Young, William. P, The Shack, Hodder and Stoughton, 2007
A Synopsis of the Story:
Mackenzie (Mack), the main character, had a bad childhood where his father was externally religious but was an alcoholic, wife beater and strict disciplinarian. He left home at the age of 13 taking some of his mother's perfume with him. He went to church, but had a love/hate relationship with religion and suspected God of being a brooding, distant and aloof person. His wife, Nan had a deep relationship with God. They both had 5 children. When Mack's wife refers to God she calls Him Papa!
Mack took 3 of his children camping and on the last day the older 2 went canoeing (they were teenagers) while Missy, the youngest, stayed with Mack and coloured in her book. After a while Mack heard some commotion from the lake where his children were canoeing, they had capsized and his son was having difficulty coming to the surface, so Mack left Missie colouring while he went to rescue him. When he got back from the rescue, Missy was missing and on her colouring book, a pin with a ladybird on it had been left there. When the police were called they told Mack that there had been a child serial kidnapper/killer and the ladybird was his signature. Mack was weighed down by the disappearance of his daughter and called it The Great Sadness. When the police started searching for Missy they came to an old shack and found Missy's red dress and a blood stain near the fireplace, but there was no sign of the little girl!
Mack was alone in his house a while after the incident had occured. He went to the post box and found a note in there which asked him to go to The Shack for a particular weekend. It was signed Papa. As the story title implies, Mack decided to go to the shack - for this he borrowed his friend's 4 wheel drive as the shack was in a remote place. Mack decided not to tell Nan [his wife] about his trip! She was going to be away that particular weekend.
He drove to the shack that specific Friday evening and met the 'trinity' there and went through different experiences with them - much was revealed about his life as he spent time with each member of the 'trinity'. It was going to be a long journey of reconciliation with himself, God and his family.
In the final chapters we see Mack being reconciled with his father and also being taken to the place where Missy's body had been dumped! There was closure in his life (or so it seemed) until the final chapter where you find out that Mack had been involved in a car accident on the Friday night and never got to the shack. He wakes up in hospital. After recouperating he took the sheriff to the place where Missy's body was - it was actually there! Because of the discovery of Missy's body the authorities hunted down and caught the Ladybird Killer and also found the other little girls' bodies.
A Biblical View of the Book:
On the front cover of the book is this commendation by Eugene Peterson:
This book has the potential to do for our own generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!
I would disagree with Peterson. John Bunyan's book showed the state of mankind and all that goes with being human - each sin is personified etc, but this book shows God in a distorted and unbiblical way, it lacks reverence towards a holy, righteous and all powerful God.
Young writes of a story Mack would tell Missy, one she particularly enjoyed hearing. Basically the story was about a young Indian girl who sacrificed her own life for the life of her love. Missy likened it to the story of Jesus who redeemed His people - it centred on a father who loved his only child and a sacrifice foretold by a prophet.
Mack talking to Missy after she had asked if God was being mean: Sweetheart, Jesus didn't think his daddy was mean, He thought his daddy was full of love and loved him very much. His daddy didn't make him die. Jesus chose to die because he and his daddy love you and me and everyone in the world, he saved us from our sickness, just like the princess.
Later on in Chapter 7 the doctrine of sin is mentioned again when it was stated by one of the godhead in the story: I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it. The problem with this line of thinking is - it is implied hell does not exist but according t0 Scripture hell does exist and it exists as a punishment for our sin - The wages of sin is death says Paul in Romans 6:23. Jesus became sin to punish sin in our place. Sin is more than a sickness which affects us all - it deserves the death penalty. There is a subtlety here in the fact that 'god' said it. If we want a true picture of God we should go to the Bible and not take it from a mere man who has his own view of the Trinity.
2 Timothy 3:16, 17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Trinity described in The Shack
Mack does go to the Shack and is greeted by:
Papa - an African-American woman who smelled of his mother's perfume [the Father]
Sarayu - a small asian woman whose hair blew as if in a wind. At first meeting she was collecting tears in a bottle. [the Holy Spirit] (Sarayu is in fact a river which flows through the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Sarayu is considered sacred in Hinduism!!
Jesus - Middle Eastern and dressed as a workman with a tool belt and gloves - he was covered in sawdust. [the Son]
Later on Sophia appears she is a personification of God's wisdom.
