faith for faith

For those who are well acquainted with the teachings of orthodox Christianity, The Shack by William Young is an easy target. As seen in my evaluation of the theology of The Shack (to which I will likely add even more), its pages are filled with almost incessant heterodoxy. From its idolatry of the triune God, to its distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to its man-centered view of God and creation, its heresies are such that they would, as a friend of mine quipped, make Arius blush. And despite these abounding heresies, The Shack has been accepted and even heralded by many evangelical Christians as a great work of Christian literature.

However, The Shack is not the disease of the American church, but its acceptance by the church is merely a symptom of the disease that she has had for years. For, though Young will certainly be judged one day for his heretical portraiture of God, there will be many pastors who fill pulpits in American churches today who will incur a much more devastating judgment. For these pastors have for decades neglected their office by their disobedience of the command of our Lord to the apostle Peter, “[If you love me], feed my sheep” (Jn. 21:17). For these pastors have acted precisely in the manner of the shepherds of Israel whom the Lord condemned through the prophet Ezekiel:

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Introduction to the Theology of The Shack
A. The Shack and the Second Commandment
B. The Shack and Sexual Confusion
C. The Shack and Trinitarian Distortion
…..1. The Economical Heresy
…..2. Redemptive Distortion of the Triune God
…..3. The Shack and the Incarnational Heresy
D. The Shack and Free Will
E. The Shack and Gospel Distortion NEW! (6/6)

In spite of defenses to the contrary, The Shack is a theological treatise. Though it does not take the forms of such works as The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin or The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, it nevertheless propagates a thorough and distinct theology. The Shack, however, opposed to the aforementioned works by Calvin and Luther, acts more or less as a theodicy, a work designed to justify the ways of God to men. In the case of The Shack, it is a theodicy that seeks to justify the supposed “problem of evil,” a philosophical problem that exists in the mind of some who cannot reconcile the amount of evil and pain in the world with the notion of a good and omnipotent God. This is clearly the intention of the author, for it is said of William Young in his short biography on the book’s jacket that “he suffered great loss as a child and young adult.” But now, Young has somehow “theodicized” God to himself quite effectively, for he “now enjoys the ‘wastefulness of grace’ [whatever that means] with his family in the Pacific Northwest.”

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Before we can rightly understand The Shack, it is important to understand the book within its literary framework. The book does technically fall within the genre that is commonly labeled “Christian fiction,” and therefore does, to an extent, carry with it certain literary implications. For example, being fictional, after having read the book, we do not expect to stumble upon the main character, Mack, when we visit the northwestern part of America. Also, we, to a certain extent, suspend our disbelief while reading the book, if only to help us endure the book to the end.

The Author and the Speaker
That said, more important than the genre into which The Shack falls is understanding how the author, William Young, sets up his work to be understood and how he desires it to be read. In the foreword to the book, we are given these parameters. The speaker introduces himself as the narrator of Mack’s story, a story that, according to him, invites skepticism for, “Who wouldn’t be skeptical when a man claims to have spent an entire weekend with God, in a shack no less?” (p. 9). The speaker in his foreword of Mack’s story, conveys to the reader his own supposed reluctance in believing certain aspects of Mack’s story, but, because of the character of Mack, gives Mack the benefit of the doubt.

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For those who are yet acquainted with The Shack, The Shack is a fictitious, Christian novel written by author William Paul Young. The Shack has, in its short time on the market, garnered for itself such accolades as being listed among the New York Times Best Sellers, and has been endorsed by such popularly reputable, Christian persons as singer Michael W. Smith and author and translator of the version of the Bible known as the The Message Eugene Peterson. The Shack has been raved about by both Christians and non-Christians and by theologians and lay-persons, and has such potential, according to Peterson, “to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!”

However, such attention has not come without its scrutiny. In spite of The Shack’s popular acceptance due to that what Young claims to be “a God thing,” many critics have risen up against the book, primarily from those whom align themselves with those who are commonly labeled as “fundamentalists” or “conservative evangelicals.” These who have risen against Young’s work do so on the basis of the God who is portrayed in the book. To these, the God in the book and the book’s depiction of the Christian doctrine of the trinity is unorthodox and even heretical. To these, Young’s novel has crossed the seemingly unbreakable and elastic line which has been lain for the genre known as “Christian fiction.”

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