Bob read and liked Ibrahim's review of The Shack:

"The story was a bit of drudgery to me in the beginning as the scene setting took a few chapters, but once immersed in the discussion with God one finds it reads with more thoughts as well as more ease. The character of the poofy wife is too syrupy, ...more The story was a bit of drudgery to me in the beginning as the scene setting took a few chapters, but once immersed in the discussion with God one finds it reads with more thoughts as well as more ease. The character of the poofy wife is too syrupy, and she represents a lot of Christians who think they know all there is to know about God and ARE perfectly comfortable with their state no matter what befalls them. But for those of us who dare to ask and recognize that we know so little, Mack is our hero. He echoes our heart's cry for pain and frustration and definitely our doubts. The syrup doesn't satisfy this man, and so he wants meat. It is fair to say that her syrupy character is eclipsed by what is genuine and he becomes the teacher. What is genuine is going to prevail upon what is syrupy.

In "The Shack", Mack's daughter is murdered in the shack, her blood is spilled and stands the floor. After a year, with the sadness and the guilt laying on him like a blanket, God calls Mack back to the very scene of the place where his heart was severed from God. This reminds me of a passage of the Bible where we read that our God turns the curse into a blessing and it also reminds me of the episode of Jacob wrestling with God, a passage I struggled a lot with as a Muslim in 1987, before my conversion. In the shack, Mack faces all the memories and even the very stain of her blood on the floor. This makes him realize that this is all he has left of baby girl. It wrecks him emotionally like a train wreck. At that point, questions are asked to God: how could you do this? how could you let it happen? why weren't you watching out for her? In a fit of anger Mack says, "It's just like you, not to show up when I need you the most. You didn't come when I was beaten by my father, you didn't help my daughter, and you didn't help me find her, and you asked me to come here to the shack , the place where she was murdered! The place of Mack's nightmare! And you didn't show up! He feels taunted and teased like God is toying with him. Mack also tries to apologize, even beg little Missy for forgiveness. In discouragement he leaves feeling abandonment. As he was walking away, he asks God,"Was it too much to ask to bury her body in peace?" Then, and this is a crucial moment, Mack feels a warm breeze of air in the midst of winter. He turns back to the shack in shock. He discovers that the shack is no longer a shack but a warm cozy home that it once was, restored to its newness again. The winter fades and the summer blooms around him. When still shocked, he is still angry and he decides he will knock on the door in anger but the door opens. Then his anger is diffused by finding not a God figure but a woman, a black woman, who embraces him and says his name in full as though she has known him since he was in the cradle and missed. In her he meets God who is his Mother. The shack, the place of the daughter's death, becomes the home of His restoration and new life. The end of of winter, being a symbol of death, has come. Life begins here anew. There is always a resurrection after every crucifixion of suffering.

Again, this book can be misleading to some of us who just judge it by the first 70 pages or so. The author, William P. Young, is not one of those "Christian authors" who are inundating the market with nothing but fluff, two dozens of them a dime! He is not one of those "Christian writers" who write to you about God in attempt to show you how you can milk God and get whatever you can from him in a utilitarian relationship. No, sir! While his work might sound like simple fiction, Paul P. Young is, indeed, a theologian par excellence. He knows what he is doing. You look at the surgeon and don't think much of him but the surgeon knows what he is doing. He surgically deals with minute details with amazing accurateness, sensitivity and excellence. Every image in his work of fiction is well-placed. He is not just writing.

