by mrs lily
I just finished reading The Shack, by William P. Young. In what short amount of time I have known about this book, I have heard several very different opinions and reactions to it. I wanted to see who on here has read this book and get some discussion going.
There is this one person in my life, who as soon as they saw me reading it prayed out loud that the Lord would protect my mind and heart, and followed by saying, "No one could ever pay me enough to read this book." However, this sort of reaction is not really out of character for this person, so I didn't take it too much to heart. I had already been told to go into it with an open mind and receive whatever truth from it I could and not let some of the theology throw me. I am a firm believer that the Lord can use whatever He wants to draw people to Himself and help them understand Him better.
Anyway, I knew very little about the book when I started it. The book is packaged as a work of fiction presented as true events, with theological views woven throughout in a way that was relatable and easy to understand. It is a story of a father who has gone through the loss of his youngest daughter, and God calls him back to the place of her murder and it is there he meets God. What I didn't realize when I started reading the book, was that he actually meets God, the entire trinity actually.
I thought the author did very well at conveying each aspect of the trinity as both three seperate and one being, and I did enjoy the conversations and imagining such a vivid encounter with God. There were however, several things that I found not to simply be something 'radical' or 'out-of-the-box' from fundamental beliefs, but actually a little off base. To me, it even seemed the author overplayed the main character's responses to some of the things God said as a way of subtly emphasizing their views of who God is, when wasn't entirely biblical.
There are also several beautiful representations of grace and forgiveness and healing throughout the story, but there is a complete lack of, if not defiance against the God as judge and punishment for sin, implying that if we simply have a relationship with God everything will be just fine and it doesn't matter what we do. This to me goes along with a lot of relational doctrine that is floating around, and I while do agree with most if not all of it, and it is the base of our faith, it is not a complete gospel in and of itself. Jesus not only called us to love him, but to repent and obey him.
As for the story itself, it was somewhat lacking in that less than a quarter of the book is the actual story of the man, the majority of the story is spent telling the events at the shack with God. I am somewhat nitpicky about writing styles, and thought it was written almost too simplisticly in parts and I even noticed a couple typos.
All in all, the negative aspects of the book did not completely ruin it for me by any means. I really did pull some amazing things from this book. I would say this is thought-provoking and worth reading...taken with a grain of salt, maybe two.
What have you heard about The Shack? Have you read this book for yourself? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Comments (15)
I'm 3/4 of the way through this book and so far, I don't like it all. I agree with you that it is very simplistic and somewhat predictable. How predictable that the family at the campground just happens upon another typical, middle-class "suburban Christian" family and bonds with them almost immediately??
I am (so far) totally put off by the stereotypical representatives of the Trinity. A large African American woman serving pie, complete with "honey child" mannerisms? "Jesus" telling Mack that he is Jewish, hence the big nose?? Puh-leeze!
I suppose I will finish it, but so far, I'm disappointed.
I really enjoyed this book. I completely agree that it is not that well-written, but I also believe it had excellent theological insights. I especially liked the way it unpacked the problem of pain toward the end and the way it turned my ideas of God on their heads.
I didn't agree with everything in the book, but I appreciated its reminder of God's love for me and its reminder that I need to forgive those who have hurt me.
One of my favorite aspects was the treatment of the trinity as one and three at the same time. How amazing!
I read The Shack, and I must say I disagree with Get_Real. I found it eye opening to the aspects of the Trinity. I never really understood the function of the holy spirit until reading the book. God brought this book into my life at the right time. The scene where Mack forgives the man helped me forgive someone I'd been holding out on, hoping that by not allowing him forgiveness, I'd be making him squirm, but as God tells Mack, the lack of forgiveness is not affecting the man at all, for the man does not care.
I think anyone looking to unravel the mystery of the Trinity or simply looking for something to further their spirtual walk, even non-Christians, should read this book.aaah i was going to do a book review soon too! i'm glad you are setting a precedent. i really should read more books.... and faster.... :P
@Get_Real_64@xanga - actually, I thought the comment Jesus made about his nose was funny, because it's probably true.
