This review will be posted on Tekton in the next few days.

"The Shack" was recommended by one of the fluffies who stopped by here to whine about how I ripped Viola's "Pagan Christianity" and since it was selling well I decided to check it out. It looked like ghastly emergent fiction, and that is what it was, though not as bad as it could have been.

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Rating: 2 thumbs down

Bookshop Summary:
Oprah-fiction for the emergent Christian which offers the ultimate "God is my buddy" head trip. Only reason it does not get 3 thumbs down is because it does use some of the better arguments on the "problem of evil."



Shack Therapy

A Review of William Young's The Shack

by

J. P. Holding


Sad to say, a lot of Christians will give this book a break on its bad, bad, BAD theology because it's allegedly such a moving story (though I, who have read the classics, found it to be airy fluff). And I myself will give it one break, inasmuch as it does make use of some of the same arguments you'll find in Glenn Miller re the problem of evil. But none of this makes up for the abominable, sickening way in which The Shack swims in the "God is my buddy" emergent riptide.

How bad is it? Bad. Very bad. The lead character's wife calls God "Papa" and claims to have an "intimate friendship" with him. All three members of the Trinity are presented as giggly, fluffy people who can't stop hugging and kissing the lead character, and each other, and act as the lead character's personal grief counselors. (Young no doubt wants critics to fall into the trap of whining about the specific racial and gender forms he has them appear in, so he can accuse the critics of bigotry -- sorry, no. It does need to occur to him that it's no more helpful to remake God in an image for the sake of a social agenda than it is to portray Him as a white man.) I have written repeatedly of the view of God in the Bible in terms of an ancient patron -- remote and indeed one who seldom makes direct contact with, or interferes with, His creation. Works like Young's will only further alienate Christians and create apostates as they come to realize that THEY will not be receiving personal messages and counseling sessions from God the way the lead character does.

Despite Young, it is NOT about "relationships and simply sharing life." (178) The only "relationship" the Bible offers with God is a patronage relationship -- one in which we serve, period. There are no bag lunches with Jesus and we are not here for the experience. It is not a "living friendship" -- this has been imported into the faith based on Western models that have emerged only in the last 100 years (It's also not about rules, as Young portrays the other side of the equation; though it suits the emergents to nauseatingly empahsize when that is done so that they can propound their opposing and more egregious error with greater ease.)

And to make matters even worse, Young refers to the lead character's seminary training in derisive terms (though all of his "argument from evil" material would have come ultimately from the likes of Plantinga). To wit: "...God passing notes did not fit well with his theological training. In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects." (65-66) Bad news: It DOES have to be so moderated. Young shows precisely WHY this is the case in his contrived, emergent rewriting of the members of the Trinity as a three-way giggle group and his incautious endorsement of direct phone lines to God (the Mormon burning in the bosom is about as efficient). Not to mention his egregious errors of failing to recognize functional subordination in the Trinity; of having Jesus say he didn't intend for people to follow him as an example to copy (149 -- wrong; that would have been Jesus' function as leader of his ingroup; and what of Paul's admonitions to imitate Christ?), and of failing to connect Proverbs 8's figure of Wisdom with Jesus; instead he makes it into yet another of God's hypostatic entities, though not one on a par with the Trinity (171). This is typical emergent expression of theology by who gives a flip.

Of course, since people lapped up Dan Brown so uncritically, there's not a lot of hope they'll be any more critical when it comes to The Shack.

Oh, no. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .one of those. . . . . . .

Sounds more like The Hovel Shovel out a hole and drop the book in it. Sing with me: Shovel the Hovel.

Reminds me why I like L.B. Graham's fantasy series... Christian fantasy wherein the God figure actually is this kind of distant patron who rarely interacts with the creation. Rather nice, although he's no Tolkein... but it's a guilty pleasure of mine anyway.

But on my most recent plane trip I saw someone reading "The Shack...." the cover was claiming it was comparable to Pilgrim's Progress... yeah right.

