“The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity” by William P. Young. Published by ‘Windblown Media’.
This book has become very popular amongst home churches. For this reason, I feel to put forth my responses after reading this book, for what they are worth, on this Blog.
My reaction is rather mixed. This is a fictitious story concerning a man’s reaction to the tragic killing of his little daughter, and his journey towards forgiveness and wholeness. The book is very well written and the storyline is well developed and quite engaging to read. The reason home churches are keen on this book is because of the way in which freedom from law, non hierarchical ways of gathering and church being about relationships, together with the emphasis on the personal walk we have with the Lord.
However, the portrayal of God as a black Negro mama, Jesus as your everyday pal who happens to be Middle Eastern in origin dressed in jeans and T-shirt, and the Holy Spirit depicted as a wafty Asian woman, troubled me. Apart from the extraordinary complexities of the gender and racial issues that are rather mind boggling, the general tone of casual pally pally talk that bordered at times on being droll disturbed me. Someone recently quoted David Pawson who said that there is a trend referring to the Lord God Almighty as Lord God All-matey! There certainly isn’t anything of the transcendence, or the glory of a Holy God in this book.
Other troubling parts of the book are the contact between the father and the child after the latter has died and other non-biblical ideas including ‘dream flying’ – (what does the writer mean? Astral travel?) Although the power of God’s redemptive love towards the sinner and that of a person’s part in the restoration of another through forgiveness, the seriousness of sin is blurred in the present day ‘God just loves you’/ ‘everyone is saved’ theology. It is a very watered down view of the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and I was saddened to see this presented in the book.
The front cover quotes Eugene Petersen as recommending this book as a modern day ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. I think not. My closing remark is that one needs to read this book with a good dose of prayerful discernment rather than swallowing it whole!