A Review of The Shack by William P. Young

I've just finished reading "The Shack" by William P. Young. While the book was not easy reading for the first chapter or two,once I got into it I could hardly put it down. The chief character Mack, while going camping with his children, leaves his youngest daughter Missie in order to save the boy friend of his older daughter Kate, who is caught under a canoe when it capsizes. Mack succeeds in his rescue, but when he returns to his campsite, Missie is gone.

The authorities are called, and as the evidence mounts, it becomes probable that his daughter was abducted by a serial killer (the Little Lady Killer) who leaves behind a trail to a shack in the wilderness, where they find the bloody clothes of his daughter. They never find her body.

This throws Mack into what the author calls "The Great Sadness". Four years later in the midst of a snow storm, Mack receives in the mail an unstamped note inviting him to meet at the Shack (the place of Missie's presumed demise) with someone who signs his name "Papa." Mack at first cannot figure this out, but since few people know that his wife Nan's name for God is "Papa," he decides to make this appointment.

The result is that he has a rather astonishing weekend with the Trinity, who appear as a large beaming African woman, who calls herself "Papa"; a Jewish Carpenter (the Son); and an eclectic Asian woman called Sarayu (we are told the name translates "wind"), who is presented as so ethereal in appearance (a kind of ever-changing collection of images and impressions) that it is difficult to see her clearly or put your finger on her, (the Holy Spirit).

If you have not figured it out by now, this book is iconoclastic with reference to traditional images of God. Young takes some pains to present God in an unexpected and at times shocking ways. Nonetheless, Young is clearly well acquainted with Scripture and scores of details that are Scriptural come out in the novel.

I will give you a sampling:

• Nan's naming of God as "papa" is put parallel with Jesus' calling God "abba". It is an intimate colloquialism in both cases.

• "Papa" explains to Mack that he/she is wholly other than human, so that the matronly African woman is merely the way Papa comes to Mack; later "Papa" becomes a father-figure. Papa comes to him as a black woman out of grace because of Mack's own troubled relationship with his abusive father. This corresponds with John 4:24: "God is a spirit."

• The relation of the members of the Trinity to each other is full of mutual love. The observation that "God is love" in I John is interpreted by the author as meaning that God defines himself as love through the relationships within the Godhead. While Scripture doesn't explicitly state this, it makes perfect sense. God doesn't just love humankind because of an arbitrary choice, but because love is God's nature.

• Jesus is described as not especially good-looking, which corresponds with Isaiah 53:2b: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

• Clearly, God is presented as absolute goodness, and evil is described as His absence or the absence of goodness. The tragedies and horrors of this life are presented as the outworking of millions of human choices outside of God, something God allows but in many cases doesn't desire -- and his allowance is because He is able to weave them together ultimately into a greater glory (Rom. 8:28).

• In one delightful scene, Mack and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) go out into a garden and do some gardening together, hoeing, pulling up some rogue plants, pruning, and planting. Mack repeatedly comments on what a mess this garden is, while Sarayu finds this amusing. Afterwards Sarayu comments that the work they were doing was on Mack's soul. This cooperative work corresponds the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which usually assumes some human cooperation.

• I thought many times through the book that God doesn't act in the way God is made to act in this book. We do not get lifted into heaven to view things from God's point of view. Yet in the Bible Paul talks about being lifted up into one of the heavens. And John in Revelation is lifted up into heaven.

• God is shown as Lord of time, for the weekend Mack spends with the Trinity turns out not to have happened in earthly time.

• Jesus is clearly presented as the Messiah and the Cross is clearly presented as the saving event for humankind.

There are many more such details, but this gives you some idea of the positives in the book. It is a book full of goodness and grace.

Chuck Colson and others have written reviews that criticize "The Shack" on a number of points, including such things as a low view of Scripture, an implicit universalism, an unBiblical and perhaps even irreverent view of God, a lack of heirarchy in the Godhead which is clearly delineated in Scripture, some misunderstanding of the nature and relationship of forgiveness and repentance, and a modalistic view of the Trinity, among others.

Certainly "The Shack" leaves itself open to these kinds of criticism. Because it is a novel and not a theology book, it can leave an impression that may or may not have been intended. It never states that everyone is saved. But in this story, Mack meets and forgives the father who abused him who has been dead for some time, and there is no indication that his father ever repented in this life. It also does not say that he didn't repent.

At one point "Papa" says that since Jesus' death, she/he is totally reconciled to humankind. However, Papa adds that reconciliation is a two way street, and that doesn't mean everyone is reconciled to God.

The book is highly anti-institutional, even going so far as to say that all religious, political and economic institutions are man-made, including the church, and do nothing but damage human beings. Jesus says he is also at work in the lives of people other than Christians -- Muslims, Buddhists, etc. At one point he even intones, "I am not a Christian."

All of this leaves open plenty of room for interpretation in ways that are not helpful. But we know the church is something other a human institution; it is a community of believers and the body of Christ. The term Christian is applied to disciples or followers of Christ, so to call Jesus a Christian would be a misnomer. Since Jesus tells his disciples that he has sheep in other folds, the reality that Jesus may work salvation apart from our understanding is not necessarily counter to Scripture, since Jesus' death on the Cross still remains the only "way" that a person is reconciled to God.

I want to make clear that I am not comfortable with everything I find in "The Shack." But it is a work of fiction and not a theology book. It does not give Bible references besides every detail in the book. By definition it leaves room for a person to interpret it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the read and often amidst tears, as would any father who cares about his daughter, or anyone who has struggled through tragedy or loss. It communicates clearly both the grace, mystery and goodness of God.

I simply would not go to "The Shack" to get my theology. I go to the Bible for that.

Jack M. High

This Article was published on 03/7/2009 and filed in