But on my most recent plane trip I saw someone reading "The Shack...." the cover was claiming it was comparable to Pilgrim's Progress... yeah right.

I saw that as well. From what I've read about this book so far, I'd say the two are apples and oranges.

Originally posted by Frogwarrior

But on my most recent plane trip I saw someone reading "The Shack...." the cover was claiming it was comparable to Pilgrim's Progress... yeah right.

It is. Both have covers.

More seriously, the literary quality is only average. If it does become another PP, it will be because our standards have dipped so low.

I had it in my hand at my favorite book store at the beach.

Read the first dozen or so pages.

Put it back on the shelf and moved on.

I am glad I did.

I just posted the review on the site. I was waiting to see if a guest wanted to write a review of something else but he was too busy for now.

This explains everything - it's a story for Young's kids and was never intended to be published (!)

http://www.shermanlive.com/2007/12/0...ung-interview/

And Young is the main character by his life experiences.

It may explain things, but it is, if anything, even worse... Good God, we live in an age where fluffy stories meant for children are taken as good theology.

Originally posted by Frogwarrior

It may explain things, but it is, if anything, even worse... Good God, we live in an age where fluffy stories meant for children are taken as good theology.

I just KNOW that some new atheist is going to respond to that with "But all theology is children's stories!"

Originally posted by AngelDragon

I just KNOW that some new atheist is going to respond to that with "But all theology is children's stories!"

If that happens, how to respond? The first thought I had was to ask, "Sure, try to explain the Trinity doctrine and justify it to your kiddie!" And hypostatis.

I noticed that someone mentioned L.B. Graham! Great news to pass along... If you are on the West Coast, the Fantasy Fiction Tour is headed that way Oct. 4-11, 2008. 8 Christian Fantasy Authors, 8 Publishing Houses, 8 Cities, over 8 Days! San Diego, to LA, to San Jose, Bay Area, up to Portland, OR and Seattle. Check out www.fantasyfictiontour.com

Oh.. by the way, my name is Eric Reinhold and I am the new "tag along" author, working on book 2 now. In regards to The Shack... I went into it realizing it is fiction and not portrayed as factual like a lot of the athiest heresy books that are out there. I do think the author and those that reviewed the work are Christians and they do go to great lengths to discuss the controversial issues they write about, on their website. I didn't throw out the baby with the bathwater with this one and perhaps read it a little differently since I'm an author who attempts to incorporate spiritual truths into my books as well (heaven forbid J.P. does a book review on Ryann Watters and the King's Sword

You can check it out though at www.ryannwatters.com (cheap plug )

Be blessed,
Eric

Originally posted by usnagrad1988

I noticed that someone mentioned L.B. Graham! Great news to pass along... If you are on the West Coast, the Fantasy Fiction Tour is headed that way Oct. 4-11, 2008. 8 Christian Fantasy Authors, 8 Publishing Houses, 8 Cities, over 8 Days! San Diego, to LA, to San Jose, Bay Area, up to Portland, OR and Seattle. Check out www.fantasyfictiontour.com

Oh.. by the way, my name is Eric Reinhold and I am the new "tag along" author, working on book 2 now. In regards to The Shack... I went into it realizing it is fiction and not portrayed as factual like a lot of the athiest heresy books that are out there. I do think the author and those that reviewed the work are Christians and they do go to great lengths to discuss the controversial issues they write about, on their website. I didn't throw out the baby with the bathwater with this one and perhaps read it a little differently since I'm an author who attempts to incorporate spiritual truths into my books as well (heaven forbid J.P. does a book review on Ryann Watters and the King's Sword

You can check it out though at www.ryannwatters.com (cheap plug )

Be blessed,
Eric

Dude, you don't advertise IN your posts. Just not done here. Put ads in your sigline.

Originally posted by Augustine2004

If that happens, how to respond? The first thought I had was to ask, "Sure, try to explain the Trinity doctrine and justify it to your kiddie!" And hypostatis.

Then try and pronounce "hypostasis" correctly, too.