For quite a few months now there has been a buzz about the book, The Shack. I became further intrigued when I learned that the author of the book was going to be one of the speakers at a conference I take my junior highers to in the fall. I had heard things like, “it’s complete heresy,” but I also heard things like, “it can really change your perspective on your faith.” So I decided I would take a break from my reading of non-fiction and go fiction and pick The Shack. And let me begin by saying that, yes, it is fiction.
I don’t want to share a WHOLE lot because if you haven’t read it, I would encourage you to, and I don’t want to give everything away. If you haven’t read it, you are correct in saying that the author brings “human” form to God which is a black woman for most of the book, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who, if I remember correctly has Asian characteristics. Now I know you might be saying, “WHOA! Giving human form to the trinity, how dare they!” But let me ask you to give it a chance. The whole reason this is done is because a very traumatic experience happens to Mack, the main character, and so he is invited to “The Shack” for a weekend by a note signed “Papa” which is what he calls God. Through the weekend Papa, Sarayu (the Holy Spirit), and Jesus all talk to Mack and converse with him about his life, why he believes certain things, how his life has tainted his perception of God, how he has thrown God into a box with all the theology and church (as an institution), among other things. They go deeper and deeper with him, eventually healing the hurt that has been weighing so heavily on his shoulders (The Great Sadness). It really is a beautiful picture of healing, restoration, reconciliation, and life when viewed as a whole. There was one part where Jesus it talking with Mack about “Christianity” and the “church” and how Jesus doesn’t “do” religion, he’s more about relationships. He never formed institutions, that’s now what he’s about. I was reading this on the plane on the way back from Texas and almost gave a loud “YES!” when this was being discussed in the book. There were many other theological discussions that took place, a lot of which challenged me and I agreed with some, disagreed with some others, but mostly agreed actually.
I mentioned I was reading this on the plane on the way back from Texas and a man sitting across the row from me noticed I was reading it, and I had noticed he was reading his Bible. When he asked what I thought of the book I thought it was safe to engage him in conversation about it. He told me he was an evangelist and proceeded to ask me why I was reading the book, if I claimed to be born again, how I knew I was going to heaven, among some other questions. I’m not going to lie, it was a rather awkward conversation because I could tell he was rather conservative and I was trying not to pass judgements, but I was hoping he was a not a “Bull Horn” kind of guy. I asked him if he had interest in reading The Shack and he said probably not because he had all the truth and understanding of God he needed in his Bible. I couldn’t say I disagreed with that, but then again, The Shack is non-fiction and all it is really doing is creating a parable. I didn’t really want to get into all of that with him and I was so close to finishing the book that the conversation sort of had an awkward ending and I got back to reading. But I hope that you don’t look at this book a heresy and blasphemy, but rather look at it as a parable. As far as Christian non-fiction goes, this is an excellent read. I don’t mean to knock the others like Left Behind, but at least this has some correct theology in it, and it even gives human form to God as a black woman. I encourage you to read it, regardless of what others may have negatively said about it and form your own opinion on it.
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