@songbyrd100@xanga - I am so glad to hear how the Lord used this book in your life. That's awesome!
@mrslily - I also thought the nose comment was funny.
I'm almost done reading "The Shack" and I can say wholeheartedly that I am "fur it" (as opposed to "agin' it"). A lot of times "theology" takes the things that God intends to be simple, like relationship, and makes it complicated.
We, as a Church, are too often caught up in "right-ness" instead of being "Christ's righteousness," which we can neither diminish or improve upon. His righteousness has been given to us as a gift so that we could be free to enter relationship with Papa. Our notions of rightness in theology, sin-management, and "doing the basics" are more out of wack than anything else, and keep us out of relationship because we are constantly striving to become more loveable and to be more loving. I've had a lot of people giving me flack lately on my blog for this very reason..."you gotta have punishment," "you gotta talk about judgment and hell and condemnation," "you gotta balance love and judgment"
I say "NO" only one place in the Bible does it say that God is ____. and God is not judgment, He is love. Judgment is an extension of His love, but I don't think God wants anything balanced with love because that is putting an idol in front of Him. God is love, period.
If you love God you will intuitively do the things He minds for you to do because it will be written on your heart (cf. Jer. 31, Phil. 2:13; Ez. 11). You can trust your heart and follow it because God's given you a new heart from Him, melted and united into Christ. Obedience = love; love = obedience. Performance and "being right" ≠ love because love is a gift and you don't have to earn it. There are things that you do out of love to help bring yourself more into alignment with God's love and heart for you and you can discipline yourself in that way to not always trust your emotions and wacked out thoughts (at times), but discipline for performance sake is trying to earn something that is a free gift.
Working for a free gift makes you a slave.
my friend and i started reading it together a while ago. she warned me that the beginning drags on. it felt like i spent ten years of my life reading from when mac leaves the house, goes to the mailbox, and gets back to the house.
I read the book and enjoyed it a lot but I definitely second thought some of the things in it. But I think that it did a very good job at showing God's love and understanding for us.
I read about three fourths of the book. I just couldn't get into it I suppose. I never finished it. Now some of my other friends really enjoyed it. I figured out the author would take the main character back to face his fears at the point it all began. I didn't like how it may end. But I know many others really like it a lot.
One gal sent a copy to one of my friends and he really didn't know her that well. She really like it and he allowed me to borrow his copy. He marked it all through the book with post it notes.
Perhaps one day I will finish it. It just didn't hold my attention at that time.
@adventure_coach@xanga -
@adventure_coach@xanga - What
you're saying about righteousness and love isn't really that bad or
that off base (God does require Justice though...have you heard of
Jesus?). But I think your emphasis needs to be re-defined as "against
the works based mentality." See, because you're not really in
disagreement with theology, since theology is everything you just did
in your response. Theology is the study of God, and without it, you
simply do not know God. Theology isn't defined by the modern way we
study the bible and develop doctrine from what we understand about God,
theology is defined by the fact that we are reading the Word and
learning about who God is. Thats it. If you don't have theology, you
don't have God.
Lets say Moses didn't have the bible when he went into the desert (he
didn't). He was just a part of a people group, and I'm sure he knew
about the Hebrew God. But once he encountered God in the desert (not
just experienced, God actually talked to him), he followed a certain
set of doctrines based on his theology of God. God said he will give
him the words to speak, so Moses could understand that God was
powerful. God said he was going to free his people, so Moses knew God
was loving, that he hears the cries of the afflicted, he is just, he is
sovereign, etc. Despite his lack of Scripture, Moses had theology and
doctrine. That is why he went back. We have theology based on scripture
because it is THE WORD OF GOD.
To avoid doctrine and studying the WORD of God (theology) because you
just want a relationship is not only arrogant (you assume God speaks to
you and that you alone can develop your own set of understandings
through whatever you choose), but also very misguided. You cannot love
the one you serve without knowing about him through the WORD that he
has already revealed to you. Why was Psalm 119 written? Because Thy
Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Its all about
loving God's word.
