The Shack

Wickedly Late Guide to Young's Heretical Book   Jan 05, 2009
Young's use of suspense, dialog and conflict are spot on. All three orthodox ways to thicken the plot. Which he does masterfully. But that's where his orthodoxy stops.

What follows in the 240 odd pages is a bizarre, corny, heretical fantasy.

Now, the one question you should be asking yourself instead of charging roughshod with praise for Young is this: Where does Young get his information?

I have an idea.

His ideas are informed by men like Buckminster Fuller, Paul Tournier and Jacques Ellul-men he quoted at the start of three of his chapters-all unorthodox universalists.

To boot, Ellul was a Christian Anarchist, which probably explains where Young adopted the subversive quality of The Shack.

What the book amounts to is nothing more than speculative fiction.

In fact, Young joins a group of notable authors who've carved out Christianity, God, spirituality and Jesus in their own image: James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecies, Richard Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Rhonda Byrne's The Secret and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.

And like these authors, Young expects us to take his subjective speculations as absolute truth-over and above the objective truth found in the Bible.

I understand this is fiction. But any close reader will notice Young has a theological axe to grind. He's trying to undermine orthodox Christianity.

And if Young is involved in personal ideas of God that undermine Scripture, promotes new revelation and leads believers astray...every Christian should ask themselves: who am I going to listen to--God or Young?

For full review, see:
http://www.fallenandflawed.com/wickedly-late-guide-heretical-book-shack/

Really deceptive!   Jan 05, 2009
There are some truth regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, but most of it is deceving! I would not recommend this book for a young believer nor for anyone else who is not a strong believer in the Bible, for that matter, for it has so much untruth intraspersed with some truth that it would do more harm than good if the reader is not well read and informed with the Bible. I really can't see how a true believer of Christ could recommend this book and to compare it to John Bunyan's Pitgrim's Progress is really preposterous! That person could not possibly know his Bible!

Flora J. Scott

Removing paradigms - or taking the trinity into reality.    Jan 05, 2009
A refreshing approach to the Godhead and one that I know some will find difficult to receive. God can reveal Himself as He chooses and in most cases doesn't show up as the drab long haired solemn faced pictures on some walls. He came to Moses as a burning bush and to other's in different ways than that. The writer challenges you to think of God in a relational way and am delighted to find the person of the Holy Spirit personified in this book.

Old Theology in New Clothes   Jan 05, 2009
Every once in a while a parable comes along that causes the scales to fall from one's eyes and enables him to see ancient truths in a fresh new light. THE SHACK is just such a story. While I learned "about" the Trinity during my years in the seminary, William Paul Young makes the Three Persons in One God come alive by attributing clothing, mannerisms, and words to Him. The loving inter-relationship of the Three Persons of the Trinity to Each Other--and by extension--to Mack (and all humanity) is beatifully crafted and well-executed. Young breathes life and vitality into theological truths. That he does this against the backprop of the terrible tragedy--Mack's daughter being molested and killed by a sexual predator--makes God's goodness and love stand out all the more by contrast. Compared to theological tomes, THE SHACK reads like a fresh breeze blowing through a musty old cabin.

Good concept, badly written   Jan 05, 2009
I expected 'The Shack' to be something similar to Mitch Albom's 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven', only with God actually being in the story.
Instead, I got a few chapters of a fairly interesting crime drama(considering the author is not, as far as I know, a 'professonal'), before it all deteriorated into a mix of evangelical proseltyzing and 'New Age' philosophy.
I think Young simply tried too hard to turn a simple 'spiritual fiction' novella into some sort of 'epic', meant to enlighten readers of all faiths...or no faiths.
Young's nontraditional views of God, instead of seeming revolutionary, or thought-provoking, just seemed to be too 'cute'. He lacks Albom's gift with words, the ability to make a profound point in a simple way. Much of Young's prose was paradoxically simplistic, easy to read, yet bogged down by complicated explanations of spiritual issues, delivered in a cloying, 'down home' tone. (Maybe pandering to the Oprah Book Club demographic?)
One of the more confusing sides of the story is Young's attempt to paint 'free will and independence' as the down side of mankind's failure to 'accept Jesus'. Even Young doesn't seem clear about what point he's trying to make here.
This book just boils down to another evangelical text, trying to 'save' or 'convert' people, but not offering anything really fresh or memorable.
Without giving away the ending...anyone familiar with the old joke that says that bad writers write themselves out of a corner by having the main character 'get hit by a bus', will see that idea in a whole new light!