Shackled
It was one of those books I have had for years but never got around to reading. One of those books that I heralded as “monumental” before I had even read it and certainly before anyone else had. Then I watched as the book took off in popularity, through word-of-mouth, shoe-string budget marketing, and is now one of the top selling books of 2008. Of course, I’m talking about The Shack.
I finally finished reading the book last night, after several fits and starts for the past few years. I had picked the book up at the House2House Conference back in 2006, when William P. Young was still signing every book and even correcting a grammatical mistake he made on page 204 with a ball-point pen. Now they’re on their 4th printing in two years, and there’s a movie deal in the works. My how time flies.
Eugene Peterson is quoted saying that The Shack is as important a book to our generation as Paul Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was for his. Why? For me, The Shack recaptured my imagination of God – both his intimate love, and his strength. Finally, a (fictional) book was written that describes the God I always sensed hidden beneath the theology, speculation, and religion that trapped God from his wild and untamable self. The picture of God that many of us (myself included) primarily have is one of dominance, hierarchy, and apathy – like a bully kid kicking at an ant hill. Young refocuses his readers on the God described in the most ancient texts; one of redemption, wholeness, and beautiful, wild peace.
For me, The Shack gave me a window view into a heart that is completely aware of the God all around us. Not just aware of God, but fully in love and embraced by that God. A God who is most keenly interested in our journey back to him from our independence and our self-righteous suicides. God is so interested that he limits himself to a place where we engage him as a loving Father, and Mother, and offers us a path out of ourselves and into loving communion with the only perfect, divine relationship – the Triune God.
Deep stuff – yeah. But The Shack, like no other book – shuffles through some of the deepest theology I’ve read on the Trinity (Zizioulas’ Being as Communion had to be one of Young’s inspirations,) and presents it in a way that even Joe the Skeptic could understand.
For sure, there’s been critiques (one mentioned and discussed at my friend Kester’s blog, here), and of course it is helpful to keep in mind that this is a fictional book presented as a fantasy – not written in the Canon. But take stock for a minute of the ways in which God is being portrayed in our world today. With as much poor theology as is being spewed out by jihadists, war-hungry Christians, the media, and more, maybe The Shack’s loving, non-violent, God may have something to say after all.
Have you read The Shack? What are your thoughts? What favorite moments or quotes helped you in your understanding of God? What bothered you about the book? What did you disagree with? What needs to be said?
