Mackenzie Allen Philip's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she might have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
Against his better judgment, he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you, and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!
Publishing Date: May 1, 2007
Our Thoughts about The Shack by William P. Young
Young uses the genre of allegorical fiction to unveil truths about the pain of mankind and nature of God. His portrayal of God as a loving, caring, involved and ever present comforter is particularly meaningful and healing for those who, like the author, have experienced abuse or neglect by their fathers, or who have suffered deep pain and loss while wondering where God was. It has been said that the only way out is through, and the shack is the metaphor for the difficult place of being stuck, the place we must visit, the door to go through on which the other side is…well, a much different life.
In the spirit of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and biblical parables that Jesus told, the story is true to truth. As a hymn sings, “A mighty fortress is our God”, this author writes there is a Savior who longs to “gather her chicks under her wings” (Luke 13:34). We believe the reading of this book will lead many from doubt to faith, and fear to love as they discover God is faithful and loving, and yes, even fun. Remember, it’s fiction, not theology. You don’t have to agree with everything written in its pages, probably you won’t. You may be surprised how you are impacted through this story.
Subjects touched on in this book include, pain, character of God, the Trinity, forgiveness, God speaking, evil, good, and justice.
On being asked if the story is real, Young replies,
“Is the story ‘real’? The story is fiction. I made it up. Now, having said that, I will add that the emotional pain with all its intensity and the process that tears into Mack’s heart and soul are very real. I have my ’shack’, the place I had to go through to find healing. I have my Great Sadness…that is all real. And the conversations are very real and true. While Mack experiences some particulars that I have not …there are depths of pain and shame and hopelessness that I have experienced, that Mack did not. And I know people who have suffered exactly what Mack suffers in the story.
So is the story true? The pain, the loss, the grief, the process, the conversations, the questions, the anger, the longing, the secrets, the lies, the forgiveness…all real, all true. The story in particular… fiction… but…. Then there is God who emerges so very real and true, unexpected and yet not unexpected, but surprising and…
So… is all this real? Is all this true? I suppose each of us has to decide for ourselves, don’t we?”
- House of James
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