When Mack gets near the the dilapidated shack (p.81) which had been replaced by a sturdy and beautifully constructed cabin, he is angry like many of us and ready to shake his fist in the face of God. He walks up to the door and decides to bang loudly and see what happens, "but just as he raises his fist to do so, the door flew open" (p. 82). From this I learn that God doesn't wait for us to force our way with anger seething in us, but he takes the initiative and opens himself to us, laying himself bare in his beautiful self-revelation. He says in Isaiah, "Let us reason together". He doesn't talk to us from above condescendingly but comes down to our level and looks us in the eye and opens himself up for us. It is interesting that the door is opened by a Black woman who later symbolizes the Father of us all in his infinite affection and compassion and cheerfulness. She says his name in full "Mackenzie Allen Phillips" which reminds me of Isaiah 43: 1 "I have called you by your name, you are mine.". This is God as a mother tenderly calling us by our names as the One who knows us all and his bowls of affection yearn for us as it says in Jeremiah 31: 18-20:

18 I have indeed heard Ephraim's grieving, 'You flogged me, I took a flogging, like a young, untrained bull. Bring me back, let me come back, for you are Yahweh my God!
19 For, since I turned away, I have repented; having understood, I beat my breast. I was deeply ashamed, I blushed, aware of the disgrace incurred when I was young.'
20 Is Ephraim, then, so dear a son to me, a child so favoured, that whenever I mention him I remember him lovingly still? That is why I yearn for him, why I must take pity on him, Yahweh declares.


This black woman is interesting. Mack asks to identify who they are and who is God in the midst of these 3 persons, the Black woman, the Asian woman and the Middle Eastern man. Mack feels overwhelmed by that meeting with the 3 persons of the trinity and asks, "Are there more of you?" (p. 85). The three look at one one another and laugh. The Black woman chuckles and says in what sounds as uneducated Black English, "We is all that you get, and believe me, we're more than enough". At first you would think this sounds "racial" but if you think deeper, you will see how William Young, our author, is as a theologian. "We is all that you get". The trinity speak of one mind as ONE person and they are not "WE ARE" but definitely "WE IS", it is not a multiplicity of gods but one God who is the Father revealing Himself fully as HE IS in the Word, our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the life of them both. The author might on the surface attempt to sound uneducated but in reality he did it on purpose as an astute artist and a skilled theologian.

In these 3 persons in the novel we merely are presented with "images" of the trinity: the Black woman represented the Father our God, the Asian woman representing the Holy Spirit and the Middle Eastern hard working man in his jean representing Jesus. The author wants to eloquently tell us that the entire humanity in its diversity is fully included and beautifully represented in the heart of the Trinity; that man wherever he or she is from is the passion and longing of God himself and they are in His heart and he is seeking their reconciliation. The author is no doubt a missionary at heart and thinks of God's goodwill towards the "nations" and that longing is represented in that ethnic diversity about which Mack, in his customary ethnocentricity, wonders in amazement, "But two women and a man and none of them white?" Mack is here ready for a wake up call that God is unlike anything he has ever conceived or has seen portrayed in media or art. He is not on his image but now was the time for Mack to rise above his ethnocentricity and realize that God is "for" all "nations" and that he is also not in our image but we have to be transformed daily to be in His image. How many times we have perceptions of God that we picked up here and there and them, boom! God comes and tells us that he is now here to shake this bit of dust off us and give us a purer understanding of who He really IS. He is definitely not gendered and he is not definitely going with what he always calculated in our narrow-minded dogmatism. In chapter 6 on page 87, the author does a fantastic job along these lines by quoting Jacques Ellul (By the way, I once dreamt I had a visit with him, Ellul) who says in his book "Anarchy and Christianity" something very true:

[No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself:]

One point that struck me about the book is that the best "apologetics" about God we will come to learn not from books but "at" the shack, the place of where the horrors of life took place and where our worse disappointment with God ripped our hearts apart. In that very place, our "Shack" the Lord begins to reveals himself and speak about Himself in his own way; in such a convincing way like no other work of apologetics in the whole world. All apologetics tend to be human wisdom and human philosophizing but "in the shack" God speaks with more distinctness and accurateness.

In the kitchen God in the person of this Black woman is listening to music. Mack wonders what kind of music would God really like. Back to the same old trite question of "WWJD" i.e. What Would Jesus Do? Mack is astonished to know that God is listening to "Eurasian funk and blues with a message, and a great beat"(p.90). Mack wonders, how that can be really spiritual, and that poses before us what is really spiritual. Mack comes to discover that what is spiritual doesn't have to sound "churchy" but God is there in everything we come in contact with in order that He may sanctify it, a point the early Fathers of the Church discovered like Gregory of Nyssa, Clement of Alexandria, St Maximus the Confessor.

