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| The Shack (Special Hardcover Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: William P. Young
Creator: Wayne Jacobsen & Brad Cummings
Publisher: Windblown Media
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $13.80
You Save: $11.19 (45%)
New (40) Used (9) from $12.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  1994 reviews
Sales Rank: 802
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0964729245
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780964729247
ASIN: 0964729245
Publication Date: December 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Perfect shape! Never used! Gift quality! Still in plastic!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Beware of this book! December 1, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a book of fiction and should be read as such, including those things written about God, the Bible, Jesus and what it means to be a Christian. There are many things in this book that contradict Scripture. Please do not read this book and believe that God deals with His creation in the way that it is portrayed. To get a correct understanding of God, please read the Bible and pray for God to reveal Himself to you.
Powerful But Dangerous November 30, 2008
"The Shack" has a great many good qualities and a few very dangerous ones. It is a simply written, highly imaginative, vividly portrayed sketch of a man's individual spiritual journey to wholeness in the face of very real, extraordinarily difficult circumstances. If for nothing else, this book is to be commended for taking what may be the rawest kind of life circumstances and dealing with their very real and lasting effects on our spiritual and emotional person. What it states, very powerfully, is that through Christ, men and women can find peace after great horror.
Furthermore, as a pastor and Seminary instructor, I can say that this author has a wonderful gift for presenting very difficult theological concepts in a carefully accessible manner. His presentation of the what it means to be in union with Christ, the manner in which God's love transforms an individual (regeneration) and that which theologians call "the covenant of redemption", the purpose and economy of the Triune God in accomplishing the Divine purpose in history, is quite impressive.
These things make this book very powerful and, with adequate precautions, very useful for lay instruction and illustration.
Then there is the dangerous side. First, and perhaps most important, is the significant imbalance of the portrait of God painted in it. Though never quite expressed, the book pretty much affirms universal salvation. Surprisingly, it is man who is in the judgment seat in this portrayal, God having already judged all men as guilty but also having forgiven them and reconciled them to Himself. The scriptural bounds on this position are not adequately expressed at all. In this book God is overly sentimental and simplified. There is no hint of God as He is presented in (say) the book of Judges. The God of the universe, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit are not very far removed from Seinfield and Friends in their mannerisms and interaction. Certainly some of this is acknowledged as God's condescension to man in appearing to him in such a way as to minister to him, but it is very over done.
Further there is the unscriptural and, in my opinion, quite wrong, portrayal of the Trinity. Though he strives to avoid this, the author skirts the edge of idolatry. There is a reason why God commanded that we are to make no graven images of His person. It is because all such images will not only fall short of accuracy but will in fact lead us astray. The portrayal of God the Father in the images in this book are serious departures from this general rule and are quite prone to distortion. I do not believe that we are free to play with the metaphors God uses to describe Himself nor that we are free to downplay some of His attributes in preference to others. There is more than a little of this in this book.
Though the author strives for balance yet he falls short of presenting Jesus as pre-eminent in the life of man. Jesus is not central in his presentation though it is often stated that He is central in God's understanding. God the Father and the Holy Spirit are more so. Here again the metaphors work against the author. Both God the Father and the Holy Spirit are portrayed as warm, empathetic women who are naturally more easily empathetic. Jesus comes across as wonderful but a bit bumbling in his humanity and thus loved and loving but a bit less wonderful. This is a serious problem to me.
Lastly, evil in this book is entirely a result of man's choosing autonomy for himself and all misery in this world flows from that. Certainly, this is true in one sense but not in every sense. The person of Satan is entirely absent from this portrayal. So is any hint that God regards any one person, no matter what their spiritual state, any differently than others. Evil is presented as negation, the absence of good, rather than a positive force. There is truth in this but not the whole truth.
Lastly, this author falls seriously short in his understanding of the Church and the place of organized Christianity in the Kingdom of God. This regrettable tendency is rampant in our culture and is conducive to a very stilted Christianity, far short of that picture painted for us in Scriptures. God in this book comes perilously close to endorsing all religious feelings and sentiments, whether Christian or not, as pathways to Himself. I cannot comprehend how the author could allow this.
All in all, again, this book has much to commend it. The commendable things are self-evident in the reading and I have not commented on them as much because of that. The things which detract from the book are not so evident and hence, in my estimation, much more dangerous because of it. It must be read with caution.
 Unbelievable November 30, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was excited to win this extended edgy metaphor in a giveaway because there has been so much buzz about it. I started it reading, and then put it aside after only two chapters when some other titles caught my eye. Finally, I picked it back up and began reading it from the beginning. Although it's not a lengthy book--only 246 pages--it is wordy. I found it dragged a bit. It is a book of fantasy.
The most important thing about Christian Fiction is that it be biblically correct. This book isn't. For example, the protagonist is having a conversation with the Trinity about which of them is the greater. Jesus speaks:
"Does that make sense to you, Abba? Frankly, I haven't a clue what this man is talking about?"
[God answers]"... Nope, I have been trying to make head or tail out of it, but sorry, he's got me lost." (p 121-22)
God doesn't understand what man is asking? That's not in the Bible I read!
Again on page 182, Jesus waffles when asked if all roads lead to Him and responds, "... I will travel any road to find you."
In John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." It couldn't be any clearer than that.
If you think that you can read this like you might read a Harry Potter book, then it might be the book for you. But that's all it is--a work of fantasy--not a work of Christian Fiction.
 Blessed November 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Read it on Holidays and was deeply blessed. I still pray ( maybe more deeply ) I still read the Bible ( and I feel I know the author more than I used to ) Would recommend this book to anyone who thinks God is distant or who doubts that God speaks to us directly today.
 Are those prickly Christian ideas just misunderstandings? November 30, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
After seeing this book on a best-seller list for a while, I grabbed it off my parents' bookshelf over vacation. While easy to see its emotional resonance with readers, I doubt this book would appeal to skeptics. God simply shows up in person with the other Trinity members in tow and ready to debate a very pliant Mack. The theology seems designed to remove any of the traditional hang-ups with Christianity (hell is gone, all religions lead to God, and woman was created from man to foster gender equality), and the story is moving but not extraordinarily so. The emphasis on human relationships and forgiveness is food for thought, but the writing lacks the poignancy that the subject deserves. At best, Young has done a fine job explaining appealing, initially, updates to Christianity. But he hasn't made it any more convincing.
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