Review: The Shack

The Shack. By William P. Young. Windblown Media, 2008. 256 pp.

Currently #1 on the best sellers list in religion and spirituality according to Amazon.com.

Review of The Shack, by Brian Fisher

The immense popularity of this book stems from the great curiosity that contemporary society has regarding the book's major theme: struggling with how to handle the apparent absence of God in the midst of personal tragedy and suffering.

This is a question that is vitally important for the Church to address, not only through intellectual argumentation, but also through emotional comfort and sympathy. But these two actions are not disjoint. You cannot make theological arguments that are emotionally detached from the people to whom you minister. And you cannot bring real comfort to anyone apart from sound theological truth.

Though the author is no doubt well intentioned in trying to provide answers and comfort from a Christian perspective, we have to ask: if you present the doctrine of God falsely in order to provide comfort, are you really providing comfort? Are you really thinking Christianly about the love and justice of God?

Here are a few quotes from the review:

Christians must avoid the temptation to modify or distort foundational theological truth as they seek to answer life’s most difficult questions

We should also question whether something is actually wrong about the point he is trying to make if he feels compelled to alter the nature of God in order to prove his case.

There are some boundaries within which creativity must operate if it still wishes to be considered orthodox.

The fact that this book has been so widely read and acclaimed reveals to us that the issues raised are very significant in our culture today. It also reveals that these issues are not being addressed adequately by the Church’s current methodologies.

Check out the review and see what you think. Pay close attention to the concluding remarks in reference to how the Church should go about discussing this book in a manner that is distinctly Christian.

If you would like some further discussion and interaction I also recommend the following discussion of The Shack by Dr. Michael Burer, Jeff Miller, and Brian Gross.