The shack: Where tragedy confronts eternity
Author: Wm. Paul Young
Publisher: Windblown Media, Los Angeles
Year of publication: 2007
Reviewed by: Rev. Dr. J.N. Manokaran jnmanokaran@yahoo.com
Paul Young has written a brilliant Post-modern novel. It is written in contemporary style, with beautiful narratives, creative imagination and that portrays the struggles of people in their day-to-day lives. A reader would find it difficult to keep the book down, unless s/he completes it.
As a good author, he has used his imagination creatively and purposefully. It is amazing to see how he has weaved the biblical truths in cohesive manner. In that, the author reminds us of John Bunyan of Pilgrim’s Progress and also of Sadhu Sundar Singh, a mystic Christian leader from India.
The main character of the novel, Mackenzie Allen Phillips has a difficult childhood and could not relate with his father. Then he leaves home for good and does theological training. He is married to Nan and the couple have five children. The youngest daughter Missy goes missing during a vacation. Great sadness descends in his heart. He felt he failed to protect her and he could not trace her body and bury her also. The whole story is how he tries to wrestle with this irreparable loss.
Mack’s own childhood was not good or great. His father would drink quite often and beat his wife. Mack was guilty as he never stood up for her. Later, he walks out of his home, when his father beats him for sharing the family secret with a church elder. Hence, he was unable to relate to God as ‘Father’. He goes through ‘The Shack’ experience. In that, me meets God as African-American woman (she is addressed as Papa), Son as Middle-Eastern man and Holy Spirit in the form of Asian woman named Sarayu. The God head Trinity without a White personality. A weekend turns to be his memorable experience in which he comes out all his emotional baggage.
As a creative artist, he has taken liberty to relate with the young Post Modern audience. In that, he deviates from or challenges some of the evangelical ideas. The idea of the Trinity having weekend with Mack and related incidents could be hard for some evangelical Christians to understand or digest. It is also a theological treatise packaged in contemporary Postmodern vocabulary appealing to young people. Also, the author has presented the gospel in implicit manner, as much as possible within the context of a novel.
This book could be used to help people who go through emotional turmoil and understand the love of God in their lives. It could be as a Pre-evangelistic tool. Using this book in secular forums could create creative opportunities to present the gospel.
