The Shack

A dear friend recommended that I read The Shack. She loved the book. I’ve heard and read lots of controversy surrounding this book. Here’s my take:

The Shack is completely a work of fiction and I took it as such. I’ve read reviews that labeled it as “life changing” and I’ve seen people who thought it to be blasphemous. I saw it as neither. The portrayals of The Trinity are the things that incensed some people. I don’t think the author was attempting to accurately portray The Father, The Son, nor The Holy Spirit in human form. I believe his point was that God meets us at a point of need. The book is full of symbolism and it’s not something I’d necessarily recommend to a new Christian or someone who is struggling with a real understanding of Christianity.

I’ve read reviews in which the reader said the book totally changed the way they looked at God. It didn’t do that for me. What it did was make me take a step back and look at myself. It made me think a lot about my relationships with people. It made me rethink my ideas about forgiveness and judgment. It also perfectly explained the way I love.

The book isn’t necessarily theologically sound, so if you’re looking for a book to help you gain a deeper understanding of The Bible, The Shack is not the one. I think people who find The Shack offensive are threatened by its tendency to make you see things “outside of the box”. I was taken aback and had to backtrack when I first came to understand who “Papa” was “in the flesh”. Then, I “got” why God chose to manifest Himself this way in the natural to the main character. A lot of people couldn’t get past that and wrote the book off as garbage from that point on.

I don’t think The Shack really opens ones eyes to some great spiritual revelation, but it will at its very least make you think; and in my opinion, that’s always a good thing.