The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young
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Book Reviews of The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity
Book Review: Absolutely Beautiful!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a beautiful read to say the least! I can see from the reviews that it is being judged by all sorts of emotion! That was probably one of the intents...has you all thinking doesn't it? Well it should. I don't think the Author meant to define things in actual scriptural sense for us. I do however think his intent was to cause many thinking moments for all of us!
The message in the book is abundantly clear to me as a Christian. Love is the greatest power on heaven and earth! Jesus Christ lived the pure example of its meaning! With that said, we all judge the world or individuals in it according to our emotions at the time. We don't even think about how we may treat another because we are always justified right? The message is that we are wrong! Though my faith does not support literally, every scene here in the book it is presented in a way that you and I can understand it! That is how God does it too....we have to be in a frame of mind to learn or understand. I completely understood the reason for the presentation. Too many are concerned with the presentation to even get the message....go back and read it again and hear and feel the message to you and I! There is so much anger and hatred in the world. So much in people wanting to seek revenge for the wrongs done to them. One can never get past any of it without taking a better look in your own heart. Bitterness will weigh us down forever if we let it, will get in the way of our progression here on earth and we take those feelings with us when we leave it. We punish others and ourselves for the anger we feel because we cannot do anything to change the events that have passed. All that energy spent in anger....when we cannot change events or people. You and I can only make changes in ourselves. There is the power...through Jesus Christ.
The only way to Salvation and Eternal life is by taking his example and love and be a messenger to the great message of hope, peace, and love! There is the message in the book. If you have ever lost a child this book is sure to impact your soul! I have lost loved ones so dear in most tragic circumstances. I know in my heart that though my own pain has been great, there is purpose in every incident in our lives. We cannot see it at times because the human part of us cannot seem to comprehend the Saviors love for us and how unconditional it truly is! We think we don't deserve him nor do we feel worthy to call on him for help. The Shack does a marvelous job in bringing the concept to life for you and I. Maybe if we realize how much the Savior understands as our brother our friend, we may seek to know him on a more personal level.
I would never pick up this book to read looking for doctrine...but the message of Jesus Christ is all through it! I think Mack's experience is one we all wish we could have, when in our darkest hours..to sit face to face with the Father and his Son and ask question, have our own hearts be comforted, and be loved. Since God cannot present himself in a literal sense without harming us because his brightness and glory is so great..he has to transform us and the scene so we can get the most of that experience. Since we may not get that, there are no miracles right? I am afraid we miss the miracles every day because we do not listen and our eyes are not open enough to see! We are looking for the big bang! When it lies within each day of our lives already! It is a call to remember the Savior and what our brother did for all of Gods children. I cant wait to read it again!!
Thank you Mr. Young for the message as I needed to be reminded of it over and over again. What a great book!!
Book Review: Great story...but read with caution.
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I start I'll let you know I tried to keep this short, but I'm verbose, what can I say? If you don't have time to read the whole review (or don't want to, that's how I am most of the time) skip down to the last paragraph.
As most of the negative reviews have said there are some faulty theological thoughts in this book. I will not say that I agree with anything in it, nor do I disagree with it. I have read through it several times and each time I pick it apart looking for new things to question and learn. I have still yet to firmly decide on what I think about any of the theological thoughts in it.
I do however think it is an amazing read and it will make you think. I do not in any way suggest a new Christian read this book, not without the guidance of a mentor to lead you through it at least. If you choose to read this book be firm in what you believe, if you're not firm this book could make you question your beliefs. However if you are strong in what you know and believe about God, the Bible and our lives as Christians then feel free to read it and speculate about it. I promise you that this book will make you think if you let it, and is that really a bad thing?
I love this book; I read it every summer, which does not mean I agree with everything in it. If you choose to read it above all remember that it was not meant to replace the Bible and he did not mean to say "this is how things are" rather it's a work of fiction. He was not trying to prove points, he was writing from the heart and this is how God manifested Himself to Young at the time he was writing this book. If you need to, do some research on why Young wrote the book, who he wrote it for, what was going on at the time, it might help you understand why he decided to take us outside our comfort zones as he did. I honestly think that's why so many people don't like it. Young took us outside our comfort zones and made us think about God in a new way, a way that wasn't our stereotype of Him. I'm not saying this is good or bad or if Young is right or wrong, just saying that he made most people uncomfortable with his portrayal of God (myself included) and I think that's a big reason why people hate it so.