Besides the logical argument that you know God through his Word, there
many many times throughout scripture where God's word and the study of
Gods word is pointed out as a very big deal and very important to us.
Pulling from the NT, you can read over and over Paul's urging people to
have sound doctrine, to be based in truth, to not be swayed by false
doctrine, to grow in truth and understanding.
As far as balancing love and justice goes. You're wrong. Jesus died to
satisfy the Father's justice. His justice requires that each and every
sinner be punished eternally, but Christ lived and died to satisfy that
justice for us. The central point of the Gospel is that we are (to
borrow a famous theologian's phrase) sinners in the hands of an angry
God, but that God himself out of love for his chosen has redeemed us by
completely fulfilling the covenant and all of scripture and he DIED as
punishment (is not that justice?) for the things we should have been
killed for. How can we understand God's love more fully without
understanding his justice? You can't!
If you're gonna talk about love without God's justice, you're diluting
the Gospel. God's love is not nearly as needed without God's justice
and without God's redeeming act of love. His justice was satisfied
there on the cross. We need to talk about that.
In the 17th century European Christians were overly aware ONLY of God's wrath. The concept of "God is love" would have perhaps not been foreign to them, but it was the wrath of God that caught their attention. Perhaps we have indeed let the pendulum swing to much to the other side?
Truth does indeed to have two wings. I am aware of the picture of Christ in Revelation chapter 1 (a truly "terrifying" picture, let the reader please understand) and likewise his statement in John 17:3: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Looking at the original greek word for "to know" it sure sounds like a relationship to me.
It seems to me that the whole story of the Bible is of relationship lost and then an absolutely amazing process of redemption culminating in relationship restored through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In any case, I am almost finished with the book, "The Shack". Truth be told I am totally dumbfounded by the varied reactions to it.
In the forward Mr Young writes, "...I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside."
And so it was for me reading this book: an act of grace and mercy. I found that Mr. Young's descriptions of spiritual truths to be sublimely and utterly beautiful and I found myself recalling scripture verses buried deep in my heart and mind. And I thought to myself, "What a wonderful depiction of that particular verse." and so on. I laughed and cried and so often had to stop to reflect on what I already knew in my heart and soul to be true that this book brought to mind again.
And the section where Mack is on the judgment seat...my oh my did I need to read that. And the work in the garden...and so much more...Again, profound truths sublimely and wonderfully put into words. This book actually gave me an appreciation for the English language!!
But that is just me. To be honest, I never once thought about bad writing style or the fact that Jesus had a big nose (I also found that humorous) but came to realize through reading this wonderful story that my view of God is so small, and my understanding of relationship and being known and knowing is so small.
This book gave me hope.
I'm guessing many of the people who read this book and hated it perhaps have not faced true tragedy in their lives or gone through a serious period of questioning God, because I think the book would mean a lot more to them.
I don't think everything fits into perfect theological boxes (which assumes that human theologians have it all figured out).
I found the book allowed me to enter into conversations with God about the tragedies that have happened in my life and I found a lot of healing as a result.
As far as the theological explanations go...have you read He Loves Me? By Wayne Jacobson?
Also, I would hardly say that he side-stepped the need for repentance and Christ's work! That's the what the whole discussion with Papa and the wounds on her hands was all about. I also don't think he avoided saying that God was going to someday judge and have justice, he was just saying that he would rather not have to carry out Justice on any of his children and be separated from them if He could avoid it. That's why he implores us to accept Christ.
I thought the book was brilliant! Sorry!
I read the book and the leading critique of both the author and the book. While I found one of the criticisms valid enough to refrain from recommending the book to those young in Messiah, I would still recommend it to others who are having a hard time grappling with the idea of our God's tender, deep, abiding love for us.
Some of his critisms were expected - how dare you present the Father as a woman?!?! However, I've seen this done effectively for those who have been seriously abused by male authority figures in their lives until healing came sufficient to recognize the difference between gender and specific abusers.
It is not a book to build doctrine on. However, it is useful as an illustration of the intimacy our God longs to have with us.