The Shack by William Young
I hesitated to do a review on this particular book. I actually read it some time ago, even before it became so popular among many Christians and even the secular world. I hadn’t read any reviews on it. I actually did not know anything about it, other than it was recommended by a ministry that my husband and I had done a study through. So I picked up the book—there was only one copy of it at our local Christian book store, and I started to read it.
The book was captivating and had me drawn in, but that feeling did not last. Something just wasn’t right about what I was reading. I don’t get this feeling often when I read books, especially fiction books. But I just didn’t like where the story was headed. It went from being a great story about how God heals and restores a broken spirit to an outlandish, unbiblical view of who God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are.
God is an African-American woman, Jesus is a young middle-aged man of Middle Eastern descent, and the Holy Spirit is Sarayu, a small fragile Asian woman. I wanted to stop the book right there, but thought maybe I was missing something, that certainly Mr. Young didn’t really believe this. So I read on.
Obviously, William Young had the roles of the Trinity all warped. That wasn’t all that was troubling though. He had some crazy ideas about submission and free will. They were completely unbiblical. I was completely sickened by the book and told my husband that I wished that I had never bought it.
Actually, I am glad I bought it. While I am no great theologian, I am by nature very discerning. When I read, I look into things and I knew right away that this book was headed down a road that wasn’t good, regardless if it was fiction or not. I believe that because I read this that I can share with others the dangers found in the theology of this book. If I only stop one person from falling prey to the hype and unbiblical text of this book then I have done my job.
I could go into much more about what I found to be unbiblical and distasteful in this book, but I will let others do that. You can read a much more in-depth review of The Shack at Discerning Reader. I went there after I had read this book and was glad to see that it wasn’t just me seeing the wrong in this book.
It makes me sad that God’s Word gets so distorted. Many today feel that it is there job to “spice” God up to make Him relevant to people. God and God’s Word does not need spiced up and is just as relevant today as ever. I believe that it is us who need to change. We need to let the Word of God tell us the truth, not someone’s own interpretation. We must all be discerning of all that comes into our heads and hearts.
