the shack: an un-review

No, I’m not going to review The Shack by William Young. I will let you read it for yourself with unblemished eyes if you haven’t already read it. I think the book is worth reading whether you have heard positive or negative feelings about it. I’ve recently read the book. I thought Young did a great job. I have a lot of praises for the book and also a few criticisms. I went through a few reviews on Amazon to get a general consensus and I thought one reader put it quite well: “A parable, not a text on systematic theology.” The Shack is fiction – a story. I think it draws out a lot of ideas, thoughts, and feelings on how many Christians and non-Christians alike see God. Like a story it is not a theological guide to God. I would leave something like that to the Bible or books written by theologians. But, with that said - the book is out-of-the-box.

And with being out-of-the-box it causes controversy. Just under 19% of the reviews on Amazon gave the book a one or two star. Reading through some of those reviews you could see the book-burning mobiles coming out of the garage with ashes from Harry Potter in the back and books being written in response to the theological fallacies of the book.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Left Behind series. Almost 20% of the reviews for this novel gave the book a one or two star score. Several of these reviews describe the book as one that condones hate, and it is evidently a book for ‘fundamentalists’.

Both of these books are used as ‘evangelism’ tools for non-Christians. But the stories and ideas that these books convey are almost polar opposites. Where does this leave us as Christians? Where does this leave Christians in the mind of non-Christians? Being in America’s candy box of Christianity, it is apparent that there are thousands of ideas of what Christians believe about God. Many of those divides are as simple as back in the day one part of a congregation wanted red carpet and the other wanted green. So, maybe the argument wasn’t over carpet, but the divides were just as important. Is there another dividing shift among Christians? Are we living out a modern day protestant reformation of these different theologies? Could we see visual split of churches over this? Have we already? Obviously I have many more questions than answers.

Is it okay to be gray over this issue, and that there are these disagreements? Or, are these disagreements over serious fundamental truths and that there needs to be a black and white “yes” or “no” agreement?

I ask these questions from the context of which I live in. Currently in my job I see conflicting views in Christian mission, more specifically the work being done in Sudan. What is moving forward is a peace and reconciliation ministry in Sudan. It is a ministry that seeks to heal, reconcile, and redeem a war torn country. The other side is critical of the peace and reconciliation ministry and wants purely and solely church planting done to evangelize.

The story of the Sudanese is not fictional. It is a story of violence and genocide. In this story though, God is working in the lives of Sudanese: in healing, in reconciliation, and in forgiveness. There are stories like this all over the world. These stories are of the love, grace, and mercy of the God that created it all.