Comments on: Book Review: The Shack

By: stephy

stephy — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:17:11 +0000

This book…was not very good.

By: robin@heartofwisdom.com

robin@heartofwisdom.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:36:53 +0000

Enjoyed your review of “The Shack” Thank you for taking the time to share.

I was not in total agreement with The Shack (I am not in total agreement with several of my favorite authors).Any book that includes conversations with God is bound to receive criticism. How can anyone put words in God’s mouth? But this is one moving book! I smiled, cried, pondered, prayed, and repented as I read ( I have been hurt a lot in churches so I was profoundly impacted.). I read it twice and now listening to the audio. Amazing! Be sure to check out “The Shack Blog and Forum.

I wrote a lengthy review on blog. Please visit.
http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/my-review-of-1-ny-times-best-seller-the-shack/
Blessings,
Robin @ HeartofWisdom

By: CJ

CJ — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:45:16 +0000

I found the book very enjoying and it drew me to a deeper relationship with G-d. The revelation knowledge that I experienced was spirit quickening, as well as, enlightening. If you are grounded and rooted in the word, then you should have no problem with this book, because it is just fiction. If you know the truth, then the truth shall keep you free of all deception. The author never said that this was a replacement to the Bible. It is a Fiction novel, not non-fiction. Additionally, the author never stated that this book was the core of Chritianity or any other religion. If you are looking for theology in a fiction noveI, then this book is not for you. However, it is a great read. I found compassion, brokeness, forgiveness, love, grace, and mercy to abound in this novel. I believe that we all need something or someone to challenge us, during our spiritual walk, and draw us closer to Him. The Shack will prompt you to experience an encounter with the “true” living G-d and cry out to Papa. Shalom!

By: Joel A Moroney

Joel A Moroney — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:34:30 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to have a look around and post, Alamanach. You may have a point about me getting carried away about The Shack. That’s the kind of reaction I had to the book. And coming from a conservative evangelical background, I do have a tendency to fall back on the doctrines I value so highly. Sometimes I need to repent of that and open my mind up a bit. Other times the strong reaction needs to be put out there to jolt people into realising that something isn’t quite right. The Shack is so subtle in its approach that perhaps a subtle, restrained response would be lost.
Look forward to hearing your POV on other posts!

By: alamanach

alamanach — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:24:44 +0000

“God does not need us nor change just because we exist.”

Hmm.

I just came across your blog, and I’ve read a handful of your entries. Elsewhere you discuss your misgivings with Exo Day. I’d never heard of Exo Day before, but based on your description, I would have doubts about it too; it seems geared for the sort who think religion is like a sports team: you choose a side and then root for it.

For me, and I suspect for you as well, my walk with God is not something I do on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. I don’t believe in such-and-such doctrine because Pastor told me to. For me, God is a real and immediate presence in my life, and He’s someone I’d be dealing with even if no organized religion had ever been invented. That kind of personal relationship with God doesn’t fit very easily with the here-I’m-a-Christian-there-I-am-not sensibility you ascribe to Exo Day.

I haven’t read “The Shack” and I’m not going to. So never mind about that. I have seen other attempts at pop spiritualism which, while shiny and attractive, are fatally flawed. Whenever we try to modulate the teachings of Christianity to make it more palatable, what we end up with is no longer Christianity. I think you would agree with that, because that’s what your basic argument against “The Shack” boils down to.

So you and I seem to be on the same page. Turn with me then to Gen 18:20-33, and of course John 3:14-17. God is sovreign, and you’re right that we run into trouble when we ascribe too-human characteristics to Him. (The Holy Spirit is a ghostly Asian woman? Puh-lease…) But it is also true that God loves us and wants us to be happy, that we are given dominion over the all the earth, and that we are to have every tear wiped from our eyes. Clearly, God cares about us. He was moved to sacrifice His son to pay our ransom– a ransom that was our own fault.

So I think in your reaction to the book you are right at the edge of getting carried away, of getting all doctrinaire and sports-teamy on us. William Young may have twisted it around into something unreal, but untwisted we do, in fact, have relationships with God in which he intervenes and interacts with us. Just not in the way that Young is apparently describing.

Just my 2 cents. Nice blog.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:01 +0000

Thank you for this review! This book needs to be spoken against. I fear for all of the people out there, already prone to reject the bible and the church as an institution and instead accept some false diety which sounds more like eastern mysticism to me! Thank you!