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Books: The Shack
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A mostly self-published book by a new and undiscovered Christian author is selling like hotcakes. It’s called The Shack, and its sales are impressive.
Just over a year after it was originally published as a paperback, “The Shack” had its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list on June 8 and has stayed there ever since. It is No. 1 on Borders Group’s trade paperback fiction list, and at Barnes & Noble it has been No. 1 on the trade paperback list since the end of May, outselling even [Eckhart] Tolle’s spiritual guide “A New Earth,” selected by Ms. Winfrey’s book club in January.
I’d never heard of it before reading this article, but you may have. Here’s a little of the plot:
Early in the novel the young daughter of the protagonist, Mack, is abducted. Four years later he visits the shack where evidence of the girl’s murder was discovered. He spends a weekend there in a kind of spiritual therapy session with God, [a happy black woman] who calls herself “Papa”; Jesus, who appears as a Jewish workman; and Sarayu, an indeterminately Asian woman who incarnates the Holy Spirit.
Al Mohler has called the book “deeply troubling” for its theological implications and other Evangelical leaders have said as much. Oh, I don’t know about all this. I think it’s great for an unknown author to publish a book that people are buying. I think it’s great for that author to be Christian. I think it’s great if that book discusses faith, or concerns itself with faith. I think it’s bad if the book is The Purpose Driven Life With a Plot. I think it’s bad if people are buying the book like hotcakes, not because it’s quality literature, but because it’s about Jesus and Christian Stuff. A bad book about Jesus and Christian stuff is oh-so-more-dangerous than any number of good books about depraved people. But maybe it’s quality literature. Maybe it’s good stuff. You can buy it here.
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Soul searching
Here’s a link to a review that discusses some of the theological problems with The Shack.
http://www.challies.com/media/The_Shack.pdf
At least he’s not Henri Nouwen.
There were parts in the book that I loved, however there is no way I would recommend this book to anyone. I agree with the author that we tend to try and put God in a box, but I have problems with him saying, “or in a book.” I believe the Bible is the revealed word of God and I do not believe He would work in opposition to it. If you just want an interesting read and not a theological debate, it might be the book for you. I know a couple who say this book changed their lives. That confuses me!
I’ve seen the same concerns voice about every phenomenally successful Christian book or film done in the last ten years. If “Lord of the Rings”, “The Chronicles of Nariana”, “Paradise Lost” or “Dante’s Inferno” were published today and hit the best sellers list we would see a thread on the deeply troubling theological implications contained therein.
This may be why I know so many Christian creative types who don’t know what to do with themselves. Do they work in the secular world where it is almost impossible to make a living and hang on to your integrity or do you work in the tight little box of the Christan world where it is just as impossible to produce something that is actually entertaining and without getting a bunch of brothers and sisters ready to start a boycott of your work. Most of them eventually give up and get a job installing cable boxes.
People who get their theology, History or political opinions from fiction deserve what they get.
I haven’t read it, but our pastor mentioned it in his monthly email update (the 21st century equivalent of the church newsletter). He says “Don’t take it for a theology book or a Bible study. But it’s definitely worth the read.”
KBells, have you read it yet? I think you would see what is so unsettling about it.
Amen Kbells!
On the one hand it is difficult to make God a character in a fiction because, “His ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts.” But on the other, it can yank our thinking out of its ruts. You can take poetic license too far and you can be so careful you lose the beauty the comes of ashes.
Give me Joan of Arcadia over Facing the Giants any day. I would rather lead a Sunday school class through The Shack than the Left Behind series.
Think, discern, enjoy, but don’t take anything as gospel except . . . well . . . the gospels;)
Of course, people went all crazy over the Left Behind series. I wouldn’t use it for a Bible study, but it was a fun sci-fi that didn’t insult my faith.
I wouldn’t compare Left Behind with the Shack because LB taught Jesus was the only way to salvation and the authors obviously esteemed the Scriptures. I didn’t always agree w/ their interpretation but they did view the Bible as the Word of God.