The problem with this picture is - in the Bible, God is never portrayed as a woman, He is always seen as a male, Father or Son. Although there are verses in Scripture, for example - in Matthew 23:37b Jesus says: How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Jesus isn't saying that God is a mother but is using a simile for His Father. We have to be careful not to make God someone He isn't - or else we are committing idolatry. The Bible tells us who God in His Three Persons is and how He deals with humanity.
God is holy and throughout this book in many places, the author is showing God as being vulgar and crass - in many of his descriptions and the way the characters interact with themselves and with Mack shows a lack of reverence and understanding of who he is before a holy, righteous and just God. Some examples are as follows:
Jesus and Papa were cooking in the kitchen of the Shack in one of the chapters and Jesus drops a bowl of batter then on p. 105 Papa says "You just can't get good help around here." Although it was meant to be an ice breaker for the situation - a) Jesus is perfect and wouldn't have dropped a bowl of batter unless He was trying to use it as a pointer to something more godly and b) God in all His holiness would not have said this about His Son, whom He loved with a love we cannot understand. Hebrews 1:8,9 shows us the love God has for His Son:
But to the Son He says:
“ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
Later on p 121 after Mack had been telling Papa something he [Papa] says "...Frankly I haven't a clue what this man is talking about." God is omniscient and knows all things - because He created all things.
On p122 - "Hierachy makes no sense among us." This contradicts 1 Corinthians 11:3 where the apostle Paul writes -
But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
How can this be? - we don't know! If we could fathom an Almighty Creating God, then we would be gods ourselves, but God is infintely above us, we cannot understand Him fully.
The author is trying to explain the Trinity in such a way that people can understand Him, but in doing so, has lost sight of who God really is!
The author may have had good intentions in writing this book, but unfortunately you will not find the God of the Bible in here. Young has tried to make God human and in that he has succeeded, but he seems to have forgotten that God is holy, righteous, just and commands us to be reverent to Him (when the word Fear God is used in the Bible - it's not a trembling fear, but we come to God in reverence). In this book the god figures are so human that they are not God. Even the Jesus character is human in a sinful way, not in a divine way.
On p191 Mack asks - "... What exactly did Jesus accomplish by dying?" [Papa answers] ..."Oh," she waved her hand. "Nothing much. Just the substance of everything that love purposed from before the foundations of Creation," Papa stated matter of factly, then turned and smiled. Nothing much?? Jesus came to redeem a people for Himself - that they may have eternal life. He came from glory to an earth which hated and despised Him!
p192 - Papa says - "Honey, you asked me what Jesus accomplished on the cross; so now listen to me carefully: through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world." Does that imply that all will be saved? That's not what the Bible tells us! Papa goes on explaining then as he/she is going away mutters, "Men! such idiots sometimes." Psalm 103:14 For He knows our frame;He remembers that we are dust.
After spending time with Sarayu Mack asks if he will see her again to which she replies - "Of course you might see me in a piece of art, or music, or silence, or through people, or in Creation, or in your joy and sorrow." Sounds like pantheism! The heavens declare the glory of God says the Psalmist but they aren't God, so perhaps Young is referring to this concept in his book, if not then is he pantheistic? We may argue against using semantics, but words can subtley change the meaning or doctrine of something - we can see God through things, but this is different to seeing Him in things.
There is no respect for God in this book - in one part Mack uses the word cr*p on p175 while talking to Jesus, if he was in the presence of the Risen Saviour - he would fall on his face in reverence as the apostle John did at the beginning of Revelation, or Daniel did in his book, or Isaiah in Isaiah 6. All three Persons of the Trinity are ONE God so each commands reverence and respect from humans.
On p176 after walking on water, Mack and Jesus saw a fish. Jesus said that he had been trying to catch the fish for weeks. Mack watched, amazed, as Jesus started to dodge this way and that. Jesus is portrayed as a clumsy idiot - almost like the youngest child in a family - one to be pushed around. He is the Risen Saviour who is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, not some little kid who behaves in a silly manner.
Eventually Papa changes into a male after Mack had been reconciled with his father, but Sarayu stayed female.
If people want to read this book, then the advice I was given - to read it with my Bible open - is good . I wouldn't recommend a new Christian to read it as it is full of a lot of doctrinal/Biblical error.
A Synopsis of the Story:
Mackenzie (Mack), the main character, had a bad childhood where his father was externally religious but was an alcoholic, wife beater and strict disciplinarian. He left home at the age of 13 taking some of his mother's perfume with him. He went to church, but had a love/hate relationship with religion and suspected God of being a brooding, distant and aloof person. His wife, Nan had a deep relationship with God. They both had 5 children. When Mack's wife refers to God she calls Him Papa!
