THE SHACK

dun dun dun...do I dare review the book that has been made so much of, as of late? I dare...

Book Review: The Shack
by: William P. Young

My Rating: 7.3

I liked it! However, I really had to push my way through to the end before reflecting back on the book to realize that I did like it. Haha. It was a parable to what it looks like to walk with God and interact with Him, especially as He is the Trinity. I can see where people could easily reject some of the ideas mentioned, on their face, if they were not careful to read each line of text and truly understand what it is that William Young in attempting to portray with his use of a black woman (God), asian woman (Holy Spirit) and Arab Carpenter (Jesus...a little more obvious) -it is NOT that He is condoning the idea of God as a woman, but rather that God is an asexual being, and simply chose to portray God as a woman in this novel in an attempt to broaden peoples' perspectives on the idea of God and shatter images of Him as an old man with white beard who sits on His throne. For taking that chance I applaud the author. I also enjoy the use of the interaction between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the book. In today's culture there is so much debate surrounding the idea of the Trinity and what that truly means, I enjoyed Young's perspective of a simply love between three people that is unequaled in the human universe, due to its purity. The thing that impacted me the most reading this book was the incredible imagery that is used towards the end of the book in one of Mack's (main character) interactions with the spiritual realm and the healing that comes from it. More than anything, this book made me think. I'm not one to easily take things on their face as accurate (especially when it comes to controversial biblical topics) and so I didn't with this book either, and in doing so it made me contemplate what I truly believed about the Trinity, the gender of God, humans interactions with God, etc...All in all, it's certainly worth reading, provided that you go into it recognizing that it is, in fact, a piece of fiction and an analogy, not absolute truth!

I'd say...read it! And then tell me what you think :)