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Bob read and liked Donovan's review of The Shack:

"When reading The Shack, be prepared some laughs and smiles, but mostly, be prepared for a well of tears. I'm a movie and book crier by nature. I'll admit that my wife and daughter give me the raised eyebrow and look at me strangely when I choke up ...more When reading The Shack, be prepared some laughs and smiles, but mostly, be prepared for a well of tears. I'm a movie and book crier by nature. I'll admit that my wife and daughter give me the raised eyebrow and look at me strangely when I choke up while watching a sitcom and all I can do is sheepishly say, "Did you see how she helped that lady" or something like that. Well, be warned, if you also have a weakness for tears or if you are a father, the tears will hit you like a flood.

This book is a story of God sharing his heart with a broken man. The first section of the book will hit you in the chest, as it describes what the author calls "The Great Sadness" of the novels protagonist.

I'm a lover of well written novels and it was well over a decade ago that I decided there were way too many books being published every year, not to mention the thousands and thousands of good books previously written, to spend time reading a poorly written one. This book is an exception to that rule. It isn't the writing that kept me going, it was the content.

I don't know the authors story, but the jacket says that "he suffered a great loss as a child and young adult". The best books are those written about what an author knows - either researched or experienced. This is what you will find in The Shack. The author has wrapped a story around what he feels passionate about.

I won't give away the story or the message, but I will say that is resonated strongly with me. At the core it is about God's unfailing love for his children. His desire to draw every one of his children to him. How this love transcends our hurts and tragedies. How he ususes even the worst situations as avenues of redemption.

I didn't read The Shack with my theologian hat on. I didn't critique every line to evaluate how it stood up to my interpretation of systematic or historical theology. This is not a book of theology - I read it as a man sharing his heart and what he has learned on his journey - putting it in a fictional format.

It is his journey and heart that resonated with me.

Read The Shack - not for its literary prowness or theological intellectualism - but to be moved and challenged in your thinking of God.

I'll end with a brief sample to taste your appetite. This is Jesus conversing with the main character, Mack;

"Our is earth is like a child who has grown up without parents, having no one to guide and direct her." As Jesus spoke, his voice intensified in subdued anguish. "Some have attempted to help her but most have simply tried to use her. Humans, who have been given the task to lovingly steer the world, instead plunder her with no consideration other then their immediate needs. And they give little thought for their own children who will inherit their lack of love. So they use her and abuse her with little consideration and then when she shudders or blows her breath, they are offended and raise their fist at God."
"This blue-green ball in black space, filled with beauty even now, battered and abused and lovely."
"I know that song. You must care deeply about the Creation," smiled Mack.
"Well, this blue-green ball in space belongs to me," Jesus stated emphatically."(less) "

Bob read and liked Elisa's review of The Shack:

" In case you can't read it, the tagline on this is "Where tragedy confronts eternity."

This is the story of Mack, a man whose 6-year-old daughter was abducted and brutally murdered during a family camping trip. The serial killer,...more In case you can't read it, the tagline on this is "Where tragedy confronts eternity."

This is the story of Mack, a man whose 6-year-old daughter was abducted and brutally murdered during a family camping trip. The serial killer, a man who leaves a ladybug pin everytime he kills a child, was never captured, and the only clue to Missy's abduction was an undeniable, bloodstained red sundress on the floor of an abandoned shack high up in the middle of nowhere. Now, four years after Missy's murder, her father receives a letter in his mailbox -- from God -- inviting him back to the scene of the crime, a return to The Shack where the trail of evidence ended.

Mack, who has been living under what he quietly calls The Great Sadness for the past four years, is enraged. What kind of sick prank is this? The letter is either from Missy's killer, who could be luring Mack away from his remaining four children so he can strike again, or it is really... from God. Fearing to be thought crazed with unresolved grief, Mack packs his Jeep with a gun and his daughter's picture, and heads back up to The Shack: where tragedy confronts eternity.

