The Shack

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Shack. My doctor recommended it, several of my congregation members are reading it, and I even read about it in our local newspaper (a negative review). So I decided to read it for myself. It’s the story of a man, Mack, whose daughter was brutally murdered several years before. Mack gets an invitation to meet God at the shack, the scene of the crime. The book describes his meeting with God.

I found it to be a deeply theological book. God the Father appears to Mack as a large, African-American woman and invites him to call her “Papa,” Mack’s wife’s favorite name for God. When he asks about it, Papa says,

I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it’s because I love you. For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me ‘Papa’ is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning.

Mack also meets Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Most of us don’t fully understand the concept of the Trinity, one God in three persons. This book helps us see the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, and perhaps understand it a bit better.

When I was at my previous church, I led an adult study on the book Christian Doctrine by Shirley Guthrie. It’s a great book, but one of my good friends said, “Do you realize how boring that sounds?” I guess only a pastor or a theologian could love a book on Christian doctrine. But a story! A story is the perfect entry point into thinking about God. Jesus knew that. The Shack reminds me of the other great stories that teach us about the important themes of life, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter books, and one of my favorites, C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, which is a story about heaven and hell.

One of the biggest questions that Christians and non-Christians alike ask is, “How can a loving God allow suffering and evil?” This book helps us wrestle with that question, just as the Biblical book of Job wrestles with that question. When I was a hospital chaplain, I realized that the emergency room was not the best place to struggle with theology. It’s better to figure out what we believe about God before we’re in the middle of a crisis. The Shack helps us do just that. I like it so much I’m going to have a book discussion in my church. Perhaps it will draw more people than a study of Christian Doctrine.

Read more about The Shack.