"Mack" Philips took his three children on a family camping trip while his wife visited her sister. Just as they were about to leave the campsite, the two older kids decided to take a last canoe ride before heading home. As their canoe overturned, and Mack went to help them, his back was turned and the unspeakable happened. Mack's youngest daughter,Missy, was abducted by a known child predator. After a massive search, evidence of Missy showed up at an abandoned cabin. Although they never found her body, everyone knew the worst had happened. For the next four years "a great sadness" fell over Mack and his family, until a note from God showed up in his mailbox. What happens next will move you to a greater understanding of God's unfailing love for us all.
Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.
Wm. Paul Young was born a Canadian and raised among a Stone Age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of former New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult and now enjoys the "wastefulness of grace" with his family in the Pacific Northwest.
Eugene Peterson says this book is as good and as important as The Pilgrim’s Progress. Well, it really is not. It is neither as good nor as original a story and it lacks the theological precision of Bunyan’s work. But really, this is a bit of a facile comparison. The Pilgrim’s Progress, after all, is allegory—a story that has a second distinct meaning that is partially hidden behind its literal meaning. The Shack is not meant to be allegory. Nor can The Shack quite be equated with a story like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where C.S. Lewis simply asked (and answered) this kind of question: “What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?” The Shack is in a different category than these more notable Christian works. It seeks to represent the members of the Trinity as they are (or as they could be) and to suggest through them what they might teach were they to appear to us in a similar situation. There is a sense of attempted or perceived reality in this story that is missing in the others. This story is meant to teach theology that Young really believes to be true. The story is a wrapper for the theology. In theory this is well and good; in practice the book is only as good as its theology. And in this case, the theology just is not good enough.
Because of the sheer volume of error and because of the importance of the doctrines reinvented by the author, I would encourage Christians, and especially young Christians, to decline this invitation to meet with God in The Shack. It is not worth reading for the story and certainly not worth reading for the theology. -- Tim Challies
Average Rating: 3 out of 5 stars(3 out of 5 stars)
8 of 1883 Reviews Showing:(View All Reviews)
4.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Karen Kehr (Middlebury, IN), November 06, 2009
THought this book was excellent and powerful. I recommend it to friends who have suffered or are suffering with the reminder that it is fiction not fact.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by John Van Ens (Spokane, WA), November 05, 2009
"The Shack" is a moving story that spins from the Trinity of God to the deepest need of mankind. It is a moving (it held me spell bound)as the plot is unveiled and the deep need of "relationships" is established. It is a must read for any who would grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Go for it!
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Linda Halstead (Charleston, WV), November 03, 2009
You have to read this story with an open mind. At first I thought I am not going to like this book. but as I kept reading I found I could not put it down. It was a wonderful story, I enjpyed it very much.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Joleen FS Widman (Papillion, NE), November 01, 2009
I loved this book! I bought another to give to my sister to read and pass on to whom ever she would like to.
This book ran me through a gamet of emotions, and in the end it gave me a renewed strength to I have a relationship with God. One that He intended for us to have with Him.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by BethS (Indianapolis, Indiana), November 01, 2009
I found the book to be a paradigm shift. Although the book is fiction, it does not mean the Holy Spirit did not influence it! How freeing and refreshinly hopeful life would be if we focused on relationship. I am going to buy many to give to those the Spirit leads me to. I am learning to live loved-and learning to see my life's view from "The Shack" location - a GPS that always leads me back to where I should be if I stray! If God can be a burning bush-he can be and African-american woman-and He can write fiction! Great life changing book! It may put a few churches out of busines!!!
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Linda (Steinhatchee, FL), October 31, 2009
I loved reading the reviews. People either loved it or hated it. It seems most of the men hated it. I had a hard time with God being depicted as a black woman & I think most men cannot picture God as a woman at all. Once I got over that, I really enjoyed the story. I had lost my daughter many years ago and I reconsiled to the fact that she was with Jesus and probably very happy. I pictured her the way "Mack" pictured his daughter. We all have an idea of who or what God is and this book showed me what I knew all along - that we should be more open to God and he is in all of us no matter what we look like.
0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Janet (Hemet, CA), October 30, 2009
When I see the recent group of five-star ratings, I have to wonder if those writing them know or care about the truth of Scripture. The religious leaders of Jesus' day would have loved "The Shack," since it presents the kind of "god" they would most certainly have liked. All of this nonsense about God revealing Himself to each individual in a different way is a rejection of the God of the Bible. Someone even said the book is not fiction, which is the opposite of the familiar defense of the book that "it is only fiction." Either argument is foolish and cannot justify teaching heresy in the name of Christian fiction.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Juliet (Bayville, NJ), October 30, 2009
What a beautiful description of the Trinity. I loved seeing God as a nurturing mother and Jesus as
the carpenter that He was, also the Holy Spirit going in and out, being vague, yet there for us as He always is. Having lost a daughter to cancer and reading of the beautiful coffin that Jesus made for this child gave me chills. How very awesome that was for me. Scripture doesn't have anything to do with blind faith. God teaches each of us in a way that we alone can comprehend and this was a big lesson for me. I loved it and bought several books for my friends to read too.
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