Barry Traver

What You Need to know

about the Shack
W
illiam Paul Youngs theological
novel, Te Shack, is a contempo-
rary phenomenon that pastors, elders,
and deacons must reckon with. Why?
One reason is thatlike it or notso
many people (church people and those
outside the church) are reading the book.
Here are some of the specics: Te
Shack was number one on the New
York Times bestseller list, and since its
original publication in 2007 (in spite of
being self-published by an unknown au-
thor through an unknown publisher) it
has sold two million copies. At the time
this review was written, Te Shack had
received a total of over two thousand
customer reviews on Amazon.com
(most books get only half a dozen or
fewer customer reviews). Two-thirds of
the reviews of Te Shack give the book
the highest rating (ve stars), many
of the reviewers testifying the book
changed my life.
It is important to recognize that
the positive responses (on and o Ama-
zon) are coming not only from those
outside the Christian faith, but also
from those who profess to be evangeli-
cal Christians. One oft-quoted example
is Eugene Peterson, professor emeritus
of spiritual theology, Regent College.
Here is Petersons praise (which can be
found on the front cover of the book):
When the imagination of a writer and
William Young
[Te institutional church] doesnt work for those of
us who are hurt and those of us who are damaged.
Young
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Councel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2009
12
the passion of a theologian cross-fertil-
ize, the result is a novel on the order of
Te Shack. Tis book has the potential
to do for our generation what John Bu-
nyans Pilgrims Progress did for his. Its
that good!
But is Te Shack that good? And is
the teaching of Te Shack in line with
Bunyan and the Bible? Lane Keister, au-
thor of the Green Baggins blog on the
Web, doesnt think so. He has this to say:
Te Shack is the story of a
man [Mack] whose [young-
est] daughter is brutally mur-
dered. Te man ... receive[s]
a message from God [four
years later] to meet him at the
shack, the very place where his
daughter was murdered. He
then meets God....
Te upshot of the plot is that God ex-
plains to the main character the whys
and the wherefores, and the man is
healed. Te theological upshot is that
God is good, but not all-powerful....
Contrast Job. Job lost much more
than the man in the story.... He had
much more to complain about than the
man in Te Shack. He too wanted God
to explain.... But when God nally has
His say, He tells Job that He does not
have to come to the bar of human rea-
son. Humans have to come to the bar
of God.
Tis is where C.S. Lewis comes in.
In his brilliant essay entitled God in
the Dock, he makes [a] really impor-
tant [point].
1
Here is that important
point from Lewis:
Ancient man approached God ...
as the accused person approach-
es his judge. For the modern
man the roles are reversed. He
is the judge: God is in the dock.
He is quite a kindly judge: if God
should have a reasonable de-
fense for being the god who per-
mits war, poverty and disease, he
is ready to listen to it. Te trial
may even end in Gods acquittal.
But the important thing is that
Man is on the Bench and God is
in the Dock.
2
Te author of Te Shack is a typical ex-
ample of modern man: From Youngs
perspective, God is in the dock and God
(through the author of Te Shack) must
present a reasonable case for being
the god who permits war, poverty and
disease. Young ignores Lewiss rebuke
andwith tongue in cheektitles chap-
ter 7 of Te Shack God on the Dock,
making an allusion to Lewiss essay and
his own rejection of it (104-114).
Youngs approach is far dierent
from that which we see in John Bun-
yan and in Job in the Bible, as Keister
explains:
Bunyan and Young go in fun-
damentally dierent directions.
Christians journey is to the
bar of judgment as a defendant
C.S. Lewis
What You Need to Know About the Shack
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13 Councel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2009
whom God will acquit based
on the spotless righteousness
of Christ imputed to him. Te
mans journey in Te Shack is to
the bench, where he magnani-
mously acquits God of wrong-
doing, once it becomes evident
that God is really powerless to
stop it....
... [O]ne of my friends ...
noted the contrast between the
way in which God is portrayed
in the Bible as opposed to how
God is portrayed in Te Shack.
Te God of Te Shack is hardly
a God with the least little hint of
awe and majesty. He is not the
God of the whirlwind, which is
how God treated Job. He is not
the God before whom all bow
their faces to the ground.
3
In chapter 6 of Te Shack, Mack meets
God, and we as well are introduced to
a very dierent view of the Triune God
from that found in Scripture:
Te door ew open, and he was
looking directly into the face of
a large beaming African Ameri-
can woman.... Just as she turned
to enter the cabin, a small dis-
tinctly Asian woman emerged
from behind her ... . He [Mack]
then glanced past her and no-
ticed that a third person had
emerged from the cabin, this one
a man. He appeared Middle
Eastern and was dressed like a
laborer, complete with tool belt
and gloves (82-84).
All three are down to earth, human-
ized to such an extent that any sense of
awe seems to be excluded:
Mack tried again to look at the
Asian woman.... From her at-
tire, Mack assumed that she
was a groundskeeper or gar-
dener.... [T]he large woman put
her arm around Macks shoul-
ders, drew him to her, and said,
Okay, we should probably in-
troduce ourselves to you. I am
the housekeeper and cook....
And I, interrupted the man
who looked to be in his thirties
and stood a little shorter than
Mack himself, I try to keep
things xed up around here. I
enjoy working with my hands,
although, as these two will tell
you, I take pleasure in cooking
and gardening as much as they
do (85-86).