Mack took 3 of his children camping and on the last day the older 2 went canoeing (they were teenagers) while Missy, the youngest, stayed with Mack and coloured in her book. After a while Mack heard some commotion from the lake where his children were canoeing, they had capsized and his son was having difficulty coming to the surface, so Mack left Missie colouring while he went to rescue him. When he got back from the rescue, Missy was missing and on her colouring book, a pin with a ladybird on it had been left there. When the police were called they told Mack that there had been a child serial kidnapper/killer and the ladybird was his signature. Mack was weighed down by the disappearance of his daughter and called it The Great Sadness. When the police started searching for Missy they came to an old shack and found Missy's red dress and a blood stain near the fireplace, but there was no sign of the little girl!
Mack was alone in his house a while after the incident had occured. He went to the post box and found a note in there which asked him to go to The Shack for a particular weekend. It was signed Papa. As the story title implies, Mack decided to go to the shack - for this he borrowed his friend's 4 wheel drive as the shack was in a remote place. Mack decided not to tell Nan [his wife] about his trip! She was going to be away that particular weekend.
He drove to the shack that specific Friday evening and met the 'trinity' there and went through different experiences with them - much was revealed about his life as he spent time with each member of the 'trinity'. It was going to be a long journey of reconciliation with himself, God and his family.
In the final chapters we see Mack being reconciled with his father and also being taken to the place where Missy's body had been dumped! There was closure in his life (or so it seemed) until the final chapter where you find out that Mack had been involved in a car accident on the Friday night and never got to the shack. He wakes up in hospital. After recouperating he took the sheriff to the place where Missy's body was - it was actually there! Because of the discovery of Missy's body the authorities hunted down and caught the Ladybird Killer and also found the other little girls' bodies.
A Biblical View of the Book:
On the front cover of the book is this commendation by Eugene Peterson:
This book has the potential to do for our own generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!
I would disagree with Peterson. John Bunyan's book showed the state of mankind and all that goes with being human - each sin is personified etc, but this book shows God in a distorted and unbiblical way, it lacks reverence towards a holy, righteous and all powerful God.
Young writes of a story Mack would tell Missy, one she particularly enjoyed hearing. Basically the story was about a young Indian girl who sacrificed her own life for the life of her love. Missy likened it to the story of Jesus who redeemed His people - it centred on a father who loved his only child and a sacrifice foretold by a prophet.
Mack talking to Missy after she had asked if God was being mean: Sweetheart, Jesus didn't think his daddy was mean, He thought his daddy was full of love and loved him very much. His daddy didn't make him die. Jesus chose to die because he and his daddy love you and me and everyone in the world, he saved us from our sickness, just like the princess.
Later on in Chapter 7 the doctrine of sin is mentioned again when it was stated by one of the godhead in the story: I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it. The problem with this line of thinking is - it is implied hell does not exist but according t0 Scripture hell does exist and it exists as a punishment for our sin - The wages of sin is death says Paul in Romans 6:23. Jesus became sin to punish sin in our place. Sin is more than a sickness which affects us all - it deserves the death penalty. There is a subtlety here in the fact that 'god' said it. If we want a true picture of God we should go to the Bible and not take it from a mere man who has his own view of the Trinity.
2 Timothy 3:16, 17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Trinity described in The Shack
Mack does go to the Shack and is greeted by:
Papa - an African-American woman who smelled of his mother's perfume [the Father]
Sarayu - a small asian woman whose hair blew as if in a wind. At first meeting she was collecting tears in a bottle. [the Holy Spirit] (Sarayu is in fact a river which flows through the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Sarayu is considered sacred in Hinduism!!
Jesus - Middle Eastern and dressed as a workman with a tool belt and gloves - he was covered in sawdust. [the Son]
Later on Sophia appears she is a personification of God's wisdom.
The problem with this picture is - in the Bible, God is never portrayed as a woman, He is always seen as a male, Father or Son. Although there are verses in Scripture, for example - in Matthew 23:37b Jesus says: How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Jesus isn't saying that God is a mother but is using a simile for His Father. We have to be careful not to make God someone He isn't - or else we are committing idolatry. The Bible tells us who God in His Three Persons is and how He deals with humanity.
