Un-SHACK-led

A Review of the popular new book

The Shack

by

William P. Young

My first temptation in reflecting upon my reading of The Shack is just to trash it. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Un-biblical notions abound in it. Indeed anti-biblical notions ooze from nearly every page. And, casting stones is a relatively low-skill-set activity. Its easy. Pick’em up and throw. Doesn’t make much thought or depth of analysis.

But I don’t want to do that.

I don’t want to just indulge in literary vivisection because the very presence of the book and its theme are still important. And because as you read it, the auto-biographical nature of it screams to be addressed. All three of these account (I believe) for the book’s overwhelming popularity among Christians. All that being said – “Theological fiction” – as The Shack’s genre is called, is tricky business. Tricky and dangerous. How dangerous, we’ll unpack below.

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1 – 2 Kings 18:4 (ESV) ⁴ He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

RAF: Even symbols of God’s goodness to us can become idols. In this case it was the bronze serpent that was raised up on a pole to stop the plague among the Israelites in Numbers 21. The transferrance is from God Himself, to a “thing.” Loving or focusing upon the gift above the Giver. Heavenly Father, this is so easy for us to do. Please keep us from it. Please keep our eyes on you.

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