The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity (Windblown Media, 2008), by William Paul Young, is a book many Christians are talking about right now. It has sold around 10 million copies. Many of its readers love it, and many others hate it. The book has its failures, but not for the reasons most people think.

In the novel Mackenzie (Mack) Phillips wrestles with God over the abduction, rape, and murder of his youngest daughter, Missy. Following Missy’s death, Mack, who has always had a somewhat strained relationship with God, falls into what he calls “the Great Sadness.” One winter day Mack receives a letter from “Papa” (his wife’s favorite name for God) asking him to meet God in the shack where Missy’s bloody dress, the only evidence of her murder, was recovered. The rest of the book is a conversation between Mack and the three persons of the Trinity, each of whom appears in some human form.

As popular as The Shack is, it is wildly controversial, mostly because people who think about theology often don’t know how to read fiction. The greatest controversy is over Young’s portrayal of God the Father as a woman (though she’s called “Papa”). God created mankind male and female “in his image” (Genesis 1:27). God is not a man, but neither is he neutral. He inspired the biblical writers to refer to him in the masculine (“he” and “him”), but he sometimes uses feminine imagery of maternal protection to describe himself in the Bible (see Deuteronomy 32:11; Psalm 17:8; Matthew 23:37). I believe we are meant to refer to God as “he” and “him” and “Father,” but I also believe he possesses the feminine qualities he gave to Eve and that there is a biblical precedent for speaking of God using feminine metaphors. Consider the parable of the woman who loses one of 10 coins and sweeps the whole house until she finds it again: in the parable, the woman is symbolic of God just as the coin symbolizes a lost soul (Luke 15:8-10). If Jesus used a feminine metaphor to teach something about God, Young can too. It doesn’t mean he believes God should be neutered and called our “Parent” in Heaven.

More important than the controversies in Young’s theology is what he does well. Young makes Christianity appear as good news to contemporary readers. For that reason, it’s my opinion that his good theology outweighs his mistakes.

Unfortunately, when it comes to how well it is written, The Shack is wildly uneven. There were moments when I loved the book and moments when I couldn’t believe how poor the writing was. Three chapters in the book show real brilliance—they utterly captivate the audience and, in those moments, the book lives up to its reputation. The kidnapping, the meeting with Sophia, and the “God’s Eyes” chapters are excellent. The last of these, where Mack is able to see human souls the way God sees them, is so powerful it almost makes up for the book’s shortcomings.

Unfortunately, other moments in plot, character development, and language use are just plain bad. For example, Young describes a bump on Mack’s head, saying, “a significant lump had already formed, emerging like a humpbacked whale breaching the wild waves of his thinning hair.” Numerous topics covered in this encyclopedic look at Christianity simply didn’t belong in The Shack—the book’s plot and character development were at odds with Young’s purpose in this instance. He tried to cover too much, which resulted in preachy sermonettes that didn’t fit. Several chapters (including the foreward) should have been dropped.

Anyone who has read The Shack might be wondering why I’m acting like a literary critic here, talking about the quality of the book’s writing. My answer: it’s a novel that has theology in it, not a book of theology. Novels, poems, songs, and movies have to be judged by more than their content. How many Christian films have you laughed at for being poorly made? On the other hand, Handel’s Messiah is so wonderful because its music is as powerful as its message (perhaps even more so). Until craft becomes as important to Christians as content, our art will not impact the world.

Literature (and other art forms) ought to be about engaging people’s imaginations to see a greater vision of truth. If unevenly, Young nevertheless achieves this and many Christians will benefit from reading his book; however, it is not a “great” novel and its flaws are big enough that the book’s popularity might be only a passing fad. If Young had given the book to some real literary critics or novelists to read beforehand, they might have helped him create a book that will endure. As it is, I fear it will not. |L

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