We learn that these three represent the
Persons of the Triune God:
Ten, Mack struggled to ask,
which one of you is God? I am,
said all three in unison (87).
It is di cult to see the portrayal of the
Trinity in Te Shack as other than a vio-
lation of the second commandment (the
commandment against creating images
John Bunyan
What You Need to Know About the Shack
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Councel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2009
14
of God), even if Young creates his images
with words rather than pictures.
We move from Youngs treatment
of God to his treatment of the Word of
God. While the Westminster Shorter
Catechism states, Te scriptures prin-
cipally teach what man is to believe
concerning God, and what duty God
requires of man, Young seems to see
the Scriptures as rather unimport-
ant or uninspiring (especially when
compared with Te Shack?). Here, for
example, is how Mack sees his experi-
ence of family devotions:
Images of family devotions
from his childhood came spill-
ing into [Macks] mind, not ex-
actly good memories. Often, it
was a tedious and boring exer-
cise in coming up with the right
answers, or rather, the same old
answers to the same old Bible
story questions (102).
USA Today notes not only that Te
Shack slams legalistic religions, de-
nominations and doctrines, [but also
that it] barely even mentions the Bi-
ble.[4] Tat may be one reason why the
discussions in Te Shack seem often to
open the way for theological error.
For example, heres one passage
in Te Shack which seems to leave the
door open to universalism. In chapter 6
we are introduced to God:
You seem to be especially
fond of a lot of people, Mack
observed.... Are there any who
you are not especially fond
of? She [God] lifted her head
and rolled her eyes as if she
were mentally going through
the catalog of every being ever
created. Nope. I havent been
able to nd any. Guess thats
jes the way I is. Mack was in-
terested. Do you ever get mad
at any of them? Sho nu!
What parent doesnt? Tere is
a lot to be mad about in the
mess my kids have made and
in the mess theyre in. I dont
like a lot of choices they make,
but that anger ... is an expres-
sion of love all the same. I love
the ones I am angry with as
much as those Im not. But,
Mark paused, What about
your wrath? It seems to me that
if youre going to pretend to be
God Almighty, you need to be a
lot angrier. [She replied,] Do I
now? [Mack said,] Tats what
Id think. Werent you always
running around killing people
in the Bible? (118-119)
Susan Olasky wrote a review of Te
Shack for World Magazine, a review
which contains some interesting back-
ground on Youngs attitude toward the
Church:
Young is no longer a member of
a church, nor are his publishing
partners, both former pastors.
Tey are a part of a movement
that rejects the institutional
church.... His hostility ... shows
up in Te Shack.
5
Young has praise for relationships
but disdain for institutions, a dis-
What You Need to Know About the Shack
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15 Councel of Chalcedon Issue 2 2009
dain shared by the Jesus portrayed in
Te Shack (who also shares Youngs
sarcasm):
Youre not too fond of insti-
tutions and religions? Mack
said.... I dont create institu-
tionsnever have, never will
[replied Jesus]. What about the
institution of marriage? Mar-
riage is not an institution. Its a
relationship.... Like I said I dont
create institutions; thats an oc-
cupation for those who want to
play God. So, no, Im not too big
on religion, Jesus said, a little
sarcastically (179).
Enough examples have already been
provided, I think, to suggest that one
problem with the book is that it pro-
motes relationships, love, accep-
tance, hugs, etc. at the expense of the
Word of God, the Church, traditional
historic Christianity, authority, doc-
trine, the fear of God, etc. Some feel
that the book (more than) runs the risk
of actual heresy (in the treatment of the
Trinity, for example, especially in light
of the second commandment).
To those who would suggest that
Te Shack may be bad theology but
good literature, I oer two brief com-
ments: (1) the book is poorly written
(Ive not found any fans of the book who
regard it as well-written ction or lit-
erature) and (2) it is really impossible to
extricate the theology from the ction
(Te Shack ceases to be Te Shack if
you ignore the books subtitle, Where
Suering Confronts Eternity).
I hope that Ive been successful in set-
ting forth what you need to know about
Te Shack. If so, I hope youll spend your
time on better books, including what is
although neglected by Youngthe best
book of all, Gods Word.
Endnotes
1. Lane Keister, Job and Bunyan Versus Te
Shack, Green Baggins, http://greenbag-
gins.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/job-
and-bunyan-versus-the-shack.
2. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on
Teology and Ethics (Eerdmans, 1970),
244.
3. Keister, Job and Bunyan Versus Te
Shack.
4. Shack opens doors, but critics call book
scripturally incorrect, USA Today,
March 29, 2008, http://www.usatoday.
com/news/religion/2008-05-28-the-
shack_N.htm.
5. Susan Olasky, Commuter-driven best-
seller, World Magazine, June 28, 2008,
http://www.worldmag.com/pri nter.
cfm?id=14137.
Barry Traver, a minister in the Ortho-
dox Presbyterian Church, is Web Design
and Technical Associate for OPC.ORG.
Ordained Servant, April 2009.
The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts
Eternity by William Paul Young.
Los Angeles: Windblown
Media, 2007, 248 pages, $14.95.
What You Need to Know About the Shack
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