The Shack

Last night, my wife led a book discussion on The Shack by William Paul Young. She did a fantastic job. If you have read the book, you can imagine conversation was not difficult to generate! Conversation, in fact, flowed freely without a lull for ninety straight minutes!

Leading up to the discussion, my wife did some online research about what people (especially pastors) are saying about the book. She showed me a couple. I was disappointed to hear one pastor say, "How many of you have read The Shack . . . If you haven't, DON'T" (emphasis his). First of all, I'm not comfortable telling another Christian what he can and cannot read. Discussing a work that you dislike can be as edifying as discussing one you can't get enough of! Second, I think this comment comes out of a misunderstanding of the book itself.

If you are reading The Shack in search of your Doctrine of the Trinity (or the doctrine of anything for that matter) you're looking in the wrong place. To say it better, you're reading the book with an inappropriate goal. The Shack is first and foremost fiction. God is not a black woman named Papa! He's also not a white man named Father! For the fictional purposes of the book, however, it was quite appropriate and (dare I say) even entertaining to have God the Father depicted as Young chose to present Him! I don't get the feeling from this work of fiction that we are supposed to finish the book and say, "Oh, now I understand the Trinity!"

Rather, in a profound and emotionally participatory way, Young brings the reader into a fictional setting in which God shows the main character, Mac, exactly what it is to be loved by God! Papa is especially fond of saying he is especially fond of people! The entire shack experience, from start to finish, was God giving Himself fully to Mac. Everything that took place during that episode was for Mac! Jesus was working on a casket for Mac's daughter. Sarayu was preparing a place in Mac's heart to bury his "great sadness". Papa took Mac on the painful journey to recover Missy's body! In a fictional way, Young has led the reader through an exploration of just how "for us" God really is! (Cf. Romans 8:31) Ultimately, God led Mac to forgive the man who so radically changed his life forever.

Since The Shack is but a fictional work, can the reader learn anything from it? Should we allow ourselves to be affected by the book? I think the answer to that should be left to the individual reader. For me, the answer is emphatically "yes to both". I know, in my head, on paper, dogmatically and doctrinally, that God is love and that He loves me. Young took me on an unexpected journey that showed God's love in a very real (yet fictional) way. It has not changed my understanding of God, but helped me in my understanding of who God is in relation to me!

Unlike my colleague in ministry mentioned above, I would say "read the book if you want to!" I would also strongly encourage that if you do read it, you also discuss it with others afterwards. When read as it is meant to be read, as a work of fiction, The Shack is a powerful piece of writing! I enjoyed reading it (twice so far) and discussing it with others! Happy reading!

PS- If you would like to discuss the book with me, please comment on this post or email me at pastoraker@paducah.com.