies are literally flying off the shelves, as more than a million copies have been sold since last May.  Everyone and their dog have read it.  The book gets tossed around in Christian circles more than any book since Blue Like Jazz.   

With a book this popular and this widely acclaimed I could not help but think to myself, “This has got to be junk.”  When I finally sat down to read it, my expectations were low.  I anticipated a bunch of watered down, easy to swallow bologna that might explain why so many people are buzzing about it.  Maybe you can sympathize with my skepticism.  It seems like there is an endless supply of bad “Christian” reading these days.  We live in a world where the Gospel is consistently skewed, warped, and watered down, where people can hardly count on hearing sound teaching in their churches on Sunday mornings.  Why should I expect a national bestseller like The Shack to be any different?

I stand corrected.    

Not only does The Shack deliver the gospel boldly and without apology, but it also tackles some pretty tough questions.  Young uses an okay story to dig into some deep theological concepts.  I found it incredibly refreshing.  Disclaimer: Please to not hear me saying that the book is theologically airtight!  It is not!  The book was not written to be a seminary textbook, and I had my own contentions along the way.  It falls a little short, for example, in the issue of Scriptural authority.  On the whole, however, the message was focused on Christ and I would be more than comfortable passing the book along to an unbelieving friend.

The premise of the book is as follows.  Mack, the protagonist, loses his daughter to a twisted murderer.  After her death, Mack spends a weekend in a secluded shack in the mountains where he encounters the three persons of the Trinity and regains a sense of God’s goodness in the midst of pain and loss.  God shows up in the form of a stereotypical African American maternal figure that ironically answers to the name Papa, Jesus is a middle-aged Middle-Easterner in flannel, and the Holy Spirit shows up as an Asian woman named Sarayu.   

The characters are obviously unconventional, and some readers may find it hard to get past the image of God as a woman named Papa.  The book is also terribly corny at times.  For instance, Mack takes a walk with Jesus by a lake and finds himself walking on water.  Jesus urges him, “C’mon Mack. If Peter can do it…” (ouch). Ultimately, though, the main purpose of the book is to illuminate theological truths.  The so-so story is simply a tool Young uses to talk about the nature of God.  Young offers thoughtful presentations of the doctrine of the Trinity, Law vs. Grace, the problem of suffering, free will, the “wholly otherness” of God, and the redemption of creation in Christ.  In one particularly beautiful scene, Mack receives an image of Christ’s return, with all of creation bursting into song at the return of the King. 

Read The Shack, even if only to see what all the fuss is about.  You can expect to find cheesy dialogue and a mediocre plot, but you will also find a spiritual depth that may surprise you.  I am interested to hear how other readers reacted to the book, so feel free to weigh in.  As for me, I plan to pass it along.

Comments

[Judy Nelson]

Matt:

I agree with your post wholeheartedly. I have found great responses esp. by those who are suffering or have been hurt by the church. A great way to open a conversation as well.

[Krista J]

I disagree with this review. I do not think The Shack is worth passing on, and certainly not to an unbeliever who might not be able to discern the truth from fiction. I would also suggest reading another review of this book at the following site...it puts into words (much better than I) the problems with this book.

http://byfaithonline.com/page/arts-culture/the-shack-what-god-should-have-said