God is holy and throughout this book in many places, the author is showing God as being vulgar and crass - in many of his descriptions and the way the characters interact with themselves and with Mack shows a lack of reverence and understanding of who he is before a holy, righteous and just God. Some examples are as follows:
Jesus and Papa were cooking in the kitchen of the Shack in one of the chapters and Jesus drops a bowl of batter then on p. 105 Papa says "You just can't get good help around here." Although it was meant to be an ice breaker for the situation - a) Jesus is perfect and wouldn't have dropped a bowl of batter unless He was trying to use it as a pointer to something more godly and b) God in all His holiness would not have said this about His Son, whom He loved with a love we cannot understand. Hebrews 1:8,9 shows us the love God has for His Son:
But to the Son He says:
“ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
Later on p 121 after Mack had been telling Papa something he [Papa] says "...Frankly I haven't a clue what this man is talking about." God is omniscient and knows all things - because He created all things.
On p122 - "Hierachy makes no sense among us." This contradicts 1 Corinthians 11:3 where the apostle Paul writes -
But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
How can this be? - we don't know! If we could fathom an Almighty Creating God, then we would be gods ourselves, but God is infintely above us, we cannot understand Him fully.
The author is trying to explain the Trinity in such a way that people can understand Him, but in doing so, has lost sight of who God really is!
The author may have had good intentions in writing this book, but unfortunately you will not find the God of the Bible in here. Young has tried to make God human and in that he has succeeded, but he seems to have forgotten that God is holy, righteous, just and commands us to be reverent to Him (when the word Fear God is used in the Bible - it's not a trembling fear, but we come to God in reverence). In this book the god figures are so human that they are not God. Even the Jesus character is human in a sinful way, not in a divine way.
On p191 Mack asks - "... What exactly did Jesus accomplish by dying?" [Papa answers] ..."Oh," she waved her hand. "Nothing much. Just the substance of everything that love purposed from before the foundations of Creation," Papa stated matter of factly, then turned and smiled. Nothing much?? Jesus came to redeem a people for Himself - that they may have eternal life. He came from glory to an earth which hated and despised Him!
p192 - Papa says - "Honey, you asked me what Jesus accomplished on the cross; so now listen to me carefully: through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world." Does that imply that all will be saved? That's not what the Bible tells us! Papa goes on explaining then as he/she is going away mutters, "Men! such idiots sometimes." Psalm 103:14 For He knows our frame;He remembers that we are dust.
After spending time with Sarayu Mack asks if he will see her again to which she replies - "Of course you might see me in a piece of art, or music, or silence, or through people, or in Creation, or in your joy and sorrow." Sounds like pantheism! The heavens declare the glory of God says the Psalmist but they aren't God, so perhaps Young is referring to this concept in his book, if not then is he pantheistic? We may argue against using semantics, but words can subtley change the meaning or doctrine of something - we can see God through things, but this is different to seeing Him in things.
There is no respect for God in this book - in one part Mack uses the word cr*p on p175 while talking to Jesus, if he was in the presence of the Risen Saviour - he would fall on his face in reverence as the apostle John did at the beginning of Revelation, or Daniel did in his book, or Isaiah in Isaiah 6. All three Persons of the Trinity are ONE God so each commands reverence and respect from humans.
On p176 after walking on water, Mack and Jesus saw a fish. Jesus said that he had been trying to catch the fish for weeks. Mack watched, amazed, as Jesus started to dodge this way and that. Jesus is portrayed as a clumsy idiot - almost like the youngest child in a family - one to be pushed around. He is the Risen Saviour who is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, not some little kid who behaves in a silly manner.
Eventually Papa changes into a male after Mack had been reconciled with his father, but Sarayu stayed female.
If people want to read this book, then the advice I was given - to read it with my Bible open - is good . I wouldn't recommend a new Christian to read it as it is full of a lot of doctrinal/Biblical error.
yes, even worse than I thought. I read the first few pages and that was it!
ReplyDeleteIt was hard going to get through it - everytime I read something irreverent I felt sick in my spirit! It could have been a good story if the author wasn't in so much error! There's a book called Unshackled, countering it - I'm not sure if it's only available in the US though!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for writing this excellent commentary, Carolyn. It was wonderful to read a biblically sound comparison between the theology of God and man's own. Very revealing and very reassuring.
ReplyDelete"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12)
God bless you, dear sister, may the Lord use your blog for His highest glory. May God pour ever-increasing portions of grace upon grace to you and your family.
With the love of Christ Jesus our precious Saviour,
Angela
After looking up the name Sarayu - turns out it's something to do with Hinduism as a mystic river!
ReplyDelete