Book Reviews
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed.” Francis Bacon (d.1626)
The Shack
William P. Young,
Windblown Media Newburg Park, 2008.
Reviewed by Darold Morgan,
Richardson, TX
Here is a best-selling novel that can either be interestingly ridiculed, or it can serve as means to a serious debate about some extremely solemn and important theological concepts. The book has received multiple reviews of major praise for the unfolding of its biblical approach to tragedy. This reviewer believes the book is well-worth reading, providing one connects an open mind with the extraordinary approach the author makes. Let the reader come to his own conclusion about the book which is obviously unlike anything any of us have read in years!
Other reviewers have used a wide-ranging scale of adjectives and adverbs about The Shack—imaginative, captivating, creative, exceptional, transforming, absorbing. This in itself is a challenge to anyone to get a copy of this book and get into it. When one gets past the sad and shocking tragedy in the novel; and also when the fascinating portrayal of the Trinity somewhat subsides, one becomes genuinely intrigued by the heart of the book—the dialogue and conversations which are presented in the most extraordinary of situations. This is the meat of the book.
The residual and enduring values of the book emanate from these discussions about the problem of evil in a realistic and brutal setting. How can one have faith in God who made a world where violence and sin and evil are not only possible but so obviously prevalent? The questions raised about the nature of God as the confrontation with human suffering leads the reader to a startling blending of God’s mercy and healing, concluding with a beautiful concept of Christian hope.
This Trinitarian concept of God received not just a novel and definitive approach to one of Christianity’s most sacred and difficult doctrines, but in this setting of a haunting novel there are some fresh and enduring insights about Christian truth. As one reviewer stated: “This is an exceptional piece of writing that ushers you directly into the heart and nature of God in the midst of agonizing human suffering.”