God is waiting for Mack. But it's not the God of Mack's parents or even the God of his church. This is a God who delights in nothing so much as standing conventions and preconceived notions on their heads and messing with his children's hearts. This is a God who stands in the kitchen stirring cake batter and telling Mack, "The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can preceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think."

And that weekend, right there at The Shack, God and Mackenzie Phillips wrestle with the problem of pain, of suffering, of free will and judgment and heartache and the very nature of godhood in a way that is entirely authentic and deep.

Now because I would not be a good book reviewer if I failed to address the nuts and bolts of this book, I'll do my job now: William P. Young, this book's author, is a virutal unknown. The book was published by Windblown Media, also an unknown. The language in the book is coarse, not in the sense that it is foul, but in the sense that an inexperienced author is trying to emulate the colloquialsms of African-American dialect and at times utterly forgets that he is supposed to be doing this, falling back easily into Standard American English. Because of this, the book lacks a certain cohesion. There are also misplaced modifiers that an experienced editor would have caught and fixed before sending the manuscript to the printer. One can only hope that future printings of this will see these minor errors accounted for and fixed...

And now here is the hope: when my best friend from high school first gave me a copy of this book and begged me to read it, I groaned inwardly. It was printed on 50# bright white offset (a very cheap paper). It was run cross-grain, making it very difficult to open (a very cheap way to print). And it was published by a virtually unknown publishing house. Because of these strikes, it sat on the floor of my closet for quite sometime. Eventually, feeling I owed it to Laura to read the book, I picked it up and began... and rather than bringing my copy of the book to Borders, I would merely pick up a new copy and begin reading where I'd left off, whenever I happened to be near a bookstore. I got so caught up in the story that it took me some time to notice a change in The Shack. No more was it printed on cheap paper. No more was it difficult to pry open. It was now featured as a 6x9 book (this means it is running correct-grain, which is a much more expensive way to print a book) on 50# Cougar Natural Vellum (a much more expensive paper). Additionally, the tagline of "Where tragedy confronts eternity" was replaced with this: #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. Wow. That's quite a change in 2 months.

To sum up my review: This book has the power to make all human artifice utterly fall away... to make the traffic out the window, the people in conversation next to you, the very coffee mug you hold in your hand, all seem infinitely unreal, while leaving you alone in the very presence of God.
Posted by Nom de plume at 9:12 AM
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Bob read and liked booklady's review of The Shack:

"The Shack is a book you will thank yourself for reading. While it can be a bit didactic at times, it is not overtly so. It’s more a story of journey and relationship—discovering who you are through learning more about who God is to you. I’m no ...more The Shack is a book you will thank yourself for reading. While it can be a bit didactic at times, it is not overtly so. It’s more a story of journey and relationship—discovering who you are through learning more about who God is to you. I’m no theologian, but I do like to imagine myself as the Theophilus Luke is writing to in the Book of Acts. So I read the book as a God-Lover and I write this review in the same way.

It begins with an unspeakably horrible tragedy happening to a loving father. (By way of explanation, I cannot write this review without at least giving that much away.) It’s the sort of nightmare every devoted parent dreads and secretly fears. In the aftermath of the disaster, the main character, Mack, attempts to put his life back together but finds he cannot. The devastation is too great; the chasm created by his loss is so unfathomable, his faith in a loving God is shattered.

Mack receives a strange and seemingly preposterous invitation to meet God at the very site – the shack – the scene where the unspeakable crime against his loved one occurred. The rest of the story is about Mack’s meeting with God which is unlike any other fictional description I have ever read of a Divine encounter. If you have ever longed to see God you will certainly appreciate this book. If you have experienced – or are going through – your own Agony in the Garden time in your life this book may be a very cathartic aid. It is my belief that is its real purpose. As such, God is presented most beautifully as relationship in Love. God is three distinct persons whose love for each other is one and yet extends to each and every one of us, His creatures. Mack heals as we may also heal, if we need any spiritual healing, through opening to God’s love.

