The Shack

A friend recommended The Shack to me, not because he agreed with it, but because he found it thought provoking. I had heard about it from others, and some of what I heard was a bit discomforting, though they often highly praised it. I decided to read it for myself, especially upon hearing it had sold somewhere between 10 and 15 million copies.

William Paul Young (who goes by Paul) wrote The Shack, his first published book, as a fiction. However, those who told me something about it tended to treat it as something between a theological work or a true story. Though the sales figures show many love this book, many have attacked it as heretical, again treating it as a theological work rather than as a fiction.

Paul grew up as a missionary kid in West Papua New Guinea. There he suffered sexual abuse at school by members of the New Guinea tribe they lived among. His father verbally abused him, and he was emotionally distant from both his parents. Throughout his life, close friends and relatives died unexpectedly, often young. He later cheated on his wife, Kim. To remedy the adultery, Kim said he had to face every awful thing in his life.

Young initially wrote The Shack for his six children as a way to explain his understanding about God and how God helped heal his inner hurts. He gave some extra copies to friends who urged him to get it published. Two friends, Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, both writers, collaborated with him to rewrite the book. They sent it to many publishers who all rejected it, so they formed a new company, Windblown Media, and self-published it.

In the story, Mack, the central character, goes, at God's invitation, back to the place of his deepest hurt, the shack where a serial child killer murdered his 6 year old daughter, Missy. When he arrives, he finds that God the Father appears to him as an African-American woman (Papa), God the Son appears to him as a Middle Eastern man (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit appears to him as an Asian woman (Sarayu). Papa clarifies he chose this appearance for now to get beyond Mack's stereotypical pictures of him (he later takes the appearance of a man). They spend a weekend (or do they?) in discussion with Mack, sometimes all together - and sometimes one on one, sometimes in the Shack and sometimes outside near the Shack (one evening, Mack lays with Jesus on a dock staring up at the stars talking away). During that time, they explain to Mack who they are, what they want, but most importantly, they help Mack with the hurt and anger about Missy's murder, especially with his anger at God about it.

In a fiction, you can explore what ifs - it doesn't have to be true. You can explore something like, "what if the Trinity appeared to me in a shack - how would they appear to me?" You can explore different theological positions - they don't have to be true. You can even advance a message (usually called a theme in literature). However, good fiction usually advances the theme by relating the actions of characters rather than primarily by dialogue. And good fiction usually avoids making a character into a mere mouthpiece for the author.

A problem I have with The Shack is that the Trinity seems to mostly become a mouthpiece for expressing Paul Young's theology. While I thought some of it was spot on (especially about God's love and His desire to heal us), other aspects unabashedly contradict answers to the same questions orthodox Christianity carefully developed from Scripture to the same questions over two millennia. This is likely why Young has come under fire from many Christians. At the same time, many love his book, since many identify with the hurt place he is writing from, and the way he portrays God responding to that hurt.

Young expresses a definite theology. He attended Canadian Bible College and graduated from Warner Pacific College with a degree in religion. He attended (but did not complete) seminary, and pastored a church for a time. His favorite author is Jacque Ellul, who was heavily influenced by Karl Barth - a prominent neo-orthodox theologian. He made it clear in interviews that he has given up on the church, his seminary training, and what he would view as traditional Christianity. Most disturbing, Young often had the Trinity put the views they expressed above what the Scripture said.

Yet in many ways, I enjoyed reading The Shack, even if I didn't always agree with the theological views Young expressed through his Trinity characters. Because the book reflected the very real process Paul went through to seek healing from all his hurts, and because he initially wrote to communicate this to his children, there are many parts of the book that come across as deeply personal and very touching.