The Shack

I hestitate to criticize a book that has such a big heart, is so sincere, and has been helpful to so many people, but the book--according to my tastes--has some significant drawbacks.

First of all, the writing style is folksy to the point of annoying. God says "yup" a lot, cliches are littered everywhere, and descriptions are mediocre. There is lots of smiling, crying, and chuckling. Sentimentality dominates every page. Because of this style, I never felt that the narrative was entirely honest about how humans really feel. Emotion was all on the surface, and resolution was all too neat.

I certainly appreciate that in this book God is consistently described as loving and relational, respecting our human freedom; all of the book's theology flows from this controling premise. This book will be a helpful antidote for those Christians who have been brought up on the vengeful and bloody "Left Behind" theology. Nevertheless, I still have some theological complaints: the depictions of God are syrupy and dopey (for my taste), forgiveness is reduced to love (instead of also involving repentance, pardon, and reconciliation), and the central purpose and power of the community of faith is entirely missing (in fact, it is denigrated instead of appreciated).

It takes a lot of chutzpah to write a book in which God speaks directly about ultimate divine truth. Few books can live up to that expectation--certainly not this one. Unlike the God of the Bible, God of the Shack lectures on and on, explaining everything in detail, beginning with the nuances of the doctrine of the Trinity and going on to cover just about every major theological subject. Oy! The man who has to listen to these divine lectures is said to have gone to seminary, but one would never know it based on his dumb questions and infantile concepts of God. The most basic theology "blows his mind" over and over again.

But when it comes to the most crucual theological question, the one on which the entire story of the book revolves, the book provides no clue whatsoever. Why didn't God prevent Missy from being murdered? God admits that he/she could have intervened but did not. Why not? "You'd never understand." What a cop-out after two hundred pages of confident, detailed divine explanations for all that God does.

Eugene Peterson's blurb on the front cover says, "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!" No it's not.

Despite these flaws, I'm still glad this book is our there and people are reading it. Those with an immature concept of God will be helped, and those working through grief may find some healing.

I couldn't wait to read "The Shack." But it wasn't about the book, it was about the controversy. I enjoyed reading the book, but it also disturbed me. So I read the second part again, this time with my Bible and a notebook and pen.

While there are a few scriptural accuracies in the book--God is love, the existence of the Trinity, etc.--I found more inaccuracies. In fact, some of the content went completely against what the Bible says. When an author uses a real entity in their fictional work, in this case, God, the reader expects accuracy. If I were to write a novel with Mickey Mantle as one of the characters, the reader would and should expect me to use accurate facts in my portrayal. Shouldn't that be expected even more when someone is writing about God?

I also have a problem with the way the author used the forward of the book. Most forwards are written from a non-fiction slant. If an author wants pre-book fictional material, they commonly use a prologue. Because the author chose to use the forward as fictional content, this leads the reader to believe that the story is based on true events. It is highly deceptive and misleading (and slimy considering the novel's primary content).

Although the story is compelling--who doesn't want a god who has no expectations of or makes no demands on us?--it is poorly written. There are miles of lengthy dialogue, where the character of Papa is spouting spiritual inaccuracy. The author also overuses dialogue tags and adverbs. Examples of "head-hopping" and grammatical errors are found throughout the book.

My main concern with this book is that readers who aren't scripturally grounded will buy into the notion that this is an accurate description of who God is. The author bears great responsibility in misleading thousands.

I had several friends recommend this book to me and talk about it's great qualities. I made it half way through before I found reading Calvin to be a much bigger draw and permanently shelved the book.

The writing style is simplistic and at some points agonizing to read. The author often just tells you what to think or what characters think rather than using description and vocabulary as more powerful writers would to drive home the point. I'm an engineer and not an English major, but I wouldn't expect 5th and 6th graders to have any difficulty with the style. However, after coming off texts by Tolstoy, Rand, Augustine, and early Puritans, it felt painful. Sentences to describe something that better writers could do in 1 to 3 words.
Besides that, I found the characters not very interesting and the theology "lite". What I mean by that is I find dealing with evil in the world to be extremely interesting, but the answers in the book were pat. Each exchange would open whole missing dialogues in my mind of question after question and nuance after nuance that would help define God's character(s) and the nature of evil in the world. Instead, by keeping it to a short book and making it fiction, the dealings with evil felt trite.
In the end, I just decided to find some classic sources on the subject and pursue the answer there rather than agonize in a pop christian novel.

If you are able to read this book with an open mind--all the way through, and you are seeking to KNOW Him through an intimate relationship rather than within the safe and predictable confines of religion, this book will change you, not maybe but definitely.

The first few chapters drag on a bit. Once you get past the slow set-up, the book moves quickly and keeps you wanting more right up to the end.

As far as the story - if you are going through some tough times in your life; this book gives you a feeling of hope. The author has an answer for the tough questions you often ask when trajedy strikes.