To all of you who refuse to read this book but think poorly of it I ask you to do one thing, it's the same thing I ask all my friends who refuse to read it. I have a lot of friends who will not read this book and still feel it has bad ideas in it, but they've never read it so how do they know? I tell them rather than waste their money on a book they may not like to borrow it from the library and read it anyway. If you are taking another person's word for it you have no room to talk about the poor theological thoughts in it. You might have it in your head to hate this book and find out you love it in the end, that's how I was. I didn't want to love it, but I do. Don't just take another's word on it, read it yourself and come up with your own conclusion. It's not that long a book you won't waste that much time on it if you hate it. I give you every right to hate it, I don't mind if you do, all I do care is that you make your own decision about it rather than take my word for it or anyone else's. I think it's a great read and a thought provoking story, but not one for weak Christians. I still challenge you to read it, read it with someone if you need to, that way you have a leg to stand on regardless of what side of the fence you land. I don't care if you love it like I do, or if you hate it like some of my friends do, I just care that you love or hate it because you have read it, not other's reviews of it.
Book Review: Never thought I'd say it, but this book touched my soul
Summary: 5 Stars
I never, never would have thought that I would tell ANYONE that a book touched my soul. I am too rational, too in control, too much the skeptic to ever let such a thing happen-- especially by a popular paperback that I saw, at first, as just a little too Christian-y, even for me, a believer.
This book's tale of a personal relationship with God is so honest, full of love and spirit, that I couldn't keep my guard up while reading it. I could cite any number of nitpicks, but in the end, they don't matter. This book articulates relationship with a loving God, and offers the radical idea that power, control, hierarchy, domination, and violence are all human creations, all too often furthered by organized religion, and unrelated to a God who is unconditional love, affirmation of relationships, and true healing. For some reason, I went right to the one-star reviews on Amazon, to see what the book's critics are saying. It's the same old stuff: Biblical verses cited out of context, defending the indefensible actions of power, domination, and hierarchy undertaken, not by God or God's church but by humans' churches and other institutions seeking to substitute human definitions of good and evil for God's radical, un-judging, all-loving grace. The notion that one can live freely, wholly, joyously, in relationship to God, if only one gives up one's clinging to a false sense of control-- give up the illusion of control over one's own life and over others--is so fundamentally transformative, one must experience it to understand it. I am only beginning to grapple with it myself, and already my life is changing so wonderfully. Read the book!
I have only one quibble with this book, at least, only one which amounts to more than a nitpick. The book's vision of God is entirely personal and not at all concerned with public life. At one point, the book features God dismissing politics and economics along with much of organized religion as human institutions far removed from God's message of relationship rather than hierarchy. I agree, but was disappointed at the absence of discussion of Jesus' active, political resistance against systems of domination and control, specifically Rome. Jesus died because he refused to submit to the Roman Empire's use of fear, intimidation, myth-making, and murder to crush its colonies and destroy the will of those that would resist it. Jesus' message is a radically political one, in that he up-ended the Empire's hierarchy of power and ultimately faced a torturous death rather than submit. As a modern-day, left-leaning, liberation-theology-type Christian, I found the absence of this message of radical and, yes, political resistance to systems of power, hierarchy, domination, and control to be a major oversight in the book. God does indeed love us unconditionally, but that does not mean we should surrender our power in this world to resist systems of domination and control, including those perpetuated in God's name, even-- or should I say especially-- those perpetuated in Jesus' name.
But while this book lacks the radical, agitational, and yes, political message of the Biblical Jesus, it captures, better than anything else I've ever read, God's true vision (as expressed by Jesus' life and death) of a world that is a web of personal relationships, with no fear, hierarchy, intimidation, unquestioned authority, judgment, or false illusions of total independence from one another or from God. I can't remember the last time a book brought me to tears. This one did.
Book Review: Book Group Read and Reviewed
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, is this book hot or what? It seems everywhere I go, people are reading this book. I feel blessed that my book group chose to read this book at this time and have such a stirring discussion; with so many people reading this book, I feel better equipped to discuss this book with Christians and non-Christians alike. This is what came of 15 or so of us talking about what we read.
The book opens with the story of Mack and his Great Sadness, which we quickly learn is related to his daughter's disappearance from a family camping trip three years previous. His daughter, Missy, was never found and presumed murdered based on her bloody clothes found on the floor of a shack in the Oregon wilderness. Then the Great Sadness set in for Mack. His wife and family, including his other daughter Kate, all struggle to return to living life. It is a broken family. One winter day, a note arrives inviting Mack to visit "the" shack, signed Papa, his wife's name for God. Mack, after deciding he wasn't completely crazy, shuttled his family off for the weekend, borrowed a friend's car, and headed for the shack.
