An email from a friend of mine described William P. Young’s The Shack this way, “It’s an amazing story about a man’s weekend with God. Sounds hokey, perhaps, but it will change the temperature of your relationship with God”.
Little did I know the book was beginning to sweep the Christian community, I heard about it everywhere. Then it showed up in my church’s bulletin and I decided I had to read it.
There are parts that read like fiction, while others read like theology text disguised as dialogue, there are moments of emotion, and pages where nothing much develops. There is a murder mystery plot that unfolds as expected and almost rides along with the story like cute bookends on a shelf reserved for the more serious reading. All in all the book felt like an amalgamation of thoughts, musings, and ideas about God, religion, the Bride of Christ, and mankind presented as dialogue between characters. In one such passage Mack, the main character, and the Holy Spirit are having a discussion concerning all the “answers” Mack was taught about God while attending seminary. Mack comments, “This weekend, sharing life with you has been far more illuminating than any of those answers.”
Right on Mack! God will always illuminate our understanding when we spend time with Him. Since He is omnipresent we always are offered opportunities too! In the end I may not choose “The Shack” to sit on my shelf next to “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Dune,” “Moby Dick” or “Gulliver’s Travels,” all great works of fiction with incredible multilayered comments on man and God, but my friend was still right. The Shack did turn up the heat on my relationship with God. I was forced to think about the God/man problem in a new way and challenged to ask new questions about my own pride and religion.
By all means give The Shack a fair shake and as Mr. Young’s God character, a black woman named Papa, was fond of saying, “Let me know how that works out for you.”
The Shack
An email from a friend of mine described William P. Young’s The Shack this way, “It’s an amazing story about a man’s weekend with God. Sounds hokey, perhaps, but it will change the temperature of your relationship with God”.
Little did I know the book was beginning to sweep the Christian community, I heard about it everywhere. Then it showed up in my church’s bulletin and I decided I had to read it.
There are parts that read like fiction, while others read like theology text disguised as dialogue, there are moments of emotion, and pages where nothing much develops. There is a murder mystery plot that unfolds as expected and almost rides along with the story like cute bookends on a shelf reserved for the more serious reading. All in all the book felt like an amalgamation of thoughts, musings, and ideas about God, religion, the Bride of Christ, and mankind presented as dialogue between characters. In one such passage Mack, the main character, and the Holy Spirit are having a discussion concerning all the “answers” Mack was taught about God while attending seminary. Mack comments, “This weekend, sharing life with you has been far more illuminating than any of those answers.”
Right on Mack! God will always illuminate our understanding when we spend time with Him. Since He is omnipresent we always are offered opportunities too! In the end I may not choose “The Shack” to sit on my shelf next to “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Dune,” “Moby Dick” or “Gulliver’s Travels,” all great works of fiction with incredible multilayered comments on man and God, but my friend was still right. The Shack did turn up the heat on my relationship with God. I was forced to think about the God/man problem in a new way and challenged to ask new questions about my own pride and religion.
By all means give The Shack a fair shake and as Mr. Young’s God character, a black woman named Papa, was fond of saying, “Let me know how that works out for you.”