The Shack

The Shack is the book that currently has a huge amount of buzz in the Christian world--both negative and positive. It was a book that was a small publishing project that has grown from the grass roots and word of mouth. The people I've talked to have had very strong reactions to it. The Shack is a book that people usually either love or hate.

I guess my feelings were more mixed. I personally loved the book. Although the central story is heartbreaking, this book expresses intimacy with God and His value on relationships better than almost anything I've read. The picture of the Trinity--how they love each other and interact-- was especially challenging and beautiful. My mixed feelings come in as I decide whether to recommend this book. My friend Melody and I agreed. We decided that although we both received much from The Shack, we wouldn't recommend it to friends who are new in their faith or seekers. We both read the book with the question, "Does this line up with scripture?" in the forefront all the way through. I do think that some of the theology could be taken in two directions, so I wouldn't recommend it to a friend who wasn't very familiar with her Bible.

Although I knew the book was controversial, I decided not to do much investigating before I read it. I wanted to read without preconceptions rolling around in my head. I did, however, do a lot of reading on the internet afterward. Here are a couple of the main criticisms of the book and how I respond.

Criticism: God is not a black woman.
My response: That is not at all what the author suggests. God the Father is represented in the story as a black woman, but the book clearly explains why that representation is chosen. The character of God says that she is appearing this way to shake the main character's (Mac's) preconceptions of God as a white man with a long white beard. She says that God is "other" and can appear in any form.

I get that. So often I realize that I have put God into my own comfortable-sized box that I can carry around. It's not so much that I have a visual but that I have boundaries of how I think about God and what He can do. He is constantly showing me that He WILL NOT be kept in a box. I think that the author was just trying to express this idea in a way that would make people sit up and take notice. He succeeded!

Criticism: The author made God too touchy-feely and didn't show how God needs to be approached through prayer and Bible study.
My response: I completely disagree. The overriding message of the whole book is that God desires intimate relationship with us. Mac knew all about God through prayer and Bible study. He had attended church and seminary, but he had never experienced true relationship with God. I think this is a worthy message. God desires to break out of our heads and into our hearts. I didn't see this as the author neglecting spiritual disciplines but rather challenging us to go into deep intimacy with God.

I started getting really edgy while I was reading one section where Mac was having a conversation with Jesus. Mac asks Jesus if all roads lead to Him. I immediately thought, "Oh, oh! Here we go! I knew this book was going to come to this." Jesus' response was wonderful, though. He explained that he simply meant that He would go down any road to get to us. That's a great truth and a great response to anyone that asks us the same question.

I also loved the strong message of redemption. God is clearly shown to use everything to His glory and subsequently to our good. Considering the devastating circumstances that leads to Mac's encounter with God, The Shack brings a powerful message of hope to those in hard places.

This is one of those books that I've hesitated to discuss on my blog. While our youth pastor, a man that I respect tremendously, recommended it to a group, another friend approached him and vehemently said how much she hated it and how flawed she felt the theology was. I will have to admit that I typically a hopeless optimist. I'm getting a little old, grouchy and jaded, but I still generally look for the good in people and books. I found a lot of good in The Shack. What did you think?