It would take many paragraphs to fully describe Mack's time at the shack, so please realize I am going to gloss over so many fabulous parts of the book here.
At the shack, Mack meets Papa (God), who appears as a black woman; Jesus, a Middle-Eastern man with a typically large nose; and the Holy Spirit, who appears as an ethereal Asian lady named Sarayu. Mack shares meals with all three, and he has many one-on-one conversations with Papa, Jesus and Sarayu as he struggles to understand the Trinity and the tragedy of Missy's disappearance and death.
A favorite scene is Mack's meeting with Sophia, the judge. Mack meets Sophia in a cave and there he learns about how he judged God and held onto his pain and anger instead of giving them to God. Mack wasn't consciously trying to judge God but did so by blaming God for not stopping what happened and for not loving Missy perfectly. Haven't we all done that to some degree? Forgiveness was a big theme throughout Mack's weekend as he was reunited with his alcoholic and abusive father (who had been dead for several years) and as Papa helped Mack start on the path of forgiveness for the killer.
By the end of the weekend, Mack finds peace with God and lets go of the Great Sadness. As he leaves the shack he is involved in a serious car accident that hospitalizes him for a month. As he wakes up, he shares his story and experiences with Nan his wife and repairs his relationship with his daughter.
All in attendance at the meeting thoroughly enjoyed this book. The discussion centered around the question, "would you give this book to a non-Christian or new Christian?" There was a split decision there. Many felt the book was a great tool to help people learn more about God and His love and forgiveness and to get people to church and to the Bible. So many of the scenes emotionally resonated with most of our book club readers, which can be a good place to begin in sorting through what one really believes. Others felt, while a good read, it had a very theological tone to it that could mislead people on issues that are often debated (free-will vs. predestination, the Trinity, salvation, the nature of forgiveness, etc). We all agreed that it would be dangerous to read this book as if it is true biblical doctrine and accurate portrayal of some very hard to understand concepts of Christian faith.
Book Review: Best Book I've Ever Read
Summary: 5 Stars
About two and a half years ago I read an article by Wayne Jacobsen in Plain Truth magazine entitled "Why I Don't Go to Church Anymore". After reading the article, I ordered the book he co-wrote called "So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore". After reading it, I began listening to a podcast with Wayne and friend Brad Cummings called "The God Journey." It was on that podcast that I first heard about "The Shack". The book had not been published yet, nor had it been finished. Brad and Wayne talked highly of the book and promised to give out info on it as it became available.
As soon as the book became available through The God Journey, I called and ordered a copy--this was before it was even released. It is quite possible I was one of the first people in Tennessee to ever read the book. (Who knows?) Anyway, I loved the book so much I called Brad and ordered a case. I gave them to everyone I could. To me, this book clearly explained the relationship of the Trinity and the relationship between God and man more clearly than any other book available.
A few months later, the book was released and more people began reading it. When it began to get popular among the conventional church crowds, I grew worried. On one hand I jealously wanted to keep this gem out of the hands of those who might try to capitalize on its success by turning it into the next Christian best-seller with the trinkets and crap that usually come with stuff like that. On the other hand, I was worried what the church police might think since it didn't exactly line up with the conventional church paradigm of God, Jesus, and the Spirit.
My worries proved justified.
As of today, I have to believe that this is the most controversial Christian novel ever published. It has spent I-don't-know-how-many straight weeks on the best seller list and continues to outsell most other books, no matter the topic. And during this time, it has been criticized, miscategorized, misquoted, and maligned by practically every "wing" of western Christianity. Without exception, every criticism I've read about "The Shack" or Paul Young have been categorically untrue. I've talked to Paul personally on the phone, I've heard him on interviews so many times I cannot count (some even before the book was released), I've had close friends who have shared time with him one-on-one, and I've listened to him tell his personal story and testimony in front of 100s of people. This man loves Jesus infinitely and desires to see everyone come to a saving relationship with him.
I posted a series of truths about God taken directly from "The Shack" on my blog over the past few weeks. I did it "anonymously" (kind of) in order to get the haters to see that if you remove the story of the book from the truth in the book, most would agree with the "theology" presented in the book. To read my posts, go [...].
Sometimes to see new things we must put on new glasses. I believe the "glasses" worn by the conventional church today have been crafted by a culture that is more interested in capitalism and attractional evangelism than truth. If we want to see more clearly, it is time to look plainly through the simple lenses of the New Testament. Paul Young has presented a picture of God that is so touching and biblically accurate that many will be unable to see it because the lenses of conventional Christianity have warped the view. You do not have to like the story, but you really need to grasp the truths.