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My Dear Friends,
If you have not heard of it or read it, you have not been paying attention. America is buying The Shack, a novel by William P. Young, at a rate that has it sitting atop the New York Times Book Review's bestseller list. No one would have predicted that this book, which explores imaginatively the mysteries of Christian theology, would ever be this popular. Young, by his own admission not someone with theological training, wrote this novel for his children. He explores through his story the question of the Trinity, that is, how the Christian God can be three distinct persons, yet undivided, one in being. (The chief weakness of Young's theology is that God seems more three than one.) He also addresses the problem of evil and suffering, or what theologians call the question of theodicy. How can God be sovereign in a world that is full of so much tragedy and suffering?
Young does this by telling the story of Mackenzie Allen Phillips, a man passing through what he has come to call The Great Sadness. This Sadness comes to him when his little girl is abducted and murdered by a very sick human being. This causes for Mackenzie a crisis in faith, which leads him to turn away from God. One day, he receives an invitation in the mail to come to The Shack, the very place where his little girl was violently murdered. As in Christian theology, it is the very place where the worst imaginable thing that could happen, happens. Just as the Cross, the place of Jesus' brutal death becomes the place where Christians find redemption, so The Shack becomes the place where Mackenzie encounters the Redeemer God. Only the God Mack encounters, the God who calls herself Papa, is a large, black woman! While this depiction of God may be shocking, even offensive to some, Papa is quick to tell Mack, who is equally surprised by God's appearance, "Mack, I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it's because I love you." All of this, of course, is orthodox Trinitarian theology.
Papa's son is a very Middle Eastern looking Jew named Jesus, and Sarayu, which means wind, is an oriental woman. Mack asks Jesus, "Is she the Holy Spirit?" Jesus answers, "Yes. She is Creativity; she is Action; she is Breathing of Life; she is much more. She is my Spirit." And of course, once again, in imaginative language, Young is seeking to clothe and bring to life orthodox Christian theology.
Is this book great literature? Hardly. Is it profound theology? Probably not. But is it a novel worth reading? Absolutely! It is a book that will make you think about what you believe. It is a story that can cause you to revisit your notions of God, of the Trinity and of the eternal question of who and where God is when we suffer and experience grief and tragedy. Young offers glimpses into his own theology through what Papa says to Mack: "The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don't think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything—the means, the ends, and the processes of individual lives—is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don't." Mack as much as admits that this is so. Then Sarayu, the Spirit, says to Mack, "Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved." Yet even in the midst of this lack of trust on Mack's part, Papa can say, "But your choices are also not stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome."
This is, of course, our hope! We rest in the belief that the Triune God we worship is the Redeemer God, the one who will finally take all of our suffering, all of our sin, all of our failings and faults, and make of them something good and something graciously restored and reconciled.
All of us face one day The Great Sadness. No one escapes it. The Shack is a simple, imperfect tale for imperfect people who wish to find mercy and healing in the midst of their own great sadness. In the last chapter heading, Young offers these words of Oswald Chambers: "Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading." God bless you.
With Love and Prayers,
Todd Jones
Pastor
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