The Shack

My mother-in-law is a retired school teacher, and loves to read. She sent me a copy of a book called The Shack and asked me to read it, and to let her know what I thought. Since then, I've seen copies of it in Christian bookstores, I've seen in mentioned in our church bulletin, and I've read an article about it published in Christianity Today.

I must admit, my mother-in-law told me that Oprah had been peddling the book, which made me instantly skeptical. Her feel-good religion has a wide audience appeal, but is not often grounded in truth. To get a feel for the book (which I had never heard of before), I went to the book's page on Barnes and Noble's web site to read the reviews of folks who had read the book, to hear what others thought. The fact that it got an average of 5 stars by everyone who reviewed it to me confirmed its mass appeal, which I hate to say, increased my suspicion. However, I noticed the book was endorsed by Eugene Peterson, who wrote "The Message" translation of the Bible, which made me think perhaps this book was "legit".

This fictional book starts out with a gripping tale of a man who goes camping with his family, during which his youngest child gets kidnapped, and brutally murdered. About a third of the way into the novel, he returns to the place of her death ("the shack"), and meets God, in a sort of dream-like experience. The rest of the novel consists of his conversations with God.

From a literary aspect, I felt this book was poorly written. The first part of the novel was interesting, with plot-driven writing relating to the kidnapping of his daughter. However, once the novel delves into the protagonist's conversations with God, it turns into pages and pages of dialog; not that dialog is bad, but it leaves the book feeling disjointed, like you're reading two different novels.

I also was disappointed with the dialog itself. It feels like you're reading a lecture on one person's personal theology. Writers like J.R. Tolkein (Lord of the Rings), C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), and Paul Bunyun (The Pilgrim's Progress) were able to convey deep spiritual truths, wrapped in a compelling story. The fact that the first two authors' books have been turned into movies that are popular among secular audiences points to the fact that these stories, apart from their spiritual significance, stand on their own as compelling narratives. A book like the Shack comes out and spells it out in plain English, which feels heavy-handed, and lacks the faith that the reader has the ability to understand anything more than straight-up theology. At the end of the day, why even write a novel, if it comes off sounding like a theological treatise?

The other aspect of this novel is the actual theology contained in the story. It's unconventional, and made me very uncomfortable throughout (such as God the Father being represented as a large black woman named "Papa"), although there weren't too many passages that I flat out disagreed with. I feel like the novel is one man's way of explaining his view of God. In so far as the reader takes it at that, and nothing more, it's an interesting look into just that: one person's understanding of God. As a Christian who reads the Bible on a regular basis, I know the biblical basis for what the author is saying. My concern is that, because this book has such popular appeal, people who don't read the Bible will read the book, and have a skewed version of God. As an analogy: Claude Monet painted his impressions of water lilies. If a person looked at the painting and thought the world was really made of swashes of blue and pink, but didn't grasp that it was a re-presentation of real, actual objects, they would have a very strange view of the world indeed. Furthermore, this author is emphasizing the redemptive work of God, and his dream of God is filled with rainbows and butterflies. Although the book is not "wrong" per se in describing the mercy and love of God's character, I think it's easy for readers to feel like God is a fictional idea, and not to take seriously the very non-fictional account of Jesus Christ, God made flesh -- not in a dream, but in real life.

All in all, I felt like the book was largely a waste of time. If you choose to read it to understand what others are talking about it, it's a quick and simple read. But as for me, someone who gravitates to books which appeal to me head more than my heart, I felt like it was a gushy mess. I would give it a D.