Young, Wm. Paul. The Shack. Los Angeles: Windblown Media, 2007, 248 pages.
Since this is a work of fiction, I'll try not to say too much, so the story won't be ruined in case you are planning on reading it and haven't yet.
Mackenzie Allen Phillips, better known as Mack, is in a dark place. A cataclysmic event, mostly referred to as The Great Sadness, has changed both his life and the life of his family forever, so it is of great surprise to him when he receives a note saying that Papa wants to meet him this weekend at the Shack. The Shack is where The Great Sadness happened, and Papa is what Mack's wife Nan always calls God.
Hesitantly, and with a great deal of disbelief, as almost anyone of us would have, Mack goes to the Shack for that fateful weekend where he does encounter none other than God- Elousia (Papa, though she does appear as middle-aged black woman through most of the book), Jesus, and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit). Mack gets to spend the weekend with God. When he comes to the Shack, his hope is that the pain and the weight of The Great Sadness will be taken away, and thought it is in at least some way, there are far more important things that take place: Mack is healed, redeemed, and restored in his relationships with both his earthly and heavenly fathers. Mack leaves the Shack a very different man than when he first arrives.
I must admit, at times it was hard for me to place Young theologically. At times, he seems like a Calvinist, other times a Wesleyan. He's very traditional as far as gender roles are concerned, so what the topic comes up, it's a fairly standard complementarian point of view. Young is no longer a part of any organized church, and he actually never intended The Shack to be published; he wrote it so that his six children and close friends might understand him and his views about God.
If I was pressed to describe the book, I'd have to say that it is beautiful. At times, it brought me to tears as I was forced to wrestle with some of the pain and anger I have felt towards God since my father's death when I was fifteen. In many ways, The Shack is the story of a man who is for the first time getting into touch with his own emotions and learning that he can then speak those feelings out loud to a God who loves him unconditionally. In many ways, that is the journey that I have been on these past few months, and it a journey many of us need to take. I recommend this book to you, but only if you are willing to wrestle with who you are and the God who loves you.
