A visit to The Shack

When I was in seminary back in the 70s there was a joke that circulated through the students. The gist of the joke revolved around a dream or a vision wherein the person experiences God and when the vision has passed, the person tells his roommate, “I have just seen God … and she is black!” What most of us sloughed off as a jibe at the cultural battles going on in the 70s has come home to be a satisfying characterization in William Young’s novel The Shack.

There have been charges from some church leaders that this book is “dangerous;” that it is “heretical.” I have been a theologically conservative Presbyterian pastor most of my adult life, and I have seen more heresy in the prosperity gospel movement than I find in this novel. Sure, it is not systematically theological in its narrative, and sure, there are inaccuracies in how it correlates scripture to the real life situations depicted in this story, but the Bible itself is not systematic. The doctrines we have learned and taught over the years also contain inaccuracies and misconceptions of the truth of scripture.

There is a certain allegorical quality to Young’s novel and given the premise of the anguish, guilt and anger that Mackenzie Philips, the central character, experiences over the brutal death of his young daughter, “the shack” becomes an outpost, a safe house, to which he has been invited to confront the conflicts he is experiencing. It is a place where, like Jeremiah, he is able to shake his fist at God; it is a place, like Eden, where he has a chance to make choices that can align his will with the will of God or a place where he is free to continue to function autonomously. Here he has the chance to learn to walk by faith, not by sight; here he can hang on to his Great Sadness or here … he can let it go.

There are those who criticize the scope and content of the words which are placed in the mouth of Papa (God). Although the Old Testament is rife with “God-talk,” I think the dialogue between God and Satan at the beginning of the book of Job is a cogent example from our own inspired scriptures to counter such a criticism. The writer of this wonderful Biblical book puts words in the mouths of God and Satan to lay the foundation for the faithfulness of God’s servant Job. It is different than how God speaks through the Genesis narratives and through the prophets. The modern reader should be able to accept at face value the literary technique of how God and Jesus and Sarayu convey the plot through their narrative engagement with Mackenzie. If we can accept the fact that God talks to us today in the great joys and deep sadnesses we face, then let us not be put off by the content of what God says in this story and the manner in which he says it.

I was talking with a colleague the other night as we shared a meal prior to going to a meeting. I reflected that one of the teaching points for me in the novel is how we are introduced to the Godhead – the three persons of the Trinity. When any one of us prays and we listen for God’s response, how do we hear that response? As a white, older male clergy, do I always hear God responding to me as if I were hearing another white colleague responding to my prayers? Probably, although I have become so acculturated to my mainstream religion, I never gave it much thought until I read The Shack. I asked my friend, who is female, how she hears God speak to her? Do you hear a woman’s voice? And if not, have you become as acculturated as me that God, in his relationship with you, can only be a male figure? As I have talked with evangelicals that have read this book, I have found them overwhelmingly supportive of the characterizations of the Trinity, which include a petite Asian woman, an Arabic handyman, and, as we have pointed out, a black woman. Perhaps Mackenzie needed God to be a large compassionate black woman given the abuse he endured from his own father; I don’t think the author was making a categorical imperative about God. I think he frees up young people – and perhaps many of us senior adults – to engage God in a way that draws us into a loving, caring relationship. If God can only be a “father figure” in keeping with the scriptural references, how many sexually abused persons would not find that image of God comforting or relational?

As a pastor for over 30 years, I believe that the issue of forgiveness is the most difficult for Christian men and women to embrace. When we have been hurt – spiritually, morally, physically – we typically want retribution; we want the other person to be hurt as we have been hurt. Regardless of what the Lord’s Prayer says, we by and large do not “forgive those who have sinned against us.” But we should, and the encounters we share through the thoughts and emotions as expressed by Mackenzie allow us to see our flaws against the backlight of our own self-righteousness. What the author guides us through in this matter is not unlike what we witnessed following the shooting of Amish children in Georgetown, Pa. by Charles Carl Roberts. The Amish families forgave the man who killed or wounded ten young girls; they attended his funeral to be supportive of the shooter’s own family. So God prevails upon Mackenzie to forgive his abusive father and to forgive the killer of his precious daughter. This is painful and difficult reading, and not without a goodly number of empathic tears on the readers part. Yet we learn that we can forgive because of God’s promised presence in us – “that is the only way true forgiveness is possible,” Papa says to Mackenzie. I could not help but be drawn to the ascription found in Ephesians 3:20: "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or even imagine ... to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations ..."

I don’t believe that The Shack is a classic in the manner of Pilgrim’s Progress as some scholars have posited, but I do think it is a valuable tool for ministry in much the same way that C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity was and is a tool for ministry. Lewis’ book has stood the test of time and is still an excellent resource for those who are new to the Christian faith or who are attempting to return after a long and painful time away. It remains to be seen if The Shack has that kind of shelf life. For now, it has a permanent place on my desk as a reminder to me and to those who visit that our own "shack" is not that far away, but we can only get there by invitation.