As I mentioned early on, I am no expert in Theology and I have no doubt there are probably theological errors in The Shack. God as God, The Almighty, Our Creator, Savior, Redeemer, the Holy Spirit, etc. who has been worshipped, studied, prayed to, fought over and died for – for millennium, was not just suddenly figured out in 2007 by William P. Young and explained in 248 pages of fiction. This book is by no means definitive or the last word on God. It is however, wonderful. It is a moving and a loving tribute to getting to know Him better. It is a helpful way to look at how God views the tragedies that happen in our lives. He does not inflict them on us. He suffers right along with us . . . just as He did 2000 years ago.


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Bob read and liked Eric Bjerke's review of The Shack:

"It is hard to not get carried away and be too effusive about this book. When one has spent time with someone or something, it is natural to feel a close connection to that thing and, I think, lose objectivity. Obviously I didn't try too hard to be ca...more It is hard to not get carried away and be too effusive about this book. When one has spent time with someone or something, it is natural to feel a close connection to that thing and, I think, lose objectivity. Obviously I didn't try too hard to be calm and subdued in my praise because one can see that I rated it 5 stars; however, I think I will start with why I don't think it is a 5-star book.

It wasn't a book that I just couldn't put down. This is usually a prerequisite for me to rate a book so highly, but at times--not all the time--I could take it or leave it.

The entire beginning of the book bored me and seemed second rate. The characters and conversations didn't ring true to me. I only kept at it because I had heard that something amazing would await me later in the book. Also, I never forgot that this was a book and a story that someone made up. When my attitude towards the book changed as it became more meaty, I still felt that story-wise, it was cliche, predictable, and even hokey. When it came together at the end, I did have a greater appreciation of the way the plot elements came together, but most of the time I thought certain components of the story weren't very well done.

An example would be the part where the relationships at the campground are being described. People in real life don't act like that, where total strangers get so close in the span of a weekend camping trip. I especially rolled my eyes over the dialog the adults had over a campfire--"So tell me, Mackenzie, what is she like." I just thought the conversations were not at all what real people who have just met are like. I could be wrong, though.

I also cringed sometimes at the conversations that occurred at the shack. Not because I felt them to be irreverent, but because they seemed like the author decided, "Hey, I want to try to stick something funny in here," and what ensued was a huge departure from the usual profound observations. I think he could have been both funny and profound at the same time, and he wasn't-- he was mostly just obvious.

Okay, enough bashing, because this was an incredible book that should be read by everybody. That I rated this a 5 in spite of the things that I didn't like, should tell you that there is something very amazing about this book. There is no way I can convey the impact of the thought-provoking and possibly life-changing conversations we become privy to. I don't know that you would much care for the book if you were a total athiest, not atuned to the spiritual at all, but people of all spiritual and religious persuasions will find aspects of this book deeply worth pondering. You must read it.

The following section contains what might be some spoilers for some people, but I wanted to mention them (being a little vague) as parts of the book that I particularly appreciated.

When Mac is telling his guests about his family and stops saying, "Now here I am telling you about my kids and my friends and about Nan, but you already know everything that i am telling you, don't you?

"You're acting like it's the first time you heard it."

The response from Mac's hosts is great:

"As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes."

I also like the part that talks about fear in our life and the role it plays in our bondage:

"The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it."

Right now I can't read that to my wife without choking up, it so cuts to the quick.

And this about lies (not the lies people tell to stay out of trouble, but the lies we believe about ourselves or others as a defense mechanism):

"Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others."

And finally, there is this gem about The Law, specifically, the Ten Commandments:

"Actually, we wanted you to give up trying to be righteous on your own. It was a mirror to reveal just how filthy your face gets when you live independently."

These were some of the interesting parts of the book that helped me personally. There were other parts that I thought were dubious theologically. I thought there was so much real good valuable stuff that these departures could be overlooked.

Anyway, the counter at the bottom of this box says I can writ almost 6000 more characters, but I will not. I must say, you have to read this book. Don't miss out on this. I am very serious. (less) "